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Roswell (TV series)

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Roswell
File:Roswell title card.jpg
First season's intertitle
Developed byJason Katims
StarringShiri Appleby

Jason Behr
Katherine Heigl
Brendan Fehr
Majandra Delfino
Colin Hanks
Nick Wechsler
William Sadler
Emilie de Ravin

Adam Rodriguez
Narrated byShiri Appleby as "Liz Parker"
Opening theme"Here with Me" by Dido
Country of origin United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes61 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersKevin Kelly Brown
Jonathan Frakes
Jason Katims
David Nutter
Lisa J. Olin
Running timeapprox. 42 minutes
Original release
NetworkThe WB (1999-2001)
UPN (2001-2002)
ReleaseOctober 6, 1999 –
May 14, 2002

Roswell is an American science fiction television series created by Jason Katims. The series ran between October 1999 and May 2002. Described by one reviewer as "a star-crossed teen-age love story with an otherworldly twist",[1] the series focused on teenage aliens hiding in plain sight as humans in Roswell, New Mexico. The aliens are survivors of the 1947 UFO crash popularly known as The Roswell Incident. The love story comes into play when Max Evans (an alien), played by Jason Behr, and Liz Parker (a human), played by Shiri Appleby, fall in love.

The series pilot was based on the Roswell High young adult book series, written by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz and published by Pocket Books. In some countries, the TV series aired under the Roswell High title.

Cast

Main

Recurring

Season one

The first season ranked #128, with an average nielsen rating of 2.6[2]

"September 23rd", Journal entry One, "I'm Liz Parker and five days ago I died. After that things got really weird..."

Liz, Maria, and Alex are high school students and best friends residing in Roswell, New Mexico. While waitressing at her parents' restaurant, the Crashdown Café, Liz witnesses an argument between two customers and is accidentally shot. Max Evans rushes to her side and heals the wound simply by placing his hand over it, bringing her back to life. Liz later discovers a silver handprint on her stomach. During a biology class experiment, Liz sneaks a sample of Max's saliva and examines it under a microscope, discovering that Max's cells look nothing like human cells. She confronts Max, who then admits that he, his sister Isabel and their friend Michael are aliens whose spaceship crashed at Roswell in 1947. Max divulges that he saved her life because he has strong feelings for Liz. She is immediately drawn to him, even though she is dating the sheriff's son Kyle Valenti.

Liz is initially sworn to secrecy, but she eventually tells Maria and later Alex the truth. The group of six reluctantly become friends as they struggle to protect the alien trio from mysterious government agents, curious UFO-seekers and Sheriff Valenti, who is suspicious of them. Michael and Maria engage in a heated romantic relationship, though they continue to always bicker, with Maria sometimes terming Michael as "the worst boyfriend ever." Despite their problems, Michael and Maria quickly became a cult couple on the show, attracting just as much interest and just as many fans as Max and Liz. The two relationships stand in stark contrast to each other, with Max and Liz being the ideal soulmate love story and Michael and Maria being the more realistic, imperfect love story. Meanwhile, Alex develops a crush on Isabel, but because of Isabel's wariness, they have a hard time getting off the ground. Early on, it is revealed that the aliens had emerged from incubation pods long after their spaceship crashed. They were able to survive as they were not yet born. When they hatched from the pods in 1989, they emerged as human six-year-olds.

Toward the end of the season, they learn of a fourth alien named Nasedo who is a shape shifter. He has a violent, murderous past and nearly causes Max's demise at the hands of a vengeful alien hunter who had lost his wife and unborn child to Nasedo. The gang initially believes that Tess Harding, the new kid in town, is Nasedo as she seems to have a strange effect on Max, but it is revealed that she is a fourth alien-hybrid just like them. However, unlike them, she possesses knowledge of their past lives and the concept of their supposed destiny. At the end of the season, it is learned that Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess are clones of the royal four of Antar and that Max is the King, Isabel his sister, Michael his second in command and Tess is Max's wife. The four learn that they are alien-human hybrids who had their essences duplicated and mixed with human DNA in order to assume human form. Their mission is to one day go back to their home planet Antar and retake the throne from Kivar, Max's enemy. As a result of this revelation, Liz breaks up with Max as she believes that she can't get in the way of Max's destiny and runs home.

Season two

The second season ranked #113, with an average of 4.04 million viewers[3]

The second part of Max and Liz's love story involves Liz's insecurities about getting in the way between the destined love between Max and Tess even though Max assures her that his heart only beats for her. This causes a rift between Tess and the rest of the gang as she always feels unwanted. Right when Liz finally starts to believe that Max will deny his destiny to be with Tess, the Future Max appears to Liz claiming that they must find a way to get Max to fall out of love with her in order to save the future and the lives of everyone they know. This leads to the start of Max and Tess's relationship, even though Liz still has hope that she and Max will one day be together.

The second season introduces the Skins, a race of aliens also from Antar who have been searching for the alien hybrids since they hatched. Their mission is to locate and turn them over to Kivar, who is now king of Antar. It is revealed that Liz's new boss, Congresswoman Whitaker is a Skin and her brother Nicholas is the leader of the Skins. Along with a renegade Skin Courtney, a Crashdown Café waitress, who believes that Michael, not Max, should have been in charge of Antar, the group travels to the town where Congresswoman Whitaker was from and discover that the whole town are Skins and that they are ready for the "Harvest".

Nasedo, the shape-shifter who was protecting the teens as well as acting as a father to Tess, is killed by Congresswoman Whitaker at the beginning of the season. As Tess has nowhere to go, she moves in with Sheriff Valenti and his son Kyle. Shortly after, the pod squad destroys the Harvest. It is revealed during the "Harvest" that Isabel was also formerly named Vilandra. Vilandra was in love with Kivar, Max's enemy and rival, and Vilandra betrayed her family in favor of Kivar. This haunts Isabel so much that it creates a rift between her and Max when they find out that another set of clones of the royal four were created. The clones, known as the 'dupes', are exact copies of Michael, Max, Isabel and Tess, only they grew up in the sewers of New York city. Their names are Rath (Michael's clone), Zan (Max's clone), Vilandra (aka Lonnie, Isabel's clone), and Ava (Tess's clone).

Rath, Vilandra, and Ava come to Roswell after killing Zan to convince Max to return with them and represent the family at a summit meeting of the families of the five warring planets. Both Max and Tess go with Rath and Vilandra to New York, Ava stays in Roswell because she is haunted by the death of Zan. Nicholas returns as a voice for Kivar and it is revealed that the owner of the UFO museum, Brody Davis was used by an alien many times to communicate on Earth, acting as a puppet, explaining why he believes he was abducted by aliens since he has no memories of the incident. Rath and Vilandra tell Tess and Max that if they give Kivar the Granolith they can go home to Antar. Max remembers what Liz told him before he left that "the Granolith could be dangerous if in the wrong hands" and turns down Kivar's deal. Lonnie betrays the others as she meets Nicholas in secret discussing her desire to return to Antar, as she remembers more about her past life and wants it back, regardless of whether Kivar gets the Granolith. Nicholas tells her that can be arranged as long as Max is dead. Needless to say, the assassination attempt fails and Rath and Lonnie 'disappear'. Ava, still in Roswell, goes to live a 'normal' life and is also not mentioned again; however, she does reveal to Liz that since Max healed her and brought her back she has 'changed' and will be different from now on.

Alex, for most of the second season, leaves Roswell to go on a trip to Sweden. However, shortly after coming back and getting Isabel to see him as something more than a friend, he dies in a car accident. It is discovered that Tess had killed him accidentally while trying to use Alex to translate the aliens' mysterious Destiny book that was found in the first season. Alex had never gone to Sweden and was made to think he did by Tess's mind control powers.

The death of Alex has a dramatic effect on Liz as she is devastated by the loss of her best friend. She finds a photo with Alex's head missing, causing her to suspect that Alex was murdered. Her investigations lead her into trouble with Max and the others when she accuses an alien of killing Alex. Through her investigation she discovers that Alex never went to Sweden and that he had actually been to Las Cruces College. She goes with Maria and Michael and they find out that Alex had been working on the translation of the Destiny book. Even though they find the translation, they are unable to discover the killer. It is revealed that the killer is, in fact, Tess.

Max impregnates Tess when Liz investigates Alex's death. At the end of the season, Max and the others decide to leave Earth after Tess tells Max that their son is dying due to the Earth's atmosphere. Everyone has twenty-four hours to say their goodbyes. Max and Liz make a last ditch effort to find Alex's killer. Isabel dances with Alex's spirit at his grave. Tess calls Jim Valenti "Dad," and Michael and Maria get together the way they were always intended to when they make love for the first time. As the aliens are about to leave, Kyle remembers how Alex dies and Michael decides at the last minute to stay on Earth with Maria. He has finally found a home, and, much to everyone's surprise, it's not in outer space. As Michael exits the Granilith, Liz rushes in to tell Max that Tess was the one who killed Alex. Tess reveals the reason she had to brainwash Alex to get him to translate the book was because Nasedo and Tess made a deal with Kivar: Nasedo wanted to return to Antar but was unable to for fear of execution, so he set up a deal, pledging to return with Max. Max lets Tess go and the gang watches as Tess leaves Earth via the Granilith. Maria realizes that Michael stayed for her. Max tells Liz that he loves her, and that now he must save his son.

Season three

The third season ranked #141, with an average of 3 million viewers[4]

The third season opens with Max's quest to save his son. He and Liz are arrested in Utah after holding up a convenience store. They both end up getting out of jail, but their actions have serious consequences for the rest of the season. Max, during the holdup, found an alien ship which was being stored in the basement, but when he goes back, the ship is gone. While they were in a Utah jail, Michael searches for evidence Max tossed in a field while being chased. A man approaches him and warns him and the others to stop their search. The man is mysteriously murdered in L.A by a fifth alien. Knowing that the alien is a shape-shifter and in the film industry, Max tries out a stint in acting and auditions for a role in Enterprise. The fifth alien is, in fact, a very successful film producer who is also Max's protector. Max, against the 5th alien's wishes, forces him to help him find the ship, which is at a military base. They attempt to fly it but the ship is too damaged from the crash in 1947. Max leaves L.A disappointed and he feels as though he has let his son down.

Isabel is revealed to be haunted by Alex's ghost, but is actually a figure of her subconscious. She begins a relationship with Jesse Ramirez, an attorney who is several years older than Isabel and works with her father. As the season unfolds, Max and Isabel's father is diving deeper into the past of his children, due to Max not giving him a satisfactory reason as to what happened in Utah, or why Max was even there in the first place. Midway through the season, Isabel gets married, much to the disappointment of her parents, Max, and Michael. While on her honeymoon with Jesse, Kivar comes in contact with Isabel. He awakens Isabel's past self, Vilandra, who betrayed Max and Michael in their previous life for her love with Kivar, which is the reason the four of them died in their first life. Kivar tries to compel Isabel (now reawakened as Vilandra) to travel through a portal back to their home world, while Max and Michael attempt to stop them. In the end, Isabel pushes Kivar into the portal.

Michael and Maria are having trouble with their relationship, especially when Maria feels that the whole "alien thing" is ruining her life and decides to take a break from the gang so she can try to live out a "normal" life. Michael takes a job as a security guard during the night at a local pharmaceutical factory. But little does Michael know, the owner of the company has been going through the trash to obtain Michael's DNA, and they find out that he is an alien in an attempt to heal a dying millionaire. Michael and Sheriff Valenti find a room with all of Michael's things and realize what the company has found out; Valenti, however, is captured. Michael enlists the help of Max and Isabel in order to rescue Valenti. Max is taken and coerced into healing the dying millionaire. Max is, at first, wary of doing so, as the millionaire has lived out his life and will die of natural causes, but he tries anyway. Max ends up transferring his age and the millionaire's body transforms into Max's body, killing Max. While Michael and Isabel try to come to grips with Max's death, a patrol of guards come. Michael and Isabel use their powers to destroy their vehicles, but Isabel is shot. The millionaire is at his house in Max's body when he receives a memory of Liz. He can't stop thinking about her, due to having Max's soul inside him, so he decides that he must kill her in order to get rid of Max. Michael inherits Max's powers after his death, which he then uses to heal Isabel. As the millionaire is about to kill Liz, they both fall from a building window. Seeing that Liz is about to die, Max takes control over the body and uses his powers to save her life while he hits the ground. The millionaire's soul dies and Max miraculously survives after Liz kisses him. The group heads back to Roswell.

The FBI has also been studying the group for many months and is closing in on them. Liz begins to exhibit alien powers (premonitions being one of them) towards the end of the season, which later causes her to become a target. When Tess returns with Max's son, Zan, the gang has to group together and try to escape Roswell. Tess's arrival causes the FBI to find more evidence of the aliens, including a video revealing Isabel's powers. Everyone is angry with Tess and at first tries to kill her, but instead end up helping her. Due to Liz's forgivness, Tess decides to sacrifice her self by turning herself in and blows up the military base. The baby is revealed to be fully human, as Max's and Tess's human sides of their DNA were the sides that produced the baby. So Max, realizing that the baby could have a normal life, gives him up for adoption. He uses his father's help to get the baby into a good family.

The series closes with Liz getting a premonition of her, Max, Michael, and Isabel dying due to an FBI setup, so they decide to leave Roswell after their high school graduation. With the realization that he will be leaving possibly forever, Michael professes his love for Maria and she makes the decision to be with him no matter what. After Liz, Max, Michael, Isabel, Maria, and Kyle escape from their high school graduation, where the FBI setup is, they hit the road in a bus, where there are several emotional goodbyes, especially between Kyle and his father, Jim Valenti. Isabel, unfortunately, decides to leave her husband behind in order to save his life. The final scenes of the show feature Max and Liz getting married and Liz's father reading the infamous journal that Liz wrote, chronicling the last three years. The final scene has Liz peering out of the van in her wedding dress saying, "I'm Liz Parker and I am happy" - bookending the first line of the first episode of the series.

Episodes

Main article: List of Roswell episodes

Airing history

Roswell High was originally developed by 20th Century Fox Television and Regency Television for the FOX network, though it landed on the WB (re-named simply Roswell) thanks to the latter network's offer to extend a full 22-episode upfront commitment. The series premiered on October 6, 1999 in the United States to generally favorable reviews. Although it quickly garnered an outspoken fanbase, the series almost immediately entered a steady ratings decline that would keep the show under constant threat of cancellation.

In response to the ratings problems, the network ordered the relationship-driven standalone episodes of the early first season to be replaced with more science fiction themes and multi-episode plot arcs. Starting with the second season, veteran science fiction writer Ronald D. Moore was brought in to join Katims as an executive producer and showrunner and to further develop the science fiction elements. During seasons two and three, members of the fanbase increasingly grew divided between those who had preferred the original style (criticized by opponents as too soapy or melodramatic)[citation needed] versus those who preferred the newer style (criticized by opponents as too dark or convoluted).[citation needed]

In the United States, Roswell lasted for two seasons on the WB. On May 15, 2001, the WB cancelled the series, a move widely anticipated due to the disappointing ratings. However, Fox was able to persuade United Paramount Network to pick up Roswell for a third (and ultimately final) season in a deal packaging the underperforming series with Fox's coveted property Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which UPN had just managed to steal away from the WB in a heated bidding war. However, Roswell failed to hold onto enough of the audience from its new lead-in, Buffy. So once again, it faced cancellation. Roswell's final episode aired on May 14, 2002. Shiri Appleby has been quoted as saying that the decision of the writers to go away from the basic love story of the first season to a more convoluted science fiction plot in season two played a large role in the cancellation, and that at least she felt the finale "gave the audience what it wanted," which was Liz and Max together as the final season more or less returned to the original season's plot lines.[citation needed]

DVD releases

Season Episodes Originally aired Release date
Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
1 22 1999 – 2000 February 17, 2004 April 26, 2004 April 2, 2004
2 21 2000 – 2001 October 5, 2004 August 9, 2004 February 7, 2005
3 18 2001 – 2002 August 9, 2005 October 11, 2004 March 15, 2006
1-3 61 1999 – 2002 — October 31, 2005 April 19, 2006

A Region 1 boxed set of all three seasons is available.

Note: Each DVD release had many songs on the soundtrack changed from the original broadcast versions as a result of license fees.

Original novels

In addition to the original Roswell High book series that inspired the TV series, a range of novels were published based on the events depicted in the show. These, however, largely ignored the continuity of the original novels, and acted to embellish on events that largely went unexplained on screen.

Pocket Books novels

While Roswell was still on air, three novels were published by Pocket Books. When the show was cancelled, this range ceased publication.

  1. Loose Ends by Greg Cox (June 2001)
  2. No Good Deed by D.A. Stern (October 2001)
  3. Little Green Men by D.W. Smith and K.K. Rusch (April 2002)

Simon Spotlight Entertainment novels

Later in 2002, Simon Spotlight Entertainment (a division of Simon & Schuster), picked up the Roswell range and published a further eight novels. Following low sales, this range was also terminated a year later. The first four novels act a bridge between Seasons 2 and 3. The last four are set after the events of the series, and are considered by many fans to be 'Season 4'.

  1. Shades by Mel Odom (September 2002)
  2. Skeletons In The Closet by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin (November 2002)
  3. Dreamwalk by Paul Ruditis (January 2003)
  4. Quarantine by Laura Burns (March 2003)
  5. A New Beginning by Kevin Ryan (June 2003)
  6. Nightscape by Kevin Ryan (July 2003)
  7. Pursuit by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin (September 2003)
  8. Turnabout by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin (November 2003)


References

  1. ^ >Roberts, Associated Press, September 29, 1999
  2. ^ 1999-2000 SEASON FINAL AVERAGE NIELSEN RATINGS
  3. ^ 2000-2001 season averages to date
  4. ^ How did your favorite show rate?
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