by Tara O'Shea

As the fourth season premiere approaches, writer and producer Lawrence Hertzog took the time out from his insanely busy schedule to answer a few more fan questions about La Femme Nikita, fans, lunch and the big picture.

Larry Hertzog has been writing television for 20 years, and has worked on series such as Hart to Hart, Hardcastle and McCormick, seaQuest, Walker, Texas Ranger, Profiler, Stingray, and The Raven. However, he is best known and beloved by the online masses as the creator of Nowhere Man, which ran for one season on UPN and was hailed by TV Guide as the coolest show of 1995.

With the balance of the season's scripts already written, has your view of the characters and the series changed? How do you see "Nikita" as a series evolving over the course of fourth season?

Joel, Bob, Peter and I have made every effort to preserve the things that have made Nikita as successful as it's been. After three seasons, however, and being well into the fourth, we can feel the show wanting (or needing) to "stretch." Given the nature of the medium (a television "series") it's designed to do what it does best over and over again. There's just so much that one can do that without getting stale. So, as we work to continue, the series "works" to bust out a bit—to try something a little off-beat, to go where no ep has gone before, so to speak.

I suppose that these things would affect a fifth season (should there be one) much more drastically than the fourth—though expect some surprises.

Section One is screaming to be "shaken up." To what degree? Only time will tell.

Will we be seeing more story and character arcs in the upcoming season? Or more stand-alone, self-contained A and B-plots?

You'll see a mixture of both. Certainly, given the third season ender— season four begins with a four episode arc. It's followed by a two-parter and there are some strong "B" stories coming down the pike.

What do you think the fans will like most about the upcoming season?

The same things they've liked for the first three, I'm sure. Though all fans are by no means created equally, they tend to share a large "overlap" in what they like and don't like about a series.

What do you hope the fans will like the most about the upcoming season?

Some of those "stretching" elements that I mentioned in my answer to the first question. The surprises.

Which script thus far are you the most proud of? (doesn't have to be one of yours, this can be from an exec. prod. POV as well)

Not being even slightly evasive (though not all scripts are ever created equally) we work very hard to make every script the best it can be. As I said at the conference, writing credits can be quite misleading. A lot goes into everyone's script before it lands in front of the camera. As you can imagine, a lot of opinions and a lot of discussion ensue.

If we're doing our job well, we make every effort to give the scripts a "consistency," the very thing that makes them Nikita scripts. So, I would currently judge a shooting script, not by its execution as much as "what is the story about?" And that's just a roll of the dice. We all sit together, come up with stories and, from there, it's catch as catch can—they're divvied out and we do our best with each one.

So though I put equal "pride" into all of them, I might like one more than another because of the story content. And, as far as that's concerned, it's "taster's choice."

What's the best thing about being the executive consultant?

Having someone bring in lunch.

What's the worst thing about being the executive consultant?

Having to eat lunch in the office.

Do you think fans place too much emphasis on Nikita and Michael's romantic relationship?

No, not at all. They emphasise it because it's been put out there for scrutiny. Add to that the fact that there's a lot of "ambiguity" between them—well, that's a field day for speculation. But if there is a fifth season, my best guess is that will see their relationship seriously "shaken up."

Last interview, you mentioned you especially liked writing for Madeline. Is she still your favourite supporting character to write?

I'm writing a Madeline ep as we speak. I'll let you know.

Peta Wilson was recently quoted as saying the writers "used to rely on [Nikita's] heart all the time, to the point where I was like, 'I can't do that anymore. [She's] got no heart anymore." Do you think that over the course of the series, Nikita's compassion has become too predictable and over-used? Or do you think that her striving to retain her humanity is a vital part of the series premise?

There'll never be any denying Nikita's character and personality, though I believe that by the third season, the "I can't do that anymore" has pretty much faded from the landscape. Nikita seems to accept her missions with a bit more understanding of the "big picture" than she did previously.

So, I suppose, the question remains, "where do we go with this? What's ahead of her?" We throwing some very interesting "challenges" at Nikita (Peta) this season. It remains to be seen.

Having attended your first Nikita convention, were you surprised to see which aspects of the series the predominantly female online following focussed on? Or had your previous experience with "Nowhere Man" prepared you?

The only real surprise was the amount of fuzzy slippers in the room.

Many fans view the first season with rose-coloured glasses, and may judge later seasons by what happens to their individual favourites (Michael, Operations, Birkoff, etc.) rather than overall consistency and quality of storytelling. Do you think that in this way, the fannish community suffers from tunnel vision?

Sure, but why not? They're our fans. To some degree "we" created the fanbase by what "we" put on the air. Once one puts their "creation" out for public perusal, it takes on a life of its own. Whether or not it's what the "creator" intended is a whole 'nother matter. The fanbase, therefore, can't be "wrong." On the other hand, being fans, they assume they're "right," particularly when they agree with each other. That's not necessarily true, either.

I had my own "take" on Nowhere Man. The fans didn't always agree. That's part of the "fun" of it.

What would not be a good idea, however, is to let the fanbase drive the show. It's important to us to understand what the fans love and what they hate— though it's also important that the "creator(s)" drive the show, giving the fans a chance to applaud, moan or throw heavy objects in our direction.

In the past, the online fans have been "spoiled" by plot and character titbits in some cases months before the episode airs, resulting in fans reacting to speculation rather than the actual shows. Do you believe that this lessens the over-all impact of the shows, as well as how much the online fans enjoy them?

I'm not sure how speculation really varies from "actual shows" in the long run. Since we're dealing with fiction here, it's just a matter of "does 'their" fiction match up with 'ours.'" I really can't see how this would lessen the impact. Foreplay, after all, is at least half the fun, no?

The series is well known for its ultra-stylised, mannered approach to action adventure. How does this translate to the script level?

A great deal of the "stylized action" comes out of production realities, Jamie's talent, Rocco's vision and director inspiration. Whatever we may write, budget and location realities usually arise to dash our writer's muti-million dollar rose-colored vision. It then falls into Jamie's hands who, being the guy with the wallet, discusses "reality" with us. The fact that the show looks as good as it does is due to all that good work up north as they "realize" the script's "intentions" Finding great locations and shooting them well is what will, in the end, make those scenes sizzle.

How do you feel about common fannish complaints about the series ignoring or re-inventing the characters backstories, rather than building on the facts and plots from earlier episodes?

How do you know things are being re-invented unless you have the "big picture"? It's a ride. Enjoy it.

So, what are you wearing?

A question usually reserved for the Nowhere Man folk, but hey—a torn sweatshirt—puppy-molested sweat pants, no shoes, no socks, not much else.