He was surrounded by a ... de facto family that he no longer has. And [he is] sort of picking up his life all alone, and then getting involved in sort of the underbelly of other people's lives, and sort of finding out about them. Loneliness is what I think of. It may not be the theme so much as the emotional intent of the series, but that's what really attracts me to it the most."

Joss talks a little about the proposed BBC/Giles project.

again, another sidebar on the Sci Fi Wire homepage that can't be linked to:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told an audience at Comic-Con in San Diego that Dark Horse Comics will come out with a new Tales of the Slayer series, which will tell stories about slayers from throughout history. The comics will be written in part by scribes from the TV show.

and, the Buffy animated series has been approved. yip!