Warehouse 13 ‘Queen for a Day’ Review!

Warehouse 13 certainly took off well in its third season. Better special effects, more budget towards the set and the cast appearance was considerably altered. Almost as if for 5 years production had ceased and only just restarted. What was also different was the level of drama, which was considerably increased. This probably because the series wouldn’t have a long lifetime if it merely became a ‘artifact of the week’ show. We already learned a great deal about Myka’s background in the last season but Pete’s background has but a reference to his alcoholism not been touched upon. That was set right in this episode which sees as guest appearance Jeri Ryan (Voyager) as Pete’s ex-wife Amanda. As the episode is supposed to be centered on Pete’s past and his relationship with Amanda we also come to the first big problem with the script. The other characters are tossed aside into superfluous side plots which that aren’t interesting. Arty gets the worse treatment, he is delegated to speaking from the warehouse with his Farnsworth because he has a bad case of the sniffles.

Anyway, onto Pete’s sad background. His ex-wife is a marine (hot uniform!) who has come back to get the wedding ring as it is an heirloom and she is getting married the day after. Pete makes is apologetic speach about his messy past and wishes things where better and so does Amanda. This is about as emotionally high as this episode gets. The Jeri Ryan character has been all but spent, for the rest of the episode she a very uninvolved character and that pains me as she usually plays the exact opposite. Anyway Myka and Pete are forced to attend Amanda’s wedding as she accidentally misplaced an artifact in her purse and has become infected with a spell that makes everyone she touches be overly protective of her. In the end everything is put right but the entire wedding seems an unnecessary part of the script. It does offer opportunity for goofy comedy with the highlight when Jeri Ryan’s character does get involved and knocks out one of the marine bridesmaids with a good swing of a microwave.

In the meantime as I said the other characters were sidelined. Claudia, who was season one’s breakthrough character seems to falter as of late with her goofy distinctiveness becoming less pronounced. Our new character Steve however is still further developed upon and his own troublesome past further expanded with an explanation of his sister’s death being the reason he joined the ATF. However his lie detecting skill is not further elaborated. Steve and Claudia’s subplot is really just filler material.

All in all this episode wasn’t too good. It had its momensts of outrageous humor but that might just make this show jump the shark sooner. In fact that possibility hangs over this show and seems the to be the main reason for season 3’s radical change.

Score; 7/10.

Here is a sneak peak of the fifth episode of this season entitled ‘3..2..1’.