Buffy The Vampire Slayer

In anticipation that this could be the last "Buffy" season, creator/executive producer Joss Whedon picked the worst of the Big Bads for the season’s villain, executive producer Marti Noxon, says.

That’s why Whedon brought back the First Evil - the source of all that’s wrong with the world and a deceptive being that can take the form of any dead person.

"If ’Buffy’ comes back for another season, we’ll have to find a Big Bad worse than that," Noxon says, grinning.

"Buffy" airs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays on UPN.

This season’s final episode will work regardless of whether it’s also the series finale, Noxon says.

Noxon says Whedon is considering various possibilities for a "Buffy" spinoff for UPN for next season if Gellar doesn’t renew her contract.

Faith (Eliza Dushku), the vampire slayer gone bad, will return to "Buffy" in episode 18 and stay with the series until the season (or series) finale, Noxon says. Faith will appear first on the "Buffy" spinoff "Angel" during February sweeps as she fights the evil Angelus Angel when he loses his soul. Dushku already has been filming her "Angel" scenes in Hollywood.

Fans have speculated whether Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) might actually be another disguised form of the First Evil. The First is a non-corporeal being that can’t touch anything or anyone, and Giles hasn’t touched anything since he returned after a cliffhanger in which a servant of the First was just about to kill him. There has been no explanation on "Buffy" about how Giles got out of that.

When asked, Noxon simply grins and says, "Isn’t that interesting?" without elaborating further.

And Noxon says the producers had discussed killing Andrew, the evil but funny nerd played by Tom Lenk. They decided to let Andrew live. "We like him too much."

Meanwhile, Amy Acker, who plays Fred on "Angel," says star David Boreanaz is doing a lot of ad libbing as he plays Angelus Angel without his soul, for February sweeps.

"I think it’s great; he has so much fun playing that character. It’s a lot of improvisation and taking risks," she says. "You never know what he’s going to say; it changes from take to take.

"He’s definitely trying to make a shock; he’s going out of his way to make me (her character) uncomfortable," Acker says. "It’s hard. She (Fred) has heard everything he can do. He’s bringing out some of the vulnerability in Fred."

The group must remove Angel’s soul when it needs the help of a Hannibal Lecter-like character, in this case Angelus, to catch this season’s Big Bad.

Not surprisedly, Angelus escapes.

The group decides it needs to call on Angelus in the "Angel" episode airing at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29 on The WB.

"We all decided to bring back Angelus, but it backfires in our faces, making everything worse," she says.

She added Fred admires Faith for her strength.

"I want to be strong and a vampire slayer," Acker says, laughing.