By James Iaccino

SyFy Channel’s hit series Eureka returns for the second half of it’s third season tonight.   Eureka was averaging 3 million viewers a week during the first half of the season and was the most watched series on the channel.  Show runner Jaime Paglia and star Colin Ferguson recently answered questions for the online media, about what we can expect for the coming shows.

James> Colin, you were in Fear Itself, the NBC show last summer and I really - I thought it was one of the best episodes because it projected the darker side if you will of your character in Fear Itself. I really enjoyed that show a lot, hopefully you did too, you know? And I was wondering if you’re doing other projects like that horror films in your downtime. And I was wondering if both you and Jaime, if you’ve ever considered having the sheriff be a darker character for at least one episode, the device malfunctions and - well a lot of the characters are dark. And I was wondering if you were going to explore that possibility in Eureka.

Jaime Paglia> You’ve been in our writer’s room and you’re sworn to secrecy, and don’t talk about that, that’s an upcoming episode. No, yeah, we’ve definitely talked about that from a story standpoint.  You know Colin I imagine that that would be tough for you to play.

Colin Ferguson> No, it would be absolutely fantastic, but I enjoy playing that - I got offered a bunch of stuff after I did that episode which I turned down although strangely. But yeah, I do get to do that stuff and I tend to gravitate towards it, especially after Eureka because you know you play this nice guy, this character for 57 months, it’s nice to go the other way. I think what I want to do now is do a little more sort of overt comedy, so that’s sort of what I’m looking for now. I tore up a bunch of tendons in my arm at the tail end of the shoot so I actually am just now back in the pink and allowed to sort of get hired again. So I leave on Wednesday for a couple months, but those are sort of more standard - the one I’m acting in is just a standard you know lead hero type thing and then directing obviously which is going to be fun.

James> They keep showing the one episode that you did with the Ghost Hunters team on Sci-Fi and I was impressed with that episode.  Tell me Colin, do you - does that episode really - or that experience really convince you of the paranormal and for both you and Jaime, are you considering because they - a lot of shows have done that, Ghost Hunters had a take where they actually do a reality program on the show that’s hunting ghosts. And I was wondering if maybe that was in the cards too if you were ever going to do a reality show like Ghost Hunters for an episode.

Colin Ferguson> I know doing that was awesome and that Jay and Grant who are fantastic guys at Sci Fi then and we just sort of talk and by the punch bowl stop by, well that’s a great idea, why don’t I - you know I’ll come and do yours, you’ll come and do ours.  And we actually offered them a role I believe on ours, I was told we offered the role anyway, they were offered a role and they couldn’t do it because of their shooting schedule. And - but it was a great adventure. I would say my mind is open to that sort of stuff, but yeah, that was definitely as overt as it get on that night. And there was so much more that went down that didn’t make the cut, so it’s interesting to see what they actually ultimately cut together. Because that’s I guess you’d call it an active shoot. But we have an episode coming up about ghosts and I’m sure Jaime...

Jaime Paglia> We did end up doing a ghost episode and we have been exploring the possibility of having the Ghost Hunters come and do a cameo on our show. But yeah, as I recall when we were in the exploratory phases, we just couldn’t get the schedules to work out. But it has been something that we’ve actually talked about.

Colin Ferguson> And as far as that’s gone - sorry.

Jaime Paglia> Yeah, you know as we do with our show we’ve tried to sort of explore I think you know a familiar scope and give them our sort of Eureka twists and so in the episode that actually introduces the Tess Fontana character, Jamie Ray Newman’s character to the show, it is a paranormal ghost episode.

Colin Ferguson> And to address the style aspect of your question, I don’t think that we’ll ever get clearance to do a completely stylized episode like a reality show as the network really has their thumb on that - like the show is shot a certain way. Would you agree Jaime?

Jaime Paglia> I think that it would be a challenge. Maybe under the right circumstances we - you know we could - it’s I think that especially going in to the potential now of you know Season 4 which looks promising that it would be really nice to sort of play a bit more. You know we have the chance now to sort of I think hit our stride in a way and try new things with an audience that is - has been very loyal. So I would love to do something like that.

Colin Ferguson> Oh that’s great, no, cool.

James> I’m going to be really bold here and ask you is Nathan Stark coming back?

Jaime Paglia> I knew the question was coming. I don’t want to tease fans and disappoint them, he will not be back on these back ten episodes.

James> Oh okay. But I’ll still be watching.

Jaime Paglia> Good.

Colin Ferguson> I mean the future is open, you know I’d love to get Ed back in some capacity you know at any point during the future. So there’s that possibility.

Colin Ferguson> He’s on True Blood so watch him on that by the way.

James> I did want to know what your favorite episode was of Eureka so far and what you might consider your most challenging episode to date of Eureka?

Colin Ferguson> Wow. Well I know my favorite is probably the seasons finale coming up that Matt Hastings directed. It has so much fun, you know we had you know water and we had fire and I got to do some really emotional scenes with other actors. And so it was a really well rounded episode for me.

Jaime Paglia> And that was for me as a writer that was probably one of the most you know gratifying to write. It was a really big challenge I think from the story standpoint. But once we sort of wrapped our heads around what that was and then you know knowing what the character story lines were going to be, those are the great ones. I mean like getting the right - I think once in a lifetime which is a Season 1 finale may still be one of my very favorites, again because it was so emotionally centered on our characters. But I really like this one coming up too. You know I think that one of - you know I loved the writer’s range from you know Season 2, I really loved - or acapella Season 1, I loved the Stark’s final you know episode. This last in this first you know ten I think those were also really great episodes because they allowed us, we like for example with that episode which you know Thania St. John wrote, we had the chance to do a Groundhog’s Day episode. And we know that was one of those concepts that we had had you know up on our board since Season 1 that like okay, someday we’re going to find the right scenario where that’s going to work dramatically for us. And then the idea of Carter’s worst day ever being having to watch Allison walk down the aisle to marry Stark and having to relive that over and over again, you know that’s your episode, you just know it’s going to work.

So those would be some of my favorites. I think from the most challenging perspective it was probably episode 8 this last episode that we had before we premier these back ten. And that was largely just because of the realities of production and getting down to the wire and you know having last minute changes being you know made and you know differences in opinion about what the story should be. And you know it allowed - it put us in a place where I think everybody had to bring their best work and work as a team, otherwise it never would have gotten done. And you know - and the fact that it did get done is a minor miracle and - sorry, you just broke up there for a second. Anyway, so you know Colin, what about you?

Colin Ferguson> Yeah, I mean my favorite - the most difficult ones are always the ones where it’s you know square peg, round hole. Yeah, there are a lot of difficult episodes for different reasons to express but if it was really easy I’d be bored out of my mind, so it’s really hard to you know throw one up on top of the other.

James> Some of the actors from Battlestar Galactica are going to be coming on the other new Sci Fi show Warehouse 13. Are you going to be getting any Battlestar actors as guest stars?

Jaime Paglia> Warehouse has taken some of our actors too actually, we’ve got at least two or three people who are going over to do guest episodes on that show. Yeah, I would love to have some of them on our show. We’ve talked about it, we - you know there’s the concept that we’ve had for a really long time about - that focuses on our smart house S.A.R.A.H and her you know sort of desire to not be just literally a housewife to Carter but to you know get out and get a job and you know experience the world. You know there was an episode in Season 2, Duck, Duck, Goose where she got to be you know downloaded into a car, a smart car for a while where she was actually able to get out and feel the wind in her hair so to speak. And - but where she hasn’t managed to become personified and I have an idea who I would like to play that character if we ever get the chance to do it. And I’ll just say that they happen to be on Battlestar Galactica.

Colin Ferguson> All I want to know is who you want to play that character now. You know I’m going to be on you right after...

Jaime Paglia> I was going to say you’re texting me right now, aren’t you?

Colin Ferguson> Exactly.

Jaime Paglia> It’s Eddie Olmos.

Colin Ferguson> Oh that’s great.