SciFi channel: News and premiere dates (Eureka, BSG, SGA...)

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- Sci Fi is importing the short-lived Canadian/South African-drama "Charlie Jade" as the series will join its Friday lineup on June 6 at 8:00/7:00c.

The news was just one of several announcements made by the network at the NBC Universal Summer Press Day yesterday.

"Jade," which ran for 20 episodes on Canada\'s SPACE channel in 2005, is detailed by said network as follows: "What if humans didn\'t abuse the earth and its resources? How different would the world be? Take a fantastic leap of the imagination and explore the world through three parallel universes - Alphaverse (what our world could end up being), Betaverse (our world today), and Gammaverse (what our world could have been). Charlie Jade is a rogue detective in Alphaverse who, while on the hunt for the killer of a missing woman, gets caught in an explosion from a covert desert operation, propelling him into a strange parallel universe (Betaverse). As he searches for the truth about the explosion, he is drawn into a conflict that not only involves his home universe and the one he now inhabits, but another pristine pacifist universe (Gammaverse) with unsuspected terror at its heart." Jeffrey Pierce toplines the cast, which also includes Patricia Mackenzie, Michael Filipowich, Marie-Julie Rivest, David Dennis and Tyrone Benskin.

Meanwhile, Mark Stern, Sci Fi\'s original programming chief, confirmed that two-time Oscar nominee Peter Fonda has joined the cast of the network\'s two-hour backdoor pilot "Revolution." He\'ll play the industrialist grandfather of the Hart family. Billy Campbell, B-r-o-o-k-l-y-n Sudano, David Smith, Rowena King and Steve Sandvoss also star in the project, which revolves around the simmering unrest at New America, "a colony settled by the now-named \'United State of America\' on a planet resembling our own, located 50 light years away."

Also confirmed by the network on Friday:

-- "Eureka" will return for its third season in July with the first of 21 new episodes. Said season - likely due on Tuesday, July 29 at 9:00/8:00c - will not surprisingly be split into two halves. Executive producers Charlie Craig and Jaime Paglia said they haven\'t settled on how the 21 installments would be split, however at least eight will run this summer.

-- "Battlestar Galactica\'s" final season will likewise be split into two parts, the first of which wraps up on Friday, June 13 at 10:00/9:00c. The 10 remaining episodes will then roll out sometime during the 2008-09 season.

-- "Stargate Atlantis" will kick off its fifth season in July, however an exact date has yet to be announced. "Stargate" portal GateWorld nevertheless points to a July 11 start at 10:00/9:00c, noting material posted on the show\'s apparent Face-b-o-o-k and MySpace pages.

-- And finally, the network\'s promo reel from its 2008-09 season upfront presentation was distributed to the press. It showcased its signature dramas ("Battlestar Galactica," "Doctor Who," "Eureka," "Stargate Atlantis") and alternative series ("Ghost Hunters," "Ghost Hunters International," "Destination Truth," "Scare Tactics," "Derren Brown," "ECW") as well as its upcoming efforts "Sanctuary," "Run for Money," "Warehouse 13," "Revolution," "Caprica," "Brain Trust" and "The Stranded" not to mention its off-network premiere of "Lost."

Source: Thefutoncritic.com