TV Round-Up

Battlestar Galactica's final ten episodes start airing on 16 January, but spin-off series Caprica has been greenlit for a full first season, which will debut in 2010. The extra-long wait is due to BSG's writing staff having scattered to other shows in the interim and needing some time before they can head back to the barn. Caprica's cast from the completed pilot (including Rome's Polly Walker and film actor Eric Stoltz) need some time to regroup as well. Caprica is set 55 years prior to BSG and chronicles the creation of the Cylons and the count-down to the First Cylon War.

Pre-production on the Game of Thrones TV pilot for the BBC and HBO is starting to get underway. The producers are about to appoint a casting director and a final decision on the location for filming is expected before the end of the year. According to producers David Benioff and DB Weiss, the characters' ages will be upped slightly, but not drastically. They also confirmed that the opening line of dialogue in the pilot will be, "We should start back," (as in the novel) and the last line in the pilot is the iconic, "The things I do for love," moment. More from the producers here. Also check out the blog 'Winter is Coming', which is doing a great job of staying on top of all the news coming out on the production.

Some important upcoming TV dates: the Doctor Who Christmas special airs on Christmas Day, BSG returns for Season 4.5 on 16 January, Lost comes back for its fifth and penultimate season on 21 January and Heroes Season 3.0 finishes next Monday before returning in late January. Season 3 of Heroes has been a bit of car crash in slow motion so far, but expect a review of the first half in a couple of weeks or so.