No Such Thing as Vampires

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“No Such Thing as Vampires”
Moonlight episode
Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) hugs Beth Turner (Sophia Myles).
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Written by	Trevor Munson & Ron Koslow
Directed by	Rod Holcomb
Guest stars	Brian White as Lt. Carl Davis Jacob Vargas as Guillermo Kevin Weisman as Steve Blafour Tami Roman as Maureen "Mo" Williams Rudolf Martin as Christian Ellis Dean O'Gorman as Daniel Shoshana Bush as Chloe
Production no.	101
Original airdate	September 28, 2007
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → – "Out of the Past"
List of Moonlight episodes

"No Such Thing as Vampires" is the first episode of the first season of the American supernatural television drama Moonlight, which premiered on CBS on September 28, 2007 in the United States.^[1] It was written by series creators Trevor Munson and Ron Koslow, and directed by Rod Holcomb.^[2] The pilot introduces Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin), a private investigator who was turned into a vampire over fifty years ago. Guest stars in the episode include Brian White, Jacob Vargas, Kevin Weisman, Tami Roman, Rudolf Martin, Dean O'Gorman and Shoshana Bush.

The pilot also introduces Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), St. John's love interest; Josef Kostan (Jason Dohring), St. John's mentor and perhaps the closest thing he has to a friend; and Coraline Duvall (Shannyn Sossamon), St. John's ex-wife and sire.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Continuity 3 Production 3.1 Conception 3.2 Cast and crew changes 3.3 Marketing 4 Reception 4.1 Ratings 4.2 Critical reception 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Plot

Mick arrives at the crime scene of the murder of a young woman, where Beth Turner is reporting for "BuzzWire". Mick watches as Beth tries to take a picture of the body, which is in the middle of a fountain. Beth takes the picture, but cannot help but notice to large puncture wounds on her neck. While thinking of vampire related titles for her story, Beth runs into Mick, who she says looks very familiar, but he insists they do not know each other. At "BuzzWire", Beth's editor tells her that she like the vampire angle, with Beth saying it just came to her.

The next morning, Beth finds the dead woman's car, with a necklace hanging from the rearview mirror. Meanwhile, Mick goes to visit Josef, his vampire friend who is 400 years old. Josef seems concerned about the "vampire" murder being bad for their safety. Mick is also revealed to be 90 years old. Mick goes to the morgue to get some blood and information from his friend. He smells the dead girl found in the fountain, and realizes that a vampire did not kill her. Mick and Beck break into the dead girl’s apartment and find another of the necklaces, with a vial of blood is inside. Someone calls Beth, a person named Josh, and Mick disappears. At the dead girl's funeral, her lecturer Professor Ellis gives her eulogy. After the funeral, a blonde girl named Chloe attacks Ellis, slashing his neck. Mick tells Beth that the blood in the vial from the dead girl's apartment is Ellis's. Beth tracks down Chloe who explains about the professor's vampire-worshipping blood cult and how she got her friend Kelly (the deceased) involved. Mick visits the professor's wife, who tells Mick about her husband’s extracurricular activities with nubile college students.

Beth goes to Ellis's class and gets and invite to his "study group". The next morning, Mick visits Ellis, who insists that he is a vampire. While investigating, Beth leans that Kelly had accused Chloe of stalking her. Mick finds Josef waiting for him in his apartment. Josef talks to Mick about the media attention being drawn to vampires because of Beth. While working, Chloe is murdered by someone in an ancient mask from Ellis's office. Mick finds Chloe's dead in the diner and runs off to save Beth. Beth has some one on one time with Ellis, who discovers her wire. Beth escapes, but is kidnapped by the professor’s assistant. Mick arrives and attacks Ellis, but finds that Beth is gone. He tracks down the assistant and Beth, and manages to save her. Before she passes out, Beth sees the assistant stab Mick. Beth wakes up on Mick's couch and remembers that Mick saved her as a child and that he was stabbed by the assistant, but Mick says it’s due to her head injury. After a moment of hesitation, Beth hugs Mick, remembering the ordeal she went through.

In flashbacks from 22 years ago, we see Mick and his ex-wife Coraline fighting over a kidnapped girl. Mick stakes Coraline with the leg of a broken chair, lights the place on fire and rescues the girl. Coraline burns to death, and it is revealed that the little girl has grown up to be Beth, and that he's tried to watch over her and keep her safe over the years. He ponders the fact that the last time he held her in his arms, she was a child.

[edit] Continuity

This episode established that Mick does not bite anyone; sleeps in a freezer, not a coffin; cannot turn into a bat; daylight's not good, but it does not cause him to burst into flames; and garlic, holy water and crucifixes do not work on him. A stake through the heart might be painful, but decapitation and consumption by fire are the best ways to kill vampires. Vampires also have heightened senses, allowing him to hear very well, smell the past and glimpse the future.^[3]

[edit] Production

[edit] Conception

Trevor Munson originally conceived the character of "Mick Angel" in 2004 and spent the better part of two and a half years writing a novel around this character. The story was also adapted into a feature film script, and Bruce Willis was named as a possibility for the lead. The script later fell into the hands of Nina Tassler at CBS, who paired Munson with Ron Koslow, creator of Beauty and the Beast, to turn his script into a television series.^[4] The show was originally titled "Twilight," and the pilot, written by Munson and Koslow, was initially commissioned as a presentation lasting from 14 to 20 minutes by Warner Bros. Television in January 2007. Joel Silver and Gerard Bocaccio also came on board to executive produce the project under the former's production banner, Silver Pictures, in the same month.^[5] Rod Holcomb directed the presentation.^[6] The project was renamed "Moonlight" when CBS gave it an early pick-up and a thirteen-episode order on May 14, 2007 prior to the 2007 Upfronts.^[7]

[edit] Cast and crew changes

David Greenwalt, creator of Miracles and co-creator of Angel, joined the staff in May 2007 as showrunner and executive producer alongside Joel Silver. It was later announced that a full-length pilot would be shot as the show changed creatively.^[8] The cast underwent a major upheaval as all of the original actors save for the male lead role of Mick St. John were re-cast in June 2007. Shannon Lucio, Rade Sherbedgia and Amber Valletta were originally cast in the roles of Beth Turner, Josef Kostan and Coraline Duvall respectively before Sophia Myles, Jason Dohring and Shannyn Sossamon replaced them.^[9][10][11] With an almost entirely different cast, a proper pilot for television audiences was re-shot and creative control of the show changed hands.^[12]

[edit] Marketing

The show was featured on July 27, 2007 at Comic-Con International in San Diego with executive producer Joel Silver in attendance to promote the show.^[13] In the United States, the commercial trailers on CBS featured the song "Taking Chances" by Céline Dion. In Australia, commercial trailers airing on Channel 9 and NBN featured the remix of the song "Apologize" by One Republic and Timbaland.

[edit] Reception

[edit] Ratings

"No Such Thing as Vampires" finished first among total viewers and adults 18-49 for its night.^[14] It was seen by 8.54 million American viewers, receiving a 5.7 household rating and a 10% share of all televisions in use.^[15]

[edit] Critical reception

Overall, reviews of the pilot were unfavorable.^[16] Robin Brownfield of SyFy Portal felt that the pilot compared unfavorably with the television series Angel, although it had potential.^[19] Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe felt that it came close to a "full-on nightmare".^[20] Sarah Stegall of SFScope gave the pilot a decent review, describing it as "The Night Stalker meets Forever Knight and Angel". She said if Moonlight can survive "the Friday night time slot" and the "thwarted expectations of vamp-fans who were expecting Blade", she thought it would "rock".^[21] Richard Keller of TV Squad gave the pilot a generally negative review. He said that it failed to distinguish itself from similar shows Angel and Forever Knight, and did not have that "something different". He called the acting "sub-par", but praised Jason Dohring's portrayal of Josef, and said he needed "a bit more screen time".^[17] Kara Howland of TV Guide gave the episode a positive review, and thought it was a "solid start".^[3] Tim Goodman of The San Francisco Chronicle gave the show a very negative review, saying that it is "just flat-out awful" and "may well be the worst new fall show." He said it had "woeful acting" and the "worst writing of the new season".^[22]

Travis Fickett of IGN described the pilot as "a bit of a mess, and really neither here nor there". He said that "[while] the show isn't terrible", it was just "a mix of disparate parts that really don't add up to much". He praised the action scenes, saying "once the action gets started, it plays well". Regarding the actors, he said that O'Loughlin "does a decent job", and that Sophia Myles "is perhaps the most promising aspect of the show". He also said that "Jason Dohring is a welcome presence [and that] in his few scenes, [he] manages to create a character that does have a tremendous weariness and cynicism that comes with immortality". He finished his review by giving the episode 5.6 out of 10.^[18]

Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune gave the pilot a negative review. She said that it "is almost in the so bad it's good category", but the "direction is flat-out awful, much of the dialogue is groan-inducing, [and] the acting by some of the guest actors is jaw-droppingly wooden." She said that Alex O’Loughlin's is "passable in the lead role", Sophia Myles "is reasonably good", but described Shannyn Sossamon appearance as "preposterously not-scary". She later said that she "[felt] sorry for the actors trapped in this mess, especially Jason Dohring." She said that he makes the show "[crackle] with a bit of wit and has far more energy than it does in the rest of the plodding hour."^[12]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• No Such Thing as Vampires at the Internet Movie Database