Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Nikki’s Been Bitten Once...

The 3 lucky winners who will receive a signed copy of Nikki Stafford’s book Once Bitten: An Unofficial Guide to the World of Angel are

* Sandra Derian - USA * Peter MacVoy - CANADA * David Mello - USA

Recently Spoiler Crypt gathered together some questions for Nikki Stafford about her book, writing, and opinions in general concerning the Jossverse which we are very pleased to be able to share with you.

Spoiler Crypt: Aside from Angel, which character did you find the most compelling?

Nikki Stafford: Wesley. He changed SO much from the person he used to be to the person he became. (I hope I don’t anger any fans by saying this, but I actually found him consistently MORE compelling than Angel.) In season one he was the bumbler he was on Buffy, and he seemed to be there for comic relief. Then after being blown up in the building at the end of season one it forced him to be a little more serious, and by season two he was a fully entrenched member of the team. Then in season three he was manipulated into believing a false prophecy and was shunned by the rest of the team (and Fred chose Gunn, which hurt Wesley emotionally). By season four he had become a dark, angry, and regretful character who slowly worked his way back into Angel Investigations, and in season five we saw everything culminate - he was an important person at Wolfram & Hart, fell in love, lost his love, and was forced to go back to that dark place by sticking close to Illyria and being haunted by Fred’s death every day. When he died in the finale, I was simply blown away by how beautifully the writers and Alexis Denisof had portrayed this character almost coming full circle, and I was thrilled to be able to speak to Denisof and get his take on how far Wesley had come since joining the show.

SC: Ever thought about writing a book on Joss Whedon, himself?

NS: It was something I considered, actually, until Benbella Books put out their excellent book on Joss (endorsed by the man himself, no less!) How could I possibly compete with that? :)

SC: Exactly how many estimated hours actually go into the research of a book when you write it?

NS: Wow... great question. And I think the word "countless" was invented for questions like that one. For each episode, I’ve watched it once already so I watch it again and take copious notes. Then I watch it again more closely, not really watching my notes as much this time. Then I research certain things that come up in the episode for the Interesting Facts or Did You Notice parts, and that could take anywhere from an hour to a few days depending on the episode. Then I write a rough version of the episode guide (this is after I’ve gone through the seasons in order) for the season, then go back to the beginning of the season, with written ep guides in hand and watch them all through one more time, and constantly add things I missed (usually because I had my nose in my notes at the time) and that’s where I catch most of the nitpicks and bloopers and change things that I’d previously written because I saw it differently. Then when the episode guides are finally finished I read it through from season one right to the end, making more notes because of things I might have missed in season four that were foreshadowed in season one, etc. and usually I have to stop, go to that episode, fastforward to a particular scene and watch it again just to make sure I remembered it correctly. So in a word, many hours go into it. :) And that’s just the episode guide; the rest of the book contains a lot more research, and very different research depending on the section. I did a lot of interviews for the book so I had to research the questions, and I did the interviews after writing the episode guides so the episodes would be fresh in my head when I spoke to the actors and writers.

SC: Was it more difficult to get these books published because they were "unofficial" guides as opposed to "official" guides?

NS: Actually, no. I don’t think unofficial guides are inferior, just different. Sometimes the official guides can be excellent, sometimes they’re terrible; same goes for the unofficial ones. The great thing about unofficial guides is you don’t have to follow a party line on something. If you didn’t like the episode, you can say it wasn’t a very good episode rather than feeling compelled to say they’re all great. Also, the episode guides in official books tend to be plot summaries, and unofficial guides tend to be more analytical, at least mine are, because plot summaries are A) boring if you’ve already seen the episodes, and B) copyrighted to the writers on the show so it forces the unofficial books to be a lot more creative. When I brought to the publisher my ideas of how I wanted to write these guides, he liked what he heard and signed up the first one (which was on Xena) and it sold well, so I’ve been able to do it ever since as long as I can prove the show does well and the fanbase is out there.

SC: When did you first become interested in the BtVS/Angelverse? Do you have any favorite moments or episodes from the shows?

NS: I became interested in Buffy when it was in season two and someone lent me the tapes, so I actually watched it from the beginning, even though the series had been on for a year by the time I got hooked on it. Then, obviously, I watched Angel from the beginning. Most of my friends stopped watching Angel after Doyle was killed, but I kept with it and was able to lure them all back in the end by plying them with tapes. :)

Favorite moments... Wow, where do I start?

Buffy: Giles walking up the stairs in "Passion" and the viewers knowing what he was going to find. Buffy plunging the sword into Angel in "Becoming 2." Willow and Oz saying goodbye in his van. Willow and Tara floating above the dance floor. Spike breaking down in the alleyway in "Fool for Love" after Buffy tells him he’s beneath her. "They got the mustard out!!" Spike and Buffy lying together in "Touched."

Angel: Doyle’s ad for Angel Investigations and his death. Angel dancing in "She." Angel singing "Mandy." Wesley pretending to be Angel and leaping backwards in the doorway as he realizes he wasn’t invited into the house in "Guise Will Be Guise." Numfar’s dance of joy and honor. The look on Angel’s face as Holtz jumps into Quor’toth with Connor. Angel putting the pillow over Wesley’s face. Wesley’s reaction when the swords come out of his sleeves in "Spin the Bottle." All of "Smile Time." Spike’s poignant line, "There’s a hole in the world. Feels like we ought to have known." Angel taking the phone call after Cordelia has left the room in "You’re Welcome." All of "Not Fade Away."

Of course, those are just the ones that immediately jump to mind. I could probably go on for days recounting my favorite moments. :)

SC: What prompts you to write these books to begin with. Obviously, you are a tremendous fan, but of all the ways you could manifest your appreciation of both shows in print, what in particular led you to do it in this manner?

NS: I actually worked in book publishing before writing these, so I was always around books. I feel like there’s so much to say about the shows I write about that the only way to do it is in a book-length form, unless you just wanted to write about one aspect of the show, in which case an essay or a newspaper/magazine article would be better (I’ve also done those).

SC: How great is the urge to interject your own opinions into your observations? How do you balance that? When do you think it’s appropriate to put your own personal slant on things?

NS: I think it’s appropriate when you won’t offend people, and I balance it when I think maybe my thoughts don’t mirror a lot of others. I feel strongly about certain things that happened on both shows, but knowing the online discussions on both sides, tried to stay away from a couple of hot topics just so I wouldn’t offend. That said, my episode guides are opinionated, but I make it very clear that my opinions are my own at the beginning of each episode guide, and I respect other people’s opinions (as long as they’re not offensive). If someone argued that Riley was, in fact, a good person for Buffy to be with and was as interesting a character as Angel, I would respect that even if I disagree. If, on the other hand, they argued that Tara was a bad choice of character and were upset that a lesbian element was added to the show, I would strongly disagree. But as for the discussion of Spike vs. Angel, I’ll stay out of that one to avoid trouble. :)

SC: What do you think of the Angel online fandom?

NS: I think what happened when the show was cancelled was phenomenal, and it shows just how strong the Angel fandom is. Many people mistakenly thought that Angel fans were simply Buffy fans with nothing else to talk about because Buffy was off the air, but that’s not true. There are many people who watched Angel and never watched Buffy, or who thought Angel was the superior show. When Buffy ended, fans begrudgingly said goodbye because it was a Mutant Enemy decision to end it. But when Angel was cancelled, the fans stepped up and did everything they could to prevent that from happening. The food drives, charity donations, money raised, rallies, protests... it was mind-boggling to see these people come together to try to save a television show. I’m sad to see it didn’t work because it really was a heroic effort.

SC: What do you think will be the future for the Buffyverse?

NS: Again, I hope I don’t anger people by saying this but I’d be happy if what we have now is the extent of the Buffyverse. Movies might work, but they might not. I would love it if the Buffyverse could continue in films the way the Star Trek universe did, but if it ended up turning into "A Very Brady Christmas" that would be bad bad bad. The actors and writers on Buffy and Angel are immensely talented people, and they deserve to be able to get out there and try different roles or television shows or media. A few writers have gone over to Lost, and fans now have another amazing show to watch as a result. David Boreanaz has been very busy since the show ended, and I hope we see the other Angel actors popping up in bigger and bigger roles. I have my DVDs, and I think both series were so wonderful I’m happy to have these 12 seasons and be content with watching them over and over again.

That said, if I heard there was going to be another spinoff show I’d be doing the dance of joy. :)

SC: Which do you miss more, BtVS or Angel?

NS: I miss both in different ways, and different aspects of each one. I miss Buffy immensely because it lasted longer than Angel so I felt more involved in the lives of the characters and feel like I’d watched them grow up. I miss all of the characters, their lives, their struggles, and their pain. But on the other hand, Buffy was a complete series and Angel had so much more potential that was cut short. I miss the possibility the Angel series had. I miss Wesley. I miss what Illyria could have become. Fall 2004 was so tough because it was the first time since 1997 that the fall began with no Whedon show on the air. Thank goodness for J.J. Abrams, but I still feel the void of no Joss Whedon.

SC: Do you plan on doing any future books (with perhaps, a different premise) on the Whedonverse? Are you a fan of Firefly? Can we look forward to a combo Unofficial Guide to Firefly the series & the Serenity movie?

NS: At this time I don’t plan on doing any more Whedonverse books, but two years ago I said I had no plans for an Angel book. :) As for Firefly, yes, I am a big fan and can’t wait to see the movie, but I don’t have any plans to do a book on it.

SC: Have you ever met any of the actors from Angel? If yes, how was your experience?

NS: I have, and the experience was always a positive one. I’ve met James Marsters, J. August Richards, Alexis Denisof, Alexa Davalos, Julie Benz, and Vladimir Kulich in person, and they were all lovely. Denisof was surrounded by fans yet called each person by name and talked to them like they were the only ones in the room. Marsters did the same, and was telling me about an upcoming Buffy episode that he was very excited about (it turned out to be "Lies My Mother Told Me"). I spoke to Denisof and Richards on the phone, and they were both very sweet. Denisof was worried he had made me miss my deadline and apologized and gave me a huge chunk of his time. Richards was a real gentleman both times I spoke to him, and is a very lovely person. I also spoke to Christian Kane, Stephanie Romanov, Amy Acker, Keith Szarabajka, David Denman, and Mark Lutz via phone, and they were all great. Christian Kane loved to talk about the show and was hilarious, as was Stephanie. Amy was very charming, and Szarabajka very philosophical. Denman was every bit as funny as his character, Skip. Mark Lutz had me in stitches; he’s a fellow Canadian so we kept talking about Canada and how we grew up fairly close to one another. They all seemed to praise one another and really seemed to enjoy working on the show, which made me feel even more that the show was cut short far too soon.

Thank you so much for these great questions! I really enjoyed answering them, and I hope everyone who reads the book finds some pleasure in doing so. :)

SC: We’d like to thank Nikki Stafford for taking time out of her obviously busy schedule to answer our questions, You can order/purchase your copy of "Once Bitten: An Unofficial Guide to the World of Angel" from ECW Press, Amazon.com, Chapters and Barnes & Noble

About...

Once Bitten: An Unofficial Guide To The World of Angel

by Nikki Stafford

"[Angel is] the smartest drama on network TV." MSN, Dec. 2003

He was a drunkard who was turned into a vampire in 1756, and became known as the most vicious of his kind for the next 150 years. In 1899 he was re-ensouled by a gypsy looking for revenge, and with his conscience back, he had to relive the guilt and horror of what he’d done, and decided to atone for his sins by helping the very people who were once his victims.

Welcome to world of Angel, the most original and thought-provoking show on television. The show is a spin-off of the equally intelligent Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show that broke new ground for its portrayal of strong women. Now that Buffy has staked her last vampire, Angel has gotten more notice from critics and fans, out from the shadow of its predecessor.

This book will feature:

* a history of the show and how it has changed over the years

* a summary of the 2003 Posting Board Party in L.A. that was attended by many of the actors of Angel

* a section on the best Angel Web sites, including a profile of cityofangel.com, the official source of Angel information

* a trivia quiz

* a look at Buffy and Angel’s recognition in academic circles

* a complete episode guide of all five seasons of Angel, complete with brief summaries, analyses, highlights, continuity errors, interesting facts, music/bands, and other interesting facts

* an episode guide to the final season of Buffy that will act as a completion to Bite Me!

* exclusive behind-the-scenes photos