Eureka

Eureka
Eureka intertitle
Also known as	A Town Called Eureka
Genre	Science fiction, Police procedural
Created by	Andrew Cosby Jaime Paglia
Starring	Colin Ferguson Salli Richardson-Whitfield Joe Morton Jordan Hinson Ed Quinn (seasons 1–3) Erica Cerra Neil Grayston Niall Matter Matt Frewer
Country of origin	United States Canada
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	43 (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	British Columbia, Canada
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	approx. 44 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Syfy Sky1 (UK)
Original run	July 18, 2006 (2006-07-18) – present
Status	Renewed
External links
Official website

Eureka is an American science fiction television series set in a town inhabited almost entirely by geniuses. In the UK, the show is known as A Town Called Eureka. It was announced on July 24, 2009 that the show had been picked up for a 22 episode fourth season,^[1] set to air in mid-2010.^[2]

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Characters 3 Episodes 4 Ratings 5 Season 4 6 Critical reaction 6.1 Awards 7 Production notes 7.1 Main crew 7.2 Filming locations 7.3 International distribution 8 DVD releases 8.1 Season One 8.2 Season Two 8.3 Season Three 9 In other media 9.1 Original soundtrack 9.2 Comics 10 References 11 External links

Synopsis

Eureka takes place in a high tech community of the same name, located in the U.S. State of Oregon and inhabited entirely by brilliant scientists working on new scientific advancements. The town is operated by a corporation called Global Dynamics (GD), that is overseen by the United States Department of Defense. The town's existence and location are closely guarded secrets.

U.S. Marshal Jack Carter stumbles upon Eureka while transporting a fugitive prisoner (his own rebellious teenage daughter Zoe) back to her mother's home in Los Angeles. When a faulty experiment cripples the sheriff of Eureka, Carter finds himself quickly chosen to fill the vacancy. Despite not being a genius like most members of the town, Jack Carter's ability to connect to others, his simple but effective ideas, his above average intelligence in practicality, and his steadfast dedication to his work repeatedly saves Eureka, and sometimes the entire world, from one would-be disaster after another.

Characters

• Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) is a U.S. Marshal who reluctantly ends up as Sheriff of Eureka. Jack is consistently dumbfounded by the wonders Eureka produces, as well as their propensity to produce things that often threaten the entire town, if not the world. Despite being an average man in a town full of geniuses, Jack's admittedly simplistic ideas and ability to make intuitive connections between seemingly disparate events often save the day. (This is in contrast to the other residents of Eureka, who, being stereotypical scientists, tend to over-complicate things and get lost in minutiae). Jack has deep feelings for Dr. Allison Blake, although his reaction to new arrival Dr. Tess Fontana result in a blossoming relationship. However, by the end of Season 3, the situation once again changes and at the end of the season finale, we find Carter at a crossroads with an important decision to make which could impact upon his relationships with both Blake and Fontana...
• Dr. Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) is a Department of Defense agent who acts as the liaison between Eureka and the Federal Government, and later becomes the director of Global Dynamics. She is always at the forefront of any dilemma which might arise.
• Tess Fontana (Jaime Ray Newman) is described as a "brilliant engineer and astrophysicist who sees things differently than those around her... putting her at odds with the mainstream scientific community." Allison, having known this out-of-the-box thinker since Grad School, puts her to work on a highly confidential Global Dynamics project. By the last quarter of Season 3, Dr. Fontana finds herself spending time with - and eventually positioned as a love interest for - Colin Ferguson's Jack, although the Season 3 finale indicates that her character is to be written out from the primary storylines in Season 4.
• Zoe Carter (Jordan Hinson) is Jack's rebellious teenage daughter. Unlike her father, she is intelligent enough to keep up with the town's residents (her IQ is 157), yet like her father, possesses the street smarts most of the town's residents do not. She longs to be a medical doctor, and with the help of Henry's recommendation letter, receives an early acceptance to Harvard's medical program. She dates Lucas.
• Dr. Henry Deacon (Joe Morton) is the town jack-of-all-trades. Although, like most residents of Eureka, he is a brilliant multidisciplined scientist, Henry has ethical objections to the kind of research conducted at Global Dynamics, preferring employment as the town's mechanic. Henry's assistance is often invaluable in defusing the situations the experiments in town create. He was destined for incarceration, following a false biohazard scare to distract him from trying to free Allison's son (Kevin) from the Artifact leading to the escape of Beverly. However, he was eventually granted a reprieve and remained in Eureka. During Season 3, he was elected Town Mayor as a write-in candidate.
• Dr. Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn) is one of Eureka's top scientists who is modeled after Tony Stark.^[3] He and Jack are frequently at odds, though both respect the other. He was formerly married to Allison, and they rekindled their relationship in the second season. They were supposed to get remarried in the third season, but he died whilst saving the world from a time paradox on the day of their wedding.
• Deputy Jo Lupo (Erica Cerra) is another of the town's few non-genius residents. Jo is a tough, no-nonsense cop with a love of firearms. From Season 2 onwards, after a brief fling with Taggart, she later develops a relationship with Zane.
• Dr. Douglas Fargo (Neil Grayston) is a junior scientist who is treated somewhat dismissively by his peers. Accident prone, he more often than not ends up a victim of the disasters that befall the town. He has also caused a fair share of the problems.
• Dr. Beverly Barlowe (Debrah Farentino) is the town psychiatrist who secretly works for a conglomerate of business interests wishing to exploit Eureka's innovations.
• Dr. Jim Taggart (Matt Frewer) is a somewhat eccentric animal expert.
• Vincent (Chris Gauthier) is the owner of Cafe Diem. He prides himself on being able to make anything his customers ask for — partially due to the extradimensional features of his pantry, which essentially allows him infinite room in which to store ingredients for recipes. He is no exception to the town's geniuses and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Gastronomy. His last name has not yet been revealed.
• Zane Donovan (Niall Matter) is a rebellious genius, recruited in the second season as an alternative to imprisonment after being arrested for fraud (allegedly causing the New York Stock Exchange to crash). He also develops a relationship with Jo Lupo shortly after his arrival in Eureka.
• Eva Thorne (Frances Fisher) is a corporate fixer hired to make Eureka more profitable, which she mainly accomplishes by downsizing. She seems to have an ulterior motive involving an underground military base built before Eureka was founded. An accident in this facility resulted in her being extraordinarily long-lived - she is revealed to be around 100 years old when she returns to Eureka. After sacrificing her one chance of finding a cure in order to save Zoe, Thorne leaves to start a new life finally able to put her past behind her.
• General Mansfield (Barclay Hope) is an army general who frequently visits Eureka to check up on Government projects, or to enforce martial law when experiments get out of control.
• Lexi Carter (Ever Carradine) is Jack's free-spirited sister who comes to live with him and Zoe early in Season 3 after finding out she (Lexi) is pregnant. Her fanatic emphasis on waste management, recycling, spirituality and politics quickly endears her to others and makes her an asset to the community.
• Lucas (Vanya Asher) is Zoe's shy genius boyfriend. They start dating after being forced to work together on a high school science project in Season 2. In Season 3, Lucas is cited as having the third highest IQ ever measured, even though he can be a bit of a klutz. He receives early acceptance to MIT after a letter of recommendation from Henry, so he is able to be with Zoe in Massachusetts.

Episodes

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The episodes of season one were not aired in the order intended by the show's creators. This is suggested by the episodes' production numbers which are displayed on the SyFy's Eureka website next to episode titles quite often. There are some small inconsistencies when watched closely, but such inconsistencies are minimal and were intentionally controlled. In podcast commentaries with the show's creators and star Colin Ferguson, they confirm that the production order is in fact the order in which they intended the show to air, but the network executives changed the order to try to place stronger episodes earlier in the run to help attract viewers. The creators were able to make minor changes in editing and sometimes dubbed dialogue in later episodes (for instance, they removed the explicit mention of Zoe's first day at school) to try to eliminate audience confusion.

Ratings

The series premiere garnered high ratings, with 4.1 million people tuning in. Eureka was also the top rated cable program for that Tuesday night, and was the highest-rated series launch in SyFy's fourteen-year history.^[4] The season two premiere drew 2.5 million viewers, making it the top-rated cable program of the day.^[5]

For calendar-year 2008 as a first-run, the series delivered 1.42 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic.^[6]

The season 3 premiere was viewed by 2.8 million viewers and the season 3.5 premiere of Eureka earned 2.68 million viewers in its new time slot.^[7]

Season 4

Syfy Vice President, Mark Stern confirmed at Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego, that Season 4 of Eureka has been given the green light and will consist of 22 episodes.^[8]

Season 4 is scheduled to commence in Q2 2010.

Critical reaction

Critical reaction was mixed, with general praise for the premise, but overall middling reaction to the writing of the pilot.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

“

It's all very quirky. Too quirky, maybe, for an audience that is used to spaceships, robots, and explosions. Though every episode promises an "aha!" moment based in quantum physics and obscure scientific laws, this world is relatively flat, conceptually speaking, in comparison to the complexity woven into series such as Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica. This does not mean Eureka is a complete waste of time. Not at all. The characters are fun, Ferguson is believable and pleasant, the script is solidly constructed, and the visuals are slickly produced. All in all, it's a sweet series and probably not long for this world.[9]

”

The New York Daily News:

“

With its playful new series Eureka, set in the Pacific Northwest and telling the story of an outsider who comes to explore, and settle in, a remote town full of eccentrics, Sci-Fi Channel isn't just inviting comparisons to Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure. It's demanding them. But co-creators Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia hold up to them pretty well. Eureka has a premise, a cast and a plot that make it one of the TV treats of the summer. The folks at Sci-Fi Channel clearly intended to reinvent the summer TV series here, and come up with something breezy and fun. And Eureka - they've done it!

”

Awards

Eureka was nominated for a 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series. The other nominees were Battlestar Galactica (the winner), Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, and Rome.^[10]

Production notes

Main crew

• Michael Lange
• Mike Rohl (4 episodes, 2006-2007)
• Michael Robison (3 episodes, 2006-2008)
• Michael Grossman (2 episodes, 2006-2007)
• Jefery Levy (2 episodes, 2006)
• Jeff Woolnough (2 episodes, 2006)
• Eric Laneuville (2 episodes, 2007-2008)
• Jaime Paglia (34 episodes, 2006-2008)
• Andrew Cosby (Head Writer)
• Johanna Stokes (5 episodes, 2006-2007)
• Thania St. John (5 episodes, 2007-2008)
• Dan E. Fesman (3 episodes, 2006)
• Harry Victor (3 episodes, 2006)
• Charles Grant Craig (3 episodes, 2007-2008)
• Bruce Miller (3 episodes, 2007-2008)
• Karl Schaefer (2 episodes, 2006)
• Eric Wallace

The stunt coordinator was David Jacox.

Filming locations

• Chilliwack, British Columbia^[11]  – Downtown Wellington Avenue on April 12, 2006
• Duncan, British Columbia
• Ladysmith, British Columbia^[12] – Downtown First Avenue
• Nanaimo, British Columbia – Ney Drive, Biggs & Townsite Roads
• Surrey, British Columbia – (Sullivan Heights Secondary School, Fraser Heights Secondary School)
• Victoria, British Columbia – Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (NRC)
• Port Moody, British Columbia – (Heritage Woods Secondary School) Exterior shots of Global Dynamics. The interior of the school has also been used as the school that Brian Perkins attends, on May 3, 2007. This school's interior has also been used as the school that Zoe Carter attends as well (in the episode, "Duck, Duck Goose"). The roof of the school was also used as the location of the astronomy tower (also in the episode, "Duck, Duck Goose").
• Ashland, Oregon – (City Hall) Interior and exterior shots of city hall
• Burnaby, British Columbia – Vancouver Film Studios^[13] for the majority of the Global Dynamics building interiors, cafe interiors as well as the home of Sheriff Carter.
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Milwaukee County War Memorial Exterior shot of Global Dynamics' warehouse

International distribution

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2009)

Country/Region	Channel	Premiere date
		Season 1	Season 2	Season 3
Asia	Star World	May 30, 2007 (2007-05-30)
Australia	Ten HD (Season 1 & 2) Ten (Season 3)	March 6, 2008 (2008-03-06)	September 11, 2008 (2008-09-11)	July 24, 2009 (2009-07-24)
	Sci Fi	December 4, 2008 (2008-12-04)
Belgium	Sci Fi	2008 (2008)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	FTV	December 1, 2007 (2007-12-01)
Brazil	Sci Fi Channel	2008 (2008)
Canada	Space (English)	September 3, 2006 (2006-09-03)	September 10, 2007 (2007-09-10)	October 1, 2009 (2009-10-01)
	Ztélé (French)	August 27, 2007 (2007-08-27)
Croatia	HRT 2	July 4, 2007 (2007-07-04)	September 12, 2008 (2008-09-12)
Cuba	Tele Rebelde	May 5, 2009 (2009-05-05)
Czech Republic	Prima COOL	April 2, 2009 (2009-04-02)
Denmark	DR 1	October 3, 2008 (2008-10-03)
Finland	Sub	October 21, 2008 (2008-10-21)
France	Série Club	October 24, 2007 (2007-10-24)
Germany	ProSieben	February 25, 2008 (2008-02-25)	June 30, 2008 (2008-06-30)	July 6, 2009 (2009-07-06)
Hungary	TV2	January 27, 2007 (2007-01-27)	September 17, 2008 (2008-09-17)
Iceland	Skjar einn	2008 (2008)	August 11, 2008 (2008-08-11)
India	Star World	October 24, 2007 (2007-10-24)
Ireland	Sky 1	August 2, 2006 (2006-08-02)	October 2, 2007 (2007-10-02)	February 3, 2009 (2009-02-03)
	Sci Fi	January 10, 2007 (2007-01-10)	January 10, 2008 (2008-01-10)	July 10, 2009 (2009-07-10)
Israel	AXN	November 6, 2006 (2006-11-06)	December 18, 2007 (2007-12-18)
Italy	FOX	August 4, 2007 (2007-08-04)	February 23, 2008 (2008-02-23)
Japan	Syfy	April 1, 2008 (2008-04-01)
Lithuania	TV3	October 30, 2009 (2009-10-30)
Macedonia	Kanal 5	September 4, 2008 (2008-09-04)
Netherlands	Sci Fi	2008
New Zealand	TV3	May 10, 2008 (2008-05-10)
Norway	Viasat4	August 21, 2009 (2009-08-21)
Mexico	Sci Fi Channel	October 2007	November 2008	September 2009
Poland	Canal+ Poland	August 30, 2007 (2007-08-30)	July 31, 2008 (2008-07-31)
	Sci Fi Channel	2009 (2009)
Portugal	FOX	October 4, 2007 (2007-10-04)		August 25, 2009 (2009-08-25)
	TVI	November 24, 2007 (2007-11-24)
Romania	TVR 2	April 5, 2009 (2009-04-05)
Serbia	RTS	September 15, 2008 (2008-09-15)
Slovakia	Markíza	February 18, 2009 (2009-02-18)	February 26, 2009 (2009-02-26)
South Africa	M-Net Action	October 2006	November 2007
Spain	Cuatro	January 6, 2007 (2007-01-06)	October 10, 2007 (2007-10-10)
	Sci Fi	January 10, 2007 (2007-01-10)
Sweden	TV6	September 28, 2007 (2007-09-28)	March 21, 2008 (2008-03-21)
Turkey	DiziMax	October 11, 2006 (2006-10-11)
Ukraine	Novy Kanal	December 20, 2007 (2007-12-20)
United Kingdom	Sky1	August 2, 2006 (2006-08-02)	October 2, 2007 (2007-10-02)	February 3, 2009 (2009-02-03)
	Sci Fi	January 10, 2007 (2007-01-10)	January 10, 2008 (2008-01-10)

DVD releases

Season One

Season One
Set Details			Special Features
12 Episodes 3-Disc Set 16×9 (1.78:1) Aspect Ratio Languages: English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Stereo) Subtitles: English (No subtitles available with the UK release)			Audio Commentaries — with various Cast and Crew Members Deleted Scenes — with Audio Commentaries Podcasts — with various Cast and Crew Members Webisodes Mock Infomercials Outtakes — with Audio Commentaries: "Pilot" "Once in a Lifetime" "Returns in July" TV Spot
Release Dates
United States	United Kingdom	Australia
July 3, 2007	March 24, 2008	December 2, 2008

Season Two

Season Two
Set Details			Special Features[14]
13 Episodes 3-Disc Set 16×9 (1.78:1) Aspect Ratio Languages: English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Stereo) Subtitles: English			Deleted Scenes Podcasts — with various Cast and Crew Members Webcasts Eureka PSAs Gag Reel Inside the Writers' Room
Release Dates
United States	United Kingdom	Australia
July 15, 2008	August 16, 2008	Unknown

Season Three

Season Three
Set Details			Special Features[15]
8 Episodes (First half of season 3, episodes 1 - 8) 2-Disc Set 16×9 (1.78:1) Aspect Ratio Languages: English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Stereo) Subtitles: English			Deleted Scenes Audio Commentary — with various Cast and Crew Members Podcasts — with various Cast and Crew Members Creating a Musical Personality
Release Dates
United States	United Kingdom	Australia
June 30, 2009[16]	Unknown	Unknown

In other media

Original soundtrack

On August 26, 2008, La La Land Records released Eureka: Original Soundtrack From the Sci-Fi Channel Television Series.^[17] Composed predominantly by Bear McCreary, the album consists of 28 tracks from the show's second season. It also includes two variations of the Mark Mothersbaugh and John Enroth composed main theme, as well as two songs -- "Let's Get Hitched" and "EurekAerobics", written by Brendan McCreary and Captain Ahab, respectively.^[18]

Comics

Boom! Studios is producing a comic book based on storylines provided by Andrew Cosby (who is also the co-founder of the comic publisher), to be written by Brendan Hay, with art by Diego Barreto.^[19]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Eureka (TV series)

• Official website
• Eureka Cast on TV Guide.com
• Eureka at Allmovie
• Eureka at the Internet Movie Database
• Eureka at TV.com

v • d • e Eureka Characters Beverly Barlowe • Allison Blake • Jack Carter • Zoe Carter • Henry Deacon • Zane Donovan • Douglas Fargo • Jo Lupo • SARAH • Nathan Stark • Jim Taggart Other Episode list • Global Dynamics • Artifact • Soundtrack