WAREHOUSE 13 |
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Pete Lattimer - Eddie McClintock Myka Bering - Joanna Kelly Artie Nelson - Saul Rubinek Mrs Frederic - CCH Pounder Claudia Donovan - Allison Scagliotti Leena - Genelle Williams Steve Jinks - Aaron Ashmore 
OTHER WAREHOUSE 13 SEASONS
Season 1 Season 2 Season 4 Season 5 OTHER PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS Eleventh Hour Millennium Fringe The Lost Room
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THE NEW GUYPete gets a new partner in the shape of Steve Jinks, a man who can tell when he is being lied to. When people start dying in the manner of Shakespearean death scenes, the team need Myka more than ever. This first episode introduces a new team member, a new running plot arc and brings Joanna Kelly's Myka back into the fold, but apart from that is pure WAREHOUSE 13. The plot is fairly straightforward, but there is enough of the usual wit to go around. Since Pete and Myka aren't a team for much of the time, it is understandable that there's a bit less than usual. This isn't going to set the world alight, but it's fun enough to welcome back WAREHOUSE 13. TopTRIALSMyka is on trial following her return to the warehouse and is partnered with Pete to find out why people are regressing through their minds. When Pete is infected, Myka has to prove that she still has what it takes. There's not a lot new about this episode, which means that it's fun without ever being anything special. Pete and Myka's repartee is interrupted when he is infected and his teenage attraction to her is fun, but there's a serious undercurrent to what's happening. On the other hand, the subplot about Claudia and Steve being given their first mission together is somewhat dull and predictable, which is surprising for a show in which almost anything can happen. TopLOVE SICKA case takes Artie and Claudia to Salt Lake City to look into a computer virus that is killing people. There, Artie finds his nascent love affair with the warehouse's doctor is threatened by an old flame. It's great to see Lyndsey Wagner and Rene Auberjonois back for cameo appearances and both look like they're having immense fun, but the story that they are caught up in is predictable right down to the conclusion of Artie's love story. Surprisingly though, the subplot that sees Pete and Myka waking up naked in bed together and piecing together the events of the night before is a lot of fun and full of the banter that the show is capable of. TopQUEEN FOR A DAYPete's ex-wife shows up looking for her grandmother's ring since is getting married again. She is also stung by a bee from an artefact that causes her bridal party to become dangerously overprotective of her. There are times when this episode becomes dangerously like a farce as Pete and Myka run into and out of the bride's changing room in frantic fashion. The story is overly manipulative and manufactured and never, ever for a moment convincing despite the presence of Jeri Ryan (STAR TREK VOYAGER's Seven of Nine) as Pete's ex-wife. It's more entertaining than the Claudia/Jinx storyline as they chase a flask across a civil war re-enactment. Top3...2...1A series of deaths in Pittsburgh where people are being turned to dust sparks recognition in Myka and HG Wells is brought holographically out of her prison to explain how she caused it all back in 1893. Period settings apart, this episode brings back HG Wells, which is always a good thing. Here though, the usual fun and frivolities play second fiddle to the plotting, something that has never been the show's strongest point. The flashback structure and splitting it between the three time periods gets a bit tedious after a while. It is, however, great to see Gareth David Lloyd (TORCHWOOD's Ianto) back in action. TopDON'T HATE THE PLAYERA friend of Claudia's has become locked in artificial reality video game thanks to the use of an artefact. The team have to go inside after him. This is a gimmick episode, much of the action taking place inside the rotoscoped, heightened-reality world of the video game. This starts off well enough, but soon gets a bit tiresome and the game itself would never have succeeded since it's so lame no player would continue past the point where the initial novelty wore off.. TopPAST IMPERFECTMyka encounters the man who killed her previous partner, with whom she was having a relationship. Teaming up with two of her old colleagues, she and Pete go after him and learn that he might be using an artefact to bend time. Apart from the slight wrinkle of having an artefact involved, this is a straightforward police procedural storyline that is old and tired and the likeable pairing can't breathe any life into. If you haven't worked out the entire plot after twenty minutes then you're really not trying hard. The subplot of Artie sharing the mind of a dog is noisier, but no more exciting. TopTHE 40th FLOORThe Regents of the warehouse are being attacked and killed. Pete and Myka work out where the next attack will be and Myka finds herself trapped with a very special regent in a building being eaten away by corrosive paint. Forget the light and fun banter because WAREHOUSE 13 goes for the disaster movie approach with a building that's not on fire, but which is collapsing. Even so, old staples like falling lifts, deadly stairwells and last minute escapes are all present and correct. Having Kate Mulgrew along for the ride is rather fun for fans of STAR TREK VOYAGER, but you have to wonder why an organisations with the kind of resources that the Warehouse commands can't organise a quick helicopter rescue off the roof. TopSHADOWSA girl is trapped in her apartment by her fear of killing people when she gets angry. Pete, meanwhile goes into the memories of his Regent mother. There is only just about enough emotional investment in the characters to make the trip into Pete's mother's memories anything other than tedious. It is dull, but just about manages to get by. The accompanying story of Myka and Claudia going after a pair of binoculars that saw the bomb drop on Hiroshima and can project tiny nuclear explosions is OK, but nothing special and certainly nothing that we haven't seen elsewhere before. TopINSATIABLEThere's a plague of zombies being caused by an artefact and the team need to act fast because Pete just got bitten. There are zombies and there are some nice jokes about zombies, but this is WAREHOUSE 13 by the numbers, including the subplot about Claudia thinking that she will be dead by midnight. If it weren't for the likeable cast then this would be getting far too repetitive for its own good. TopEMILY LAKEThe Warehouse's computers are hacked and a file is stolen. It details how HG Wells was removed from her own body, which was then given a new personality. It is the reconnection of HG Wells that the villainous Sykes wants and the only way to prevent it is to kill her personality for good. Just when you thought that the show was resting on its laurels and rehashing old storylines, it comes up with something new and interesting. OK some of the twists (one including Jinx) has been obvious for a while, but some others (also including Jinx) are less obvious. The end of the season is nigh and the concentration on the plot arc is welcome as it focusses the show and allows it to come up with a compelling storyline. It also takes some of the characters into much darker places where murder is considered as the right thing to do and death isn't always as permanent as it might be. TopSTANDSykes needs HG Wells to solve the puzzles to gain access to the Regents' Retreat, through which he can access the Warehouse and regain the bracelet that will give him back the use of his legs. The team race to prevent this, but are faced with an even greater threat. It's the season finale and all of the loose ends that have been tangling along are brought together in a rip-roaring rollercoaster ride that probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but doesn't hang around long enough for anyone to be able to tell. One thing that doesn't make sense is that two agents who are crack shots give up their weapons because the bad guy threatens to shoot at one of them with a mind-controlled HG Wells. A single shot from either of them would have killed Sykes and saved the day, but instead they surrender. Nonsense. The final wave of destruction that flows through the Warehouse is hugely impressive though. Top |
