Heroes

[Snowdog]

I haven't yet seen any of this and I don't get BBC3 so I don't know when I will but from the sketchy details from the BBC trailer I immediately thought "Wild Cards". In Heroes some people wake up one morning with lots of different powers. In Wild Cards, an alien virus is accidentally released into Earth's atmosphere and lots of people wake up with new superhero powers (aces), while others wake up with useless powers (deuces) while others have hideous deformities (jokers).

The interesting thing about Wild Cards is that not everyone good got to be an Ace and vice versa. It was totally random.

I'd be interested to know just how Heroes differs from the Wild Cards set-up, or whether it's a rip-off, when someone here gets to see it.

I highly recommend the first few Wild Card books for anyone interested in this sort of thing.

[Stone]

Just finished watching the first series on Sci-Fi channel in UK. I really enjoyed it, some of the characters are played better than others (Hiro Nakamura being the stand out), but all in all an enjoyable first season.

The idea of them waking up with powers is not exactly true as you will see over the series progression - many of the characters powers have evolved over time whereas others have only just discovered theirs.

I think it starts on BBC 2 on Wednesday 25 July and is well worth a look if you haven't seen it.

[faerietalegoddess]

Heroes is probably my favorite show on television and I can't wait until the start of the spinoff season, Heroes: Origins.

I think the show is incredibly creative and Noah Bennett, Hiro, and Sylar are probably the best characters out of the entire thing for me personally. Especially Sylar...he's a truly disturbing bad guy and the way that he absorbs the powers of others, while it's never really shown, is pretty disgusting.

But like Stone said, they definitely don't just wake up with the powers one day. I think even Claire had shown the ability to heal herself way before the first taping of her jumping off the water tower and breaking her own bones, but I could be wrong.

And I've never seen Wild Cards, but I do know a bit about it to know that other than the superhero tie-in, I couldn't really think of any other blatantly obvious similarities between the two.

[Stone]

I can't wait until the start of the spinoff season, Heroes: Origins

Same here. Unfortunately i believe the intention is to show this 6 part spin off during the break in Season 2 on US televsion. If the rumours of the BBC having exclusive rights from Season 2 onwards are true, i fear that us UK viewers may have a long wait

[Snowdog]

If it's coming on BBC2 then I'll definitely be watching it. I'm glad it's not a Wild Cards rip off, though Wild Cards could have made of heck of a series in it's own right.

[Tabasco]

I believe you can watch all of the Heroes episodes online at the NBC Heroes website in order, without commercials (for the most part). Just google NBC Heroes. If they stopped showing them, I'm fairly sure you can see Heroes, season 1, at alluc.org.

[murphy]

Originally Posted by faerietalegoddess

Heroes is probably my favorite show on television and I can't wait until the start of the spinoff season, Heroes: Origins.

I think the show is incredibly creative and Noah Bennett, Hiro, and Sylar are probably the best characters out of the entire thing for me personally. Especially Sylar...he's a truly disturbing bad guy and the way that he absorbs the powers of others, while it's never really shown, is pretty disgusting.

But like Stone said, they definitely don't just wake up with the powers one day. I think even Claire had shown the ability to heal herself way before the first taping of her jumping off the water tower and breaking her own bones, but I could be wrong.

And I've never seen Wild Cards, but I do know a bit about it to know that other than the superhero tie-in, I couldn't really think of any other blatantly obvious similarities between the two.

Wild Cards is a series of books, rather than visual. They're a shared universe sort of thing. George R. R. Martin is the editor, and from what I've read, he's quite proud of the books. I think they are starting up the series again.

[faerietalegoddess]

Originally Posted by murphy

Wild Cards is a series of books, rather than visual. They're a shared universe sort of thing. George R. R. Martin is the editor, and from what I've read, he's quite proud of the books. I think they are starting up the series again.

Hmmm...I definitely must've been thinking of the wrong thing then, because I was thinking about a series of books that had been made into a short-lived show that I saw maybe once or twice. I liked it, but since it didn't last for very long, I never heard much more about it.

I'll have to give the books a try if I ever come across them then, since the story probably isn't anything like what I thought it was either. Thanks for the information!

And for anyone interested in watching Heroes, Tobasco mentioned the NBC site as having the episodes. They're definitely still up there and they only show one or two commercials, which always makes it nice.

[murphy]

Here's a link telling about Wild Cards. I too thought there was a similarity of Heroes to Wild Cards.