‘Strange World’ or Familiar Territory?

Although he spent four years as a writer and producer on “The X-Files,” Howard Gordon concedes his own sensibilities lean more toward character-driven drama like “thirtysomething” than spaceships and little green men.

Yet Gordon’s new ABC series, “Strange World,” explores terrain that will no doubt feel rather familiar to “X-Files” fans, from its murky world of gothic suspense to the arcane conspiracy underpinnings.

Shot in rainy Vancouver, Canada (where “The X-Files” filmed its first five seasons), “Strange World’s” central character is scientist Paul Turner (Tim Guinee), who suffers from an unidentified illness (as does “The X-Files’ ” Agent Scully) to which he was exposed during the Gulf War. He is kept alive by a drug that affords him only temporary relief, provided by a mysterious woman with no name (Vivian Wu) who dangles exasperating clues about what’s going on, much like Agent Mulder’s shadowy unnamed contacts X and Deep Throat.

In addition to presenting viewers with a different, more vulnerable hero, “Strange World’s” most notable distinction may be that the show begins its leap into the unknown with a foot squarely planted in today’s reality. Turner is enlisted by the U.S. Army to investigate “criminal abuses of science,” delving into areas such as cloning, gene splicing and chemical weaponry.

“This show was born when Dolly was born, at some level,” Gordon said, referring to the cloned sheep whose birth signaled to many just how close science has come to what was once the fanciful stuff of science fiction.

Despite what he describes as an abiding interest in science, when Gordon met with ABC executives his inclination was to dream up a family drama; instead, the network wanted a new program pegged to “weird science,” which served as the germ that gave rise to “Strange World.”

Formulating plots with a germ of realism that can “make a virus dramatic” posed a challenge, Gordon said, but he added that the show completed its initial order of 13 episodes while adhering to subject matter “rooted in some headline.”

Tuesday’s episode, for example, touches on growing human organs. If that sounds farfetched, researchers are working on precisely that, creating functional body parts from a few cells.

Gordon, who co-created the series with Tim Kring, didn’t have to look far for inspiration. His two brothers are doctors, and the show’s medical consultant, Ezekiel Emanuel, is a nationally renowned medical ethicist at the National Institutes of Health. Emanuel’s brother, Ari, is a top TV agent who represents Gordon.

“These guys are committed to trying to make this realistic . . . asking ‘Where are we going to be tomorrow?’ kind of questions,” Ezekiel Emanuel said. “It’s hard for the average man on the street to be aware [of scientific advances] when I’m flabbergasted by where we might be tomorrow. We’re making such leaps and bounds, and the discoveries are coming so fast, it is amazing and a little scary.”

Some may accuse “Strange World” of another kind of cloning, in terms of the way TV seeks to replicate existing hits. Although “X-Files” creator Chris Carter has told TV critics he doesn’t resent perceived imitators, sources say the producer has been less than thrilled by attempts to trade on his program’s mystique, as Fox did with the short-lived “Space: Above and Beyond,” created by two former “X-Files” writers.

Producing the show in conjunction with 20th Century Fox Television, which also produces “X-Files,” Gordon is quick to acknowledge a debt to that series as well as the inevitability of being compared to it.

“I was very well-aware of the hazard I was stepping into,” said Gordon, who also wrote for the romantic fantasy “Beauty and the Beast.” “I owe a great deal to ‘The X-Files,’ and this show owes a great deal to ‘The X-Files.’ I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”

Still, Gordon suggested certain elements are all but unavoidable in modern science fiction, citing conspiracy themes in other recent series that have been likened to “The X-Files,” among them the canceled “Dark Skies” and “Prey,” as well as Carter’s other Fox show, the ratings-deprived “Millennium.”

On a separate front, ABC will seek to showcase the program following tonight’s preview with a four-week run in “NYPD Blue’s” slot--a strategy the network employed to introduce such series as “The Practice” and “Relativity” before scheduling them elsewhere.

“NYPD Blue” producer Steven Bochco made no bones about his dissatisfaction with having his popular series benched, since ratings have traditionally suffered when the police drama returns from such a layoff.

“I told [ABC], ‘Every time you do that, coming back is disastrous for us,’ ” Bochco said. “I’m a team player. I recognize ABC’s need [to establish new hits]. I just don’t want to get shot in the foot ourselves.”

Moreover, even if “Strange World” performs well Tuesdays, the show is hardly out of the woods. ABC’s biggest needs are on Thursday and Saturday, nights when the network has persistently languished. Efforts to land a drama in the more desirable 10 p.m. Wednesday position occupied by “20/20,” meanwhile, have in the past fallen victim to the influence of high-powered anchor Diane Sawyer.

Without elaborating, ABC Entertainment President Jamie Tarses said the network can free up a desirable time period for “Strange World” if the show strikes a chord with viewers. While she would prefer keeping Bochco happy and not messing with “NYPD Blue,” Tarses added that ABC feels compelled to capitalize on its better time slots given the network’s troubles trying to launch programs against the likes of NBC’s “Friends” and “Frasier.”

“We have very few options,” Tarses said. “We have to give these new dramas a shot in places where they can get sampled.”

Although the program’s premiere was delayed until March, Gordon said he’s grateful the series “got a chance to do what we were going to do sort of unmolested by ratings.” If the trial is deemed a success, ABC will likely hold the eight remaining episodes until next season, as the network did with “The Practice.”

* “Strange World” premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC. The first episode is rated TV-PG, with an advisory for violence.