Mister Furious
Writer David Fury on Angel, Buffy, and brains.
      by Lisa Kincaid

Angel (David Boreanaz) and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), still fighting evil in the City of Angels.

Unfortunately, Fury's first Angel episode never made it to the air.

"I worked with David [Greenwalt] on the story for several weeks and was sent off during hiatus to write it," Fury says. "The original script was called 'Corrupt', and it was never produced. While it bore a few similarities to 'Lonely Hearts', the aired second episode, it was a much, much darker story, involving junkie prostitutes and their pimps. Two days before we were to start filming, the WB pulled it. They felt it was too dark and unpleasant.

"Within the next two weeks, we broke another story which I scripted -- with an assist on the third act by Marti Noxon -- in four days. The success of both of those scripts led to my being asked to write 'Parting Gifts' with Jeanine Renshaw."

One move that provoked a rather strong reaction from the viewing audience was the decision to kill off Doyle (Glenn Quinn), one of the show's three main characters and the only one of the three that hadn't come from Buffy. Doyle met his end in the show's ninth episode, and in his absence, some new (and not so new) characters have been turning up, most notably former Watcher Wesley Wyndham-Price (Alexis Denisof) and "intergalactic princess" Jheira (Bai Ling).

"I miss Doyle," Fury says. "But that's the point, isn't it? To kill off a main character we've grown fond of. Very courageous move, I thought. I enjoy Wesley. I reintroduced the character on Angel with my script 'Parting Gifts'. It's fun to write him. But, I should point out, there are dimensions to the character that are slowly being introduced. There's more to Wesley than people think. Stay tuned.

"As for Jheira, I like her but it's hard to call her an addition when she's only appeared in one episode. While I'm sure she'll appear again next season" -- according to TV Guide, she's already been signed to appear as a recurring character -- "there are new characters we'll be meeting that will be involved on a regular basis, including Gunn, an amateur vigilante vampire slayer, and an eccentric billionaire named David Nabbit, who'll involve himself with Angel."

Fury won't write any of the Angel episodes left in the show's first season, but may write more episodes for season two. Buffy, on the other hand, isn't quite finished with him yet.

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