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GOOD Vs EVIL

(G Vs E)

selected from Cult Times #58

The Premise: The Almighty (God) decides that the Devil and his disciples are getting away with far too much on Earth. So he sets up a worldwide undercover police force called The Corps and fills its ranks with reincarnated souls willing to fight the battle of good versus evil.

Background: Independent filmmakers Josh and Jonas Pate created the series. They used a lot of their own money to make a pilot with Walt Disney Studios making up the difference. The pilot wasn’t aired but Stephen Chao at the USA Network saw it and decided to finance a series.

First Run: July – October 1999 (USA Network); March – June 2000 (Sci-Fi Channel)

Number of Episodes: Thirteen episodes were originally shot and 11 aired on the USA Network. When the series moved to the Sci-Fi Channel, another nine were filmed in order to make up an entire ‘season’ of stories.

Good Guys: After he is attacked and killed by a demon, Chandler Smythe (Clayton Rohner) becomes a new recruit for the Corps. Chandler’s first partner, Virgil, appears in only one episode (Underworld) because the actor playing him (Cress Williams) declined to do the series. He is replaced by veteran agent Henry McNeil (Richard Brooks), a hip dude with his own way of handling evil.

The two agents work for the Corps’ Hollywood division and report to the stressed-out Ford Plasko (Marshall Bell) and the more serene Decker Benbow (Googy Gress). Other agents include former football player Deacon Jones, who plays the Corps’ narrator, Walker Rothenberg (Susie Park), and Ford’s half-sister Anna-lise (Kristin Minter). Chandler’s teenage son Ben (Tony Denman) also appears on occasion.

Bad Guys: Morlocks work for the Devil and are the Corps’ main targets. They look like people, but if you get them mad they sprout horns and bad attitudes. The only way to kill them is with a special knife that has been soaked in the blood of an innocent. Faustians are individuals duped by Morlocks into selling their souls for earthly pleasures. It is up to Corps’ agents to persuade such people to renounce their deals with the Devil.

And Isn’t That... Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek’s Lt Uhura) plays Henry’s mother in Renunciation.

Overdone Clichés: The ‘find and kill the Morlock’ formula can sometimes get a bit stale, but the writers always seem to come up with a surprise to keep viewers entertained.

Fashion Statements: Henry stays cool with his afro and Seventies-style threads, while Chandler opts for a more casual look complete with five o’clock shadow and sandals.

Cougar Pines
A humorous episode that mixes golf and Morlocks and gets Ford and Decker out of the office.

Portrait of Evil
Chandler is laid up at home in a wheelchair after saving Henry’s life in this clever take-off of the Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window.

M Is For Morlock :
Henry and Anna-lise make a good team but this story lacks the chemistry that occurs between Henry and Chandler when they are on a case together.

Broadcast details (UK)

Good Vs Evil
Sky One, Wednesdays, 21.00

Photo © USA Networks / Sci-Fi
Feature © Visual Imagination 2000.
Not for reproduction.

Steve Eramo

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Cult Times • issue 58 out now, £2.85 ($4.99)
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