Interview With Syfy’s Continuum Stars Rachel Nichols, Victor Webster, and Creator Simon Barry

Syfy has an amazing Monday night lineup starting with the new hit series Continuum. First released on Showcase, Syfy recognized the greatness of the show and brought it to the United States. The 10 episode first season will air it’s finale Monday, March 18 at 8pm ET. Rachel Nichols stars as the leading lady, Kiera, who accidentally time travels with a terrorist group called Liber8. They live in the year 2077 and time travel to 2012 in the first season. She finds herself torn from her husband and son to be thrown into an unrecognizable world with a group of terrorists. She sets out to stop the terrorists from changing the future with the help of partner Carlos (Victor Webster), and tries to find a way home.

Kiera is a very serious, tough woman so it was very interesting to read that she was originally written as a male character. So during a conference call set up by Syfy, I asked Simon Barry, the creator and writer of the show, at what point was the decision made to change the lead from a male to female and how did that affect the rest of the show? He replied,

Well the truth is it was never written, we never actually wrote a script with a male lead. The very, very earliest pitch for this show had a male character in Kiera’s role but as soon as I entered the development process with the Canadian broadcaster Showcase and met with the executives there, the idea of converting (Kyle) as it was originally, to Kiera, made complete sense and actually was a great contribution early on. At a certain point you go into the process where the idea is driving everything forward and certainly the broadcasters responded to the idea of what the show was. And then you get into the nitty-gritty of the little details and you have conversations about those details. It came up very quickly the option to make Kiera a mom, and I immediately knew it was the right decision. It was a no-brainer at that point, and it just opened up the show in so many ways. So we actually never got to script place with the male version and probably just as well.

I’m extremely happy they decided to turn Kyle into Kiera, she is a great example of how heroines can be badass fully clothed and still be sensitive at the same time. Victor Webster noted how the show is really good at taking stereotypes seen a lot in other shows, and turning them around:

So whereas the male character might be the leading man saving the woman, we come in and we switch that around. She’s come to my aid many, many times, and I’ve had her back as well. So it’s a very symbolic relationship in that sense; What I’ve noticed so far is Simon does such a great job and the other writers do such a great job. Once you think you know what’s going to happen in this show, they pull the rug right out from underneath you. They throw you a curve ball and you’re left going, “What the heck just happened?” So I really like being able to play that, you know, but Carlos is a very strong, proud, you know, Latin male character and to have that kind of character be where he just has this beautiful woman save his life, and it’s his partner, it’s fun to play those moments and really enjoyable when they do this to us.

At the end of episode nine, we see a more sensitive side of Kiera as she talks with Kellog about what happened between them in 2077. Kellog has played a bigger role in Kiera’s life as each episode passes, and you’ll be happy to know that Simon made the comment “we’ll always learn more about who Kellog is and his back story,” and that at some point we’ll also get to see how the future has changed because of what Kiera and Liber8 are doing in 2012.

Although, Rachel Nichols talked about how she/Kiera has to believe that she will return to an unchanged future: “I think if she gets back to the future, and I’m not speaking with any knowledge of any future scripts or seasons of the show, I would like to believe for her own sake and for me playing the character that she wants to do everything while she’s here to ensure that what she’s going back to is going to be the future that she left. I believe that she will return to the future that she left because if I didn’t believe that and Kiera didn’t believe that, then it would be much more of a hurdle being here in 2013. So yes I would like to think that she will eventually return home and Sam will be the exact same age that he was when she left and it will be like she wasn’t gone at all.”

Another reporter brought up an idea that had never even crossed my mind. There’s some wonder as to if Kiera will get together with either her partner, Carlos, or maybe Kellog, but the reporter asked about Kiera and Alec. Rachel commented that a lot of people on Twitter have made the same remark to her which absolutely fascinated her. First she brought up the fact that Alec is much, much younger than Kiera, by ten to fifteen years even. However, that aside, she said Kiera and Alec getting together would be “really extremely complicated…so unless Simon is going to surprise me and tell me that I end up with Alec Sadler from some period in time that I visit, I would say no.” If you like the idea of Kiera and Alec together, don’t get too disheartened yet though because Simon responded with “no comment,” and he holds the power as to what happens next.

Tune in for the season finale Monday March 18 at 8pm ET. New characters will be introduced who will carry on into season 2. The second part of this interview will post after the finale and will talk more about the finale and season two, so stay tuned.

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!

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