MEET MISTER WIZARD

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He is just as driven in the collaborative world of movies and TV. Though he has written none of the episodes of ER since the pilot, he has stayed closely involved in the production. "He gets all the outlines, all the scripts, all the dailies, all the rough cuts, and then he makes notes," says ER executive producer John Wells. "He's absolutely involved in the day-to-day workings of the show, but he's not in the office 12 hours a day, which is what makes a difference. It's really helpful to have an outside eye." And an outside intellect. "Medical shows have traditionally pandered to the audience," says Wells. "Michael brought a demand for a certain type of intelligent storytelling, and the audience has responded."

The Lost World, which will show up in bookstores in dino-size portions this Wednesday, might seem like a bit of backtracking for Crichton--it's the first sequel he has ever written. Crichton saw it as a challenge: "The reality is, you can't be fresh. If you're really fresh, it's not a sequel." He anticipates a critical drubbing, and probably deserves one. The book (it's six years after Jurassic Park, we're on a Costa Rican island, and the earth trembles .) has a cutting-room-floor feeling to it: outtakes. No matter; the national release of 2 million hardback copies is one of the biggest in history, and Spielberg is already storyboarding it for the movies--though he hasn't yet decided whether he will direct.

The other reason why Crichton discovered The Lost World is that he needed something to do while gestating his next project. This unborn novel, he says, will deal with the media, big legal trials, Menendez-like crimes, something along those lines. "Shoot mom and reload and keep shooting. Is that O.K.? I mean, what do we think about all this? Are we all victims of our upbringing in some form or another? Or do we at every moment have a choice, and are we responsible for that choice? You know, this is a phenomenally contentious area. Nature/nurture [whether you were born bad, or made that way, he means] makes everybody mad."

Crichton smiles sweetly, makes a steeple of his long fingers. Anything else? "I just kind of mostly work a lot and spend time with my family. It seems like, in a way, that's all there is. There's the time you spend with your family and your friends, and there's the time you spend working. You're actually trying to make something, and you make it." With The Lost World about to hit the bookstores, the movie screens and the popular imagination, nobody will be unaware that he made something, again.

--With reporting by Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles and Andrea Sachs/New York