SPOILER ALERT!

It’s time for Season 3.5 of Eureka: Eureka, the town that Global Dynamics built, affectionately called GD in the hamlet peopled by scientific eccentrics and iconoclasts.  It’s the town that we love to call home.

Flashback to Season 3:  When last seen, our beloved and much maligned Sheriff Carter was fired.  He helped Eva Thorne, the Fixer, to sneak out of town on a bus, after she shape-shifted into a most putrid stereotypical icon: the Corporate Hooker with a Heart of Gold.  I couldn’t bring myself to review the mid-season closer here on  Fanaticspace.  It was revealed that Eva Thorne was 107 years old. Surprise!  She was “A victim” too.”  The writers had two scripts nixed by the network, and were forced to write the script as they went along.  I had a little more sympathy after I read their explanation.  Still, the mid-season finale was a cop-out.  But enough!  Time to get over it.  Farewell, Eva.  Farewell Frances Fisher.  Farewell Sheriff Carter.  What?  Nah, we all knew they couldn’t actually say buh-bye to Carter.  Didn’t we?

Colin Ferguson does a brilliant job on Eureka as Sheriff Carter, no doubt about it.  His Everyman persona permeates the entire show, and that’s fine.  I personally would like to see a little more of the old Eureka style story threads with some juicy stuff for the rest of the ensemble cast.  But what do I know?

The Season 3.5 premiere episode, Welcome Back Carter has an obvious homage in its title.  It also introduces Sheriff Andy, Carter’s android replacement (played by Ty Olsson, no stranger to sci-fi).  That Andy is doomed to fail somehow at some point is obvious from the beginning.  This makes it no less entertaining to watch Sheriff Andy bumbling along on his less than Data, and more than A.I. fashion.

The scene in the Sheriff’s Office when we first meet Sheriff Andy is ideal, including Jo’s refusal to work for “a thing.”  She’s no Eurekan Barney Fife!  That would be Fargo, who compares the new Sheriff to a Furby, then steps up with a smile to shake hands with the DOD appointed droid.

With such a ripe garden for corny homage already set up, why didn’t they exploit it a little more?  Absurdity is common, even revered in Eureka; why not this time?  Ah, opportunities lost...

Dr. Fielding and Lexie are experimenting with a gravity reduction chamber for Lexie’s twin home birthing.   After an awkward handshake between the former Sheriff  and Fielding, we move on briskly with an emergency phone call.

Trees are falling.  That is, they have fallen and blocked the road, narrowly missing taking out Allison and her unborn.  Carter arrives on the scene before Sheriff Andy, and shields Allison from yet another falling tree.  Sheriff Andy takes over, and guilelessly investigates the “accident.”  Jack is officially shut out of the process, but continues to investigate, with the help of Jo and informants who defy federal law.

A convenient plant geneticist is circumstantially implicated for a little while.  The answer is not so simple as collateral damage from a science scion.  Instead, there’s plenty to interest us closet physics fans: tonight’s episode is about “gravity wells.”  Gravity wells, it seems, are popping up around Eureka.  Sheriff Andy is the target of specific gravity wells.  He endures two assassination attempts.  Carter is not amused.

What the heck is a gravity well, you might ask?  That’s part of the fun of Eureka.  Even if I weren’t going to completely geek out and smack myself in the head repeatedly to understand what it is, I could still enjoy the story with the thin explanation given on camera.  However, a quick perusal of the wikipedia page with high-flown formulas sent me to dig deeper. As an English speaker, I use my inferior parietal cortex (among other regions) to understand the math.   Sadly, my parietal cortex is more inferior than most.    I don’t entirely understand gravity wells, but this is a pretty simulation.

Doctor Fielding’s infant low gravity chamber seems to be the problem.  Fielding is duly called upon to fix his gravitational gaff.   This is going to be a typical “oops” episode, right?  Not this time.  After a botched attempt when everything is nearly FUBAR, Global Dynamics denizens discover that Fielding was not working alone.  Enter the cyber scientist, and Fielding’s mentor/crush, Marguerite Von Dieter.

Meanwhile, there are a few entertaining moments when Sheriff Andy’s databanks are scrambled after his catastrophic damage.  He scrambles names, and he speaks supposed Dutch.  It soon becomes apparent that SARAH is aka Marguerite Von Dieter.  She’s targeting Sheriff Andy to eliminate him, and keep Zoe and Jack around.  “I apologize, I let my artificial emotions get the best of me.”  You GO, GIRL.

Henry Deacon, not only the smartest man in Eureka, but also the Mayor, tells us: “Gravitational wells are coming together into a single massive event.  IF that happens, they will suck in any matter that comes close.”  Yes, indeed…a black hole.  Apparently, a black hole is like gravity well without a bottom.  Throw all the pennies in it that you want, and you might get your wish, but you’ll never see the pennies again.  Now imagine the west coast of the US as the pennies, and you get the idea.

SARAH admits, “I no longer have graviton guidance.   Doctor Fielding’s misguided attempt at a solution made the problem grow far beyond my control.”  It’s at this time that Henry further geekificates: “If these wells come together into a singularity, then evacuation won’t help.”

Carter, ever the cop, suggests, “If a bullet won’t work, how about a bomb?”

The roller coaster ride finally begins.  A graviton pulse explosion is required to return to normal gravity. Overloading a tensor field is apparently just the ticket.  Are your eyes crossed yet?  No fear.  A tensor field is essentially expansion and compression.  Hence Zoe’s nearly gleeful, “If you overloaded the tensor field, it could make a wicked gravity bomb”

Carter is ready to go, but Henry exclaims,  “Birds will be hitting the ground like cannonballs.”  Everyone assumes Sheriff Andy will come to the rescue of Mayberry, uh, Eureka, but it’s not to be.  Sheriff Andy’s Eureka database tells him that he’s not required to participate because it’s 93% likely he’ll be destroyed in the process.

Carter thinks those aren’t bad odds for Eureka, and Dudley Do-Rights it into Fielding’s lab, where all the little gravity wells are coalescing into one big ‘un.  A gravitational well takes the extra power source battery in Carter’s hands and weighs it down until it is dropped.  Carter can’t move because he effectively weighs many hundreds of pounds now, and yet his internal organs don’t collapse.  Amazing.  Sheriff Andy rides in like a toaster, and with A.I. feeling, saves the day, despite the risk to his person, um, cabinet, uh, housing.  Whatever, anyway, the two are blown back not quite to Kingdom Come, but near there, and Eureka is safe once again.

Sheriff Andy ends up riding his blender into the sunset, but not before helping Mayor Henry Deacon to reinstate Carter, who was terminated against the rules of Eureka’s charter.  I’d like to see Sheriff Andy return to Eureka again.   Deputy Lupo returns to duty, despite being unfairly bypassed by man and machine, and status quo is status in Eureka…EXCEPT that there is a signal coming from the outer limits in space, beyond the final frontier, and it’s headed straight for Eureka.

There are plans for yet another love interest for Carter in the person of Dr. Tess Fontana.  It’s generally thought that Allison can’t have a love life while pregnant with her dead husband’s progeny.  (Yes, she was really pregnant during the filming.)  Stark is now a vampire on another network, so he won’t be coming back to Eureka this season.   That wraps it up for this time, and my TV hometown is asleep in Warehouse 13 for another week.

Wait, wait, excuse me!  If SARAH was targeting Sheriff Andy, and so no one else was in danger until after Fielding’s botched Mr. Fixit attempt, WHY DID THE TREES NEARLY GET ALLISON?  Hellooooo, can anybody hear me?  Hello?

(Note: All images contained in this post are screen captures)

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I’ve always been fond of the music of Eureka, and was definitely ready for this cd.

Acclaimed composer Bear McCreary, of Battlestar Galactica renown, does a masterful job of musically mixing it up.  Of his own creation he says, “Whether or not you’ve seen Eureka, this CD is worth checking out.  The music is a totally unique and twisted blend of folk, blues and zydeco with 80s New Wave synths, 8-bit and 16-bit video-game-inspired FM synthesis, 70’s keyboards, accordions, dobros, didgeridoo and a little Spanish Flamenco. “

I couldn’t have said it better myself.  For one thing, I’m a sucker for accordion music, ever since my south pawed brother taught me how to play “Three Blind Mice” on my Dad’s accordion (turned upside down and backwards) when I was a sprat of six.  The zydeco takeoffs are always fun and sometimes gritty, and the subtler accordion melodies are clever.

I’m not going to comment on each track, but I will list them all at the end of this post.
The Main Title theme, by former Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh and John Enroth always inspires me to attempt to whistle along with it.   To say it’s “catchy” is cliche, but  I’m okay with that.

Sheriff Carter’s Theme makes me happy.   It’s an eclectic mix of jazz with a country beat, and some bluesy vocals thrown in that remind me of the Cookie Monster.

Allison’s Theme is terribly pretty, just like the character.    It’s almost pastoral, but not saccharine.

Through the Vortex, from The Games People Play episode, grew on me with multiple listens.  The power in it is undeniable.  It’s reminiscent, though not derivative of, McCreary’s work on BSG.

The Mask of Fargo, from Noche de Suenos is without a doubt one of my favorites.  Featuring sultry Flamenco guitar by Carlos De La Paz and a wild trumpet by Peter De Siena, it doesn’t get much better than this.  Being a poor to mediocre acoustic folk player, I appreciate De La Paz’s Flamenco guitar all the more for its technical expertise as well as its beauty

Brendan McCreary’s performance on his self composed ballad, Let’s Get Hitched, from the episode, Sight Unseen manages to be soulful, yet understated.

Henry’s Theme is sooooo serious, and borderline dark.  Tormented.  Pain filled. Portentious.  Lovely.

Not so, Taggart’s Theme.  It’s xylophoned, stringed, and quirky, series thematic, with a rough rhythmic edge, not unlike his character.  Sigh.

The Laser Cannon, from a Night at Global Dynamics, has a Rock Opera overture run through a synthesizer feel to it.

Captain Ahab’s Jonathan Snipes wrote and produced Eurekaerobics, from the Duck, Duck, Goose episode.  Techno meets fitness without becoming disco.  Ya gotta love it.

Jack and Callie’s halting relationship is well expressed in their song, featured in both the Sight Unseen and Maneater episodes.

The Heathers at the science fair (Duck, Duck, Goose) and Erotomania from Maneater are great comic pieces.

A Night at Global Dynamics, from the episode of the same name, is one of the most dramatic selections on the cd.  It conveys danger, darkness, and suspense with an orchestral movie soundtrack quality.

Also from A Night at Global Dynamics, we’re treated to a zydeco introduction that blows into hard drums punctuated with a synthesizer in  Threat of Nuclear Cleaning.  The rest of the piece is sinuous, woven with wind instruments, keyboard/piano, until its abrupt dobroed end ties back to the intro.

Don’t take my tin eared word for it.  This cd is a must-have for any Eureka fan.   I’m sure the Eureka soundtrack could stand alone.  But for me, it is a pleasant reminder of the music that moves my beloved Eureka along each week.

Track Listing:

1.    Eureka On My Mind (Eureka Main Title) (0:30)
2.    Sheriff Carter’s Theme (3:27)
3.    Prehistoric Love Spores (2:38)
4.    Allison’s Theme (2:52)
5.    Through the Vortex (5:02)
6.    Fargo’s Theme (2:49)
7.    The Mask of Fargo (2:27)
8.    The S.A.R.A.H. Mobile (1:16)
9.    Let’s Get Hitched (3:54)
10.    When You Wish Upon Falling Debris (3:10)
11.     Little Big Bang (2:33)
12.    Henry’s Theme (5:21)
13.    Taggart’s Theme (2:02)
14.    The Laser Cannon (1:54)
15.    Noche De Suenos (3:23)
16.    A Nuke for Fargo (5:41)
17.    EurekAerobics (2:31)
18.    Victor’s Getaway (0:34)
19.    Henry and Beverly (4:24)
20.    Jack and Callie (2:31)
21.    Everyone’s Dumb (1:48)
22.    The Heathers (0:37)
23.    Zane on the Lam (2:42)
24.    Erotomania! (2:26)
25.    A Night at Global Dynamics (3:52)
26.    Threat of Nuclear Cleaning (2:19)
27.    A Town Called Eureka (2:10)
28.    Eureka On My Mind Reprise (Eureka End Credits)(0:51)

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Eureka and a Stark Reality

We’ve been told that someone will die in Eureka…

I Do Over

(Spoilers ahead…)

It’s about time, as they say. It’s Allison and Stark’s Wedding Day and Monkey (I mean Jack) is supposed to walk Allison down the aisle. Hello, Allison, what were you thinking? In this curiously Arthurian triangle, Lancelot, er, I mean Carter, hasn’t actually slept with Guinevere/Allison, but the analogy holds.

Allison has to work on the Global Dynamics budget the morning of her big day. Corporate redaction (aka firings) is underway, and Eva Thorne needs Jack Carter to give out pink slips to those whose security badges will be disabled by 6PM.

Stark and Fargo are at GD to supervise the delivery of a new uber clock. With Fargo’s assistance, Carter locates Weinbrenner’s digs in the basement, misunderstanding the man’s role as the custodian of time. After a painful flash of blue light, Carter blows off talking to Weinbrenner, and heads to the wedding.

Enter the “Time/Temporal Loop” and Carter, not unlike like Sisyphus, spends much of the rest of the episode condemned to replay Allison’s wedding day sans the “I now pronounce you…”finale. After the first loop, Carter makes repeated attempts to convince Stark, Allison, Fargo and company that they are in a Groundhog Day scenario. Each iteration of the timeline brings a more battered Carter back into the shower. We are repeatedly treated to shower scenes with Carter and Degree antiperspirant “product placement,” which dovetails nicely with GD’s corporatization.

When Weinbrenner implies that Thorne is responsible for the timeline mayhem, we all want to believe him. Thorne’s “Fixer” character has developed… somewhat. The puzzle pieces to her real agenda are slowly being revealed. Meanwhile, her external actions remain stereotypical: Layoffs, BPR (business process redesign), apparently vindictive payback for not being invited to the wedding, and micromanagement of seemingly simple processes. I harbor a hope that she will turn out to be a hero of sorts, however unlikable her external demeanor. Even her pardon for Henry in “What About Bob?” is too quickly revealed to be self-serving. The Eureka writers haven’t been this ham fisted before…let’s hope Thorne’s actions turn out to be a setup for us, the fans.

Thorne had Henry scan an area we know she identified from WWII era nuclear experiment films. Her excuse is that she wants to erect a hotel on the parcel. She advises Henry to stay mum. Later, Carter independently follows Thorne based on an overheard conversation at GD. He steals her imaging device just as the time loop goes for another circuit.

But red herrings have become a popular plot device in Eureka. Henry determines that the device is for geological imaging. It seems there’s a large underground facility. Is that the cause of the heretofore theoretical type of radiation discovered by Henry? How can it be that an underground facility could exist while all the technology and attendant geniuses in Eureka remain unaware?

Henry also tips Carter that Weinbrenner used to work with him at NASA, and was working on backward time spinning. (Ah, if he only had a Stargate.) Carter belatedly remembers something us viewers may have noticed earlier: Weinbrenner knew about the firings before Thorne had given Carter the list.

Once confronted, Weinbrenner spills his substantial guts, and confesses that he was just trying to finish his experiments in faster than light time travel. Carter was caught in a backwash of that light, and thus her remembers the previous loops. Unfortunately, the fabric of time is in danger of destruction, and there are only two loops left before the end of the world as we know it. Ironically, Weinbrenner had no time to create a timer. Adjustments must be made to the new clock that made Weinbrenner’s job obsolete to start with Carter has to learn the equation for the speed of light. Weinbrenner’s lecture on ultra indigo light is bogus, however moving light in reverse at a speed faster than itself is legitimate. Weinbrenner is literally toasted in his at tempt to right the world. Is this the Eureka death we have been awaiting?

BIGGEST SPOILER AHEAD

Carter convinces Stark that time is out of whack by singing the aforementioned light equation to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (too bad that’s not on the Eureka soundtrack).

Fargo tries to fix the problem by remotely syncing up with the new uber clock, but the vacuum seal shatters. It will have to be done manually. Fargo heroically offers to perform the job, Carter volunteers as well, but Stark steps in. He tells Carter that there’s no song for this one. We know he’s the logical candidate.

At first, you think that Stark will succeed, and come out of the little chamber smirking with a snide aside for Carter. Though their relationship has been intermittently less rancorous lately (notably Best in Faux), Stark can’t help but be himself. In the last moments before the repair, Stark shows a bit of the fellow he must have been when Allison fell for him the first time. He advises Carter to tell Allison that he saved the world for her and that he loved her. Awww…

Success! The fabric of time is repaired. Then Stark’s photons accelerate right into the universe.

The last we see of him is a beatific expression that disintegrates and floats away. I gasped when this happened. So did you. You sucked wind. Admit it. The stark [sic] reality is that we loved to be irritated by Nathan Stark. We loved to watch the territorial imperatives played out between Stark and Carter in their quest for Allison.

Carter has to show up at Allison’s wedding just one more time…but this time there’s no groom. Two foreshadowing sentences have permeated the episode: Carter’s “I’ll always be there for you, no matter what,” to Allison. Allison’s “Everything will work out the way it should” to Carter.

Is this where the previous alternate future from “Once in a Lifetime” kicks in? We don’t know yet. Have we gone temporarily from Arthurian saga to Moonlighting? Hmmm…meanwhile I guess we can continue to count the Bill Murray and Doctor Who references.

If it were me, I would use the Light moving backwards simulation to create a clone of Stark that is brought back to the Eureka present — bending the Arrow of Time postulations and their expansion/successors — returning Stark, but not Stark. It would allow for new nuances of character, and the creation of more Arthurian twists in Eureka. They could call it “There and Back Again”… oops wait, that’s Bilbo Baggins story.

My opinion makes no difference. They have all the season’s episodes in the can. We have to (groan) wait and see…

In the end, I’m always a sucker for a Time Travel story, on the big or not so little screen. Aren’t you? Stargate, Star Trek, Heroes, Eureka, ad infinitum. The first time I saw the old “Time Machine” movie on television, I was five years old. I spent many nights secretly trying to construct my own time machine. We all did that, didn’t we? No? Well, I think I told you a while ago that one of the reasons I love Eureka is because it reminds me of my family…and in an alternate timeline I can probably perform higher math calculations that go beyond how much to tip the restaurant server.

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A Sinus-y Fan Perspective on Stargate Continuum

I went camping on the Great Plains for a couple of weeks and my sinuses are paying the price. Apparently they can’t process the powerful powdered cow chips and prairie dog poop that give new meaning to the old poetic cum prosaic song lyrics, “Dust in the wind, everything is dust in the wind.” It was almost a different time-space continuum, with an arcane cultural slant, no electricity or running water.

It was a good place from which to return…

With our Dish DVR accusing me of slackdom each day, I watched the Olympics through my haze of headache. I tried to clear my head, literally and figuratively, to catch up on my assignments. I had pre-ordered Stargate Continuum. It arrived while I was Home on the Range.

I made coffee, snorted some saline spray and sprawled on the couch with a box of tissues.

Stargate Continuum – Skewed Perspective and Spoilers Ahead!

Jack’s back! I told you he would be…Richard Dean Anderson’s Colonel Jack O’Neill returns in a cameo rife with trademark wisecracks and affected disaffection. Then he dies. Really! But not really…

Amanda Tapping returns as Samantha Carter, Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson, Christopher Judge as Teal’c, Ben Browder as Cam Mitchell, Beau Bridges as General Landry; Claudia Black as Vala Mal Doran, and the lovable late Don “General Hammond” Davis gives the last performance of his long career.

If you aren’t an avid Stargate SG1 fan, there could be a confusing moment or two. Yet, unlike the space operatic Ori loose end tying Ark of Truth, this feature successfully stands alone. There’s enough recap writing to clue you in without resorting to idiot lectures, and just enough space opera to keep the storyline moving through the wormhole.

Ba’al busting is the mission that opens Continuum, with the extraction of Ba’al’s symbiote in the offing by the Tok’ra. Ba’al is supposedly the last of the Goa’uld System Lord snake bellies remaining. His decommissioning is cut short as august attendees disappear in front of our very jaded eyes. Oh yes, we knew Ba’al’s demise was too good to be true.

We have instead entered the land of temporal distortion, a.k.a. time travel, for us physics challenged fans who search for sock-mates that clearly went through the wormhole in our driers. But wait! Some of us know our Star Trek quantums.

Even without having looked yet at the Bonus Feature “Layman’s Guide to Time Travel” ably appended by astrophysicist Jaymie Matthews, the alternate timeline and temporal anomalies were reasonably well handled.

We join Sam, Cam, and Daniel in the cargo hold of the Achilles, the ship that delivered the first Stargate into U.S. hands, and made for the future SGC. Unfortunately, Ba’al has been there before them, and the ship is marooned. There is no SGC. Cam’s granddad served as Captain on this ship. Captain and crew are all missing, presumed dead. In this timeline, Carter was a dead astronaut, Daniel Jackson is still a fringe archaeologist in Egypt, and Cam never existed…yet he does exist here now.

The Grandfather Paradox is puzzled out (perhaps unnecessarily, see this article by Stephen Cass, Sr. Editor of Discover Magazine) by Carter, who explains that since Cam was in the wormhole when the timeline shifted, he could be here but not here, or here, but not there, depending on your perspective. Got it? Jack O’Neill is alive in this alternate timeline, and it’s fitting that he rescues his other world team mates.

General Landry does a curmudgeonly good job of post validation stonewalling when confronted with a truth and a reality involving a Stargate he does not want. Jack O’Neill’s fury at Daniel’s assertion that his son is dead is touching. Ben Browder wears his Cam persona as if he were born to it (maybe he was, in an alternate reality). Claudia Black’s Qetesh is top notch.

There’s no stiff Temporal Prime Directive here. The fate of the Stargate, the SGC and the universe rest on the SG1 time travelers. Alternate timelines, alternate realities, hypothetical hyperbole, Qetesh’s ambition, and classic Stargate character interaction all combine to help SG1 save the world and the Stargate program once again. Stargate Continuum is SG1 at its indefinable best. The Stargate in the Arctic bonus feature was fun, too.

If you haven’t seen this feature direct to DVD film, pay attention to Cam’s Locker. I’m just saying…

Move on through the quantum slipstream to Eureka for Part II…

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(Spoiler Warning. Some parts of this post can be considered spoilers. It’s an episode recap after all. — 2xKnight)

The big news in Eureka is not the jazzed up song and dance sendup of Mister Rogers Neighborhood theme,
it’s Eva Thorne.  She flies in on her broomstick in the Season 3 premiere just in time to see an anti-missile test of the Viper vs. Martha go wrong.  Eva is known as “The Fixer” — a corporate maven and master manipulator. She’s got the power (from the Department of Defense), and she attempts to use it.  Her stated goal?  To make Global Dynamics pay for itself.  The only person Eva seems to have regard for is Stark, but even he isn’t falling for it…yet.  Allison, however, seems to be falling for him…again.

Eva is a bad ass, but I was disappointed with the two dimensional nature of her character.  Even when we discover that she has an agenda of her own, my first impression is that she’s boringly, unremittingly vile.  Sigh. I spent many years in corporate America working for people like that every day…do I really want to tune into Eureka and see the same thing?  Thus far, the writers have given Eva no finesse…all she needs is a Snidely Whiplash mustache!  Beverly, the Shrink Spy, was wicked…but she did it with horrific class.  Remember, Eva, “these things must be done delicately.”

Just first impressions.  I’ll wait to see what happens…

The brightest light in this episode is Martha. ” She” is an adolescent drone with an accelerated learning curve, and she’s almost downright lovable.  She bonds with Zoe, wreaks havoc, and in the end, comes home, just like Lassie.   Okay, maybe Martha’s bite is a little worse than her bark, but she means well.

All in all, not a bad opener for Season 3.  There was some resolution to “A Night at Global Dynamics.” I will be tuning in again and either documenting the demise or rise of another season of Eureka.

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Do You Want ‘Possums with That?

Having just returned from two weeks in splendid [self imposed] isolation, I’m tempted to declare that I was on a spiritual retreat, or writing the next Great American Novel.

The truth is that a dear friend of mine found herself in the dilemma of her adopted dad about to shuffle off this proverbial mortal coil(e), and her property caretaker unable to delay personal business.

I’d planned to write my next blog entry on Eureka at that time. I was instead thrust into a remote homestead in the Arkansas Ozarks, careening about spiraled mountain roads, channeling Shakespeare snippets. “Once more into the breach, dear friends!” Melodramatic? Perhaps. But it was, at least, a metaphorical breach.

Wrenched from the epitome of a relatively modern South Carolina dwelling into a land where the closest gas station was 10 miles distant, I was hauling firewood up a hill to stay warm. And I was in a quandary: How to get into Eureka mode? Even the Rube Goldberg style woodstove, reminiscent of some Eurekan failed experiments, didn’t inspire me.

Wild Pigs [sic] Couldn’t Drag Me Awayyyyy

Then it happened. I was hiking across a ridge with my digital camera and saw some strange tracks. I took photos of them that day, and matched some with online deer and wild pig tracks (duh, I was in razorback country), as well as a very large canine track. The next night, after an all day frog strangler complete with dense fog, something ran into the side of the house. The crowd of dogs in the kitchen went wild. All the miscellaneous tough outdoor cats that usually keep the outbuildings rat-free slept on the upper porch for several nights after that. Even the dog-sized opossums couldn’t have shaken the upper porch. Rumors abound of Ozark phenomenon. A thorough examination the next morning revealed no evidence. I never solved the mystery. Errant nearsighted wild pig? I found myself wondering, “WWTD?” (What Would Taggart Do?) And in that moment, I had the subject of this post on Eureka. James Taggart is Eureka’s resident “biological containment specialist.” Some have lovingly referred to him as Eureka’s dogcatcher. Indeed he does occasionally play dogcatcher, such as when LoJack — early described by Frewer as Taggart’s Moby Dick — is on the loose. He apparently doubles as the local veterinarian as well. When LoJack is injured, Taggart nurses him like a child.

Taggart, Man & Myth

But like many of the folks in Eureka, there’s more to Taggart than we see in any given episode. He’s another Global Dynamics mystery. He has an array of smart cages, weaponry, and yes, even “smart cheese to catch smart mice. Taggart is a man of many talents, notwithstanding his mediocre paintball playing. He’s like Tarzan with a larger vocabulary and less hair. Some have said that Taggart is just “useless comic relief.” Yet Taggart enacts a nearly archetypal Trickster role in Eureka.

He’s often portrayed as the Fool, the Coyote, the buffoon, however comic allusions to a darker side of his transformative nature are revealed in the webisodes of Hide and Seek, with his Bigfoot meets Jekyll & Hyde style “missing link” experiments. What is Taggart’s story?

He’s Too Sexy for his Shirt

Let’s face it; Taggart is also sexy in a romanticized Wild Man of Borneo style.

Of course, the “real” Wild Man of Borneo is actually an orangutan, mistaken by some for a wild jungle man. Taggart is no orangutan. He’s that wild guy who’s crazy and brilliant…the one you’d definitely want to take with you to the island on Survivor. My friend, Rinda, the anime queen, said, “I’ve always thought Taggart was crazy and oddly sexy but I’m attracted to the odd, crazy, violent and anti-social ones!” (Ed. Mature readers and fans of Bleach can confirm this by reading her Zaraki fanfic)

I’m not sure how I feel about that particular sentiment, but attraction to Taggart, like many other things in Eureka, is complicated. He can be the slightly scary storytelling uncle, as in the opening scenes of Phoenix Rising. Naturally, he then morphs into mad scientist mode with the “human bits” and the unidirectional particle emitter. He may even have a nuclear bomb. But we all have our faults. He loves animals, perhaps most especially cybernetic ones.

Sentiment for AI (artificial intelligence) may be genetic or behavioral. In my own case, just last month my elderly mother spent hours walking behind my IRobot made Roomba vacuum, encouraging it to greater suction and tenderly correcting it when it missed a spot. Ah well, Birds of a feather, as they say…

 Being a master plumber’s daughter, I was oddly fascinated with the Taggart and Jo during the H.O.U.S.E. Rules episode. Taking a seminal groping scene from a movie such as From Here to Eternity, and lampooning it in the bowels of SARAH’s bunker was en-grossing. My mind was a riot of wild sensory extrapolations right after Taggart said to Jo, “Good on ya, mate,” and I washed my hands with anti-bacterial soap as soon as the scene was over.

Last but not least, in his favor as a romantic barbarian sort, Taggart even cleans up fairly well, and he can dance. I ask you…What’s not to love?

Some have said that Taggart’s bad Aussie accent grates on the psyche. I don’t know, since nearly everyone where I come from has a bad accent of some description. One thing I can say with certainty:

James Taggart, aka the former Max Headroom, is always entertaining, if eccentric. He can p-p-p-p-ark his b-b-b-boots in my laboratory any time.

Shiny1 is sometimes known as Patricia deVarennes

: Max Headroom, Eureka, sci-fi, fan, Taggart, Matt Frewer

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I’m planning to write an intermittent series of articles about Eureka in this space, so kindly offered to me by Jason. Don’t look for episode recaps, or cast interviews. Those are best found HERE and HERE. I won’t be writing about the Writers Guild strike and its impact on the show (but as a writer, I do support it). I will be writing about Eureka from my own personally skewed perspective. Why? Because whenever I watch Eureka, it reminds me of family, friends, and acquaintances.

As someone who grew up and lived for many years near a plethora of high security military bases of all stripes, and quasi-government installations (such as NASA), Eureka satisfies (albeit fictionally) that “what the heck are they doing over there?” part of me. As someone with family members who could settle in and be at home in Eureka, it has a familiar feel. It’s classified as “sci-fi lite”, and while that may appeal to those who aren’t hardcore science fiction fans, I think it is a disservice to the show in the end. Eureka is ultimately a show that explores what it’s really like to be human beings in occasionally absurd and/or often extraordinary circumstances.

Eureka has come under some criticism from geeky bloggers who complain that it represents the scientific community in an absent minded, stereotypical fashion. I have a response to that. Yeah, it does. And your point is…? They also portray the sensible scientists, er, um, scientist quite favorably.

I have had the good fortune to work with some brilliant folks in my time (along with the usual idiots we all endure). Eureka’s citizens reminds me of some of them…the brilliant ones, that is. Once upon a time, I walked outside into the parking lot after work. There I discovered a brilliant team member standing in the pouring rain. He was no doubt contemplating some secret of the universe far beyond my ken (you may think I’m being sarcastic, but I’m not). Like the urban legendary and proverbial much maligned turkey, he had his mouth open (they actually panic and run), and he was staring up into the sky. I slowly walked up to him and spoke to him. No answer. I called his name. No answer. LOUDER. No answer. He was soaked to the skin, taking on water, and might even have choked or drowned, etc. I don’t know CPR, and it’s possible the brilliant man might have died. and it would have all been my fault. Clearly, I had to save us both. I reached over, shook his arm, and said his name really loudly (okay, so maybe I yelled). He startled out of his reverie. I told him it was raining. He shook himself a bit, looked at me with confusion, thanked me and went to his car. I waited to leave until he was gone. I wasn’t really anxious to drive out with him. I hope he gets a smart car just like Zoe’s some day…that is, one that includes the mobile SARAH (Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat).

On the family front, my own grandfather (a research pathologist) once inadvertently locked a Staten Island city official in an elevator shaft. Old grandpa was working on polio vaccines during an epidemic. The poor city official rode up and down in the elevator for hours, trying to get out. It was actually all Mrs. Takebi’s fault – she was one of several unused research monkeys on the back porch (grandpa used horse serum), but that’s another story. So you see, Eureka seems almost like home to me.

As you may have guessed by now, I tend to identify with Sheriff Carter, the overarching, quasi-parental figure in the town of Eureka. While he struggles to be a good parent to his teenage daughter, Zoe, he has to keep the brilliant folks in Eureka from blowing up their town, and possibly the world. It’s not always easy, and I know just how he feels.

Still, Sheriff Carter has evolved since the series start. That is, his shortcomings in the quantum physics, string theory, DNA genome department are still apparent, but many of the good intentioned, if distracted folks of Eureka have accepted him. Still he remains the self-questioning “everyman,” who occasionally has flashes of intuition and an almost Holmesian instinct for clues. His foibles are human, in a town where human foibles are often the undoing of scientific method. He’s a sheriff in a town where human spontaneous combustion and invisibility are just average days at work. Besides, he’s cute and appealing in that hapless way that endears him to women who like puppies with three legs.

While I often find myself in the dubious Sheriff Carter seat, I do have my favorite scientist characters in the town, just like anyone. Next time, I’ll visit a few of those.

(Blogger “Shiny1″ is also known as Patricia deVarennes)

: Eureka, sci-fi, TV, humor, fan

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Best quote of the season.

“I swear to God, if this thing turns into a zombie attack, I am quitting.” — Sheriff Jack Carter.

Since this is a recap, there are spoilers. You have been warned.

You might remember my concerns about the direction the second season of Eureka was taking. More specifically the character of Henry Deacon, played by the talented actor Joe Morton. Henry is a great character, I really didn’t want him to become a villain. As the season progressed it looked more and more like that was going to happen.

His grief over losing Kim at the end of last season was pushing him to do things he knows were wrong. We see that most clearly in the episode E=MC…?. After the residents of Eureka find their I.Q.s drastically dropping, Henry almost confesses to wiping the Sheriff’s memory. He does apologize for it and we see how hard it’s been on him. This is the Sheriff’s first real clue that there’s something very bad going on with his friend.

We slowly learn of Kevin’s connection to the Akashic Field, thanks to his exposure when the artifact went boom. Stark’s attempts to study it’s effect on Allison’s son causes some problems in Eureka on a couple of occasions. Most notably during the episode Noche de Suenos, where Stark’s experiment contributes to some people to sharing each other’s dreams.

The sheriff has a pretty tough time this season. Between showing up naked in other peoples dreams, turning invisible and getting caught in a virtual world he also has to deal with his daughter. She’s started dating. As if that wasn’t a big enough problem, she also wants to start driving. Sheriff Carter seems to be pretty paranoid about letting her behind the wheel and we soon learn why. When he was young he was in an accident that killed someone he cared about. When Zoe learns about that, she seems to soften a little bit. Sure, she still gives him a hard time occasionally, but she seems to be more understanding.

Of course, Zoe has problems of her own to deal with. She has problems at school. Since most of the kids’ parent are super geniuses, a lot of them are scary smart as well. We learn how big a deal this really is in Duck, Duck Goose. Zoe is teased by the other students while waiting on the results of her I.Q. test. Eureka prepares for the school science fair, a scary time in a town with kids that smart competing for a job at Global Dynamics. Zoe turns out to be a genius too, with a score of 157, but tells her dad she scored a 112. Jack Carter has a score of 111, completely average. It’s a sweet gesture and a sign that the Carters are growing closer.

The story arcs begin to converge as we get closer to the season finale. Kevin’s bond with the Akashic Field puts him in danger. Henry gets shut out of his research by Stark and Allison. Beverly, the one responsible for the artifact’s destruction, is caught and returned to Eureka.

It all culminates when Global Dynamics has a bio hazard outbreak. A deadly bacteria mutates and becomes airborne. G.D. is evacuated, but Allison and Kevin are trapped in Allison’s office witch locks down to protect the head of Global Dynamics. Not only that, but they’re trapped with Henry and Beverly who have come to take Kevin.

As Allison’s office descends to an underground bunker we find out that Henry faked the bio hazard. The underground bunker has a molecular transporter prototype, so that the head of G.D. can escape safely. The Department of Defense doesn’t know that the outbreak is faked, and they’re prepared to destroy Global Dynamics to prevent the bacteria from spreading.

Stark and Sheriff Carter make their way to the bunker and past G.D.’s defenses with the help of Fargo. Nathan has figured out Henry’s plan, but there is a flaw. Henry is trying to use the transporter in the bunker to separate Kevin from the Akashic Field, but he doesn’t have a sample of Kevin’s DNA from before the artifact incident. With Nathan Stark’s help Henry is able to break Kevin’s bond with the artifact before the military can destroy Global Dynamics, but Beverly escapes.

In the end we find out Henry didn’t become a villain. He takes responsibility for what he has done. The season ends with the Sheriff putting handcuffs on him before he’s taken away.

I’m glad Henry didn’t go over to the dark side. This ending leaves an opening for him to return, and I hope he will.

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It seems Henry wants revenge.

Eureka is back and changes are a brewin’. After only two episodes we’ve seen some big surprises. Nathan Stark is out of a job. Allison Blake is in charge, and her son is now connected to the Artifact from Section 5. Most shocking of all, Henry is turning to the dark side and he wants revenge.

Goodbye and thanks for all the smug narcissism.

Yep, Nathan Stark is paying for screwing up at the end of last season. He’s been fired as the head of Global Dynamics. Strike three, he’s out. I guess the accident that killed Henry’s old flame was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Of course, he’s screwed up quite a bit before that tragic event. As the head of Global Dynamics he was responsible for most of the stuff that made the first season so cool. I mean c’mon, some of the best moments last season were because something at GD went boom.

Take my wife. Please!

Adding insult to Stark’s injury, the person replacing him is his ex-wife Allison Blake. That’s got to sting. Allison has been promoted thanks to all her efforts at damage control. If you look at it that way, she’s the natural choice. She knows Global Dynamics and has had to clean up Stark’s messes enough times to know how to run it. What she doesn’t know might come back to bite her though. A short scene at the end of the first episode suggested that the mysterious “Artifact” from Section 5 has bonded with her son. I smell story arc.

Eureka on the edge of forever.

Henry and Sheriff Jack Carter were the only people to remember the alternate future from the end of last season. Makes sense, they were the ones who traveled back in time. Those memories were causing them problems. Sheriff Carter remembered his romance and marriage to Allison Blake. The only problem was, what he remembered wasn’t happening. Saving his timeline changed his future history.

Memory, it’s the first thing to go.

Henry was also having a hard time adjusting to his loss. Good thing he’s a super genius. Henry upgraded his memory eraser to remove the memories from the alternate future. Sheriff Carter was a bit hesitant about erasing those memories, so Henry caught him by surprise, ZAP! The Sheriff is back to normal. Then Henry smashed the device.

Dark side callin’ out, nothin’ is real.

It seems Henry wants revenge. He blames Jack Carter for the death of his love, Kim Anderson. She’s the one who died when the Artifact went supernova. Henry traveled back in time to save her last season. Unfortunately that change started to unravel the universe, so Sheriff Carter had to go back and stop him. I hope Henry has been working out, that’s quite a big grudge to hold.

As Eureka turns.

So it looks like Stark was knocked down a peg or two, Allison is the big cheese, her son Kevin holds the power of the universe, Sheriff Carter is back to his normal goofy self again and Henry is turning into Lex Luthor.

What a way to start a season.

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I’m happy to see that the Sci Fi Channel show Eureka is coming back for a second season. It’s gonna be back July 10th at 9 p.m. I was afraid it would be cancelled. The Sci Fi Channel has a tendency to cancel it’s good shows to make room for more Stargate.

I’m looking forward to more news about the second season.

Update: Now that the second season is on I’ve written up my first impressions.

: Sci Fi Channel, Eureka, second season

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