Blade: The Series

Blade: The Series is a 2006 American live-action television program based on the Marvel Comics character and popular film series. It premiered on Spike on June 28, 2006. Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones starred in the title role, along with Jill Wagner as Krista Starr, Neil Jackson as Marcus Van Sciver, Jessica Gower as Chase and Nelson Lee as Shen.

The two-hour pilot was directed by Peter O'Fallon from a script by David S. Goyer (who wrote all three feature films) and noted comic book writer Geoff Johns.

Plot

In the plot, Krista Starr returns from military service in Iraq to learn that her twin brother, Zack, has died under mysterious circumstances. Her investigation reveals that Zack was a "familiar" - a kind of indentured servant who agrees to do a vampire's bidding in the hopes that his "master" will eventually reward him with eternal life. Krista's search for her brother's killer soon brings her face to face with Blade, as well as with the killer himself, Marcus Van Sciver, a powerful vampire and high ranking member of the House of Chthon. Smitten with Krista, Marcus decides to turn her into a vampire by injecting her with his blood. Krista is then approached by Blade, who injects her with the same serum he uses to control his own vampire instincts, and offers her a chance to help him avenge her brother's death and bring down Marcus and the House of Chthon, and revealed that Zack was trying to do a sting operation with Blade. The two form a reluctant partnership.

The remainder of the season follows Krista's attempts to maintain her cover in the House of Chthon, all the while struggling with her growing predatory nature, and Marcus' (supposed) efforts to develop a "vaccine" that will render vampires immune to all their traditional weaknesses; sunlight, silver, garlic, etc. It is later revealed that Marcus' true purpose is to create a virus called the Aurora Project that will specifically target "purebloods," the ruling vampire class, and leave the turnbloods (normal vampires like Chase and Marcus, who were once human) unscathed. He eventually unleashes his weapon in the series finale, surprisingly enough with Blade's help.

Production

In February 2006, Spike TV had given the green light for a television series based on Marvel Comics superhero Blade as the network's first original scripted series. Spike TV executive Pancho Mansfield expressed to AllHipHop.com, "We're extremely pleased with the pilot for Blade, which delivers a thrilling action-adventure for its built-in fan base as well as a character-driven drama filled with heart-pounding tension and suspense. The series will be the first of our scripted fare as we embark on creating a greater mix of original programming for our viewers."

It was announced on November 7, 2005 that rapper Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones had signed to star as Blade, filling the role made popular in the films by Wesley Snipes. Jones would go on to comment that he was not out to make people forget about the Blade movies, but he also wanted to put his own spin on the character. "I think it's more my own direction, but I have to incorporate some of what [Snipes] did," he said. "That's what people are familiar with, and you don't want to change it up drastically. You might want to change the seasoning a little bit, but you want the same meat."

Spike TV ordered 11 one-hour episodes, in addition to the two-hour pilot episode, to be produced by New Line Television. Production was said to begin in Vancouver in the spring of 2006 and the show later premiered on June 28, 2006 followed by the standard one-hour episodes on July 5, 2006.

David Goyer, who wrote all three films and co-created the television series, commented that the open-ended nature of a TV series supported the kind of storytelling that will allow viewers to delve more into the inner workings of the vampire world. The series picked up where the last film, Blade: Trinity, left off and added several new characters, including Jill Wagner as Krista Starr, Neil Jackson as Marcus Van Sciver, Jessica Gower as Chase and Nelson Lee as Shen.

Goyer later explained, "What the series is, in a weird way, is kind of like a Wiseguy with vampires, because Jill's character is kind of a double agent working for Blade, within the vampire community, and [we're] treating the vampires sort of like the ultimate crime family. Blade realizes at the beginning of the pilot that he's not making much headway just sort of hacking and slashing, that he needs to know more about their inner workings."

Film to Series chronology

The TV series apparently takes place after Blade: Trinity since certain events in that film were mentioned in the pilot episode. At the end of Trinity, Blade used the Daystar, a biological weapon that targets and kills vampires specifically. Apparently the Daystar has not spread as far or as fast as originally designed, as there are still many vampire houses in operation.

Aurora Project

The Aurora Project is a virus engineering program. Ten years ago, the pureblood vampires from the House of Chthon contracted with Marcus Van Sciver, head of their Detroit operations, to produce a vaccine that would eliminate the vampires genetic weakness to garlic, sunlight and silver. The result of the project was the creation of the Aurora Virus.

During the experimentation and testing phases, Aurora was tested on hundreds of vampires from the House of Armaya. Armayans were kidnapped, shrink wrapped in plastic, and forcibly injected with Aurora. They were then subjected to injections of garlic. The test subjects almost all died. Under pressure from the purebloods, Marcus finally developed a viable vaccine that was tested on the vampire Fritz. Fritz developed an immunity to garlic, silver, and sunlight. Fritz subsequently fought Blade to a draw. Marcus ordered Fritz to Prague to display his newfound immunity to the purebloods, instead Fritz went to find Blade and finish their battle. Fritz lost, and was beheaded by Krista Starr before Blade could capture him and find out what Aurora was.

In the meantime, Damek (last pureblood from the House of Armaya) discovered that Marcus was using Armayans for experimentation. He used this knowledge to blackmail the House of Chthon into giving Armaya their seat back on the vampire council and getting a portion of all profits from the venture, plus first access to the vaccine. Growing impatient, Charlotte from the House of Chthon began to put pressure on Marcus to deliver the vaccine. Marcus finally told her it was ready, and a vampire conclave was organized to present the vaccine to the purebloods.

At the same time, Blade was attempting to get a sample of Aurora. Blade was concerned that if vampires made themselves immune to all of their weaknesses, they would rise up and try to rule the humans. Blade attempted to secure a sample through Krista, but she failed to retrieve a vial from the lab at Chthon. It was then that Marcus revealed to Krista that the vaccine didn't work, and that if Fritz hadn't been killed by her he would've died anyway. The vaccine was a ploy to cover for Marcus' true project, the Aurora Virus. Finally, Blade tracked down a woman named Vanessa who had been impregnated by Dr. Vonner. Blade kidnapped the woman and took her to a doctor of his own, who revealed she was not pregnant but actually incubating a strange fluid. Blade took a sample of the fluid and had it analyzed, and it was determined that it was a keyhole virus designed to attack pureblood vampires. Blade quickly learned that Marcus planned to betray the purebloods at the conclave and kill them all to seize control of the House of Chthon.

Marcus kidnapped a pureblood vampire named Alex and used him as the final test subject for Aurora. He was placed in a chamber with Chase and subjected to the Aurora virus. The virus caused Alex to die horribly, but Chase was spared. Satisfied that the virus worked, Marcus made his next move and attempted to assassinate Charlotte. Marcus' plot failed, partly due to a betrayal by Chase, but Charlotte was killed anyway when Blade found her. Using her death as a catalyst, the conclave was convened. Marcus attempted to deploy the virus but it did not work, it was then that he learned of Chase's duplicity. Blade eventually killed the purebloods with a canister of the virus that he threw into the air and shot.

Marcus left the conclave still in possession of the Aurora virus.

Episode list

Cast

• Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones as Blade
• Jill Wagner as Krista Starr
• Nelson Lee as Shen
• Neil Jackson as Marcus Van Sciver
• Jessica Gower as Chase

Ratings and cancellation

Although the series premiere had 2.5 million viewers, was the most-watched original series premiere in Spike TV history, and was also the #1 show on cable for the evening with Men 18–34 and 18–49, this occurred in a year where most cable premieres were outstanding, and the series has since failed to hold its numbers.^[1]

On September 28, 2006, Jill Wagner, star of Blade: The Series, announced that she was informed that there would be no second season of the show. The next day, Spike announced in a press release that the show would not be picked up.

As a response to a letter in Wizard Magazine, series writer/producer Geoff Johns gives a reason why he thinks the series was canceled: "The network didn't want to cancel it, I just think Spike TV is still a young network, and the price it was costing to make...they just weren't able to do it."

iTunes premiere

• Blade: The Series was the second TV show to premiere on iTunes before ever having aired on mainstream television. The short-lived Law & Order spin-off Conviction was the first.

High-definition

• Blade: The Series was filmed in high-definition, and the series is currently being shown on cable/satellite channel HDNet.

DVD release

On February 12, 2008, New Line Home Entertainment released Blade: The Series – The Complete Season on DVD. The complete Blade series covered all 13 of the episodes completely uncut over four discs. The DVDs were "unrated" and contained new content and alternate versions of scenes from the series filmed specially for the DVD, including examples of full-frontal nudity and harsher language. It was released with the same features in the UK on April 21, 2008.^[2] The 2-hour premiere episode was released on DVD, titled "Blade: House of Chthon!", on September 18, 2007 in "Unrated" format.^[3]

References to other media

• In the pilot, after first hearing about vampires but before she finds out that they're actually real, Krista sarcastically asks if werewolves are real too and is told that werewolves are "my colleague Marc Spector's realm of expertise." Spector is the alter ego of the Marvel superhero Moon Knight, who first appeared in the 1970s comic book series Werewolf by Night.
• Marcus Van Sciver's last name is an homage to comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver, who worked with series writer and executive producer Geoff Johns.
• The series contains numerous references to both the comics and the film series. Recurring villains Steppin' Razor, Thorne, and Damek are based on characters from the comics, footage from the first film is used briefly in the pilot, and Abraham Whistler (Blade's human mentor in the films) is mentioned in the pilot and later appears (in flashback) in the episode Sacrifice.
• In the flashback episode where we see Blade as a child, a friend gives him a copy of an Avengers comic book. Series writer Geoff Johns had a stint as a writer for the Avengers.

References in other media

The series' take on Blade makes an appearance in the video game Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and other consoles. An unlockable costume change called "Daywalker" gives Blade the look he had in the television series. In Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, he is seen in a costume similar to that in the live-action Blade TV series.

References

External links

• Blade: The Series at the Internet Movie Database
• Blade: The Series at TV.com
• Blade: The Series on TV Squad
• TV Series Finale — article on series cancellation & possible resurrection.