The fifth and final season of Angel on the WB is coming to a close. The loss of the Buffy spin-off will be lamented most by fans who were delighted to see James Marsters join the cast as Spike, a role that rose from the dead Vampire Slayer show.

The WB network executives explained in February their decision to cancel the show so early in the year was to give series creator Joss Whedon a chance to prepare for a grand finale. "We did not want to contemplate this being the last year of Angel without giving the show the option of crafting their own destiny for this character and for this series," reported WB co-chairman Jordan Levin.

An informal interview with Marsters, prior to the WB's announcement of the cancellation of the show was filled with excitement about his character joining Angel (David Boreanaz) in unholy acrimony. Spike developed into the most interesting character on the show this year, drawing humour and strong storylines from their history of bad blood.

The platinum-haired hottie got extra attention from creator-producer-director-writer Joss Whedon, who attempted to breathe new life into the series. Whedon knew how to have fun with bad boy Spike playing off Angel's passion for doing good at the hellish Los Angeles law firm Wolfram & Hart.

Always played deliciously villainous, Spike never was a hated 'heavy', because Marsters took the evil personified role and gave him an 'I-dare-you-to-like-me' personality. It's been a role he's relished. "It's a gift to portray that kind of menacing character" Marsters snarls, whisking his hand across an imaginary moustache that was the trademark of the villains back in the silent film days.

Spike has been a Vampire with an extremely pugnacious attitude, even after he got a soul. He's still sore from getting his hands chopped off, but thanks to a little black magic and rehab playing video games, he got back into the swing of things, flinging his fists at Angel any chance he got. He is a blood-thirsty Vampire who has lived through many centuries, so it was no surprise to see him in the 1940s on a Nazi U-boat in uniform, as one of his past lives came to light in an episode. Marsters' portrayal of Spike has been so enthralling that he is currently one of the most searched-for names on the internet. So well-liked is the Spike character that, when filming took place in a Los Angeles suburb this season, neighbours in the tiny community were outraged until they saw that it was an Angel episode filming. One resident said, "I don't mind, if I can get to meet Spike." There goes the neighbourhood!

While creator Whedon said, "I do feel there's a new energy this year," the show struggled in the ratings, even as it was a success on DVD, with the lucrative boxed-set sales. That money helped keep the production budget under control, but as far as the powers that be at the WB were concerned, it wasn't enough to continue much past the 100th episode (the magic number for syndication).

Marsters noted the show has always maintained a loyal fan base, "because of the writing," sucking up to Whedon, who has penned some of the show's best episodes. "It's always the writing, and it's really good this year," Marsters over-emphasized.

Marsters is pleased with the direction his character is heading - backwards. "I'm having fun, going back to the original Spike, which is really kind of a weird thing to say, because the character got a soul, which would have made me think I'd be going I in a whole new direction. But I am enjoying not being whipped anymore. I am enjoying myself and this cast like never before. I'm just kind of a happier guy."

Yes, Spike has a soul now and a history of killing people for 120 years. But even so, he's lightened up a bit this season. Why? After pondering an answer, Marsters explained, "This is the interesting thing. You would think that after having gotten a soul that the character would take off in a whole new direction that we've never seen before. But the surprise is that he goes back to the beginning. He's more like the old Spike, the one we originally saw, having fun, making it hard for other people."

And of course he has no remorse for sucking the life out of people for over a century, and Marsters elaborated on the profound reason for that lack of guilt. "He's just shallow," Marsters revealed with a big grin. "It's that simple. It was even alluded to in an episode, that Angel spent 120 years of contemplating infinite remorse, and Spike took two weeks being depressed in a basement, and then everything was fine!"

That saved a lot of back story on the character, who is unapologetic about who he is, unlike the repentant Angel. Marsters defended that take on his shameless character. "Structurally, in the storytelling, we got to explore Angel's long period of depression in the back story. We didn't have to take time out of the series to actually talk about that. If we put Spike through the same kind of journey, he'd be out of action for 120 seasons. So he's got to get over it pretty quickly."

He adds with a knowing grin, "I've come to the idea that Spike may not be as deep as Angel. Spike… well, let's face it, there is really something beautiful about his shallowness. And that's what helps him survive." Having no concern for others helps Spike make it throught the night, and Marsters says more power to him for simplifying his life that way. "But that probably means that Spike may not be that smart, and certainly not that deep. But we love him anyway." Well, we certainly love him as much as that do-gooding blood-sucker with a soul, Angel.

How can you not love a Vampire who knows he is shallow and not too clever, but manages to live his undead life to the max?

Spike's battles with Angel on the show have been among the most enjoyable moments. In one particular fight scene, in the Destiny episode, the pair go at it head to head (literally), butting heads as well as taking big whacks at each other. It looked more realisitc than an old Mike Tyson fight, and Marsters says there's a reason for that. "We fight well together." He adds that neither of them hesitates to throw themselves into the fight scenes, "because we trust each other. Over time, working together, doing this, we've built up the confidence in each other's abilities. For Destiny it was great. Yeah, we went toe to toe the whole day. No problems. No special prepping. Because both David and I have done enough fight scenes that we know it's pretty much like working with another stuntman. The concerns are the same, and neither of us are professional stuntmen. We're not that good, but for actors, we're pretty damn good. We are pretty experienced at this point."

Marsters reports, "What's great about working with David is, you get the acting stuff as well [in the fight scenes]. It's the whole package. I feel as if we have really good trust with one another. I've never hesitated with, 'Oh, is he going to do that with me?' If I had to do a cliff scene, and the only thing keeping me from going over the edge was David, I'd be cool with it. Seriously, I know I can count on him."

Although Angel and Spike have a rancourous relationship, it seems Marsters can't say enough good things about working with Boreanaz, even when David was bossing James around behind the camera. "David is a great director," he praised. "Everybody may think like, 'Oh, he's the star, and he's not going to be able to handle the pressure,' and wonder about all this stuff. But he came in and blew everyone away. He did better than any first time director I've ever worked with. The best I've seen in TV, movies or stage, anywhere. He buried everybody."

There are no immediate plans for Marsters to take the helm and direct a show, although the thought has crossed his mind and he would like to give it a shot eventually. "I think I could do well with actors. I've always been good with actors. But I need to know more about the language of film. In all honesty, yes, they could hire me. And other people could do my job for me. And I coud sit in a chair and say 'action', and get it on my resume. But it would be a lie. I haven't done my homework."

Marsters faces the facts honestly when describing his career plans. "I came to Hollywood to focus on making the transition from stage acting to film acting. I feel as if I've been pretty successful with that. Maybe there will be a time to start to seriously think about directing. But not before I read a couple of books and talk to a couple of good DoPs (Director of Photography), and get my stuff down. I don't want to weight the crew down with someone who doesn't know what he's doing."

Marsters has done some writing, and says he has some good ideas that he wants to explore, and now with the demise of Angel he'll have the time to follow his passion in that field.

"Most of the writing that I did was when I had a theatre company. It filled a need, when you can't afford the rights to all the great plays that you want to do. And you can't do as much Shakespeare as you'd like, because the casts are so huge. And doing a Shakespeare play is a huge undertaking. So you inevitably start to look for new works, and there was a real financial reason for me to do that. Now looking back on having done it, I'm happy to say I was involved in a lot of projects I'm very proud of. And I helped a lot of young playwrights find their legs and get a start in the world. But I'm so busy right now. Most of my writing is really now more into writing music. When I am rested and feel creative, and the sun shines and everything is beautiful again - usually a song comes. As opposed to me thinking of some book that I've read and thinking that I want to put it into a story."

But his experience writing a story for the Buffy comic book series was not enjoyable. "I'm angry about the comic book. I wrote a story that was very clear - it was a twisted romance. They hired a writer and treated it as a gothic gross-out tale, which wasn't what I wrote. It was a good story, people responded to it, I appreciated that. But if they had done it the way I wrote it, it would have been ten times better."

Marsters is wary of offers now."Dark Horse were dishonest with me with how they brought me into the project, and what they told me it was going to be. I feel now, unless I can have control over every single stage of it, I don't have any trust at all."

You'd think a wily Vampire with more than 120 years of experience to draw from would be a little more worldly-wise, but that's Spike, not Marsters, who says, "I thought, in all my naivety, that I would have more control if I stopped being an actor and started being a writer. Of course I found out that is not true." He lamented learning the lesson that in showbiz writers have the worst reputation of having control over their work.

So where will he go from here? Marsters somehow always seems to connect with the unique and the unusual in television projects. He played an ill-at-ease priest in the quirky Northern Exposure. He starred in Strange Frequency for VH1, then in Andromeda. Other credits include the feature House on Haunted Hill, a psychological Horror film starring Geoffrey Rush. Not surprisingly, he has a rock band called Ghost of the Robot, with a CD called Mad Brilliant. In conclusion, James Marsters says, "Maybe I am stuck in this genre - but I love it!"

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Life is a journey, full of surprises. Just ask James Marsters, Angel's favourite bad boy Spike. As a kid, raised in Modesto, California, he took lots of car trips with his family, resulting in some memorable experiences. "My mother was driving along the highway, with me and my brothers and sisters, and it was pretty cool for a while, no-one expecting anything unusual to happen. But then my mother ran over a tumble weed." Now that doesn't sound too bad, unless the dry flammable tumble weed gets caught underneath the car and ignites. Which is what happened on the trip.

"The engine caught fire," Marsters remembered with a nervous smile. "That was pretty bad, but it got worse when we realized that we wouldn't be able to get help for a while, after putting the fire out. So we all spent the night out on Interstate-5." At least he can claim, the family that drives together, survives together!

IT'S CRYING TIME AGAIN!

Of course, tears will be shed about the demise of Angel by the entire cast. But before the announcement was made about the shows cancellation, James Marsters revealed the last time he had a good cry was Season Five of Buffy.

With a wicked twinkle in his eye, the actor who brought life to the un-dead Spike wiped away a crocodile tear and nearly choked on his sincerely sad story. "I'm serious. I got all my crying out of my system in Buffy Season Five - and Six as well. I had to dredge up every painful thing I could find and wring it dry. And I don't think I've cried since then," Marsters said about the emotional wringer he went through filming Buffy the Vampire Slayer during the last couple of seasons.

Is crying an un-macho thing to do, in Marsters opinion? Heck no. In fact he insisted, "I could use a good cry, but there's nothing coming out."