Former Star Trek executive producer Ira Steven Behr, whose The 4400 returns to USA for a third season this week, thinks long arcs and characters with whom audiences can identify are the keys to his show's success.

"We really hoped that bringing the show out and making the concepts bigger every week would give you things to scratch your head about," Behr told TrekWeb. "I didn’t know if we were going to be able to sustain that...this season so far I'm pretty pleased that The 4400 as a series has gotten more and more in focus."

Behr said that there would be more continuing storylines in upcoming weeks and fewer single-installment episodes. "I grew up in an age where there was no serialization – people were falling in love one week and that character was never talked about; their best friend dies in their arms and they’re not in therapy the next week," he recalled. "It used to bug me quite a bit as a kid. I did not feel that was life the way I lived it." Now, he added, he finds it important for the audience to empathise with all the characters and to create storylines that are lifelike, though the series is speculative fiction.

Among The 4400's recurring characters is Jeffrey Combs's Kevin Burkhoff, a scientist who experiments on himself to see if he can recreate the capabilities of the mysterious men and women referred to in the title. "He is in a great deal of trouble," said Combs of the character played by one of Deep Space Nine's most versatile guest stars - Combs played Weyoun and Brunt, as well as Shran on Enterprise. "A lot of people are looking for him and he is on the run with Tess, Summer Glau, who we met last season."

For more on The 4400, whose season kicked off last weekend, the original article is at TrekWeb.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!