Monday, September 14, 2009

What's the big surprise behind the return of Eureka's 'Taggart'?

The rumors are not true—Matt Frewer did NOT agree to reprise his role as Jim Taggart on Syfy's Eureka just so people would finally stop saying, "Hey Matt, when are you going to be back as Taggart on Eureka?"

"That wasn't my M.O., but if it's achieved that, it's worked," Frewer said during a conference call with reporters earlier this week. "Well, that's it, it's a double-edge sword, isn't it? You can kind of leave 'em wanting more, but if you leave 'em for too long then they just forget."

Fan favorite Frewer—whose credits include everything from Max Headroom, PSI Factor and Watchmen to the Syfy miniseries Taken—returns as Taggart in "Have an Ice Day," which will premiere tonight on Syfy at 9 p.m. ET/PT. In the episode, an ice core threatens to bring with it a new ice age. The manager of the ice core project is none other than Taggart.

But wait a second—we thought Taggart was Eureka's erstwhile veterinarian and biological containment specialist?

"Yeah, so did I," Frewer said, laughing. "I guess in the overall storyline the notion for this was that he was going to complete his walkabout back to Australia. And the whole deal with Taggart is that he always gets waylaid somewhere interesting. And this was his next port of call, to take ice core samples in the Arctic. So there you have it."
Frewer took direction during his time back on the Eureka set from series regular Joe Morton. The actor gives his temporary boss a thumbs-up. "Actually, it was great," Frewer said. "He's an extremely bright and gifted fellow anyway, and it was a pleasant surprise to see how savvy he was directing. Obviously, being an actor, you have somewhat of an immediate rapport with him anyway, and there was kind of a shorthand, but on top of that he was just great fun. We both agreed that for Taggart's return that was the key to the thing, to have fun with it. And he definitely facilitated that."

The episode airing tonight is a one-off. Frewer won't be back as Taggart this season. But Syfy has renewed Eureka for a fourth season, and Frewer said he'd like to return again at some point. "We're pretty much right back into the flow of the character interaction," he said. "There's definitely possibilities there for more stuff, and hopefully they take up the challenge."
sci-fi wire...

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