As creator and executive producer Jason Katims explained in the first part of our talk with him, his teen drama-cum sci-fi show ROSWELL has survived near death on several occasions. Even now that the show has been given a new life on UPN, the program’s long-term fate remains uncertain. Today, Katims discusses the changes his show has undergone as a result of its transition to the new network.

As is typical with change, it is never easy. The new direction that the show is taking is not without some concern.

“I think [the new direction is] good and bad,” says Katims. “This is a show that’s grown and evolved over three years, and I’m very proud of that. I think that we’ve been through a whole lifetime of these characters, and they’ve gone through a lot. They’ve changed and they’ve grown up.

“There have been moments when I feel that we’ve gone a little bit too far in certain directions at certain times,” says Katims. “For example, in the middle of the second season, I felt that the show got too drenched in mythology – too complicated. I think we lost a little bit of the heart of the show.”

Despite this momentary lapse, Katims feels that the show has turned itself around and is currently exploring stories that demonstrate the show’s unique niche on television.

“That’s something that I feel like we came back from at the end of last year, and we’ve been continuing storylines this year that exploit what’s good about the show. There are moments where we’ve faltered, but I think that’s true of many shows.”

And these falters barely seem visible, given what viewers have to look forward to for the rest of the season.

“Liz [is] changing as a result of Max having healed her [in season one],” says Katims. “We find out about a threat that has been going on all along at Michael’s job at the pharmaceutical company. Jesse finds out the truth about Isabelle. Eventually we’ll have the return of Tess and [we’ll] find out what [is going on in] Max’s search for his son.”

The changing that Liz is feeling is something that has been played with on the series from her first encounter with Max. This season, the audience is allowed to see exactly what kind of changes she is experiencing.

“She starts to feel things happening to her and she starts to have certain hallucinatory experiences,” says Katims. “She starts to exhibit certain powers, not that she can control them, but she comes to believe that this is a result of Max having healed her. She knows that she’s changing, but she doesn’t know what that means.”

Although the jury is still out regarding the future of ROSWELL, there is a definite direction that the show is taking. Katims has disclosed that the end of this season will be a time for new beginnings and new directions.

“We’re planning a two-hour finale this year, and we definitely know what we want to do,” says Katims. “We believe that it will be both a satisfying conclusion to the series, and will also serve as almost a pilot to launch the show into a new direction, which we think will play well with UPN. Hopefully, we’ll be able to move in a new and improved version of the show. There has been a little talk of one or two two-hour movies subsequent to that. But, I’m hoping we’ll get another season on UPN.”