HENRY	Bravery is a powerfully attractive trait in a woman, stupidity is not.
	-- "Blood Price, Part 2" (01.02)

Tanya Huff’s Blood Books debuted in 1991, well before vampires were common paranormal chick lit fodder. Like the First Lady of Vampires, Anne Rice and The Vampire Diaries’ L.J. Smith before her, Huff was breaking new ground: Rice made vampires sexy, L. J. Smith made them suitable mates for nubile jailbait, and Huff made them, well, sidekicks.

In the person of Henry Fitzroy, bastard son of British royalty and modern day bodice-ripping romance novelist, she gave us a youthful, attractive and darkly dangerous vampire who assists PI Vicky Nelson with her more… unusual cases. In Blood Ties, the Lifetime Original Series (and doesn’t that just feel wrong) based on Huff’s novels, Henry undergoes a few changes, mostly in that he is a graphic novelist rather than a romance one, and while he’s still a rival for Vicky’s indecisive affections, he doesn’t get nearly as much naked playtime. (In the books, Henry is not only openly bisexual but also shares Vicky’s bed—a bed she also occasionally shares with the other corner of this particular love triangle, Detective Mike Celluci, the hussy.) In fact, Blood Ties downplays the sex significantly, while upping the will-they-won’t-they quotient, which may have been a factor in its cancelation from the unapologetically “women’s network”.

In its two, very truncated, seasons, Blood Ties managed to attract an ardent fanbase, despite its obscure cable network airing and odd plotting decisions. Regardless of the “blood” in the title, Vicky and the boys usually dealt with far more malignant beasties than mere vampires; just as Buffy branched out into demons and various Others, so too did Vicky do battle with the legions of myth and legend. But most of all she did battle with her own failing eyesight, her conflicting desires, and her tragic addiction to unattractive knitwear.

While Blood Ties went out with a whimper, not a bang -- with both Henry and Mike mad at Vicky, and with her standing there, vacillating to the last, not knowing which to chase after -- Huff’s Blood books have been given new life through the series, and within their newly-issued Blood Ties-y covers, Vicky’s perennial struggle with the supernatural, her declining vision, and her two ardent lovers, goes on.

As for the stars of Blood Ties? They, too, go on…

Christina Cox

As the vision-impaired Private Investigator Vicky Nelson, Cox carried the series with her sharp wit, determined manner and luminous presence. While Vicky’s vision seems more an inconvenience than the truly debilitating condition it is in the books, Cox was still able to convey to the viewer that Vicky was frustrated past bearing at the betrayal of her own body, but that she was still desperate to Do Good in spite of it.

Before Vicky, Cox had long been a staple of Canadian-based genre fare, appearing in everything from Due South to The Crow: Stairway to Heaven to Mutant X and Andromeda. She was even Joan of fricken’ Arc on Forever Knight. And since Vicky, things haven’t changed much: she appeared as a hard-edged Major in an episode of Stargate Atlantis (she had previously played two other characters on SG-1). On the web, Cox flirted her way through the show-within-a-show, Ladycops, on comedy lesbian webserial 3Way, and on TV has turned in small but key roles in Dexter and 24. But it is her manic, eyelash-batting, tear-soaked performance as improbable astronaut Jen Crane in the “soap opera in space” Defying Gravity that is her most memorable recent role.

Forthcoming for Cox is a TV movie called The Stepson, which, yes, is definitely a thriller in the Kids Gone Mad! vein. You can just tell, can’t you?

Post-Blood Ties Grade: C+
Geek Rating: 80%

Gina Holden

As beautiful goth goddess Careen, Gina Holden was Vicky’s first paranormal client, and thence became her assistant. With some fetching Rennaissance Faire attire, a knowledge of the occult bordering on Watcher-like and a dazzling array of hairstyles (not to mention a major crush on Henry), Careen brought a refreshing sweetness to her would-be child of the night.

Since farewelling her days (and nights) as a receptionist, Holden has had a hectic schedule. Running concurrently with Blood Ties was the reboot of Flash Gordon, another genre TV series from non-original source material, and which was likewise canceled precipitously. Holden played Dale Arden, Flash’s former girlfriend and a reporter, and she was just a little bit too calm about the rift that opens up between Earth and the planet Mongo (and really hammed it up when possessed by an alien consciousness).

With both series ended, Holden found herself with a teeny-tiny role in the saccharine Jared Padalecki 2008 biopic Christmas Cottage, and a larger one opposite Matthew Lillard in semi-creepy thriller Messages Deleted in 2009. Also in 2009? Screamers: The Hunting, based on the Philip K. Dick story “Second Variety”, in which Holden played the least-convincing military hardass since Denise Richards in Starship Troopers. (Um, Lance Henriksen? You do remember you were in Aliens, right? Have some self-respect, man!)

On TV, Holden shone in the confusing and short-lived Harper’s Island (what was that show about?), and her turn as Lex's childhood friend Patricia Swann on Smallville was both complicated and brief. She played a bumbling criminal on Flashpoint and her stint as a corporate ice queen on Life, Unexpected was, well, unexpected. But it is really her guest spot as gilded courtesan Lucinda on Legend of the Seeker that is her most notable recent accomplishment. ‘Cause she was on Legend of the Seeker! And that show is all kinds of awesome. (And also based on the works of a fantasy author. Hmm.)

Coming up for Holden is Saw VII, which a) can you believe there are seven -- sorry, VII -- of them now? and b) blood ties, indeed.

Post-Blood Ties Grade: B+
Geek Rating: 90%

Dylan Neal

As Mike Celucci, man of honor and detective par excellence, Neal (who may forever be known as Pacey’s brother Doug from Dawson’s Creek) brought a pleasing, everyman quality to this much put-upon fellow. A decent guy, even if he was kind of Vicki’s doormat, Neal’s Mike was impatient with the world of darkness into which his former partner and on-again off-again beloved had fallen, but managed to stomach its horrors and complexities for her sake. And he just hated Henry Fitzroy. You could feel it coming out of the screen.

With his gorgeous eyes and killer cheekbones, Neal has been busy since Mike stormed impatiently out of Vicky’s life for good in Blood Ties’ unresolved Season 2 cliffhanger. Like Cox, he, too, showed up in Stargate Atlantis, as John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan)’s big brother Dave – and, y’know, there is a resemblance -- and he even followed Holden to Smallville, in which he played a smooth-talking and corrupt DA. He showed up in The L Word’s wacky and lackluster last season (though, weren’t they all lackluster, after Season 2?), and he was back in evil political hack mode in an episode of FOX’s happily renewed comic-book adaptation Human Target. Also on TV, Neal played a geologist -- happily, named Dillon -- courting Henry matriarch Maggie in failed Canadian pseudo-McLeod’s Daughters drama, Wild Roses.

In movies, Neal was troubled husband to Nicholle Thom (Maggie from The Nanny) in this year’s My Family’s Secret (yep, a Lifetime Original), but more importantly, was unutterably handsome yet utterly silent as the god Hermes in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Coming up for Neal is a part opposite Val Kilmer in horror/thriller The Traveler, out this October, and currently in production is Ice Road Terror, a sci-fi/thriller slated for a 2011 release. And don't they sound like quality?

Post-Blood Ties Grade: B-
Geek Rating: 75%

Kyle Schmid

As centuries-old vampire and scion of a British royal house, Henry Fitzroy, Kyle Schmid was… pretty. Just really, really pretty. And he could take a punch well, which is fortunate, because despite his alleged vampire super-strength, Henry seemed to get his ass kicked more often than not (and most always in Vicky’s honor).

With the exception of a kryptonite-crazed telepathic turn as metahuman Sebastian Kane (note the Hollow Man reference, folks) on Smallville -- there’s that show again -- Schmid has stuck with film since leaving Henry to his graphic novels and his bimbo blood donors. Delightful 2008 indie short Mookie’s Law saw him alongside The Vampire Diaries Nina Dobrev playing exactly the kind of guy you wouldn’t want to date, but otherwise his work has been strictly genre territory, and universally to be mourned. He was expendable in horror schlock-fest Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (which, yes, is just as bad as it sounds), he was kinda creepy in sci-fi/horror and global warming cautionary tale The Thaw, with X-Men’s Aaron Ashmore and Val Kilmer (Um, Val Kilmer? You do remember you were in a Batman movie, right? Have some self-respect, ma--no, wait, nevermind), and he got shirtless when re-teaming with Ashmore -- and had Haylie Duff thrown in as a bonus -- for dreary island-based horror/thriller Deep Cove (AKA Fear Island).

Coming up for Schmid are cop comedy GravyTrain -- which, distressingly, features a character called Hansel Suppledick plus Colin Mochrie -- and he’s been cast alongside one of New Moon’s hot-as-hell werewolves (Alex Meraz played Paul) and the new Fame’s angelic-voiced Naturi Naughton in the drama Four to the Floor, currently in pre-production. So, yay?

Post-Blood Ties Grade: D
Geek Rating: 90%

Cast Post-Blood Ties Report

In the short time since Blood Ties has been off the air, the cast of has been busy, busy, busy. While they’ve had their share of spectacular flops -- Cox’s Defying Gravity and Neal’s Wild Roses come to mind -- and have at times been a little lacking in judgment -- as evidenced by almost Schmid’s entire body of work -- rarely have any of them been off our screen or out of the collective consciousness, which isn’t bad for a bunch of Canadians.

And one can only hope that Christina Cox finds a character to play in Smallville in the upcoming tenth and final season of that show, or else surely she will surely feel very left out. And if she and Gina Holden could perhaps both appear beside Val Kilmer at some point, then that would really round things out nicely for the Blood Ties gang.

Red Planet 2, anyone?

  -- Rachel Hyland