Colin Ferguson is a down to earth and quirky guy, apparently unaffected by his popularity from his performance in Eureka. There was a scheduling hiccup and he actually apologized and took the blame for the mix up. I was able to sit down and chat with him about the show and his other endeavors.
Right away he excitedly started to discuss the Eureka holiday special, a first for the series and for the network. He shared with us a little about the story we can expect:
“People have said who have seen it – I haven’t seen the finished – with all the special effects in it. They say it’s the funniest episode we’ve done. It’s basically getting into the science of Christmas. If there are reindeers who fly – if there are reindeers that can fly how did it happen? If there’s a sleigh that could fly how would it happen? How do you get around the world? It’s Eureka sort of attacking Christmas in a really fun way and it has a great ending to it.”
In discussing Eureka in general Colin shared some of his favorite episodes and experiences from the show:
“There’s a bunch that sort of stand out as sort of watershed moments for us, and it’s usually personal stuff. Like in the first season there was a little episode called The Games People Play, because that was written by a friend of mine and so that was amazing. Alexandra La Roche, who directed Up in the Air this year – it’s in the back ten. It won’t air till next summer. That one is the episode that explains the poster and that was her first step as sort of the director. She’s been our script supervisor since the first season.”
“So she’s been our script supervisor for four years and has been instrumental in holding the show together. And when someone from the inside gets a leg up and gets that chance and then knocks it out of the park like you knew they would, that’s sort of really special for us because you sort of feel like, we’re all grown up. And it sort of reminds you that you’re all a team sort of pushing to do stuff that you’ve never done before. So that was amazing from this year, that one for us. And I probably would say the Christmas episode because I really like working with Matt Frewer and I don’t get to do that a lot.”
“And it was – Matt Hastings, the director – good, good friend of mine. It was the end of the first season. We shot it as Episode 10 – 4 10, so at the end of the first ten we had no money left because we had done such big stuff on the first nine that we did. So we had six days to do it. It was a run and gun. It was hilariously chaotic and he just knocked it out of the park. It’s really, really funny. So probably those two from this year stand out for me.”
Episodes of TV that focus on holidays are most often shot way before the given holiday. Colin shared his thoughts on shooting a Christmas special so many months prior to the holiday and if it was difficult to get in the Christmas spirit.
“No, it was actually – not, strangely easy but because it was the last episode before our five-week break, it was very festive. Everyone was very excited, great mood. We shot it in June of this year so the trouble obviously is trying not to sweat when it’s supposed to be freezing, but that was work – it does work into the story so it wasn’t as hard as that. But it – no, it was really fun and that’s – it’s great to bring Frewer back, Matt Frewer, for episodes like that because he’s such a breath of fresh air and he’s such a good guy and he’s so funny and he’s so sort of lovely to be around. But if anybody on the show embodies Christmas it’s pretty much Matt. So I think between those things, coming up to the break and having Matt there made it sort of infinitely vested for us.”
Colin revealed a little more about the Christmas special by sharing a bit more about Matt Frewer’s character on this episode:
“Well he’s – I believe it’s a santologist is what I believe the term was, and he was doing all sorts of research on proving or disproving Santa Clause, but he was out to know everything there is to know about how Christmas would work if it was there. So that happens all the way through it. And of course the standard sort of Eureka stuff, but it’s – instead of end of the world or fright stuff, it’s way more fun stuff that we did with the special effect, and way more sort of comedic stuff.”
Eureka has a tradition of bringing in some great cameos and guest stars this year will be no different. Colin mentioned that Felicia Day (The Guild, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Wil Wheaton (Star Trek The Next Generation), and Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall) to name just a few.
“Everybody’s looking for work so we get fantastic celebrities coming to do the show, which is really fun. I mean, for me having Wallace Shawn (Princess Bride) on the show was sort of a highlight. So it’s a great group and I’m really impressed with our casting. The guest stars have been great.”
Colin also seemed to really have a fantastic experience directing the Syfy original film Triassic Attack. He expressed that he wants to get behind the camera even more. The opportunity to direct another of these Syfy original films is available to him but he wasn’t sure at that time if he could fit it into his Eureka schedule. Possibly one of the most interesting bits of information that came from this conversation is that his long term plan, currently in the works, is to start an all new series from the ground up. He didn’t share any details on that series or specifically what role he will play in the series whether as a producer, director, actor, or all of the above. When asked what he’d like to do and hasn’t he mentioned that he’d like to do a big budget epic film full of special fx. His example was Inception.
The holiday special of Eureka airs Tuesday December 7th at 9 pm Eastern time.