Creating and writing a successful TV series is never easy, and keeping it on air seems to be even harder, especially if it is a genre title – from Fox in particular. Luckily, a lot of the better, original sci-fi titles are both commissioned and aired by the SyFy channel, who know their fans. They have had some great successes to date, the most marked of which has to be
Battlestar Galactica. Another interesting thing about their programming is they don't always go for the obvious spaceships and aliens formula, for example
A Town Called Eureka. One of their latest shows,
Warehouse 13, fits into that category.
Created by Jane Espenson, who has written for cult favourites Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it is a mixture of shows like The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen, Fringe and Moonlighting, with a bit of INDIANA JONES thrown in for good measure.
Two Secret Service agents, Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) get a mystery assignment to the eponymous Warehouse 13 after saving the life of an international diplomat. In the covert South Dakota warehouse are stored all manner of objects – supernatural and extra-terrestrial artefacts - that the US government has been hiding away for centuries. It is the duo's task to track down and retrieve missing objects and investigate possible new ones. The Warehouse is curated by Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), whose knowledge of the articles is extensive, but whose history has a secret our two of its own hidden away. Some of the objects, such as Charles Dodgson's mirror and Edgar Alan Poe's pen, add a sort of alternative reality to show, as do the tools the agents have to use, which all have a steampunk feel to them, such as the Tesla ray gun. These are things that could easily exist in such a warehouse, especially the ray gun, if you are familiar with Tesla's story and how the US government commandeered all of his work after he died. Like
The Lone Gunmen, this show has no shortage of conspiracy "theories", but done with humour.
The lead characters have a great rapport, which is nicely developed over the series. Like any decent series this has continuing story arc running alongside the episodic "object of the week". This story arc starts to get more interesting and dynamic with the arrival of geek girl Claudia (Allison Scaglioti), who also adds some extra humour. As an aside, in an interesting bit of cross-pollination, Claudia turns up in an episode of
A Town Called Eureka.
With the second season of the series set to air in the US in July, and if you missed the first season when it aired here earlier in the year, then it is out on DVD on June 28. With its combination of drama and comedy it makes for great viewing.
Warehouse 13 released on DVD by Universal Playback on June 28 and can be ordered from Play and all good retailers.
