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Guest stars to help ‘Eli Stone’ recover

Eli Stone, the visionary lawyer, returns Oct. 15 with a few high-profile friends to provide insurance against a verdict of low ratings.

ABC’s fantasy legal drama, which aired 13 episodes early this year, is back for a second season on a new night (10 p.m. EST) as its hero recovers from surgery to remove a brain aneurysm that caused him to see the future.

The future of “Eli Stone,” producers say, is to make the show less “goofy” than it started out last spring (with an attention-getting story line built around singer George Michael) and more welcoming to new fans.

Sigourney Weaver, in her first TV series role, guests tonight as a therapist Eli sees to recertify him to practice law after his surgery. Singer Seal appears in the seventh episode, performing as himself.

But the biggest “get” is Katie Holmes. She reunites with co-creator Greg Berlanti in next week’s episode for the first time since she launched her career on “Dawson’s Creek,” for which Berlanti was a writer.

Holmes plays Grace Fuller, a lawyer and kindred spirit of Eli first seen in one of his song-and-dance visions as she channels Duke Ellington. Eli (Jonny Lee Miller) is smitten.

“We have to do these big-event things to compete,” Berlanti says. In casting a net, “I always wanted to work with Katie again” and knew it would be “a boost to us to have her involved and give the show the publicity it needs.” To his surprise, she agreed, “in part as a favor to me,” but also because she relished the chance to demonstrate her chops as a singer.

Berlanti knew she could. As a teen from Toledo, Ohio, she proved herself at “Dawson”’s karaoke parties. “I said, ‘Let’s show the world you’ve got a great voice,’ and she was, “OK, let’s do that.’ ”

Last season, the show was compared to “Ally McBeal,” David E. Kelley’s fanciful legal drama that also mixed fantasy elements with outrageous cases. This year, “Eli” dials down the quirky comedy and becomes more emotional. Eli’s visions will tie more directly to his clients’ cases.

“Because we were trying find our way with it, the show was a little frenetic,” Berlanti says. “We worked to calm it down but not change what made it different.” Back then, “it was lighter at its best and goofier at its worst.”

Resuming six months after Eli’s surgery, “it’s going to be less of a discovery about his condition,” Miller says. “He’s going to be more accepting” of his role as prophet.