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Eureka: The Best Show on TV You're Not Watching (but We've Got a Cure for That!)

Whether you're a dedicated fan (guilty!) or a series newbie, you can't miss tonight's premiere of Syfy's hit series

By Drusilla Moorhouse Jul 09, 2010 6:27 PMTags
Colin Ferguson, EurekaArt Streiber/Syfy

Eureka returns tonight! Whether you're a dedicated fan (guilty!) or a series newbie, you won't want to miss the fourth-season premiere of Syfy's hit show.

Why is this season so special? Like the show's scientific geniuses, the writers are brilliantly rebooting the series. It's shocking and will take some getting used to, but we guarantee you will not be disappointed. Travel on in here to find out what star Colin Ferguson (Sheriff Jack Carter) told us about the changes ahead...

In tonight's premiere, "Founders Day" (featuring Battlestar Galactica's James Callis, who guests for 10 episodes), Carter & Co. travel back in time for a little history lesson on the origins of the top-secret research town of Eureka. Spoiler alert! Colin goes a little Section Five on the storyline, so read on at your own risk.

What was your first reaction to the series reset?
Colin Ferguson:
I thought it was a huge positive on a bunch of different levels: It gives this series a whole new lease on life, and it really shows the network's faith. It's a bold idea, and for the network to sign off on it, the writers were so encouraged that that energy permeated through the whole set. So, I like the idea and I like what it did.

What does it do for Jack and Allison (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), and why do the writers seem to hate them together so much?
I think they like it when I suffer: I'll get two episodes where I don't fall down a set of stairs or get hit in the face, and they're like, "Yeah, we're gonna have you get hit by a car." But we do actually hook up this year, and it's really nice—they did a great job of it. And it's not saccharine, it's sort of realistic, and I don't feel it erodes anything.

Where does this leave Jack's "ex"-girlfriend, Tess (Jaime Ray Newman)?
She's on a bunch of episodes. So...it's complicated. 

How does the time travel affect the show's other romances?
Henry (Joe Morton) actually ends up falling in love with his wife [who was a virtual stranger]...They do a great job of it, they do beautiful things. Jo (Erica Cerra) obviously gets kicked in the teeth in episode one, but Zane (Niall Matter)—because he's very smart—starts realizing something's up. Fargo (Neil Grayston) does a crossover episode with Warehouse 13, and Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) comes to visit Eureka. Those two get along so well that it's fun to see them onscreen. Also, SARAH finds a lover. You know who it is...which is really sort of funny and weird.

Who else is guesting this season?
We've got Jaime Kennedy and Wil Wheaton—it's really nice to see him playing a bearded, mean, grumpy scientist. Ed Quinn (Stark!) comes back this year (yeah, I mean, not—in his own way). And Matt Frewer (Taggart) comes back. I believe we did a Christmas episode with Matt.

Do you take a hit to your self-esteem playing the "dumb guy" in a cast of brilliant scientists?
I'm sort of at peace with it...It makes my day job really easy. I look at what Salli has to barf out—"Continuous threads of DNA" and all sorts of that stuff—and I just have to go, "So what does that mean?" I can take a hit—I'll do that any day.

So why should new viewers tune in to Eureka?
Reason 1: We finally figured out how to do it right. Reason 2: I think that these are probably the best 10 episodes we've done, so this is a really good place to start—it's a reboot. So, if you're mildly curious, you could do worse things than spending 45 minutes watching our show.

You're really selling it.
I'm the worst at self-promotion—you couldn't ask a worse person. It's the best television that's ever been made, that's reason 3. It's a huge cast of really eccentric, funny characters who finally get their due this year.

Reunite with all of Eureka's quirky characters tonight at 9 p.m. on Syfy.

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