SDCC 2011: Eureka Panel Featuring Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton


Another great panel full of charming people who appear to genuinely like each other. On the panel were birthday boy Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Neil Grayston, executive producer Bruce Miller, and showrunner and co-creator Jaime Paglia. This year they also brought guest stars Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton, who moderated the panel.

First up was a giant Happy Birthday singalong to star Colin Ferguson, who seemed genuinely touched and was recording it. He continued to tweet after that…

Colin Ferguson colinferg I want more questions during this panel! 22 Jul

Colin said that “we bring as much goofy as we can” to the show, but that it’s tempered to whatever is going on. He recalled the fan reaction to the jokes about pizza guy being  killed during season 1. The fans made it clear that that was going to far, which he said was noted and they adjusted accordingly, so “the tone was established by the fans.”

One of the audience questions was whether they would ever return to the original timeline. Jaime Paglia replied that it will never happen, that it would be unfair to the characters and to the fans who have been following all that the characters had gone through to adjust to the new timeline. When asked if we would ever see Nathan Stark again, however, Jaime replied “never say never; it depends on everyone’s schedules.”

Neil Grayston said that he was very happy with the reboot of the series last half-season. He said he was tired of “Jar Jar Binks-ing it,” a term that was well-received by the crowd. He said it was “great to have Fargo be an adult and mature with relationships.”

Someone asked the panel just where exactly Eureka is supposed to be. Jaime replied that it’s meant to be in Oregon, and that half of his inspiration came from growing up in a small town in Oregon.

Shooting schedules for the last half-season precluded recording and posting episode podcasts, but they promised that they would return.

There was big applause from the audience and from the panel when Wil Wheaton mentioned the Warehouse 13 crossovers of last season. Neil Grayston will be in an episode of Warehouse 13 but everyone’s schedules precluded any crossover from that show to Eureka this season.

Felicia Day, who has startlingly white skin off camera, said she absolutely loves her part in the show. She said it gives her “a lot to play with” and that it’s a great family.

The guest stars had the best lines of the panel. This from Felicia Day: “I like time travel because I feel I would look good in period haircuts.” And these from Wil Wheaton: “Unlike other series I’ve worked on, this show is actually based in science” and “listen, I have some experience with transporters; they malfunction all the time.”

Just a couple of spoilers from this panel, they follow after the photo gallery. The cute pic of Felicia with Neil and Wil on either side of her is what happened when she was asked who her character should “pick”:

SPOILERS:

There will be a Christmas episode this year, back by popular demand. AND part of it will be ANIMATED. They said they’ll be using all animation styles.

Salli Richardson-Whitfield directed the episode that will air on August 7, and it’s a pivotal one. In fact… SPOILER – “outsiders infiltrate the town”. Ooo!

Eureka airs Mondays at 8/7c on Syfy.


Erin Willard
Written by Erin Willard

Erin is the Editor In Chief and West Coast Correspondent for SciFiMafia.com