Cinescape: Ron Moore Tales ‘Roswell’ (Part 1)

Thanks to everyone who sent this in. I’m quickly posting some news before I head off to work this morning for 9 hours of training. Follow the link for the entire article

Ronald D. Moore Talks ROSWELL – Part One
Co-executive producer discusses changes for the fan favorite show’s third
season on new network UPN

Dateline: Tuesday, October 9, 2001

By: ANNA L. KAPLAN
By: Correspondent

As ROSWELL enters its third season, in some ways the show will be
re-inventing itself. ROSWELL has a new home, moving from the WB Network to
UPN. Both BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ROSWELL are making this move. It
gives the show’s writers reason to believe that ROSWELL may have a longer
television life than they once expected. Co-executive producer Ronald D.
Moore says that executive producer Jason Katims never gives up hope.

“Last season, it looked like the writing was on the wall,” he recalls. “UPN
was just sort of an idea that was getting floated out there, because BUFFY
was talking to them. We were moving out of our offices. It looked like it
was all over. Jason Katims said, ‘You know what? They just can’t kill this
show. They’ve tried and they’ve tried and it just keeps surviving. Let’s
plan next season.’ He was right, so I just have to believe it too.”

So they started to talk about a third season, which they will have, on UPN,
airing after BUFFY.

“The operative word for this season
ROSWELL co-executive producer Ronald D. Moore
© UPN
on ROSWELL is change,” explains Moore. “Because of the way the second
season ended, a lot of the storyline and thread we had been following came
to an end.”

ROSWELL tells the story of a group of aliens who arrived on the ship that
crashed in the desert in 1947. They stumbled out of their “pods” looking
like human children, and were adopted by people who didn’t know of their
ancestry.

In ROSWELL’s first season, teenage alien Max Evans (Jason Behr) used his
powers to save the life of a human named Liz Parker (Shiri Appleby). Once
she and her friends, including Maria (Majandra Delfino) got involved with
Max, his sister Isabel (Katherine Heigl), and the third alien Michael
(Brendan Fehr), they were all in peril. During that first season, Liz and
Max fell in love as adventures befell the group. By the end of the first
year, they had made an ally out of Sheriff Valenti (William Sadler) and
found the fourth member of their group, Tess (Emilie de Ravin). She was
aided by a shape-shifting protector who soon died, leaving them to cope
without help.

In the second season of ROSWELL more complications ensued, as the group
battled rival aliens, tried to maintain their secrecy, and figured out where
they came from and how to get home. Tess seduced Max, and she became
pregnant with a child who would die if not brought back to their home world
in a device designed for one trip. At the last moment, the others realized
Tess was a murderous traitor trying to sell them to the other side. As
season two ended, Tess was launched back to the home planet, leaving
everyone else stranded on Earth.