Eugene Robert Glazer tries very hard to rule the world, and sometimes he succeeds. The man who plays Operations, the head of Section One on USA's La Femme Nikita, has been credited on the series with everything from keeping Saddam Hussein in power to assassinating Latin American presidents. To some, the man who leads the world's most covert anti-terrorist organization is a hero. But to most of the people who work for him, he's a ruthless, cold-hearted killer.

"I don't believe Operations rules the world - if only he were able to, it would be wonderful," Glazer lamented recently in Toronto, where La Femme Nikita films. In the fourth season premiering this week, he must deal with meddling from Oversight and cope with the return of Section One founder Adrian whom he had tried to neutralize - reportedly by having her cryogenically frozen. He will also have to confront some ghosts from his past as well, including memories of having been a P.O.W. that shape his current behavior.

At the end of last season, Operations and Section One strategist Madeline tried to sabotage the work of Oversight's George, who encouraged Nikita's lover Michael to undermine Operations. They nearly succeeded until George revealed that Section operative Greg Hillinger was a spy for Oversight. Operations and George appeared to be at a stalemate in their power struggle, but neither one is likely to stop scheming.

"That is something we'll be working on this season, how George is dealt with," Glazer said. "I would love to get my hands around his neck! I'd love to get my hands around Hillinger's neck, too. I have a feeling he most likely will be back. Though I think Nikita has earned the right . . . all of us have earned the right!"

Nikita, who risked her life lying for Hillinger before she knew his real mission, has earned the right to get her hands around Operations' neck several times over. Not only did he try to have her cancelled (i.e. executed), but he and Madeline had Nikita brainwashed to fall out of love with Michael because their relationship was causing the couple to become insubordinate.

"I meet people who say, 'I really like the show, but why are you so mean to that girl?'" noted Glazer, to which he jokingly added: "Guys, it's a script. Besides, she's a pain in the ass, and she has to be kept in line!"

Off Profile

Operations - whose real name is Paul, though no one ever calls him that -is a major control freak. He has to be, to protect the world from vicious terrorists. Even so, his behavior within Section borders on outrageous, so much so that he spends a great deal of time meddling into the personal lives of his operatives just to keep them in line.

What's more, Operations has a relationship with Madeline that goes far beyond what's acceptable for the rest of Section. Their ill-timed affair and her subsequent accusation that he was harassing her turned out to be an elaborate trap for George, who believed he could turn Madeline against Operations last season. But Operations didn't yet know George was spying on him when he smashed through quarantine security to get to Madeline in "Inside Out," nor when he invited her to make love in the Tower in "Last Night."

Does Glazer think Operations has feelings for Madeline? "Of course, he loves her, yes!" exclaimed the actor, who nonetheless believed the couple would not have become intimate last season if Oversight hadn't been watching. "I think they had something a long time ago and decided to use it against George. Everything is kept as what you see is what you get. Nothing can really be shown."

In the early episodes, Glazer was told to play Operations even less demonstratively. "When I first started, there were one or two moments where a smile came across my face, and you'd have thought I dropped a bomb in the soundstage. They said, 'No no no, my God, this man does not smile!'"

Glazer believes the character does have a sense of humor, "but it's very subtle. He comes in to Madeline and says, 'Let's see, we caught the two bombers that killed the 70 children, well, just another day at the office.' They're obvious lines, but he doesn't have an obvious choice for humor."

The series isn't particularly known for its comedy, but the actor finds it occasionally watching Nikita. "It's like watching a spoiled child. She's a terrific operative, but Jesus, I would have killed anyone else three minutes into the show. You have to have people really have the fear of God in them, because as in real life, you give an inch, they take a foot. If someone gets out of line, you just have to shoot them."

That philosophy seems to be Operations' M.O. "Running a place like this, he has to be absolutely heartless, unfortunately. Everyone is expendable - everyone." As a result, Nikita makes a perfect foil for him. "There's something about her character that runs parallel to Operations. Operations can't be that human anymore. He's lost that, from everything he's been through and everything he's had to do."

Yet Operations is more prone to expressing his emotions, such as letting his feelings for Madeline leak out, than are either Madeline or Michael. "Madeline and Michael are similar. You don't see a lot what's going on with them. I think Operations shows a little bit more of the human side; Madeline's character does not."

"I would sooner use a despicable terrorist, if I can kill ten terrorists by saving one through his work. It's the 'kill the few to save the many' concept," explained the actor. Glazer doesn't completely disagree with the philosophy, though he finds Operations' behavior excessive. "If I were the president, the death penalty would be instituted in every state in the Union, and if someone did a despicable crime, that's it. I'm very radical about seeing innocent people hurt for no reason. I used to be a bleeding heart, but now when a guy rapes a three-year-old and they say he was abused as a child, I say tough. Shoot him."

Operations has occasionally shown a sentimental side, like when he listened to his now-dead son talk about him. "That was really a nice soft moment. In another episode, where he had to drive his former wife insane to capture her seditious new husband, he showed some remorse. "Originally they did have a really tender scene where I tell her how very sorry I am. But they cut it out because it was like a dream sequence. We're holding each other, she backs off a little and says it's okay, and there's no one there but me. I thought it was kind of nice, but they thought it was silly."

Not Was

Because Operations' backstory was not fleshed out when Glazer got the part, he created his own. The small P.O.W. pin always worn by the character was the actor's idea. "When we first started the show, I was reading a lot on the American involvement in Vietnam and the political issues and the CIA. I gave them a biography of the character. It's really a compilation of a lot of different people I've read about. His background as a P.O.W., they're going to address that in one show this year."

For Glazer, the research wasn't just background for a performance; the stories of Vietnam prisoners of war fascinate and enrage him. "I have bookcases full of books I haven't even read yet, and I still order more, to my wife's dismay," he reported. "When I first got on the Internet about four years ago, I started getting into the P.O.W. sites. I would get on at ten o'clock and by six in the morning I was still on, downloading and printing. I just couldn't stop."

Though he initially worried about attracting the attention of the CIA or the Department of Defense, the actor eventually made contact with men from the Hanoi Hilton who told him their stories. "There were American soldiers who were specifically trained to assassinate U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, soldiers who were believed to be traitors. The guys they trained could take out a gnat at 300 yards. That's how good they were. But most of them since the war committed suicide. They couldn't live with the fact that they killed their own people."

Glazer is interested in writing a screenplay about people working their way through the government lies to rescue the remaining P.O.W.s in Asia. He asked La Femme Nikita's writers to work some of these issues into Operations' backstory as well. "My character was a P.O.W. I gave them a background, a history of this man, what his service record was, what he did. I based it on several people I had talked to or read about. They based a lot of stuff for the character on it."