Season 2 of "Roswell" made the series more science fiction than its core audience anticipated, and it seems like that direction will be dumped when the third season debuts on UPN in October.

"The stories are getting a little bit out of high school," said Jason Katims, executive producer of the show, during UPN's fall preview for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, Calif. "Isabel (Katherine Heigl) gets into a serious relationship and falls into a precipitous marriage. Max (Jason Behr) goes on a quest to find his child, and Liz (Shiri Appleby) goes along with him, and that quest will take him out of Roswell and onto the road."

Other story arcs will include Michael (Brendan Fehr) getting a job and Maria (Majandra Delfino) beginning to pursue her musical career.

"One of the things I'm really interested in playing, starting with the beginning of the year, is the family drama that is here in the show and that we've never really explored," Katmis said. "In the first episode, Max and Liz get arrested, and suddently they're in real trouble and their parents are called in. It's not so funny anymore, and it's not like they can go away for two days and say, 'We went camping' and everything is OK with them. By the end of the episode, Liz is forbidden by her parents ever to see Max."

Katims also talked a little about the past season with Sci-Fi Wire.

"I felt where we went kind of astray a little bit was these four-episode arcs where there was so much mythology and so many pieces of storylines out there, that it just got too complicated. I think we're on a much better track here. This is really what I've been wanting to do with the show, bring it back to building the season based no character arcs,and we have a character arc for every character in the show."

To help with character developments, Katims said he has brought in Melinda Metz -- author of the Roswell High book series that the series is based on -- along with her writing partner, Laura Burns.

"They obviously have a long history with these characters, with this world. They have a great imagination, and I don't expect them to bring storylines from those books. What I expect them to bring is their imagination and who they are as writers, and I'm very excited about the possibilities here," Katims said.