User:ComposerDude/Warehouse 13

Warehouse 13 is an American fantasy television series that premiered on July 7, 2009 on the Syfy network.

Executive-produced by Jack Kenny and David Simkins, the dramatic comedy from Universal Media Studios has been described as borrowing much from 1980s television series Friday the 13th: The Series,  and as "part The X-Files, part Raiders of the Lost Ark and part Moonlighting." Syfy President Dave Howe has suggested that it was derived from a 2006 miniseries The Lost Room. The series premiere was Syfy's third largest debut to date, garnering 3.5 million viewers. It also has a near 50% female viewership. The first six episodes were all among the top 10 highest rated series episodes on Syfy. Episode 6, "Burnout", drew 4.4 million viewers, setting the record for Syfy's highest rated show. The second season of Warehouse 13 began July 6, 2010. On October 5, 2010, Warehouse 13 was renewed for a third season of 13 episodes that premiered on July 11, 2011.

Premise
The series follows United States Secret Service Agents Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) and Peter Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) when they are assigned to the government's secret Warehouse 13, which houses supernatural "artifacts". It is located in a barren landscape in South Dakota, and they initially regard the assignment as punishment. As they go about their assignments to retrieve missing Warehouse 13 artifacts and investigate reports of new ones, they come to understand the importance of what they are doing.

Production
Then known as SciFi, the network originally ordered a two-hour pilot episode written by Farscape creator Rockne S. O'Bannon, Battlestar Galactica co-Executive Producer Jane Espenson, and D. Brent Mote. Development of the series began in 2005, and a number of people worked on the pilot, with multiple versions of the script, before a version credited to Mote, Espenson and Blade: The Series executive producer David Simkins was ordered in October 2007. Jace Alexander eventually directed the revised version written by Espenson, Mote, and Simkins. SciFi ordered an additional nine episodes on September 19, 2008. The series premiered in the U.S. on July 7, 2009, and is filmed in and around Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec. The pilot episode marked the first series debut after SyFy changed its name from The Sci Fi Channel. Showrunner Jack Kenny feels that roles are partially defined by their actor, and that writer Simkins "in crafting the pilot, I think really made it a nice fit for Jo and Eddie to slip into these parts and Saul as well."

Main characters

 * Eddie McClintock as Pete Lattimer, a "rule-bender" Secret Service Agent. Previously a U.S. Marine, Lattimer is smart, athletic, and has a knack for quick-thinking. His handsome appearance and affable disposition come in handy when he needs to charm someone. His character is an alcoholic, sober since 2002. His sister, who is deaf, taught him to read lips. He has a sixth sense for immediate danger and a weakness for snack food, especially cookies. He is an avid comic book fan - he owns every edition of Iron Shadow (if his personal effects ever arrive) - and a fan of the Cleveland Browns. Throughout the series, Pete and Myka grow fond of one another, but only time will tell if there will be a love connection. In one episode, Pete says that Myka is pretty when she smiles. In episode 4 of Season 2, when Myka claims her sister was the pretty one while she was the nerdy one, Pete tells her she is stunningly beautiful. In Season 2, Pete dates Univille veterinarian Dr. Kelly Hernandez (Paula Garces) until the season finale when she leaves town after an incident with Lizzie Borden's Compact.
 * Joanne Kelly as Myka Ophelia Bering is Lattimer's by-the-book partner. She has more book smarts and a better eye for detail than her partner; in Season 2, Episode 3, it is revealed that Myka has a photographic memory. She takes her job very seriously and frequently clashes with Lattimer, even naming her pet ferret Pete because they are both cute and annoying. Myka has a troubled relationship with her father, who owns a bookshop where she spent much of her childhood. In the Season 2 finale, Myka, after realizing she was wrong to trust HG Wells, resigns as a warehouse agent, worrying that the mistake will haunt her and keep her from being an effective agent.  The season 3 premiere finds Myka working at the family bookshop.  The case revolves around a Lost Folio by Shakespeare and Myka provides vital help.  She becomes actively involved in the case and returns to Warehouse 13 as an active agent.
 * Saul Rubinek as Dr. Arthur "Artie" Nielsen (born Arthur Weisfelt) is the Secret Service Agent-in-Charge at Warehouse 13. A former cryptographer, most of his personal past is shrouded in mystery; in Season 1, we learn he was once convicted of treason for selling State secrets to the Soviets, though in Season 2, Episode 9, it is revealed that he was actually trading artifacts from Warehouse 13 for members of his family. Serious and methodical to a fault, he is frequently annoyed with Pete and Myka, who are newcomers to the warehouse and not as respectful of its peculiarities as he believes is necessary for their safety. He is alarmed by the high-spirited Claudia's curiosity about the artifacts, and has had to rescue her from I-Love-Lucy-like predicaments on more than one occasion. He has a fondness for baking cookies. In the Season 1 finale cliffhanger, he was enveloped in an explosion and could reasonably be assumed to have been incinerated. In Season 2, Episode 1, he reappeared, saved by the "Phoenix charm". In Season 2, Episode 7, Artie is discovered to be regrowing his appendix so he will have to call the official Warehouse physician, Dr. Vanessa Calder. In Season 2, Episode 9, he is the only one opposed to the reinstatement of H. G. Wells; he is vindicated in the season finale.
 * Genelle Williams as Leena is the proprietor of the bed-and-breakfast in Unincorporated Unnamed Settlement, South Dakota, (AKA Univille ) where Lattimer, Bering, and Donovan live. She can see a person's aura. Leena has been aware of Warehouse 13 for quite a while and has known many of the Warehouse agents who have died. In Season 1, she was under the influence of MacPherson. She was freed in Season 2, but it later appears there is some residual energy trapped in Leena's brain which was removed by Mrs. Frederic and The Regents.
 * Allison Scagliotti as Claudia Donovan (Season 2+, recurring previously) is a "young, hip, brilliant techno-wiz" whose brother was believed to be dead. She hacked into the Warehouse computer systems and kidnapped Artie so that he would help her retrieve him. She now works in the Warehouse with Artie and the others. In the Season 1 finale, she stormed out when Leena and Mrs. Frederic accused her of taking objects from the warehouse and giving them to Artie's arch-nemesis, James MacPherson. It was later revealed that the items were actually stolen by Leena, disguised as Claudia using Harriet Tubman's thimble, and controlled by MacPhearson via the Pearl of Wisdom. In Season 2, episode 1, Claudia was given the original "Farnsworth" communicator, allowing her to accompany Myka on an assignment as an apprentice Agent. It has been implied that Claudia is fated to become the Caretaker when Mrs. Frederic dies; Artie later assures her she will be able to live the life she wants, while he hugs her, though his face leaves room to tell a darker side to that statement. She engaged in a brief relationship with a hardware shop worker, Todd, which ended when he was forced to move and change his identity again (he was in the Witness Protection Program). She also had some chemistry with the character Douglas Fargo from another Syfy show, Eureka. Their relationship is, as of yet, open-ended.
 * Simon Reynolds as Daniel Dickinson (Season 1) is Pete and Myka's previous boss in the Secret Service. He is not happy about losing two of his best agents to some bizarre warehouse in South Dakota, unaware of its importance. He was determined to get them back at first, especially after facts about Artie's past come to light. Eventually he sees his former agents are committed to their new positions, and the agents part ways. In the Season 2 episode "Vendetta" he is murdered for his knowledge about Artie's past.
 * Aaron Ashmore as Steve Jinks (Season 3) is an ATF agent who is recruited by Mrs. Frederic to join Pete as his new Warehouse 13 partner, after Myka quit the Warehouse. He has the ability to tell when someone is lying to him.

Recurring characters

 * C. C. H. Pounder as Mrs. Irene Frederic, the director of the Warehouse program, who is older than she appears; it is revealed in the Season 2 episode "Where and When" that she has been in charge at the Warehouse since at least 1961. She is a shadowy figure who suddenly appears and disappears. She is Artie's immediate superior, and answers to The Regents. As The Caretaker, some sort of mental link exists between her and the Warehouse, giving her, among other advantages, a full mental inventory of all artifacts in Warehouse 13.
 * Roger Rees as James MacPherson. He is a former Warehouse Agent, who decided to start selling Warehouse artifacts or just using them for personal gain. MacPherson was first Artie's partner and then his arch-nemesis. He has demonstrated a great knowledge of paranormal artifacts and uses them to accomplish his goals. Though numerous attempts were made to capture him over the years, he remained at large until Season 2, Episode 1, when he was killed in the Warehouse. In the following episode, Artie begins to see visions of him throughout the Warehouse.
 * Jaime Murray as H. G. Wells (Helena Wells). She was a British Agent of Warehouse 12 in the late 19th century, and also the female author behind the works attributed to her similarly named brother. She requested to be bronzed—cryonically frozen and coated in bronze—after grief stemming from the murder of her daughter led her to misuse Warehouse artifacts, culminating in the death of a fellow agent. She was released by James MacPherson in the Season 2 premiere whereupon she escaped custody, only to return and be reinstated several episodes later. In the Season 2 finale she is revealed as a villain when she seizes the Minoan Trident—"the first weapon of mass destruction"—and attempts to rupture the Yellowstone Caldera and start a new ice age. Her plans were halted with the intervention of Myka, after which she was taken away by the regents to be detained in an unspecified manner, implied to be worse than bronzing. In the season 3 premiere, she is sent by the Regents to visit Myka and convince her to rejoin the Warehouse; it's revealed that she doesn't know where her body is imprisoned, but the Regents seem to have the ability to transfer her consciousness.
 * Tyler Hynes as Joshua Donovan, Claudia Donovan's older brother. He is a long-time friend of Arthur Nielsen and formerly the protégé of Professor Reynolds (a pseudonym for MacPherson). In college, he conducted experiments with teleportation using Rheticus' Compass, attempting to use it before finding all of the instructions and was believed dead after activating the device. Claudia and Artie discovered that Joshua had been suspended in inter-dimensional limbo and carried out the final instruction to bring Josh back to the corporeal realm. After returning, Claudia convinced him to pursue his passion for physics and in 2010 he obtained a job at the particle physics laboratory at the European Organization for Nuclear Research. He visits his sister during the Season 2 Christmas episode "Secret Santa". Due to having been suspended in time he appears to be approximately the same age as his sister.
 * Paula Garcés as Dr. Kelly Hernandez, Univille's veterinarian who becomes romantically involved with Pete Lattimer throughout season 2.
 * Mark Sheppard as Benedict Valda, the most frequently seen Regent. The Regents are the executive board of the Warehouses. Valda first appeared in the Season 1 episode "Breakdown", in which the Regents question Artie about his capability. This was Artie's first meeting with the Regents. Valda appeared again in the Season 2 episode "Around the Bend", where he is introduced to Pete, Myka, and Claudia, and becomes the target of Pete's temporary insanity. In the Season 2 episode "Buried" Valda is revealed to be the Regents' expert on Warehouse 2. He sacrifices himself in the Warehouse's Hallway of Death trap to allow Pete, Myka, and Helena to move on.

Artifacts and gadgets
Established in 1914, Warehouse 13 was designed by Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and M. C. Escher. As the name suggests, there have been twelve incarnations prior to the one in South Dakota. The oldest is Warehouse One, which was run by Alexander the Great. Warehouse 2 was at the Library of Alexandria, and Warehouse 12 was in Great Britain. Throughout history, the Warehouse has moved to whichever country/city-state that was the most powerful at that time (Greece, Rome, Spain, Russia, Great Britain, etc.).

The artifacts are items in some way connected to some historical or mythological figure. Each one has been imbued with something of their creator or user, something they allude to in their writing or enhances some aspect of their personality. Some are well known: Lewis Carroll's looking glass, which is a portal to somewhere, and Poe's pen and a volume of his writing, which make whatever the user writes a reality. Some are not: Lizzie Borden had a mirrored compact that compelled her to kill her loved ones with an axe. The artifacts react with electricity and can be neutralized only by a mysterious purple goo produced by Warehouse 13 and used by Pete and Myka to neutralize them once they have been retrieved.

Reception
Warehouse 13 series premiere was the most-watched cable show on American television that night. With 3.5 million viewers, it was also Syfy's third best premiere ever, behind Stargate Atlantis (2004) and Eureka (2006). Joanne Ostrow of The Denver Post described it as "X-Files light, with the bickering Scully and Mulder stand-ins going off on Indiana Jones-style adventures." IGN reviewer Ramsey Isler gave the pilot a positive review, but felt that it was not enough to give Syfy "a chance to once again boast the best sci-fi show on TV." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave it a negative review in July 2009, describing it as an "unholy cross between The X-Files, Bones, and Raiders of the Lost Ark." In July 2010, Tucker amended his opinion, stating that "Warehouse improved as it went along" and "grew more riveting"; he subsequently gave the show a rating of "B". In 2010, the series' composer, Edward Rogers, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Original Main Title Theme Music.

Novels

 * Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever. Greg Cox, Simon and Schuster, June 2011.