After launching their most successful season opener to date (up 17 % in adults 25-54 and up 23% in adults 18-49 from the season 3 cliffhanger), Warehouse 13‘s Executive Producer Jack Kenny and guest star Brent Spiner spoke about the new season.
Brent Spiner plays Brother Adrian, a leader of the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Black Diamond introduced in the season premiere. Kenny knew that the Brother Adrian character would be Artie’s nemesis for the first half of the season. He asked Saul Rubinek, “So you’re friends with Brent, right?” and asked what he thought about Brent as Brother Adrian. Saul’s response was, “Oh my god, that would be my dream come true.”
Not only had they played against each other in the episode of Star Trek:TNG “The Most Toys”, but they’d acted together in a Shakespeare play in 1978. Spiner said, “It was the opportunity to work with Saul again, which was like swimming in a rainbow. I went back and forth to Toronto six times and each time I looked forward to going because I knew I was going to have a pleasant experience.”
Brother Adrian is a man of the cloth, literally since Spiner’s costume is a cassock. When discussing it, Spiner was initially concerned that it would be inhibiting, but found that “it informed a lot of things, and in the right way. Sometimes the externals will do that.” Kenny said that the cassock gave Spiner a “real stillness” which complement Spiner’s ability to bring “a sense of power without having to twirl a mustache or flex a muscle, he just has a presence.” This power is important to the dynamic this character has with Artie.
When asked what he enjoyed most about the role, Spiner answered, “Working with this company. It was just a great bunch of people, from the top down.” He went on to say, “Jack writes a really wonderful show and it’s entertaining and it’s smart, and that’s a real change of pace.” Regarding acting for the show, he said “The talent [of acting] is to be as good as the material. And in this case the material was good.”
When asked what can be expected this season, Kenny did talk about some of the artifacts that will make an appearance. Watch out for something from Lovecraft, for Bobby Fischer’s marbles, and for Scott Joplin’s cigarette case as well as a few returning items, like Lewis Carroll’s mirror. We’ll also learn how an artifact is born.
Given the darker feel of the premiere, Kenny was asked about the tone of this season. “We’ll never drop the fun from this show, there will always be, even in the darkest episode, a notion of comedy, because I think that’s when comedy is the most useful and I think that’s when people can relate to it, so we’ll always have that.” Despite that reassurance he went on to say that there will be “some dark and heavy-duty stuff this season.” The artifact in the premiere came with the downside that anyone who uses it will “create an evil he’ll have to live with the rest of his days and we take that seriously. There will be real consequences this year, to make the stakes high enough, to create real danger. But, Kenny added, “We still do plenty of romps, there’s plenty of romping to be had between now and the end of this first set of ten.”
This season of Warehouse 13 has 20 episodes, unlike the prior 11 and 12 episode seasons. In discussing it, Kenny said, “It’s just a lot of episodes to keep in your head, but it’s sort of two seasons. The first ten episodes will end with a major cliff-hanger and major emotional turmoil.” This cliff-hanger will give the arc a different turn to solve the problem created in the first half of the season. How can he do all this? Kenny said, “I’m blessed with a brilliant writing staff that is constantly churning out new ideas and new ways to approach things, and just pumping out great stuff.”
And great stuff is what we tune in to Warehouse 13 to watch. That, and Brent Spiner in a cassock.
Warehouse 13 airs Mondays on Syfy. (Showcase in Canada will be airing the fourth season starting on Friday, September 7th at 10pm.)
Photo Courtesy of Syfy
Sunny M. Hope grew up without cable, but fixed that as soon as possible. She discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, from that, others who were as passionate about television shows as she is. Based in Toronto, but living mostly online, she's delighted to share her glee here at The Televixen. You can find her at 
