THE 2006 SERIES DEBUT REPORT: "HEROES"

I had to wait for the third go-round to see NBC's 'Heroes' premiere this week. I'm waiting to see the big shocker for 'Vanished', to see if I'm right as to what's going to happen. So that's why I had to skip the Monday night premiere of 'Heroes'. (As for the first repeat on Tuesday night, I opted for 'House' instead.)

Luckily for me, the third time's the charm and I taped it Friday night on Sci-Fi Channel. Hopefully, this is a situation that NBC will continue, because I don't want to miss out on this show.

'Heroes' looks like it will fit in nicely in Toobworld. At least for a while, I imagine the various characters will be keeping a low profile, so it will be understandable if characters in other TV shows set in New York City never mention the super-powered people around them.

It looks like the producers have all the subplots well thought out. The shadowy operative that has some furtive interest in the work of Mohinder Suresh and his late father has a closer connection to the situation than he might even suspect.

And the six degrees of separation seem to be more interesting in this show than in the series that's all about the phenomenon, 'Six Degrees'.

None of the characters are the typical choice for potential heroes; the closest might be Milo Ventimiglia as a male nurse who feels the need to fly; and Hayden Panatierre as the indestructible cheerleader.

He's got that Peter Parker vibe going on and - combined with her Wolverine-like healing capability, she's got that Buffy Summers spunk in spades.

I love spunk!

Now, for the Toobworld notes.....

I have that issue of "X-Men" mentioned by Hiro: #143. I'd say the two-part story was the pinnacle of the collaboration between Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin.

Yeah, I was a comic book geek as well as couch potato.

We're not likely to see any crossovers with any of the other dramas on NBC, although I'd say 'Medium' and 'Las Vegas' could have an outside chance. But it's not likely their heroic powers are ever going to be investigated by the cops at the 2-7, even the SVU.

Still, it's the sort of cosmic occurrence that might gain the attention of John Munch of the Special Victims Unit. It's right up his alley!

You know what show might yet connect to 'Heroes'? The NBC soap opera 'Passions'. Why not? They've dealt with demons, witches, and living dolls; super-heroes would fit right in. Such a crossover might even make more sense than the one between 'Passions' and 'Las Vegas' two years ago.

One way that NBC can do a subtle crossover between 'Heroes' and their other NYC-based series would be in props. In various locations there should be campaign posters for Nathan scattered about - on office walls, in deli windows, attached to lampposts, on construction barriers.

'Heroes' can return the favor by putting the NBS logo in the corner of the screen whenever news footage of the heroes in action is shown on TV.

The premiere had one long Zonk over in Japan as Hiro and his friend discussed 'Star Trek' and Mr. Spock in particular. In fact, his friend told Hiro to use the Vulcan neck pinch on the club bouncers who dragged him out of the women's room.

Toobworld has many of the TV shows we watch. There's no way around it since there are so many pop culture references made to them in various series. But there are variations in them to differentiate them from the real shows.

For instance, the 'Murphy Brown' we watched actually exists in Toobworld as a living character. 'Murphy Brown' as seen in an episode of 'Seinfeld' was the TV show that was based on her real life.

With all of the 'Star Trek' references over the years, we're presented with a new wrinkle - they're talking about/celebrating a TV show that's based on real events that won't be happening in Toobworld for almost 400 years.

Here's the Toobworld Twist: the televersion of Gene Roddenberry was given inside information from the future, or perhaps he was even from the future himself when he created his "wagon train to the stars" premise. (Notice I didn't capitalize "wagon train".)

Where was I?

Oh yeah. 'Heroes'. This is a post about 'Heroes'.

Anyway, so long as Sci-Fi gives me the escape hatch to see each episode again, I'll be able to watch both 'Heroes' and 'Vanished'. If it came down to an either/or showdown, I'll have to stick with 'Vanished' for that anticipated payoff.

But 'Heroes' doesn't need me for the time being in order to keep flying. It's a great show and will be one of the big hits of this season.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby