While appearing at the TCA gathering in LA, ROSWELL creator Jason Katims sheds some light on what lies ahead for the series as it starts up on the UPN TV network.
Katims focuses on the character of Tess, saying, "Tess is somewhere out there in the cosmos, and she may return at some later date, but for now, she's gone. We're really sort of basing [stories] on character arcs and the theme of next year is change. Tess has left with their only way home, and until now the alien characters all thought [being on Earth] was a temporary situation. Now it's permanent, and they have to build lives for themselves here."
Katims also revealed that Colin Hanks will be returning for an episode as a ghost.
Changes Come To Roswell
Jason Katims, executive producer of the teen alien series Roswell, told reporters that the show will drop some of the harder science-fiction elements and return more to character stories in its upcoming third season, with major changes coming for everyone. "The stories are getting a little bit out of high school," he said during UPN's fall preview for the Television Critics Association.Katims added, "Isabel gets into a serious relationship and falls into a precipitous marriage. Max goes on a quest to find his child, and Liz goes along with him, and that quest will take him out of Roswell and onto the road. ... Michael basically wants to build a life for himself and winds up getting a job. ... Maria's character begins to pursue her musical career, and that becomes a real thing." He added, "One of the things I'm really interested in playing, starting with the beginning of the year, is the family drama that is here in the show and that we've never really explored. In the first episode, Max and Liz get arrested. ... And suddenly they're in real trouble, and their parents are called in. ... It's not so funny anymore, and it's not like they can go away for two days and say, 'We went camping,' and everything is OK with them. By the end of the episode, Liz is forbidden by her parents ever to see Max.
In an interview following the press tour, Katims told SCI FI Wire, "I felt where we went kind of astray a little bit [last year] was these four-episode arcs, where there was so much mythology, and so many pieces of storylines out there, that it just got too complicated. I think we're on a much better track here. This is really what I've been wanting to do with the show, bring it back to building the season based on character arcs, and we have a character arc for every character in the show.
As part of that, Katims said the show has hired writer Melinda Metz, author of the popular Roswell High series of books on which the show is based, and her writing partner, Laura Burns. "What I expect them to bring is, they obviously have a long history with these characters, with this world. They have a great imagination, and I don't expect them to bring storylines from those books. What I expect them to bring is their imagination and who they are as writers, and I'm very excited about the possibilities here." Roswell premieres on UPN on Oct. 16.
new spoilers from RNN-
3.1
Liz and Max hold up the Utah store as a distraction to
find a "key" to the original 1947 ship Max might to
able to use to get to his kid. Liz's parents deem Max
a bad influence, and forbids him from seeing Liz. We
establish Isabel is having a secret affair with Jesse.
3.2
Michael gets a night watchman job, and ultimately uses
his alien powers to discover his boss is stealing from
the company he's guarding. This has one gag that made
me laugh out loud. Liz and Max meet fleetingly and
secretly, but Mr. Parker says knock it off or Liz will
be sent to a boarding school back east.
3.3
Isabel mistakenly thinks Jesse is ready to propose.
Isabel gets the notion that any man who loves her
(like Alex and Grant) are doomed, and breaks it off
with Jesse. The ghosts of Alex and Grant turn up to
discuss the matter. But when she learns Jesse was NOT
planning to propose, she impulsively proposes to him.
From AICN http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=9581
Roswell 3.0 FAQ
You have “Roswell” spoilers already?
Of a kind. Everything in this post is based on early treatments of the third season’s first few episodes. Much could change by the time the episodes air. But then again, much could remain intact …
Now that Tess’ villainy has been revealed, are Liz and Max back together?
Yes. If all goes according to plan, the first time we see Max and Liz on UPN, they’ll be in Utah, making out in the back of a strange convertible -- and looking strangely like FutureMax and FutureLiz.
What are they doing in Utah?
Plotting the hold up of a Utah convenience store. Before Dido can warble a note, they’ll be pursued by the state police, boxed in on all sides, thrown to the ground and handcuffed at gunpoint.
Then Max uses his powers to escape, right?
Ha! By the beginning of act one, Max and Liz are both in stir, and the angry and confused parents begin arriving.
Good lord! Why are Max and Liz robbing convenience stores?
It’s all part of Max’s plan to get back to his homeworld and rescue his son. It’s all explained in an elaborate series of flashbacks.
How do the elder Parkers and Evanses react?
Badly. They didn’t even know Max and Liz were in Utah. Bad blood begins to develop between the two families almost immediately.
Why?
Philip Evans talks the Parkers out of hiring their own lawyers (“Things will go better if we present a united front”). But after the Parkers reluctantly agree, Liz is denied bail and forced to remain imprisoned. Max makes bail and goes free. And the Parkers feel like they were sold down the river. They begin pressuring Liz to testify against Max.
Does Max break Liz out to continue their life of crime?
Max does offer to break Liz out, but Liz dissuades him; she suggests that they’re already in enough trouble. Instead, the out-on-bail Max discovers something ugly about the convenience store that the U.S. government wants kept quiet, and the Evanses leverage this to get the charges against Max and Liz dropped.
So things go back to normal, like after all those other times the kids found themselves in jail?
No. Once the kids are released, the Parkers forbid Max from ever seeing Liz again. Also, after Max and his dad clash over Max’s inability to tell the full truth about the robbery, Max moves out of the Evans house.
Does Max leave Roswell?
No. Max stays in town but finds surprising new digs.
Does Max start bunking with Michael?
Nope.
Who’s said to be writing the season premiere?
Series creator Jason Katims.
I thought the first episode deals with Isabel having an affair with a lawyer from her dad’s firm!
It does. The junior lawyer, Jesse, gets to Utah even before Max’s parents, and there’s a third-act rendezvous in a hotel room that makes plain to the audience their secret affair. But the Jesse-Isabel saga really takes center stage in 3.3.
Ah. What happens in 3.3?
Nutty Isabel invades Jesse’s dreams -- and come to believe he’s about to propose to her. Iz freaks out, now certain that any man who loves her (like Alex and Grant) is doomed.
Are Rath, Lonnie, Ava, or Nicholas back?
No. At least not in the first three episodes.
What about Brody?
Nope.
Sean?
Nope.
Tess?
Nope.
Alex?
There are plans for ghosts in 3.3, to say nothing of a possible lycanthropy-free homage to “An American Werewolf in London.”
Does Jesse propose to Isabel?
No. But they’re going to be engaged anyway.
Is Jesse possessed by Kivar?
No hints of this are revealed in the first three episodes.
Wait. You skipped 3.2.
The second UPN episode, likely to be scripted by Ron Moore, will center on Michael as he begins moonlighting as a nightwatchman for a shadowy Roswell enterprise called Meta-Chem. Michael will make many friends among the other slacky young nightwatchmen. (There’s at least one big laugh in the 3.2 treatment involving a popular soft drink.)
Do the Parkers lift the ban on the Liz-Max relationship?
No. In fact, at the end of 3.3, Jeff Parker threatens to send Liz to an East Coast boarding school if Max doesn’t stop trying to see her in secret.
Will Jim be reinstated as sheriff?
No.
What’s up with Jim’s boy?
An unhappy Kyle becomes the breadwinner in the Valenti household while Jim decides to follow his bliss and put his old band back together.
Do we know anything beyond the first three episodes?
Nothing is set, but much will likely center on Isabel’s impending nuptuals. We may see misbehavior at Jesse’s bachelor party. Max and Michael may try to talk Iz out of the wedding. Kyle may fall for Isabel as he helps her prepare for the big day. A journalist friend of Jesse’s may stumble upon Isabel’s true nature. At Isabel’s wedding and on her honeymoon, she may encounter a stranger who is possessed by Vilandra’s ex-lover Kivar.
Anything not involving Isabel’s new romance?
Michael may discover a clone of Max at Meta-Chem. Tess may possess Liz. Max may suspect Tess never made it home. Maria, trying to pursue her own music career against her mom’s wishes, may join Michael in a search of Maria’s dad. Jim Valenti may stumble upon his ex-wife while pursuing a career as a private detective. Kyle, with Isabel’s help, may create an extraordinary science project.
