Cable channel HBO recently picked up the supernatural circus series Carnivāle, starring Enterprise's John Fleck (Silik).

Production has already started on the series, which revolves around a group of carnival workers in the 1930s, according to the Sci-Fi Wire. The show is currently scheduled to premiere on HBO in 2003.

In addition to Fleck, who plays Gecko the Snake Man, Carnivāle also stars Trek alumni Adrienne Barbeau (Senator Cretak in DS9's 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges') and Clancy Brown (Zobral in Enterprise's 'Desert Crossing'). Speaking to the Sci-Fi Wire, Barbeau described the series as "The X-Files meets David Lynch meets Marjoe Gortner.

"It's sort of an epic good-versus-evil story, as personified by satanic evangelists and carny workers during the Depression in the Dust Bowl," the actress continued. "It's great. I play a tattooed snake charmer. I think they will start with an exploration of the characters, and then move more into the conflict of good versus evil. We've got the dwarf, and we've got the giant, literally, and the Siamese twins and the lizard man and the strong man and the bearded lady and the psychic. It deals a lot with metaphysics and the supernatural."

Wolfe Lake scribe Daniel Knauf wrote the pilot episode, which was helmed by Six Feet Under director Rodrigo García, who Barbeau described as "wonderful." Knauf will also serve as executive producer with Henry Bromell (Homicide: Life On The Street) and King Of The Hill's Howard Klein.

Earlier this year Fleck spoke about his role in Carnivāle, revealing that the makeup was worse than in any of his Star Trek roles (story). "What they used to do to circus freaks back then was to surgically enhance themselves to make them attractive to audiences, so to speak, in a freaky kind of way, so I have my ears loped off, my tongue surgically split so I look like a lizard. The makeup is really hard, and in Star Trek, the makeup took only three hours to put on."

The original article can be found here at the Sci-Fi Wire.

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