Details are sketchy

This blog post is about the show that everyone’s talking about with it being renewed for a fifth season; Eureka.

The team of writers at Eureka have yet again surprised us with this latest turn of events; a rewritten future. In a sense, it has taken the series and again proved that there are no limits with what direction it can take. After spending the morning reading an essay by Scott Westerfeld on alternate worlds in science fiction television (in this case Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I felt I needed to write a blog on the subject as I found that his ideas really applied to Eureka and their most recent season in particular. This is not the first time that the writers at Eureka have used time or interdimensional travel and the characters have wrestles with the moral implications of it, but I believe it is the one that has affected the show the most. Of course, anyone reading this is probably a fan of sci-fi and so I don’t really have to explain the ideas behind time travel and chaos theory etc. So I’ll just go ahead with a recap of what has been happening so far this past season.
Last season left us with Carter’s life in disarray; his daughter had left for Harvard (another great character development from struggling teen to someone who realises their capabilities), his girlfriend Tess Fontana has left for Australia for work and the love of his life, Alison has given birth the late Nathan Stark’s baby. Things are shaky for him to say the least. As for Jo, her relationship with Zane has finally taken shape and things are looking up, helping her so soften as a character from the angry, strong woman she has been so far. Fargo, typically is jealous of this but continuing his normal life, he decides to date a fellow scientist (who is sadly for her second choice). As for Henry, his feelings for Kim have again resurfaced and do in the beginning of the fourth season with an unexpected arrival. Other than that, he is named mayor of Eureka and continues saving the day with his superior knowledge as always.

But onto the next season there are some drastic changes in this little town. The season opens with Jack, Alison, Fargo, Jo and Henry going back in time on founder’s day to the original opening of Eureka as a town sometime in the 1930’s. After a while trying to get back to their own time they manage to, but things aren’t as they left them. Characters were getting set in their ways and although I haven’t seen it happen yet, there was a real danger of storyline getting repetitive as many shows have done. This is why I believe the writers decided to shake things up a bit. And shake things up they did. Bet they’re just happy bending the space-time continuum isn’t so farfetched in this town.

By doing this, I think that Eureka has successfully made the transition from being a short-lived show with a cult following to what will be a long-running show remembered by many. Some shows (some great shows actually) have been cancelled way before their time for many different reasons but I am so happy this one survived and now, after being renewed for its fifth season, I think it’s definitely in the running for a couple more yet. Each season opening and finale have had gripping twists and revelations that have kept us coming back for more and this one is no exception. I was a bit hesitant of it at first, mainly because, as a general rule I’m weary of time-travel arcs as the can be easily confusing or messed up, but there is nothing wrong with this one. It’s dead on and there isn’t a problem in sight.
Coming back to the first thing I said about reading Scott Westerfeld this morning and it making me think, he says of science fiction that there are two distinct types of stories; “Trespass” and “Alternate World” stories. This first thing I should probably mention is that if you’re watching a TV show, it’s pretty much guaranteed you’re watching a Trespass story. Eureka is no exception. A Trespass story is one in which a stranger comes to town and they must be dealt with and all evidence of them ever being their removed before the characters can go on with their normal lives. In short; strange things can happen, but only if they’re dealt with and resolved at the end of the episode. In Eureka’s case, it is not so much a person that comes to town (although that has been known to happen) who has to be dealt with but instead, an idea that someone has dreamt up in a lab and experimented with, often resulting in it reacting badly with some unforeseen problem, thus leading to often deadly consequences. These problems are systematically solved by a combination of Carter’s logical thinking, the main character’s expertise in their fields and with the help of the person at fault (who are very rarely doing anything maliciously). The nature of these universes is that they return to normal at the end of every episode, which makes them perfect for television.

So this decision to switch timelines in the season premier and following episodes was one that everyone immediately expected to be resolved quickly. And so when they were returned to their own time, we believed this was the resolution we were expecting, so you can imagine how great a twist it was when those truly awesome writers decided to change the future they returned to. This was again, another thing that we expected to resolve itself, but it didn’t. The nature of this show had been changed to what Westerfeld describes as the “Alternate World” story. It is “...the reader going on a journey to another era, another planet, a world that follows different rules”.

Not many things in this world are visibly different, but things more personal to each character were altered hugely. For the most part, things appear to have been changed for the better, Tess never moving to Australia, Henry married again to a fellow scientist and most heart-warmingly of all, Alison’s son Kevin no longer is autistic. Of course, not everything is perfect, how could it be? Zane and Jo’s relationship does not exist, as does Fargo and his girlfriend’s. It’s a sad turn of events but they are given different chances in life; Jo is the head of security at Global Dynamics working under the new head, Fargo. These differences, caused by a scientist from the original Eureka camp making his way through time with them to the 21st century has brought a fresh feeling to the show. We now have the constant struggle that these characters go through having to keep from everyone the fact that they are from an alternate timeline, this shared secret bringing the characters together much closer than before. This decision by the characters to not tell anyone for fear of repercussions has thus made this timeline the main one, allowing the show to revert back to the “Trespass” story it once was, giving us great stories that can conclude in an episode in a new world.

This storyline is sheer genius; a perfect plot device to strengthen character relationships and breathe fresh life into the show. With season five confirmed and only part of season four having aired, I have to say that this is one show that has gone from strength to strength, improving with time and I would like to congratulate the writers and everyone who worked on it. Great actors and a well made show that clearly has a dedicated team working on it. Can’t wait for the next episode and bring on season five!

So for the past few days I've been ill. I had gastric flu, not pleasant. Other than it being physically painful, it's been such a pain because although I've been off work, I've not been well enough at any point to get anything done. This cycle of days and days at my part time job at a time and being distracted by things; illness or otherwise, has left me with little time for anything else, particularly 3DS Max. This is getting to be a big problem as next year's final project is looming. French was going well until this week, but starting tomorrow I will be forcing myself to get back into it, which shouldn't be do hard with how much I've been enjoying it. On a plus side, I got don't great news this week; through my mums contacts at work, I have been commissioned to do an art piece. It's such a good thing that I've been waiting for for so long, actually being paid for doing the thing I love most: drawing. I'm not quite sure of how much to charge but my mum suggested somewhere around 30 pounds per realistic A4 portrait, which is nowhere near professional prices but my work could do with being improved so it's worth the practice alone. Anyway, that was definitely the ego boost I needed haha, it's always nice to hear your work is appreciated. On top of this request I've been told there will probably be a lot more where that came from, so hopefully a steady flow if them should help me through next year if Uni. Not to forget, while I'm mentioning Uni, I'm happy to say that I was accepted onto the extended Masters program fir animation. But even better than that news, it's exactly 5 weeks until I return to Sheffield! Can't wait.