Well, it has been 10 months since that crazy little town called Eureka last appeared on our screens with new episodes. At the end of Season 3.5, which itself came in after a similarly long break (damn you, mid-season hiatus!), our hero, Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) had just helped the true love of his life and head of cutting edge think tank Global Dynamics, Dr. Alison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) give birth to her daughter. He was also enjoying a burgeoning romance with Global Dynamic’s sassy temporary director, Dr. Tess Fontana (Jaime Ray Newton) who had been offered a prestigious job in Australia and wanted him to accompany her, and his pesky daughter Zoe (Jordan Hinson) was off to Harvard with early admission.

(Bye, Zoe!)

So you would think that, after ten months, our “Previously on Eureka” would be pretty extensive, just in case we’d forgotten this show entirely. Not so. We get a quick snapshot of Alison and Carter’s “bad timing” lament on their relationship, a refresher course on Carter and Tess’s flirtation, we see the airline ticket she gave him to Sydney, and then a scene which had actually never “previously” been on Eureka at all: the one where Tess tearfully dumps him via hologram.

Confusing? A little. Liable to make one go and check the Wikipedia entry for “List of Eureka episodes” to make sure none had been inadvertently missed? Absolutely. But also? Very, very smart. ‘Cause as a new season dawns on Eureka, we see Jack out for a jog, just post-breakup, and with life clearly moving on. It’s Founder’s Day (it seems that if your series is set in a quirky little town, then a celebration of this sort must eventually arrive), the 60th anniversary of their little scientific enclave’s creation by none other than one Albert Einstein, and the town is bustling with excitement. Café Diem’s gastronomical doyenne Vincent (Chris Gauthier) is serving “Cold War Cappucino”, Eureka’s resident clueless disaster-magnet Dr. Douglas Fargo (Neil Grayston) is dressed in full Einsteinian regalia, and Alison’s autistic savant son, Kevin (Trevor Jackson), is fiddling around with a piece of boxy technology with a determined efficiency that does not bode well.

And then, the time travel.

Yep, before long, it isn’t Founder’s Day, it’s pre-Founder’s Day, back in 1947 -- don’t worry, there’s not a Roswell grey in sight -- and Carter, Alison, Fargo, Deputy Jo Lupo (Erica Cerra) and the walking, talking deus ex machina that is Dr. Henry Deacon (Joe Morton) find themselves on the military base that was the town’s precursor. Alison has the forethought to disguise herself, appropriate for the time, as a nurse and Henry doesn’t have to work too hard to blend in as a mechanic. (He is one, after all… among many other things.) But Jack, Jo and a naked Fargo are less successful at not standing out: they all find themselves arrested, (and naked Fargo makes for a fun little nod to The Terminator. Oh, Eureka, you’re so funny!).

But they awaken the curiosity of town co-founder -- though, at this time, merely lead scientist -- Dr. Trevor Grant (James Callis -- yes, Gaius Baltar!), who gets the story out of them before long, and is remarkably cool with the fact that they’re from the future. However, the hardass military head of base security, Major Ryan (Noah Danby) is not a fan of our happy band, and they must work against the clock in order to make the most of the solar flares and the Einstein-Grant bridge (wait a minute… wasn’t there an Einstein-Rosen bridge that somehow allowed all that jumping between realities in Sliders? Ah, I see what you’re doing here) in order to get themselves back home. Carter and Alison hide out at a conveniently timed swing dance, they make long-held shipper dreams come true with a long, lingering kiss “for luck”… and make it back to 2010!

But 2010 isn’t quite as they left it. The town statue of Archimedes is bronze, not granite. Henry has what looks to be a wife. Zane and Jo aren’t even dating (oh, yeah, he proposed to her at the start of the episode, much to her surprise). Alison’s mercurial genius son Kevin, and the cause of all this mess, is autism-free. And more of that bad timing kicks in for Carter and Alison with the return (or, apparent, lack of departure) of a certain relationshippy someone.

Oooh, and look who came with them Back to the Future!

Now this is going to be interesting.

The Checklist

Jack/Alison angst:	Yes, indeedy. Welcome back to Eureka.
Jo kicks ass:	And how! Despite Katherine Hepburn movies and the post-WWII women’s movement,1947 just was not ready for Jo.
Fargo causes mischief:	Actually, not his fault, this one.
Or a Global Dynamics experiment runs amok:	Nope, not GD’s, either.
And/or a newly-implemented technology malfunctions:	Um, newly-implemented, sure, but not necessarily malfunctioning; conceivably Kevin *meant to send them back in time?
Henry comes up with a solution:	Check.
Carter saves the day:	Check -- he has to freeclimb a satellite tower and turn a dial thingy.

  -- Rachel Hyland