If you’re like me, NBC’s decision to pull its programs from iTunes is going to seriously impact your Sci-Fi viewing habits this year. Everything from “Battlestar Galactica” to “Heroes,” including cool new shows from “Chuck” to “Journeyman” just became that much harder for us to get our grubby little paws on. (Sure, there’s broadcast television, but who uses that anymore?)

As we reported earlier, NBC released its pilots as free downloads through Amazon Unbox. Well, NBC has just announced a new service called “NBC Direct,” through which you and I will be able to download their programs directly from them. Just what that experience will be like is hinted to by the press release:

The first version of this new feature, which will begin beta testing in October, will allow users to download full length episodes for viewing on Windows based PCs. Each original episode will be licensed to users for viewing through “NBC Direct” for one week following broadcast and will then expire.

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Marvel has released the first trailer for “Iron Man”. The movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man and is slated for a May 2008 release.Gwyneth Paltrow fans: she’s in the trailer for almost 2 seconds!

Jeremy from Shanghai picked up a copy of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” at his local Chinese DVD outlet recently. When he turned on the English subtitles, he got a hilarious surprise: the subtitles had been translated to English after they had been translated to Chinese first. That leaves Anakin uttering such lines as, “Space General, you and not equal to I think severe,” and “I was just made by the Presbyterian Church.” And my personal favorite? A double Fark cliche: When Vader screams “No!” at the end of the film, it’s translated as “Do not want.” Classic!

So make yourself “strong and big” and head over to Jeremy’s blog to see all the glorious screen caps. A word of warning, though: one or two of the subtitles contains the F-word. (No, not Force.) So for some, this site is not safe for work (NSFW).

Oh, and ratio tile, the wish power are together with you. (May the Force be with you.)

All right, sci-fi fans. It’s September, which means our favorite shows are about to start up again. In just a couple weeks, the new season will begin and our nights of compulsively watching “Heroes” reruns to get our sci-fi fix will be at an end. Just two more weeks. Two more weeks. Two more … weeks….

Oh, I give up. I can’t wait that long!

The good news is that, thanks to a little row between NBC and Apple, you can get the pilot episodes to “Bionic Woman,” “Chuck,” “Journeyman” — indeed, all of NBC’s pilot episodes — today! for free! Details after the jump.

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Monday (Sept 10):

• Ghost In The Shell - 1996 film based on the manga, directed by Mamoru Oshii.

Tuesday (Sept 11):

• Eureka - “God is in the details.” Eureka’s residents believe that they are victims of a biblical plague.

Friday (Sept 14):

• Doctor Who - “Blink” Lost in time and trapped in a house’s walls, The Doctor tries to stop a murder.
• Flash Gordon - “Ascension” Dactyls kidnap a teenager and Flash must travel to Mongol to save him.

Saturday (Sept 15):

• Torchwood - “Day One” The team must track down an alien that is addicted to sex.
• Highlander: The Source - A Sci-Fi original movie starring Adrian Paul and based on the Highlander films and T.V. series.

I really don’t know how I feel about this. Apparently Warner Bros. has purchased the rights to Robotech. Tobey Maguire’s production company has signed on. Craig Zahler is writing the script.

So, on one hand, we have the exciting news that somebody might be producing a live action Robotech film.

Then, on the other hand, it’s being produced by Spider-Man and this would be the screenwriter’s second film.

Actually, the most dispiriting thing about this whole situation is this quote by Maguire:

“We are very excited to bring ‘Robotech’ to the big screen,” Maguire said. “There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film.”

Maybe it’s just the pessimist in me. But I can’t imagine that the codewords “mythology” and “foundation” imply anything other than plans to completely screw up everything.