TIME Noon, March 28, 2000

LOCATION> The Crossing Studio, Vancouver, Canada

MISSION OBJECTIVE To look good while busting heads

Dressed in a tight black cat burglar outfit, Jessica Alba prances
around the set of James Cameron's new futuristic Fox series, ''Dark
Angel,'' prepping for a scene in which she'll break into an apartment
building and lay waste to a pistol packing bodyguard. While limbering
up, she admits that months of gymnastics classes have taken her
only so far.

''Your body just doesn't bend like it does when you're a kid,'' says
the 19 year old. ''One time I was on the balance beam, and the
teacher asked me to do a roundoff onto a mat and then sort of spin
around. So I go to do it'' -- she giggles with embarrassment -- ''and
in a split second, I slammed myself with the beam right between my
legs. So I'm sitting there, trying to keep my composure in front of
these little girls, and I can't cry and I can't cuss. I'm just like, 'Oh,
God!,' tearing up.... No pain, no gain, you know what I mean?''

Wha...? I'm sorry, Jessica -- could you repeat everything after that
straddling the beam part? Oh, never mind. Even a distracted
journalist can see that ''Dark Angel'' has two things going for it this
fall. First, it sports the high concept cranium of Cameron, he of
those gigantic '90s movies ''Titanic,'' ''T2,'' and ''True Lies.'' And,
second, it stars Alba, the ''Never Been Kissed'' costar whose mouth
agape beauty and swollen lips have made her a buzz babe even
before the first episode airs.

Of course, for these same two reasons, the bar -- to borrow the
above imagery -- has been set sky high (which is why, if you live in
a major media market, chances are when you put down this
magazine and look out your window, you'll see a huge billboard of
Alba riding a motorcycle).

Crafted by Cameron and his longtime pal, television producer Charles
Eglee (''Moonlighting,'' ''Murder One''), ''Dark Angel'' is the most
ambitious new ride of the 2000–01 season. Heck, the budget for the
two hour pilot alone approached $10 million. ''How do you sum this
thing up in 25 words or less?'' asks Cameron. ''It's 'Spider-Man' --
except it's a girl -- meets 'The Matrix' in the postnuclear -
electromagnetic - pulse, Depression era 1930s Chicago of the
future....''

Chimes in Eglee: ''But with an urban jam to it.'' For those needing a
bit more description: It's about 20 bleak years from now, and Max
(Alba) is a genetically enhanced, angst teeming teenager who's
being hunted by evil military dudes from whom she escaped when
she was a child; along her soul searching way, she meets a
wheelchair bound cyberpirate journalist named Logan, who recruits
her to fight against the corrupt, corroding governmental
infrastructure. Butts are kicked, names are taken, and thus a
reluctant superhero is born.

Well, it might not be that simple. The ''Dark Angel'' pilot, of which
early reviews have been mixed, steers toward gloomy, futuristic
dystopia -- the sort of thing Fox has repeatedly and unsuccessfully
tried to program in the wake of ''The X-Files'' (RIP ''Harsh Realm''
and ''Millennium''). And its time slot competition -- two top 15
series, ''Frasier'' and ''Dharma & Greg,'' not to mention ''Buffy the
Vampire Slayer'' spin-off ''Angel'' -- is nothing to shake a laser at.
(Plus, counting ''Touched by,'' just how many ''Angel''s can one
viewer take?)

Still, Cameron & Co. are confident that they're tapping into universal
themes that will attract more than a niche audience obsessed with
science fiction. ''Every kid coming of age, from Ancient Greece to
the Middle Ages to the '60s to now, feels that the world that
they're inheriting from their parents is just this f---ed up, crazy
place,'' Cameron explains of ''Angel'''s conceit. ''And so by creating
this chaotic future world, we're keying on the angst of sudden
awareness or greater consciousness of the world.'' Making note of
''Buffy,'' Fox exec VP of programming David Nevins adds: ''This is all
about trying to find a female action hero that is smart and
empowered and fun.''