Brave Hearts 

Hot chemistry, historical accuracy and satisfied fans are some secrets to the success of Starz\'s steamy series adaptation of the

On a windswept bluff in Scotland\'s rugged Perthshire county, at the foot of the forbidding mountains of the Southern Highlands, a biting mist swirls icy tendrils around newlyweds Jamie and Claire.

— are out for a picnic, trying to come to terms with their marriage. The forced union is meant to keep Claire safe from British forces, who seek to arrest and imprison her as a Jacobite spy.

To look at them, you might not guess that they come from different worlds. But they do, quite literally, for she — until recently — was an English army nurse in World War II, 200 years in the future, who has traveled back in time to 18th-century Scotland.  Jamie, meanwhile, is a rogue highlander very much in his own time, wanted by the British and, until his recent wedding night, a virgin to boot.

As they huddle together on that heather-strewn hillside, dark clouds loom on the horizon: the threat of war grows across England and Scotland, where allegiances between the clans, always a little uneasy, strain to breaking. Danger lurks in every dale and glen, as British troops and Scottish highlanders confront each other in fierce and violent clashes. And yet....

"I don\'t mean to imply you have some vast knowledge of men…but is it usual, what it is between us when I touch you?" Jamie asks, tentatively. "Is it always so between a man and a woman?"

Well, the winds of winter be damned. Clearly, in this part of Scotland, we\'re having a heat wave.

Based on the best-selling series of novels by Diana Gabaldon,

has become the kind of tent-pole project that television executives dream about, thanks in no small part to lush locales and the hotter-than-hot chemistry between stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan.

"When we set out to do this series, our first goal for ourselves was to do no harm," says Starz CEO Chris Albrecht, referring to Gabaldon\'s literary legacy. "We wanted to make sure that the fans of the books felt we were doing justice to the story."

There was a lot at stake. Over the past two-plus decades, the books have sold more than 20 million copies and spawned tens of millions of fervent, mostly female fans around the globe. "When was the last time you completely lost your heart to a book?" enthuses one fan. Another gushes, "I am obsessed by Jamie and Claire."

Not surprising then, that it was two women — Moore\'s wife, costume designer Terry Dresbach, and his producing partner, Maril Davis (a coexecutive producer on the series) — who convinced him to read the first book in the series (there are eight in all). At the time, he was scouting for a new project, and the novel boasted something familiar from his days in space drama: specifically, time travel.

"It offered a lot, actually," Moore says. "It had action, romance, history, time travel… romance."

There\'s little doubt that the series skews heavily toward female viewers, but Albrecht says he\'s not concerned. He recalls his days as senior vice-president in charge of programming at HBO in 1998, when the cable channel introduced

"That show started out with a strong female viewer base, but by the second or third season, a lot of these women were bringing their husbands and boyfriends to the show. And it worked."

, he believes, has plenty of elements that appeal to men. "It\'s sci-fi, it\'s historical fiction, and there are gnarly looking guys in kilts wielding swords."

Since the Starz programming philosophy differs from that of broadcast networks — "Premium cable isn\'t about selling eyeballs to advertisers," Albrecht notes — the ingredients for a hit are also different. "For us, it\'s more important to have something of this quality, with this kind of fan base that will endure for decades. That makes it a valuable product."

The series\' value became evident very quickly, as fans of the novels started counting down in online forums to the show\'s August 2014 premiere.

Including additional online platforms, on-demand, DVR and so on, more than 6.5 million watched the first episode, making

the second-biggest premiere in Starz\'s history. (The channel\'s male-skewing pirate drama

attracted nearly 8.8 million viewers when it debuted in January 2014.)

\'s first eight episodes have averaged more than 5 million multi-platform views per episode. The first season was split; the second eight episodes began in April. In terms of social media, the show topped the Nielsens for Twitter conversation volume the day it premiered. A second season was announced within days.

Hoping to lure more men, Starz issued a mash-up promo video that joins scenes from

. "The focus will be to expand the audience as we move into the second season," Albrecht says.       

While the romance between Jamie and Claire will always remain center stage, Moore and his staff of writers have amped up tensions between the Scottish clans and delved deep into the historical context of the second Jacobite rebellion.

That\'s when clans loyal to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the House of Stuart, early monarchs of the kingdom of Scotland, tried to overthrow the British throne. They failed finally and bitterly at the Battle of Culloden.

There\'s also the storyline of Claire\'s husband, Frank. He\'s still back in the 1940s, a former MI6 operative searching desperately for his wife, who mysteriously vanished while visiting Scotland\'s mystical stone circle at Craigh na Dun. Tobias Menzies portrays both Frank and Frank\'s sadistic 18th-century ancestor, Black Jack Randall (cue some vivid scenes involving torture).

Moore says he doesn\'t spend a lot of time thinking about how the story skews to which demos; he concentrates on trying to stay as true to the books as possible.

"Doing a show that is an adaptation uses a surprisingly different muscle," he admits. "When we\'re in the writers\' room, trying to crack a story, we don\'t have the option to throw it out. Rather, we put cards up on the board detailing the order of events in each book. And as we determine arcs, we\'ve always got it in mind, \'How do we get back to the book?\'"

As a boy, Sam Heughan grew up steeped in the lore of Scotland\'s highlands. His family is aligned with the powerful MacDonald clan — they share the same tartan — that at one time held the title of Lord of the Isles.

Born in the tiny town of New Galloway, 20 miles from the birthplace of renowned poet Robert Burns, Heughan lived with his mother on the grounds of an ancient castle. On a clear day, they could look across the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man.

It was a rural and rudimentary life; he was one of just four students in his class at school. By the time he reached secondary school, he and his mother had moved to Edinburgh.

"I think I knew I wanted to act from a young age,” Heughan says. “I just wasn\'t sure I could do it.” He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and got his first big break in 2009, cast as a drug dealer on the BBC soap opera

. In 2011, he played a prince in the Hallmark Channel telefilm,

Caitriona Balfe was born in Dublin, Ireland, and grew up in the historic village of Tydavnet, a town whose beginnings date back to 2000 B.C. A tomboy and one of seven children, she was raised on a farm, where she\'d sometimes have to milk the cows before school.

Balfe studied theater at the University of Ireland but, at the end of her first year, was offered the chance to model in Paris. "That seemed like a no-brainer, to move to Paris," she says. "But I ended up doing that quite a bit longer than I ever thought I would."

At the height of her modeling career, the willowy 5\'10" Balfe was one of the top 20 models in the world, having done numerous couture shows for Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, et al.

"But it always was in the back of my mind to go to New York, resume acting classes, see if I was any good," she says. Once she\'d reached Gotham, she continued the journey, making a snap decision one day to pack up and move to Los Angeles.

to succeed, the casting of Jamie and Claire was crucial. Readers had already known — and loved — the characters for a quarter century. "I always thought it would be much easier to find Claire," Starz\'s Albrecht says. "There are so many talented actresses out there. The role I was concerned about was Jamie."

But that\'s not how it worked out. Moore and the show\'s other executive producers (Jim Kohlberg and Andy Harries) saw Heughan early in the process and quickly knew they had found Jamie.

The actor says he was sent three scenes to learn — lengthy scenes involving a lot of dialogue taken almost directly from the books. "Ron flew over to the U.K., and I did a screen test," Heughan recalls. "I got an old friend from drama school to read with me. I had already read a lot of the first book, so I went in feeling like I knew Jamie."

"We saw so many people for Claire — we were really getting late into the process," Albrecht notes. It was only after execs went back through the mountain of audition tapes that they zeroed in on Balfe. But, before any decisions were made, they knew they had to see Balfe and Heughan together, so they flew him in from the U.K.

"There was the most horrible road work on Pico Boulevard [in Los Angeles] that day," Balfe recalls. "I was 10 minutes late and I came running in, all sweaty. But Sam was the most calming, lovely gentleman. We got along very well."

Heughan recalls that fateful screen test: "It was a passionate scene between Jamie and Claire, where he is chastising her for running away and then getting caught [by British soldiers]. I had her in this huge bear hug, and she was really pissed off at me. As soon as Caitriona left, I think we all knew she was the one..."

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