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No, not Phil Housley.
Not Arnie Schwarzenegger. And not Poltergeist either.
Cpl. Brian Fletcher is back in Lynx River.
At the end of North of 60's fifth season, the RCMP officer disappeared into the wilderness, crazed with guilt by an affair with a troubled young girl.
And his shocking return isn't even front- page news in the fictional N.W.T. town these days.
There's been a murder, a diamond find and the kidnapping of nurse Sarah Birkett, too.
In the Blue Ground, a new TV movie currently shooting west of Calgary for airing in the new year, doesn't exactly pick up where the Genie-winning CBC drama left off after its 90 episodes, but will certainly give fans a fix.
"It wasn't so much a matter of wanting to take care of stories," Tom Dent-Cox, who co-produces North of 60 with Doug MacLeod, explained on set yesterday.
"We knew we wanted to reach not only our old audience, but a new audience. And we knew if we did a contemporary police thriller it would satisfy our faithful and also invite a new audience."
Blue Ground centres its attention on RCMP officers Michelle Kenidi (Tina Keeper) and James Harper (Peter Kelly-Gaudreault) investigating a recent murder, a kidnapping and a mysterious phantom in their Lynx River detachment.
Not to mention the resurfacing of Michelle's ex-partner.
"Brian Fletcher -- the mountie who walked into the woods," Dent-Cox recalled.
"He might have died, but he didn't. In fact he may have wanted to die, but he didn't. Now he wants justice and his quest for justice will turn into a quest for revenge."
Robert Bockstael has returned to play Brian, while Tom Jackson's central character as band council chief will be a notable exclusion from the two-hour film.
"A lot of this movie takes place out of Lynx River and it's very focussed on four characters. Our desire to have the broader community in the story was interfering with the story. We had to keep peeling away until we got down to a single story," Dent-Cox defended.
"Once we did, we realized Peter Kenidi was not going to be prominent and not going to be featured so maybe we'll just save Peter (and therefore Jackson) for a movie in which he came play a central role."
Which means Keeper -- as ranking officer, of course -- becomes the central figure in Blue Ground.
"It's not all ME! It's James and it's Brian and it's Sarah and it's Michelle. You just came on the one day when it's all me," Keeper claimed.
On this day, however, it was all Keeper leaping around exploding planes and shooting bad guys.
"This is easily my most exciting day of the shoot, and it's great to be back."
Keeper thought she had said goodbye to North of 60 a few times in the past, due to the shaky financial and network status the series endured during most of its run. So she was excited to make the trip from her Winnipeg home to Lynx River once again.
"It's a really well written script. I feel like it kind of goes back to the roots of North of 60. There's a lot of characterization and some deep psychological journeys...."
And explosions.
"And explosions," she acknowledged.
After successfully demolishing a small aircraft, Dent-Cox smiled, "That's one of the things a movie allows you to do -- make everything bigger. A two-hour film allows for a broader story and deeper character work. The cast and crew get a different energy working on a movie."
The $2.8-million movie may not be the last visit to Lynx River residents for North of 60 fans, either.
"It's obvious there is plenty of life and plenty of stories left in the pot," Dent-Cox said.
"We're very very optimistic about this movie's ability to travel -- not just to Europe, but to the States where the series never did sell. Here we have a chance to go worldwide and hopefully regenerate interest in the series worldwide."
Also back on set near Bragg Creek are actors Tracey Cook, Wilma Pelly, Dakota House, Michael Horse and Jimmy Herman.