Warehouse 13

Did You Know?

• The first part of a five-part comic series was released in August 2011 by Dynamite Entertainment.
• A board game titled Warehouse 13: The Board Game was announced for Kickstarter in August 2016.
• In the John Ringo novel Queen of Wands, Artie and Claudia appear to take possession of an Osemi artifact.

Plot

Two U.S. Secret Service agents, Myka Bering and Pete Lattimer, find themselves reassigned to a mysterious facility called Warehouse 13, hidden in the empty plains of South Dakota. At first, they see this post as a form of exile, but their work collecting dangerous supernatural artifacts and investigating new ones eventually shows them the true purpose of their mission. In the fourth episode of the first season, they encounter Claudia Donovan, a young woman searching for her lost brother; she later becomes the team's technology specialist in season two. In season three's opening episode, ATF agent Steve Jinks joins the group. The show imagines that twelve earlier versions of the warehouse existed before the current thirteenth one. The first warehouse was built between 336 and 323 BC by order of Alexander the Great to store items taken in war. After his death, the warehouse moved to Egypt, starting a tradition of placing it inside the era's strongest empire, assuming it would be safest there. Egypt's Ptolemaic rulers created a council called the Regents to manage the warehouse and serve as its earliest agents and collectors. Warehouse 2 lasted until Rome conquered Egypt. Later warehouses appeared in the Western Roman Empire in Italy, the Hunnic Empire until Attila's death, the Byzantine Empire, Cambodia under the Khmer Empire, the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan, Germany during the Holy Roman Empire from 1260 to 1517, the Ottoman capital of Constantinople until Suleiman the Magnificent died, the Mughal Empire in India, the Russian Empire under the Romanovs (Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia was an attempt to seize Warehouse 11), and the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1914. During Warehouse 11's time, the Regents began hiring agents to find and protect artifacts, a practice that continued under Warehouse 12.

Cast and characters

Warehouse agents are provided by the host country of the warehouse, in this case from various U.S. government agencies such as the Secret Service, FBI, ATF, CDC, and DEA. Agents of Warehouse 13 were chosen either for above-average intelligence or because they possess an extranormal ability. Eddie McClintock plays Pete Lattimer, a rule-bending Secret Service Agent who can pick up "vibes" and is a recovering alcoholic sober for over eight years at the series start. Joanne Kelly plays Myka Bering, a by-the-book agent with an eidetic memory and extensive book knowledge. Saul Rubinek plays Artie Nielsen, the Special Agent in Charge, a former NSA cryptographer with over 40 years at the Warehouse who becomes a surrogate father to Claudia. Genelle Williams plays Leena, the proprietor of the bed and breakfast in nearby Univille who can read auras. Simon Reynolds plays Daniel Dickinson, Pete and Myka's former boss in Washington, D.C. Allison Scagliotti plays Claudia Donovan, a young techno-wiz who earns a job at Warehouse 13 after discovering its secrets; she can hack almost any computer network and occasionally modifies artifacts. Aaron Ashmore plays Steve Jinks, an ATF agent with the ability to tell when a person is lying.

Crossovers

Warehouse 13 was part of Syfy's developing shared fictional universe, with several characters crossing over between series. Global Dynamics researcher Douglas Fargo from Eureka traveled to South Dakota to update Warehouse 13's computer system in the episode "13.1". Claudia Donovan subsequently traveled to Eureka, Oregon in the Eureka episode "Crossing Over". Fargo again appeared in the Warehouse 13 episode "Don't Hate the Player" when Claudia, Lattimer, and Bering traveled to Palo Alto, California. Dr. Vanessa Calder, who appeared in multiple Warehouse 13 episodes as a physician and love interest of Artie, traveled to Fenton, Pennsylvania in the Alphas episode "Never Let Me Go". Hugo Miller spent time in Eureka, departing with Douglas Fargo at the end of "13.1" and returning in "Love Sick". Warehouse 13 also imported characters from other TV series, often casting pairs of actors who had worked together on other series as single-episode characters. Examples include Erica Cerra and Niall Matter from Eureka in "Duped", Sean Maher and Jewel Staite from Firefly in "Mild Mannered", Paula Garcés and Laura Harris from Defying Gravity in "Merge with Caution", Sasha Roiz and Alessandra Torresani from Caprica in "Shadows", Kirsten Nelson and Timothy Omundson from Psych in "No Pain, No Gain", Missi Pyle and Enrico Colantoni from Galaxy Quest in "The Big Snag", and Ricardo Antonio Chavira and Tuc Watkins from Desperate Housewives in "Instinct".

Reception

When Warehouse 13 first aired, it pulled in 3.5 million viewers, making it Syfy’s third-biggest premiere at the time and the most-watched cable show that night across all of American television. Its first six episodes all landed in Syfy’s top ten highest-rated episodes, and the sixth installment, “Burnout,” broke records by drawing 4.4 million viewers—the network’s highest-rated show ever. Season two kicked off on July 6, 2010. The series was picked up for a 13-episode third season starting July 11, 2011, and a fourth season beginning July 23, 2012. Syfy ordered a six-episode fifth and final season on May 16, 2013, and the finale aired on May 19, 2014. Critics had mixed first impressions. Joanne Ostrow of The Denver Post called it “X-Files light, with the bickering Scully and Mulder stand-ins going off on Indiana Jones-style adventures.” IGN’s Ramsey Isler liked the pilot but doubted it would let Syfy “once again boast the best sci-fi show on TV.” Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly panned it in July 2009 as an “unholy cross between The X-Files, Bones, and Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but a year later he changed his tune, saying the show had improved and grown more riveting, awarding it a “B.” Composer Edward Rogers earned an Emmy nomination in 2010 for Best Original Main Title Theme Music. In 2012, the show received seven Portal Award nominations, including best series, best actor for Eddie McClintock, best actress for Joanne Kelly, best supporting actor for Saul Rubinek, best supporting actress for Allison Scagliotti, best special guest for Jaime Murray, and best episode for “Emily Lake.” As of September 2020, Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 82 percent critic score (60 percent among top critics) and an 87 percent audience score.