"Who is Spike?" wonders James Marsters.

He rolls the question around on his tongue like a vampire savoring a delectable trickle of blood. "Ooh, existentialism," he remarks, "Spike is a sociopath. Spike has fun hurting people. Spike is a man without guilt. Spike is a man for whom the world has been opened, and he can get what he wants when he wants it. Spike does not carry a wallet. When Spike sees something, he takes it."

And despite this, audiences like Spike. He's a vampire. He has killed people, lots of them. Hell, he even attempted to destroy the world by unleashing demon hordes. Yet, somehow, he's... likable. "That's because he has fun doing what he's doing," explains Marsters, dropping the British accent he employs as Spike. "And James Marsters is pretty much doing the same thing. Having fun."

How could Marsters not be having fun? After all, he has parlayed a guest bit that initially was to run five episodes into a long-standing recurring gig and now into a role as a Buffy regular and an occasional guest on Angel the red-hot Buffy spin-off. Really, no one needed to twist Marsters' arm to convince him to vamp it up again as Spike. "Oh God, not at all!" shouts the actor, a California native whose credits include episodes of Northern Exposure and Millennium, as well as a small role in the recent horror flick The House on Haunted Hill.

"I danced a jig when they invited me back. I love doing Buffy and Angel. You get to hit people, man. On Angel, the creators are the same guys [Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt] as on Buffy. David Boreanaz, of course, was there too. I was nervous the first day that I shot Angel because I had only played Spike on Buffy ["Lover's Walk"] once in about two years. In fact, I had to review tapes to find the character again. But once I got on the set, I was in full vamp makeup, fighting David again. So it really felt like old times."

Spike made his Buffy debut this year in the show's third episode, "The Harsh Light of Day," in which Spike searches for an ancient ring that makes the vampire who wears it not only impervious to daylight, but pretty much immortal. Later that same night, Spike crossed over to Angel for "In the Dark," as he followed the path of the ring from Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) to the slayer's undead ex-beau. Obviously, Marsters couldn't be any more happy that Buffy's ratings remain formidable and that Angel kicked off with and maintained its stellar ratings. "That's fabulous," he enthuses. "Buffy just keeps getting stronger, and Angel came out of the blocks on fire. There had been a lot of talk about people hoping that Angel wouldn't be too dark and dour. And the episodes I've seen so far have put that concern to rest entirely.

"I loved the beginning scene in the pilot, where Angel does this serious voiceover. 'I move in the night. I save people.' Then they smash cut to him drunk in a bar saying, 'I love girls.' That was just fabulous. Releasing Angel from the heartbreak of loving Buffy and not being able to be with her gives David more maneuvering room to explore different areas of his character. And David is doing that expertly."

Spike will turn up on Angel once or twice more during its freshman season.

As for Buffy, look for scads of the terrible blood drinker, who had previously spiced up such episodes as the "What's My Line" two-parter, "Surprise," "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Becoming, Part II." Marsters, however, can't reveal much about what's on tap, insisting that one, Whedon demands that his cast and crew keep secrets secret and two, that as an actor, he doesn't receive scripts until shortly before he steps in front of the camera.

The actor does talk a bit about life after Drusilla, though. "Juliet Landau was quite busy," he notes, "unfortunately for us--good for her--doing features and, unlike me, she could not come in." Landau guest spots seem rather likely, though. "I guess it's good to be unemployed onced in a while. They're pairing me up with a vamped-up Harmony [Mercedes McNab], a character who used to hang out with Cordelia [Charisma Carpenter] and her gang and got bit last season.

"It's strange. I used to think that the two main things with Spike were kick ass and kiss Dru, and I'm not kissing Dru anymore. At least I'm still kicking ass. I'm not very nice to Harmony. I've had my heart broken and I'm very bitter, so, I abuse Harmony. Mercedes is wonderful. She's a very good actor. Let's just say this--we push the boundaries of the 8 p.m. time slot as far as censorship is concerned."

Marsters enjoys just about every aspect of playing Spike. He gets a kick out of portraying the creepy countenance of evil and performing many of his own stunts. Even better, he appreciates the perspective he gains by leaping every so often from the set of Buffy over to Angel. "I didn't need to do any research to play Spike's violent side," he notes. "I think the evil lives in all of us. Spike is simply that side of all of us unleashed. We operate in a world with social constraints, and with Spike, those constraints are completely taken off. There are times for everybody where they want to take a baseball bat to another person. It's just that we don't usually do that. Spike does.

"As far as the physical aspects of Spike, the makeup is fabulous. Todd McIntosh won and Emmy last year and he's absolutely the best there is. He takes his time with the makeup work. And they're comfortable. Spike looks the coolest he has ever looked. Of course, I can't get anyone to kiss me when I have the makeup on. The fights are just heaven. You can bash someone through a wall, but no one has to go to the hospital. My favorite days on set are fight days.

"In terms of doing both shows, what I've noticed is that people seem to be hired with an eye toward professionalism and being able to do their job very well," he continues. "Also, everyone on both sets is very kind. You don't want to mess with them, but if you do your job, they're very nice. Much of that comes from Sarah and from David. They're both real professionals. They don't mess around. They want to make a good show. They want people to be treated well. They're not screwing off, so nobody else has any margin to do that. The fun is had in making the shows. We all work very hard, but we enjoy doing that. There's a lot of continuity between the shows. There's cross-pollination between the makeup and wardrobe people. We have so many familiar faces on Angel that I almost feel like I'm doing Buffy."

The actor must return to the set, so there's little time to review past Buffy episodes.

Marsters, however, does pick a couple of favorites. "I liked 'School Hard,'" he comments, referring to his very first Buffy adventure. "I got a good body count. The character cut a wide swath through the population. But I thought that my acting was a little over the top, frankly. For me, 'Lover's Walk,' where I came back looking for Dru and I was all drunk, is probably my favorite. Doing the scenes with Sarah on top of the police car and with Willow [Alyson Hannigan] in the vampire den was great. I thought those scenes worked really well."

And what rated as Marsters' most wild Buffy moment to date? "I lit my hand on fire," he says, laughing. "I did that in 'Lover's Walk,' which was my one season three show. They were trying to figure out how to get the stuntperson's hand in the shot so they could do the fire gag, and I said, 'Let me! Let me!' I'm always trying to get into doing that stuff, and they let me. We did two takes. I burned the hell out of my hand, but I had a good time doing it."

Fighting. Evil. Vampires. Religious imagery. Buffy aficionados see such things week after week on their favorite show, but it's all too much for many a conservative soul in this cautious era. There's plenty of debate about violence on TV and its effect on society, and, wisely, Marsters does not dismiss it. How can he, really, given that on two occasions the WB has pulled Buffy episodes, in part out of respect for the real-life victims of the Columbine massacre, and in part for fear of stoking the ire of those less-than-open-minded, thereby precipitating a backlash?

"It's a very healthy discussion to be having," he asserts. "All through history, people have made the mistake that just because a storyteller portrays a character doing something, it doesn't necessarily mean that the storyteller agrees with that character. The acid test for me is, 'What are the themes that are being explored?' If it's just simple revenge, if a character just kills people for no particular reason, and that's put up as a good thing, then it rather becomes like watching Christians being fed to lions just for the gore, for the pleasure aspect of it. That can be very destructive and desensitizing.

"But Buffy, at the end of the day, is about a young woman who is trying to grow up and find herself, and who has a job that gets in the way of doing that. She's just trying to hold on to her friends and family and discover who she is. That's very interesting. Violence, when it is portrayed without repercussions, is irresponsible. But I don't think that's the case with Buffy. The show deals with the repercussions and the violence around Buffy at all times. So, in that way, Buffy is a very responsible show."

As the conversation ends, however, Marsters sinks his teeth into an entertaining notion that's sure to amuse Buffy fans and peeve those darn conservatives. Marsters would have Spike not only bite a few real-life people, but also a few of his TV brethren. "I would go to Senate hearings, any Senate hearings, and cut a swath through the Judiciary Committee. Actually," James Marsters speculates, "maybe I could nosh on Katie Holmes from Dawson's Creek. I would love Spike to pop up on The X-Files. That would be sweet. I really think I would have a good time on Seventh Heaven. Spike could teach them all a lesson about life. 'Come here, Minister. Let me really teach you about Heaven.'"