Imagine a small town in the Pacific Northwest teeming with some of the smartest people in the world with access to the best technology in the world. Now have them create better technology from that. And watch as things go awry and a sheriff, sometimes the sole voice of common sense in the group of people trying to solve the problem, make sure his town doesn’t get destroyed, or destroy anything else.
Welcome to the premise of the SyFy show Eureka.
Now into it’s fourth season, the show has shifted gears dramatically by sending a small group of characters back into the past in the season premiere. When they returned to their own time, they realized it was not the same Eureka they had left because they had someone tagging along for the ride. Some differences were subtle, and some were major. But it’s definitely made the show thrive with a new vibrancy.
The main character of the series, Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) had just been dumped by his long distance girlfriend, only to find in this new reality they were still together. Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) found out she was no longer the head of Global Dynamics, the corporation that employs the smartest scientists in the world, but Douglas Fargo (Neil Grayston) was instead, much to everyone’s surprise. On a more positive note for her, however, her previously autistic son was now a normal teenager. Jo Lupo (Erica Cerra) not only lost her job as the town’s deputy but she lost her longtime boyfriend Zane Donovan (Niall Matter) as well after he had proposed to her in her own timeline, though she is now the head of security at GD, as Global Dynamics is generally referred. And Henry Deacon (Joe Morton) finds out that in this particular alternate universe, he’s happily married instead of a longtime bachelor.
All of this came about after a trip to the 1940s and the founding of Eureka as a town and not just a military base. While there, they meet Dr. Trevor Grant (James Callis), one of the main founders of the town. When the others are transported back, it is revealed that he had Carter’s cell phone on him and used it to come back with them. After an attempt to return him to his own timeline failed and he nearly died due to wormhole technology, he is now stuck in this timeline and put into the new role of town historian Charles Grant. He has also shown interest in Allison, much to Carter’s chagrin.
Many things are in store for the show, according to recent question and answer sessions at Comic Con International and at the writers own blog (http://eurekaunscripted.typepad.com/blog/).
The creators and writers promise that if there is ever a return to the previous timeline it is a long way off, and they’re taking every opportunity to make this season one of it’s most memorable. One episode this season brought over Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti) from another SyFy hit, Warehouse 13, after sending Fargo over to the Warehouse to upgrade their computer systems. Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame has guest starred in one episode and will be becoming a recurring character in the second half of this season, alongside Felicia Day, who is well known for the webseries The Guild and the Emmy winning Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. All in all, this season is being hailed as one of the best ever, and for very good reason.
