Dear Heroes,

What happened? Villains marked an all time low in your ratings, and lost you a significant portion of your core audience (myself included). You broke my heart, Heroes. Fugitives won me back in much the same way your ex does when he or she promises to reform, to be better and try harder. But the make-up sex just wasn't that great; the second half of the third season was just too little too late, with the writers and network executives over-compensating furiously with its Con Air plot line and conspiracy theories pieced together with duct tape and hurried exposition. Heroes, if you really want to win me back, here's what you have to do.

New Talent. With Bryan Fuller off to pursue new projects, there are some pretty big shoes to fill. If Fuller's replacement generates the same buzz you did around Fuller's return to the show, and then deliver on it, you may just win many of us back. Carlton Cuse, who is wrapping up his epic run with Lost, might just be the hero you need. Other people capable of filling the void could be Adam Horowitz (the Lost scribe, not the Beastie Boy) or David Fury, the uber-talented Joss Whedon alum. I'll even put in a plug for Rob Thomas (creator of Veronica Mars), who has an amazing gift for crafting characters we love - and love to hate.

"You know how this works; one of us, one of them." Heroes is at its best when pairing up a hero with a human. For the first two seasons, and well into the third, Hiro and Ando formed the beating heart of the show for just this reason... and then you had to go and give Ando super powers. Why? The show is at its peak when specials and non-specials are grappling to understand one another and find common ground (Yes, I would even use Claire and her relationship with the Bennetts, overplayed as it is, as an example here). Continuing to team up specials and non-specials is a sure fire win.

We need a new geek. Look, I'll be honest; The moment you lost me in Villains was when you gave Mohinder powers. Dr. Suresh was originally conceived as a fifty-something scientist, until hunky hero Sendhil Ramamurthy was cast in the role. You never quite reconciled the fact that the geeky scientist who was there to serve as an anchoring point to the show and deliver much needed exposition was also part of its beefcake buffet. We need a scientist whose theories we believe, and who can deliver lines like "The virus is breaking down her DNA and turning her into something altogether... different" with a straight face. Perhaps a long-lost protege of Mohinder's father, or a government-funded geneticist can turn up to espouse the comic book science we've been missing (Someone like much underrated and underused character actor Ian Hart would be a perfect fit). Heroes, you need to find your Daniel Faraday.

Focus. The cast has gotten wildly out of control. Too many specials, too many superpowers, and an endless supply of shape-shifting characters, twins, and future selves is just mucking up the works. Slim down the cast and find your focus - the core group of characters we care about. Kill off the characters who only annoy us. Ali Larter's character comebacks have gotten ridiculous. Besides, we only tolerated her in the first place so we could have Micah. He, along with his super-mimic cousin, and human GPS Molly almost disappeared entirely from the show, with Micah just making a recent comeback. These kids are now perfectly poised, as they hit their 'tweens, to be the subjects of mutation-as-puberty-metaphor story arcs. You are already mining every good X-Men device ever conceived, why not just steal that one as well?

Everybody loves bad girls. I miss your sexy villains; I loved Elle, and I howled in horror when she got killed off last season. Madeline Zima is joining the show next season, and could very well fill the sexy female villain role, with the storyline in the hands of the right writers. Summer Glau is also looking for work in Tinseltown these days, and playing a full-on femme fatale would be a challenge we'd all love to see her take. Ray Park, the sexiest Sith, also joins the cast next season, reportedly as an evil carny character. I'm keeping my fingers crossed you match him up with some equally amazing female character.

Kill the cheerleader, Save the show. Hayden Panettiere has a film career now, and it's time to let her go. Between her bad acting and on-set temper tantrums, she is completely destroying the show. Besides, killing Claire off would give many of the characters, HRG especially, some great motivation.

One last thing...9th Wonders needs to come back in a big way. Please?

Is it just me, or is there something weirdly charming about the way that Heroes seems to be trying its hardest to be contemporary and relevant for people who haven't left the house or had any communication with the outside world for about five years? It's not just the show's increasingly 24-esque approach to the internal machinations of governmental policy, but the fact that Claire seems to just have discovered text messaging. The episode opens with her messaging "Rebel," the mysterious maybe-good guy who's been sending her fight the power messages like "U R SO HAWT - F THE MAN" and the like for the last week. If nothing else, it's distracting her from pretending to her exceptionally gullible mother that she and her dad did a college tour the week before instead of crashing a plane into generic countryside somewhere. Eventually, she snaps (with the great line "Dad was busy... locking up innocent people."), tells her mom that Daddy HRG has been lying to her for the seven-millionth time, and then cries when her mom throws him out because, like, she loves him really. It's just hard when your domineering father figure happens to be a bad-ass spy who forces you to go to community college instead of become a guerilla warrior against the government. Or something.

In HRG's defense, he's clearly still on the side of the good guys and working to bring them down from within... which is why I'm not too bothered that he gets drugged and kidnapped by Peter, Matt and Suresh - oh, the moral ambiguity! - at the end of the episode. Also, as Claire showed when she saved the life of Alex, the most stereotypical comic book clerk in existence ("You're a girl!" he exclaimed upon seeing Claire, shocked that one would be in a comic book store. That groan you heard was every single comic retailer in the country), she's not the greatest freedom fighter in the world. After all, good freedom fighters generally don't keep those they free in their closet.

Of course, maybe Claire just got her planning skills from her biological father, the increasingly ineffectual Nathan. This week, Nathan's new governmental agency got shut down and then unshut down within an hour, because Tracy Strauss froze someone to death in front of a governmental investigator. Which, when put like that, almost works as a plot. Sadly, in the actual show, it was less of a nuanced look into the way that fear of the unknown can impact decision making, and more a sudden swing of extremes from "This is inhuman, and worse, unamerican!" to "You can have whatever you want" because the plot demanded it. Was this all a cunning plan by Nathan, showing a previously hidden Machiavellian side? No, not exactly; it was all manipulation by this volume's cardboard cut-out badguy, the Hunter, who's eager to show that he has no limits to how far he will go yadda yadda yadda.

Also undergoing ill-advised father issues, Sylar continued his strange roadtrip with new sidekick Luke, who only seems to exist to give Sylar a reason to tell us that he's not so bad really, he's just looking for his father to find out how he ended up this way. While we can put up with - almost - his saving Luke from the Hero Hunters, we're really not too convinced by his attempts to teach him not to waste his powers and be more responsible with them. What's next, telling him not to put his elbows on the table? We can only hope that, when he eventually appears, Sylar Snr. will tell his son to stop being such a wuss... and perhaps kill Luke in the process.

In the grand scheme of things, this episode didn't really move any of the larger plots forward (with the exception of HRG leaving his family and being captured), and maybe it's that sense of pointlessness - and the characters' uselessness, or yet another pointless plot where Hiro "learns to be a hero" (This week: You can be a hero without superpowers! Who knew?) - that made it feel like Heroes again, as opposed to the last couple of episodes. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you, of course, but there was one good side to this episode that no-one can deny: Only one scene of Milo Ventimiglia means less frustration. The less Peter Petrelli whining, the better.

The insight came to King after he tried to imagine how to save the show:

[T]he more and more I thought about it, the more and more I realized that the once interesting show has past the point of no return. Nothing can be done to save it.

So I want to propose an alternative to NBC: Do a spin-off!

The three spin-offs he suggest include a Doctor Who riff for Hiro, an X-Files take on the adventures of HRG, and a serial-killer solo spot for Sylar:

“Sylar”
Tagline: Think “Dexter” but with Sylar
Sylar was always the most interesting when he was killing people. This whole nerdy re-vamp with a conscious (sic) is just plain boring. I want to see him as a bad ass slitting brains! Not only that, but I want the producers to expand upon and further explore ‘the hunger’ that his power forces him to have. Let him take on a secret identity and try to live a mundane life. Then at night have him out stalking and feeding the hunger that can never be quenched. Though to make this work, the life he creates must be one that not only he cares about, but that viewers care about. The supporting cast has to not only be interesting but filled with people matter. This way if he’s ever caught, he can’t just go on the run and ditch the new life he’s made for himself.

The worrying thing is - This actually sounds more interesting than what Heroes has actually done with the character. Maybe King is onto something, even if I'm surprised that he didn't try and pitch The Petrellis, a moving family drama about a family trying to face up to the fact that their sons are terrible, terrible actors.

How To Spin Off Heroes ['King Film]

Over-exposure. We've seen way, way too much of Bob the Company stooge on Heroes. But there are even worse examples. The Master on classic Doctor Who comes to mind: He appeared in one story and was awesome. So why not have him appear in every story after that? Always hatching one daft scheme after another, always not quite managing to kill the Doctor. And then in the 1980s, the show had Anthony Ainley on contract to play the Master twice a year, like clockwork.

Draggy, saggy storylines. Sylar has many powers, but the power to hold our attention while he seduces the inky-eye woman isn't one of them. It took him like twenty hours to get to first base with her. This is more often a problem in comic books, where storylines get moved around. Kurt Busiek wrote a storyline where the Atlantean time traveler Arion comes forward in time to torment Superman, because he believes Superman will ruin the Earth. This storyline was supposed to last eight months, but lagged because of delays in other things and cross-overs with other titles. Busiek had to keep putting off the resolution to the Arion storyline, until it lasted more like sixteen months.

The villain can't kill the hero, because... It's bad enough when the villain tries to kill the hero over and over, and never succeeds. But it's horrendous when the villain makes a speech about how he/she can't kill the hero because the hero must first fulfill some purpose, or because the hero may know something, blah blah blah... It becomes a crutch for lazy writers.

Middle managers. The Holy Grail of villainy is a character who's complex and misunderstood, and has a believable point of view. Plus if you've ever had a crappy office job, it's tempting to make your villain the reincarnation of your annoying boss. But this can lead to bad guys like Bob, who really just ought to be fixing photocopier paper jams. Or Ming the Micromanager, over in Flash Gordon.

Turning them into quasi-good guys. The best villain Heroes ever had was Claire's dad, aka Horn-Rimmed Glasses. He was creepy and disturbing, but you could also sense he had a core of decency to him. So of course he had to go and become a Tarnished Good Guy (TM), who still goes over the line occasionally but has a good heart anyway. This is a chronic problem that can, uh, Spike your most interesting baddies.

Everybody's related. So far, Angela Petrelli has been the most boring villain on Heroes, because all she ever does is scold her lazy-bum kids for messing in her business. She actually has the potential to become the show's best baddie, because she's totally cold-blooded and vicious. But we need to see her demonstrating a larger vision than just making her son president or whatever. She should have a monstrous plan, or an agenda, or something other than a note for her kids.

I was going through some of the NBC press materials from just before the show launched, and you're not even listed in the cast bios.

Oh, it's crazy. There are still photos of the entire cast all over the place, and I'm not in them.

So your role was obviously meant to be minor, but has now grown to be one of the major characters on the show. At what stage during season one did you know that was happening?

Well, the funny thing is it was such a gradual progression. First of all, it was a guest spot on the pilot, that's it. There was never a promise of any episodes beyond that. It was a small part, but reading the script I thought, "This is a cool part, I don't care how small it is, people are going to notice this guy." I knew there was something creepy and dynamic about him, and when he turns out to be Claire's father in the end I remember thinking, "I don't know how they ignore that. I don't know how they don't deal with that."

As the episodes went on I think [show runner] Tim [Kring] and the writing staff just discovered this HRG guy was a good bridge between the characters and stories. They're all just discovering and coming into their abilities, and you need to have somebody who's further ahead in terms of knowing what they can do, and my character just fit the bill perfectly. Plus the creepy dynamic of having a guy who hunts "specials" who is actually stepfather to one of them is great. Is he really looking out for her or is he just harvesting? I think the moment when Tim decided HRG was going to be Claire's father, I thought it was too juicy an opportunity not to take advantage of it.

Was he always just HRG in the scripts, or did he have a name at one point before we found out what it was?

He was Man In The Horn-Rimmed Glasses in the pilot, and then just HRG from episode two on. It was just easier I guess. There was a scene in the middle of last season where they were going to reveal his name, actually I think it was in "Company Man" [episode 17 from season one]. But they just decided that it stopped everything cold and it took you out of the scene and they just decided it wasn't the time to do it.

So what do the scripts say now that we know your name is Noah?

HRG. And you know, people will refer to me by name on the show, but the scripts still say HRG.

Those glasses have become so iconic with your character, and it's kind of ironic that it's your "disguise" in a way, given the comic book roots with Clark Kent and Superman. They even had an episode where Claire was helping you pick out the glasses that become your basic costume.

That was actually my idea. There was a scene there where he was selecting glasses. But I just loved how you've seen how this guy has been "creating" her all season to a certain extent, and I liked the idea that she somehow created him as well. That's what is so great about our writing staff. Bryan Fuller wrote that episode, and I just emailed him about the idea and said "What if... " He said "God, I love it!" and the next day it was in the script, and of course he wrote it so much better than I would have. The good thing was that there were no egos in the room about it, like "What, the actor suggested that?!" It was just a case where the best idea wins, and I love the thought that she was complicit in the creation of this guy.

How influential have you been in his character as he's been evolving?

I haven't been. Truly, that was really the only idea I've pitched. I mean, there have been lines here and there where I've said, "How about this, how about that." Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes no. I mean, I'm not out there pitching story. I just happened to see that scene and thought that it was a cool opportunity. Plus it turned out to be a really touching scene, but that's all because of the way Bryan wrote it.

So, you're not out there whispering in the director's ear?

*chucking* Well, the problem is, that's not the right ear! This is television, you gotta be whispering in the show runner's ear, or sometimes maybe the writer of that episode. They do listen to the actors if there's a good idea, but... if you're a squeaky wheel you don't necessarily get greased. You get squashed. And for good reason, I mean you don't want the inmates taking over the asylum.

Well, your character has changed a lot as the show has gone on. When it first started we thought, "Okay, he's the bad guy."

I was the face of evil!

But by the end of the season one, we're thinking "Oh, he's just a nice guy looking out for his daughter." However, when season two starts, you go to Russia and murder someone in cold blood, you almost murder Bob, the new face of the "Company," you have no qualms about torturing Kristen Bell's character and so forth. I know you've been ambiguous as to whether he's good or bad, but which one is it?

You know... I don't think it's ambiguous. I'm not being coy when people say is he good or is he bad and I say "yes." I say that because he is both at once. One of the reasons my character shot Ivan in Russia was to bring home the fact that this guy is not a good gut a lot of times. I don't think it's ambiguous, I think it's clear that he is both things, and that he has the capacity to be really good, and the capacity to be really bad. That's one of the reasons the character is so successful, and I think they realized that from the beginning.

I was concerned when I read the script where I shot Ivan, and you know we're setting him up to be a loving grandfather and the whole thing with his daughter and we're taking his memories... that was heartless. But, they wanted something like that, they wanted something shocking, they wanted to remind the audience that this guy can be nasty and heartless. But, there's always "Claire-Bear" if he needs to be rehabilitated.

Although, he was even ready to duct-tape her recently when she wouldn't listen to you.

Well, you know there's only so much lip you can take from your teenaged daughter.

You're a father yourself, and has being a dad had any bearing on how you approach the character?

Yeah it has, I mean it can't help but inform your choices, your reactions, to things. How you would feel in certain circumstances and situations.

So when your own daughter reaches the age where she's dating, do you think you'll be a little more calmer with her than HRG would?

Not a chance. No, the whole dating thing... I mean she's a pretty girl and already boys are interested in her, but I'm all no, no, no, no, no. I promise you, I will put the fear of god into the boy's that come around the house.

Maybe they'll already have seen the show and you won't have to!

I'll put together a little "greatest hits" video compilation of me and say, "Put this on your iPod, Skippy."

Were you worried initially that your character was too evil?

You mean early on? No, not really. I mean, I knew early on that I wasn't Sylar. That would have worried me a bit. Generally the sort of arch-villain, the guy who is clearly a villain, usually has a limited shelf life. Zach has been so spectacular that they've kept him on. I knew early on that HRG's affection for his daughter was real. I normally don't ask a lot of questions, but I wanted to know if I had killed Suresh's father, was I Sylar, and did I genuinely love my daughter. Once I got those answers, I knew how to play it. I mean, playing the bad guy is fine. You get most of the best lines, and it's usually very interesting to play.

So, how much of a pain is Mr. Muggles to work with?

He's a diva. There's only one Mr. Muggles, and his name is Lestat. They had a substitute Mr. Muggles at one point because Lestat left us for a movie, but he came back with his tail between his legs, as we knew he would. But he's brilliant, he's so well-trained. There was a dog they used when Lestat was off doing his movie, and he was just not a close match. I don't know, they put a sweater on him, they tried everything. Early on I remember people were saying that Mr. Muggles was Sylar, before his identity was revealed. It was great.

So the scene where we see you on the exam table after you've been shot through the eye... did you hit the gym a lot in order to get ready for that?

Well, it's probably been about ten years since I had to take my shirt off for a scene. Let's just say that when I saw the script I had about two weeks, and there were more pushups and curls done in those two weeks than in the previous two years combined. I keep myself in pretty decent shape but Milo [Ventimiglia, who plays Peter Petrelli] is 30 and ripped, and I'm almost 50 and not quite so ripped, so the bar has been set pretty high on our show. Talk about the fear of god when I saw that scene. I've had that happen twice on the show, once where I was given a two and a half page scene all in Japanese, and then where I found out I was going to be naked on the slab. I was like, couldn't they maybe combine those two scenes? Have me speaking Japanese while I'm naked? Then I'd have a complete nervous breakdown.

Did you have to wear prosthetics for that scene?

You mean for the eye? That was all CGI. I thought you were asking if I was wearing prosthetic muscles, like the Batman suit. The eye, that was all done in CGI, including the scene where I originally got shot, with the blood spray. Joe Potasky did such a good job writing that script, and Greg Yaitanes did such a good job directing it.

I can tell you, I loved the scene with Kristen Bell with her feet in Mr. Muggles' doggie bath. I saw something online somewhere where people were wondering how many takes it took to say that with a straight face. I can tell you it took a lot of takes to get through that. The great thing about that seen was that [HRG's wife] Sandra got to see him as HRG for the first time. She gets to see him in action and have some idea not just how he operates, but also what he's had to do to keep Claire from becoming that. That was a really well-conceived idea to have her be privy to that. It wasn't like that in the first draft, but I think they thought about it and went, "You know, she should be there."

It does seem like she's had much more of a presence on the show this season.

Mmm hmm. I mean, Ashley [Crow]'s so good and it's nice to see her get to have her moments where she gets to hold the gun on Bob and things like that. She's an amazing actress.

Have they given any thought to increasing [Claire's brother] Lyle's role? It seems like he'll have like one line every six episodes.

I have no idea! To be honest, I think it's almost a running joke where Lyle gets his one line, and Claire says, "Shut up, Lyle." *laughs* He's doing a great job, but he hasn't had a whole lot to work with.

So, we've heard that there is going to be a high body count on Monday's episode. Can you tell us who dies?

Well, I can't... but I'll give you good reason why I can't. I think it's left somewhat ambiguous as to whether or not those persons are dead. I'll say it looks really bad for certain people, but it might not end up that way. And it won't be a "brought back from the dead" kind of thing, but maybe what we're seeing didn't come to pass as we think it did.

Speaking of brought back from the dead, do you worry that they've painted themselves into a sort of "no death" corner? With Takezo Kensei/Adam's blood healing Nathan's disfigurement, and Claire's blood bringing you back to life, how can anyone actually "die" on the show now?

Well, that can go away as quickly as it came. I'm sure that's one of the things they'll be addressing, is the idea of rules. What's doable, what's not doable. With mutation and different viruses and different evolutionary processes, it could be that an infusion of Claire's blood won't do you anymore. People have been wondering if I might have the ability to regenerate now, and I don't. It was a one-time fix. But it's entirely possible that her antibodies might not work on anyone else.

On this show there's a tremendous amount of people lying in wait. You know what I mean? People who say "Wait a minute, that's not going to work out!" It's a completely different age now in terms of people willing to go along for the ride. The bad news with that is, that means you get hypercritical audiences, but the good news is that it tends to be in direct proportion to their devotion to the show. Certain people will complain and complain and complain, but they're still tuning in and watch, so it works both ways.

The initial reaction at Comic-Con in San Diego was very supportive. They showed a 73-minute version of the pilot there, and support just went out from there on the internet, and I think that was really important to the early success of the show. The good thing about coming into people's homes every week is that it gives you a chance to build your base. The funny thing is, we're getting numbers right now that are on par with our premiere, and all the trades then proclaimed us a hit. But, because our numbers have come down from our high point, the same trades are saying we're not doing so well. But these are the same trades that proclaimed us a hit at with those same numbers! It's a different time these days, you're just not going to get 45 million viewers in one night.

Earlier you mentioned evolution, and we were wondering if they employed an evolutionary scientist or a geneticist on the show.

Yes, Sendhil. He has to research everything and get back to us. *laughs* I'm not sure if anyone in particular is employed. I'm sure there are plenty of publications they consult but at the end of the day... they're kind of making it up.

What, you mean people don't really have superpowers?

Yeah, that is one of the things that you sort of want to say every now and then when people say "Oh my god, that's so unrealistic!" It's like, yeah, but not any more so than someone who can read minds or someone who can fly. I mean, it's one thing to be frustrated, but to expect a level of reality... this ain't no documentary, I don't know if you've noticed.

Recently during the writer's strike, creator Tim Kring came forward and basically apologized for the slow start season two has had. To that end, he said they would be fixing things, and the show did seem to improve. But we know it takes a long time to write and shoot these things. Did they actually change anything around to make episode 11 the "finale" of this first story arc?

No. People forget how far in advance these things are shot. By the time Tim did that interview, we were already shooting episodes 12 and 13, even though we didn't get them finished, so those aren't in the can. I don't know what people expect because it ain't shot live. It's months in advance. I thought it was a courageous thing of him to do. If you're a disgruntled fan of the show, I think it was nice to hear from the show's leader and creator that, "We hear you. We get what the problems are and we're going to address them."

Having said that, I also think it's not like this has been a disastrous season. Everybody seemed to be gearing up for either a) a letdown from season one in terms of how fans experience the show, or b) backlash. You know, they build you up so they can tear you down. I mean, that's a fact. I understand some of the frustrations, but it's not like all of the sudden it became a terrible show. There was just such high expectations. I also remember people having problems from the first season, and fans saying things like "Why aren't things moving faster?" and "Why are these storylines not connected?" You know, it wasn't like the first season was all perfection. It's a big show with a lot of moving parts, and nobody is going to like everything all the time. That's true of any show that is a big ensemble... there's a lot going on. But I think it's ending strongly, and assuming this writer's strike ever ends, when we go back to work it will be with a clearer mission in mind of what the fans want.

In talking about "fixing" the show, Tim said that he wasn't sure about the romance between Claire and West. Does that mean West isn't long for this world?

I don't know. I'm don't know if he was being specific about that, I think he just meant that maybe romance may not be a good fit for us. I do know that the character of West has been growing on the audience recently. At first, people found him annoying and stalker-like, but now they know he's not a stalker and doesn't mean her arm, they're starting to like him a lot more. I'm not sure what there plans are for him, I really don't know.

The studios are meeting with the writers right now. If the strike ended tomorrow, when do you think you all would be told to report back to work?

Probably late January. I mean, I don't think there's any way we'll be back on the air in January. I think the studios will start to feel the effects of this strike the most when people really get tired of all of the reality television.

How far have the scripts gone past Monday's mid-season finale?

Well, we were shooting episodes 12 and 13 when the strike shut us down, because rewrites were no longer possible. Once we go back and start shooting again, it's hard to tell if those will be rewritten, or reshot. It's all up in the air right now.

Do you think the show will sustain through the writer's strike?

Yes, I do. I mean, I don't know how long we're going to be off, but I think that when we come back on there will be people who have never seen it who want to tune in, and I think that the people who were disaffected will watch to see what we've changed. I was talking to someone who said there's no question that Heroes will come back very strong. I mean, Desperate Housewives, Lost... second years are difficult for a reason, and part of that is the exhaustion with getting a show up and running and going, and our show is just massive. Most shows shoot in eight days, but we're 12 to 14. We're shooting on a Sopranos-style schedule but doing twice the episodes. It's a really big undertaking.

Last season and this season have featured a future disaster that may or may not happen. Is Heroes saying that the future is a scary place, or is it simply a way to provide a ticking clock plot device?

I think mostly it's a ticking clock. Every show represents its place and time in some way, and one thing this show really represents is a very nervous world where people are fearful. People don't trust government, we don't trust corporations. What we all can get behind are ordinary individuals who rise up and become people who can save us from ourselves. I think it's really tapped into that. I don't think it's a political statement about the future.

You have had some veteran actors on the show, like Malcom McDowell, George Takei, and now Nichelle Nichols. Have you had scenes with any of them?

George. I had that scene with George where I did two and a half pages in Japanese with him, but I haven't worked with Malcolm or Nichelle, or Joanna Cassidy who was on recently and who I adore. I wish she would have been around longer. I haven't worked with Cristine (Rose, who plays Angela Petrelli) and I've barely worked with Adrian. I only had one scene with him where I'm chasing him through a parking lot, but that's been it. There's still a lot of people I haven't really worked with yet.

Plus with all the time travel on the show, it's hard to remember that certain characters haven't even met each in the present day storyline.

Right, I haven't worked with Masi in the "present," and so on. The worlds have been fairly circumscribed.

It's funny you mention Joanna Cassidy because she's obviously in the new Blade Runner DVD set that's coming out, but Warners went back and did some fixed to the set, and filmed her in the present day and then dropped her into some scenes digitally and it looks amazing. So when she turned up on Heroes, we had just seen that and she still looks great today.

Oh, she looks fantastic. I don't know how old she is, but she's still a sexy woman. Plus she was so great on Six Feet Under, just crazy and wonderful. I was really hoping to get to work with her.

A website recently featured a bunch of photos with Heroes actors posing with a cup of Slusho, which we know is some sort of Slurpee-like drink from J.J. Abrams' universe and from the upcoming Cloverfield film, but what does it all mean?

That's about all I know! I was basically handed the cup of Slusho, given that much information, and that was it. We were just goofing around, but some of those pictures are hysterical.

Whatever happened to the character who was introduced who could talk to computers? She seems to have vanished.

I think that literally what happened was that she got another series and we lost her. I think she lives on in all of the online things they've created for the show, they call her Wireless. I thought that was a brilliant idea and she was really good in the part, I don't know if they'll bring her back or now. I know there's been talk about bringing Christoper Eccleston back too.

So, tell us about your background. Most viewers are probably too young to recognize you from Dynasty.

I run into the occasional Heroes fan who is also a Dynasty fan, but they're not actually natural constituents. I mean, it'll be... almost 20 years since I was on Dynasty. 1988 was my last year on the show.

You did something like 150 episodes, right?

At least. That's a long run. Plus that's back in the day when it was 6 and 7 days per episode, and we'd do 30 episodes. It wasn't that brutal because it was an ensemble show. It didn't have a lot of special effects or stunts, it was basically a lot of yakkin'.

• The first teaser poster for Batman: The Dark Knight leaked onto the net, and... it's boring. Oh well.[IESB]
• Flatliners may be getting a spin-off TV series, says writer Stephen Susco. The cool-but-dated thriller doesn't seem to lend itself to an episodic format on the face of it. Would a different person have a near-death experience every week? [Bloody Disgusting]
• KITT, the smooth-talking smart car from the original Knight Rider, may have a cameo in the new version. There's a photo, and... it looks like an old car. Maybe the two cars can team up for a mission that no one car can handle alone, like... umm... transporting six people without having anyone sit in someone's lap? [Spoiler TV]
• Still more Heroes gossip: Niki's naughty alter ego Jessica will definitely be back whenever the show returns. But the show's writers and producers are still "up in the air" about whether Nathan Petrelli will survive. Also, there's widespread speculation that HRG (Claire's dad) shot Nathan, as part of his deal with the Company. [Watch With Kristin]

• Christian Bale hasn't committed to starring in the new Terminator movie, but he is in serious talks, sources say. Here's hoping he comes to his senses and does a smarter film instead. [MSN via Cinemblend]
• Heroes is one of the most family-friendly shows on television, according to the Family Friendly Programming Forum. Heroes took home the drama award in the Forum's annual awards night. Have these people been watching the same show as I have? The whole second season has been one big creepiest-dad contest. [Hollywood Reporter]

• Bionic Woman star Michelle Ryan is dating Owen Wilson, who's still recovering from that suicide attempt a while back. They've gone to dinner and the beach. She entertains him by delivering her famous "you don't own my body" speech. [Hollyscoop]
• Don't count Journeyman out yet, insists creator Kevin Falls. NBC has decided to air the final three episodes that Falls already filmed, in mid-December. We'll get some answers to our nagging questions, like: WTF is up with all the cross-temporal stalking anyway? And there's still a slim hope that the show could come back at some point after that. "Don't rest yet," he urges fans. But if Journeyman does die for good, Falls has only his own defeatist talk to blame. [AICN]

Heroes

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• There's going to be a fairly high body count when Season Two: Volume Two ends next week, including one of the main characters. Although if we've learned anything, it's that no one stays dead on Heroes.
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• Looks like Naomi isn't dead, despite having a knife hurled into her back by Locke at the end of last season.
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• Remember that mysterious freighter we told you about? It'll be bringing in a slew of Naomi's friends, which she phoned up on her walkie talkie at the end of last season.
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• If you remember the end of last season, then you recall that the show had jumped forward in time a great deal. A heavily-bearded Jack was living a life of booze and oxycontin addiction, and had been off the island for some time. According to some insiders, we'll be jumping both forward and backwards in time not only all season, but until the series wraps.
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• The first ten episodes will be all about the newly discovered Cylons, there were a few hints about that during the season four preview at the end of Razor, including Colonel Tigh leveling a gun at Admiral Adama on the command deck.
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• There's going to be a new Six named Natalie, although it's unclear if that means she'll be another actress playing a replacement Six, or simply another Six. The problem is, everyone knows what that famous face looks like around the fleet, so that would make it hard to have Tricia Helfer in some new Six boots.
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• We'll see who the final Cylon is before the end of the season. Can we issue a collective "duh" on that one? If they didn't give that up, there would probably be some minor rioting, millions of angry internet threads, and Ronald Moore's house would probably be reduced to ashes.
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Spoiler Chat [E! Online]