The last new episode aired last December, with Season Two cut short by the writer’s strike. In the spring the writers decided to concentrate on the third season, rather than jumping back into production to add a few episodes onto the second season. That time allowed creator Tim Kring and his team to evaluate the show’s “sophomore slump” and retool the series a bit.

For “Heroes,” the writers strike actually came in the nick of time: Just as NBC’s promising sci-fi serial appeared to be careering off course, the work stoppage truncated its second season. Back with new spring in its step, the show continues to feature intriguing characters and stories, but it’s time-hopping shenanigans risk wearing thin.

Tim Kring, creator and executive producer of NBC’s ‘Heroes’, said that he is not afraid to answer mythology questions definitively in the upcoming third season–which will only raise more questions. Among other things, the season premiere will settle the question about Claire’s invulnerability in a scene with her and Sylar.

Kristen Bell, who plays Elle Bishop on NBC’s ‘Heroes’, told SCI FI Wire that her character will be undergoing plenty of development during the show’s third season–and that she may have previously unknown connections to the others.

Some can fly, others can teleport and there are a few that we really don’t know much about. This is the mystifying adventure that is NBC’s “Heroes,” and if all the promises from the producers are to be believed, then the upcoming third year will be an action packed event indeed.

The US NBC network has released descriptions of the first two hours of the upcoming third season of ‘Heroes’, which returns in America on Sept. 22. SCI FI Wire has screened the first hour and can offer a few major spoilers of our own. (Stop reading if you don’t want to be spoiled!)

“Jericho” had a stability index rating of 92.9, while “Moonlight” had a stability index rating of 87.9. The numbers, which show the amount of audience retained based on the show’s highest overnight rating versus its average, is meant to give a snapshot look of how much audience a show retained during the season.

We think we’re in the perfect position–i.e., out on a limb–to proclaim that Fox’s upcoming SF drama Fringe will be this fall’s breakout success: The show that will knock Heroes out of the sky and bury Lost like Nikki and Paulo on that irritatingly populated desert island.

‘Kings’, which will air on NBC during 2009, will be a modern retelling of the King David story, set in a nondescript modern metropolis reminiscent of New York.