FURY ROAD

Co-executive producer DAVID FURY takes dreamwatch behind the scenes of ANGEL's fifth season, and reveals what viewers can expect for the heroic vampire's latest adventures.
Words: Tara DiLullo

After helping Buffy the Vampire Slayer claim a place in TV history, co-executive producer David Fury has made himself a permanent home on Angel. Although he acted as a consulting producer and writer on the Buffy spin-off from its very beginning, Fury now serves as show-runner Jeffrey Bell's right hand man on the series.
    Despite his many years of service with the Buffy franchise, Fury tells dreamwatch that he is facing some of the most exciting and creative challenges he's ever seen during the making of Angel's fifth season.

Dreamwatch: Has it been difficult establising Angel's new approach in season five?
It's been trickier mostly because of the new Wolfram & Hart environment. To see the show in a corporate environment environment daily is interesting. The characters are trying to adjust to it as much as we are, so we are using that quite a bit.
    The episodes have been much more 'stand-alone'. While we are trying to that as bes we can, there are elements that are going to arc for the season. We can't help ourselves. It is so much part of this universe that we can't wholly contain information and resolve everything. The first episode that Joss did [Conviction] ends with the return of Spike, so it already plays very much like a two parter.
    As we get deeper into the season, we've concocted an arc that we think is worth playing out, although we can do many stand-alones within it. New viewers should be able to catch up pretty quickly. We talked about it with Joss and we just decided that's what the show is and we can't be afraid of it. If we haven't grabbed the viewers within the first five episodes, we probably aren't getting new viewers anyway and the rest of the audience will hopefully enjoy the arc.

Spike returns as a ghost in Conviction, but will he regain corporeal form as the season develops?
    Just the record, he is not strictly a ghost. He is something ghost-like. He is non-corporeal, but it's not simply that he died, came back and he is haunting. Somebody has stored his essence, but for all intents and purposes, he is a ghost and he feels himself slipping into hell. He knows that is where he is going. So, he is like, "Angel gets all this and I get to go to hell!" we address all of that very nicely in episodes three and four.

James Marsters is scheduled to shoot a film in between working on Angel, so have you figured out how that will influence Spike's involvement in the storyline?
Spike is going to have to go away [for a while] but we are going to try and keep him alive for those episodes by shooting some second unit footage of him. It will be like when Spike went to Africa [in Buffy's sixth season] to get his soul back, and that's all you'll get to see of him for a couple of episodes. He is kind of out of the story.
    I feel that is the only way we are going to be able to do it with our budget and time constraints. But his story and whatever quest he is on will be very important arc of the show.

What are the overall themes of the season?
The theme that I am interested in and that I think we are essentially doing is that this is a show about brothers. You now have two vampires with souls - heroes on the show. How do you do that without diminishing Angel by having another one?
    What Angel and Spike essentially represent are two sides of the same coin. Spike is the younger brother to Angel. He is the younger brother who feels the older brother gets everything. "You get the sparkly new offices, the penthouse apartments, the cool cars and get to be the hero. I saved the world and I get nothing. I don't even get Buffy." I think there is an interesting dynamic to two brothers trying to find a way to live with one another and relaise what they gain from each other.
    Fury admits that almost everyone feels this was the time to draw this chapter of the 'Jossverse' to a close. Professinally some people want to move on and the story has reached its natural (or should that be unnatural) apex.
    "I think the whole thing plays very poetically. We've taken Buffy full circle. We've taken her to Hell and back... literally. It's bee life and death and ultimately she's fighting, waging a war with an army of girls just like her and whom she will empower. The whole notion of the idea that the Slayer must stand alone... the thing that Buffy has seen is that all the previous Slayers have pretty much been solitary figures but that she has gathered strength from her family and loved ones. Buffy is learning to stand alone this season because she's had to...But what will happen is that she will find a way that means that no Slayer will ever have to stand alone again."
    With the whole 'been there, done that' aspect of killing Buffy, it's no great surprise that Mutant Enemy saw fit not to have their heroine join the invisible choir once more. That's not to say the chorus didn't have a certain Greek feel. As is typical of Whedon and company, there's always a price to be paid... and those aforementions sunsets aren't always that healthy for everyone. Despite nuggets of information that did escape the Mutant Enemy walls between February and May and some genuinely misleading information (that, if it wasn't deliberately designed to make fans make certain presumptions, certainly ended up doing so), things were never going to work out the way people expected.

Spiking Spike

So, yes, let's talk Spike. In modern genre TV there has seldom been a character with such a well-defined, universally analysed and perfectly bittersweet development. The praise must be shared equally between the writers who gave him those words and the actor who gave him that face and swagger. Despite the finale of Buffy, or maybe even a little because of it, James Marsters and his leather jacket will probably have the same immortal impact on pop culture as the Fonz from Happy Days!
    "Spike and Buffy also have beautiful moments together as their relationship blossoms. It's not quite what Buffy and Angel were. It's not quite what Spike and Buffy were... it's something else. It's respectful of what's gone before. The concept was that Spike would be spun off with Faith. Her one single companion was going to be Spike. But the thing is..."
    Furt pauses. It's a long and perfect pause. Almost Oscar-worthy. Then comes the pay-off, the big revaltions and it's finally out there. "The thing is... Spike dies. It's a great sacrifice and that's all I'll say. The spin-off would have had Faith... and the ghost of Spike. That was the premise. We knew she was going to have someone with her and we weren't sure who it was going to be. Joss came up with that idea. So it would have been a Spike/Faith spin-off.

Did you take the opportunity to explore the Angel-Spike dynamic with your first script for the season Just Rewards?
Yes, episode two is all about Spike and Angel. Their chemistry is just great. You watch them and go, "Dear God, this is great. What a cool show."

There are plans for Sarah Michelle Gellar to appear in Angel this season. Is it difficult to incorporate Buffy characters into the series?
It challenges and hampers us quite a lot in the same way that Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy hampered us last season, but I think we rose to the challenge by tying it into the arc of the season. In much the same way, if Sarah [Michelle Gellar] does the show we will be able to play out the romantic triangle - the resentment between Spike and Angel would be a lot more pointed should she be there.
    Should she not be there, I think there is still an opportunity to play it out. We just have to find ways to do it where the emotions are running high enough for them to get to the place going, "You slept with my girlfriend!" but, I think ultimately we should all know that it's never goign to be resolved between them. It wil always be an issue. Plus, there are a lot of issues between them besides Buffy.

Are you planning any more flashbacks to Angel and Spike's pasts this season?
We will try. Certainly flashbacks would be the most dramatic way of dramtising their relationship, but if budget constraints say we can't then they are going to be in a bar drinking and talking about their pasts! [laughs]
    We are spending a lot of time in our new environment, Wolfram & Hart, primarily because we can't afford to go anywhere else. We are doing the show for much less money, so we are struggling to tell stories that are much smaller and we are hoping not to undermine the coolness of what Angek is. Hopefully, no one will notice, but we are going back almost to Buffy: Year One in terms of out budget! There were a lot of cool things done on Buffy: Year One, but it's very hard when you've had a Rain of Fire! [laughs]

which characters are you most excited about writing for this year?
I have my favourites and they include, always, Spike and Harmony [Mercedes McNab]. I usually enjoy writing the characters that get to say the fun stuff, and they are the two right off the bat.
    Lorne [Andy Hallett] is another and Ben Edlund has written a tremendous episode five, which features Lorne much like I got to do in the Vegas episode [The House Always Wins] last year.
    I love writing for Alexis [Denisof] and again it's tricky in our new environment to find Wesley. He's not the lone, scared, angry guy that he was last year. We know what we are doing with him but we want to at least take him to where he was and find a place to do that. Episode seven, which we are breaking right now with Drew Goddard, will hopefully get him to that place again. He does some cool things in it.

Will you be directing an episode this season like you used to do on Buffy?
Right now, I will write episode eight and then I will write and direct episode 12 [the show's 100th episode]. I have ideas for 12 but they are contingent on certain cast availability as well as where the characters are going to be at that point, of which we are not 100 per cent sure.

Angel was picked up for a fifth season at the eleventh hour. What affect did the show's possible cancellation have on the development of season five?
We usually plan ahead a little bit but since Angel was kind of up in the air, we neglected to do that this year. When we got back, we had to scramble to decide what we were going to do for the first epiosdes.

Will season five definitely be 22 episodes?
We are promised 22, but it is always contingent upon if it makes business sense for them [the WB]. If they choose to pull us before 22 they could, but I don't believe they will. I think they recognise the quality of our show and that they have a show that is well regarded and respected. They are not going to treat us or Joss badly.
    I can say when we end this season regardless of whether we come back, I would like to think we are going to end it very satisfactorily. It will end in a way I think people will appreciate.