CNN ran an article about how our optimism about technology has changed since the days of Buck Rogers and original Star Trek. Besides the "Where's My Jetpack" guy, one of the main people they interviewed was BSG's Verheiden, who currently writes for Heroes:

"There are so many things you can't anticipate when you create a new technology," [Verheiden] says. "Who would have predicted that the Internet would be taking down shopping malls and wiping out newspapers?''

In Battlestar's finale, human beings abandon their faith in technology's ability to improve the future. They destroy their fancy machines and start again as simple hunter-gatherers.

"At some point, you can't expect a miracle to come in the form of technology to save us," Verheiden says. "At some point, the miracle has to come from a change in attitude and a new outlook."

That doesn't mean, however, that Verheiden isn't a fan of imagining future technology. He says he grew up watching "Star Trek" and immersing himself in Futurama-like exhibits.

The elevated cities and the "Star Trek" voyages of yesteryear may now seem corny, but at least they show humanity has a future, he says.

" 'Star Trek' was saying [that] a thousand years from now, people [will] figure out how to get along," Verheiden says. "In some ways, sci-fi says that the future is still optimistic, because no matter how bleak things are, it suggests that we're still here."

[CNN, thanks Tom]

With the last couple of "volumes" of NBC's superhuman drama have demonstrating the law of diminishing returns, a lot is seemingly riding on the success of "Fugitives," both critically and in terms of ratings. Luckily, it may be as well placed to deliver as it has been since the first season, thanks to some of the creative upheaval behind the scenes over the last few months. Even before Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander were pushed out, Battlestar Galactica's Mark Verheiden was brought on as a writer and producer, and anyone who saw last night's BSG should know that he's no slouch when it comes to writing ensemble drama that excites and compels (Verheiden was in place by the second episode of "Fugitives," so his presence should hopefully be felt throughout the entire run). Bryan Fuller also rejoined the show in time to bring "Fugitives" to a conclusion, but although his return may have come too late to influence this volume, his sense of what's gone wrong with the show, and assurance that changes were being made to correct that before his arrival is a good sign that things may be about to get better.

However, there's still some sense of trepidation about what changes "Fugitives" may bring. We've been promised a change in tone and direction for the show, as things get darker following the uneven "Villains" arc, but we still don't know exactly what that means. I'd be the first to admit that Heroes needs a change in direction after two-and-a-half seasons of recycling the same "We Must Change The Future" plot, but that doesn't necessarily mean that any change would be a good thing. Color me nervous about the hints we've heard about the series including a "superpowered Gitmo" or all superpowered characters being treated as terrorists, for example; not only does it seem tonally wrong in this post-Bush era of self-conscious "change" and "hope" (Hey, the real Gitmo's being closed, after all!), but it sounds both like more ripping off of old X-Men plotlines and exactly the kind of blunt, forced heavy-handed plotting that the series should be trying to move away from.

This may just be me, but Heroes worked best when the characters were more relatable, contrasting with the fantasy element of their superpowers. When the situation they're in is more "They're terrorists on the run from the law" and they can fly, teleport, run at superspeed, etc., then there's even less reason for the audience to sympathize with them... or care about them at all. That's part of the problem with rebooting a series like this; in order to do so, the core concept must either be revisited or abandoned entirely, and doing either runs the risk of losing longterm fans who either don't want to see it all again or lose what brought them to the show in the first place. Every time a franchise gets reset, it's always a gamble for those involved that the "perfect jumping-on point" for new viewers (or readers, or whatever) is also going to be a perfect jumping-off point for old ones (Case in point; Marvel Comics' Amazing Spider-Man reboot last year, which angered as many fans as excited new ones and lead to the point where, a year later, sales are lower than they were prior to the reboot). By making Heroes over and trying to find a new angle on the concept, the creators run the risk of dooming the series all over again. Oh, the high stakes they are dealing with - just like the characters on the show itself! As above, so bel- oh, maybe not.

Ultimately, I'm left with the thought that Heroes maybe should never have continued past the first season... Or, at least, shouldn't have carried all of its characters with it into a second. What worked so well in the first season was the shock of the new - Not only the story of characters "just like us" discovering powers and what they would do with them (tapping directly into our fantasies and wish-fulfillment in a way that just can't be replicated with the same characters in later seasons on such a large scale), but the speed and recklessness of the storytelling in an era where a lot of genre storytelling was trying to match the glacial pace of Lost at the time. It stood out because it was different and unusual... but that was gone by the second season, and even moreso in what we've seen of the third so far. In order to regain its urgency and quality, the series does have to reinvent itself in the way they seem to be attempting... but the potential to fail, and ruin what the series still offers fans now, is so great that it may end up being better to pretend the show stopped after one season after all.

Heroes returns on Monday at 9pm on NBC.

Talking about ways in which the writers are trying to improve during the upcoming Fugitives arc, Verheiden explained that both the form and content of the series is about to change:

What we tried to do with the show as a group, people will notice that we’re not doing as many stories per show and lingering a bit on the stories we’re doing... I think in going forward what we’re probably doing is leaving some of the stuff of “Villains’ behind. You’ll see that Primatech and Pinehurst aren’t viable anymore. So those entities will be dissolved and a couple of characters have decided to, one in particular, taken a dramatic new turn that will set off where we’re going with “Fugitives’ very clearly. The Nathan character played by Adrian Pasdar, a great actor, he has some really fun and emotional turns coming in the “Fugitives” arc. There’s also a great arc with Sylar coming up. Very fun.

Such changes, he explained, aren't just the result of fan complaints or network notes, but self-correction from the people working on the show. But that doesn't mean that criticism and complaints go unnoticed:

[W]e’re not deaf. We listen to what the general drumbeat is and as we go forward, I think we’ve made some adjustments. But they were adjustments that were being made before all this stuff really came down. One thing I’ve learned after doing this for a while is that you can’t really control that sort of thing. You can just do the best you can do. That’s what I’m about, trying to do the best shows we can do. I was reading somewhere where someone suggested that, “well they must not care about the show.” [laughs] Critique it all you want. You can have all the issues you want, but in terms of caring I’m telling you we care about the show. Not just the writers, not just the producers, the cast, the enormous crew, everyone. It’s a little absurd... You don’t stay in the office until midnight and work seven days a week and all this stuff because you’re just knocking it out... [E]verybody who’s there is killing themselves to make the best show possible. You can’t fault us for lack of trying.

Heroes returns to NBC in February.

Image from Greg Beeman.

Verheiden Talks Galactica, Heroes & My Name Is Bruce [Comic Book Resources]

Justice League's greatest strength — the fact that it has Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and four other pretty well-known heroes — could also be its greatest weakness, since it's hard to tell a compelling story that gives all seven of them enough screen time.

Titans, meanwhile, is the story of a bunch of teen sidekicks without their mentors, including Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Aqualad and Green Arrow's sidekick (who has as many codenames as trackmarks on his arm.) The comics have thrown a number of other characters into the mix, including Cyborg (who's just what he sounds like), Starfire (an alien princess) and Beast Boy (a bright green shapeshifter.)

But the star of the Titans movie, from the hints Verheiden dropped, would definitely be Batman's sidekick, Robin. It sounds, reading between the lines, as if the film would be a coming-of-age story, in which Robin strikes off on his own, away from the shadow of Batman's massive swoopy cape, and goes on an adventure with his teenage friends. Both Robin and his grown-up identity, Nightwing, will be in the film. (This could also mean that two different Robins are in the film, but I doubt it somehow.) Verheiden explains:

We'll also be dealing with a transitional period in the lives of the Teen Titans. It will be a huge, fun, action movie but it's the characters first... It also won't be the Titans as young adults or anything. ... It's no secret Robin is in this movie, so what if you were him, after living in the shadow of Bruce Wayne and Batman, and now you wanted to go off on your own and become your own man, your own superhero? That's got to be a huge thing to overcome.

Verheiden says he turned in a draft of the Titans script to Warner Bros. before the writers' strike happened, and they sent some feedback. And now he's working on another pass. His goal is to make the Titans "as real as possible," and make them believable in our world, as much as teenagers with superpowers can be, with "heightened realism." And there will be "strong adversaries, or antagonists," but the main focus of the movie will be on the characters, who are at "the cusp of adulthood." [ComicMix]

[R]ecently we saw the dailies on a scene that was especially heart-wrenching. In my patented "no spoiler" mode, I will not disclose any info, except to say the scene involves one of our main characters in a very bad place (what else is new?), who then sings, to themselves, an acapella lament to help ease their pain. I got chills (and no, I didn't write the episode!).

Why, gods of Kobol, why? We promise we'll never be mean to the Saggitarons again if you just stop the singing. Image by Mark Tran/FilmMagic

Enough Strike Talk, How About Something Positive? [Famous Verheidens of Filmland]