Each day at the convention, attendees have been treated to a panel featuring the stars of Eureka. At the Sunday morning panel, Colin Ferguson, Jordan Hinson, and Chris Gauthier were joined by fan favorite, Wil Wheaton. And as with the other panels, Dr. Kevin R. Grazier was available to field science questions from the audience.
The panel, however, quickly turned into “The Wil Wheaton Show,” with audience members firing question after question to the man who plays the scientist they all love to hate, Dr. Isaac Parrish. In fact, the first question Wheaton took related to his rule: “Don’t be a dick.” For someone who lives by this rule, it was noted, he plays quite a lot of dicks.
Wheaton responded that one of the great joys about being an actor is getting to make a living playing make-believe. “It is really fun to make-believe that I am a douchey, nerdy guy like Dr. Parrish. And it is really, really fun making believe that I’m Evil Wil.”
At one point, a questioner asked the panel to list some of the strangest things they’d been asked to autograph. While the rest of the guests thought of their answers, Wheaton jumped in to say that he’d been at the con for three days and had not been asked to sign a single boob. Ferguson quickly presented his own chest for autographing, which Wheaton gleefully obliged. This kind of general levity was the hallmark of the day’s panel.
Several members of the audience tried as hard as they could to get the panel to reveal some spoilers for the upcoming season 5 of Eureka. Despite their efforts, the best the audience was going to get was Wheaton miming Sheriff Jack Carter’s driving, and him answering, “First you’re going to be like, ‘What?’ and then you’re going to be like ‘gasp’ and then you’re going to be like, ‘Aw cool!'” The cast did tease a huge cliffhanger for season 4, however.
Finally, Wheaton was asked which show he preferred, Star Trek: The Next Generation or Eureka. Despite the slightly awkward question, Wheaton said that he was too young to really appreciate being on Star Trek and that he couldn’t get close to the cast like he wanted to. They were adults and he was a kid, so he could only really relate to them on a professional level. In contrast, on Eureka, they are all friends and they get to hang out after work.
“The shorter answer is that I loved both for very, very different reasons and honestly Star Trek was 20 years ago and Eureka was last week.” Wheaton had to pause to compose himself as he got choked up. “I am going to miss Eureka so much.”
I think it is safe to say most of the room felt the same way.
