Michael Weatherly is the guiding light that illuminates Ian Spelling’s journey through the world of the Dark Angel…

It all goes back to Joe Versus the Volcano. That Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan pairing, via a decidedly circuitous route, ultimately brought Michael Weatherly to his breakout role as Logan Cale, the handsome hero of the newly minted SF hit, Dark Angel. We kid you not.

‘I was going to university in Washington, DC, and I went to see Joe Versus the Volcano at the local theatre,’ Weatherly recalls. ‘I sat through the Matinee show and after it was over, I walked outside and looked up at the sky.

For his much-anticipated television debut, Academy Award-winner James Cameron (”Titanic”, “Terminator 2″) teamed with Emmy Award-winner Charles Eglee (”Murder One”) and created “Dark Angel,” a sci-fi adventure series set in the near future.

Dark Angel stars Jessica Alba (”Never Been Kissed”) as Max, a genetically-enhanced human prototype with attitude to spare. Having escaped her military handlers, she is hunted by them through the underground street life of 21st Century Pacific Northwest. Max is aided in her quest – both to avoid capture and to reunite with her surviving “siblings” – by Logan (Michael Weatherly). Logan, an idealistic computer geek/reporter, battles corruption and the oppressive establishment in this futuristic landscape.

Michael Weatherly snags a few minutes from filming in Vancouver, Canada, on “Dark Angel,” in which he plays Logan “Eyes Only” Cale, an idealistic cyber-journalist who has spent most of the show’s first season in a wheelchair.

He works very hard for a man who spends most of his time sitting down. “It’s true,” he says. “As the third A.D. told me the other day, ‘You’re the luckiest man in showbiz.’ Not only do I get to sit down every day, but I get to sit down next to Jessica Alba.”

Dark Angel’s Michael Weatherly reveals his past-and his passion for co-star Jessica Alba.

It doesn’t take 20/20 vision to see that Eyes Only is nervous. It’s obvious from the way he greets his lunch date at a West Hollywood cafe on a late January afternoon. “I have almost a phobia about (interviews),” begins Michael Weatherly, who plays Dark Angel’s underground cyber crusader Logan Cale.