The countdown to to the return of Syfy’s Eureka for season five is almost done. The show returns soon will all-new episodes and to help generate more interest in that return, Syfy has sent us a new preview for this season.

Of course, we’re going to share it with you. In case you’re not familiar with the show and are wondering what all the fuss is about, here’s some info from our friends at Syfy: “Eureka seems like any other cozy, Pacific Northwest town, but is actually a secret community of geniuses assembled by the government to conduct top-secret research. What they’ve unwittingly created is a place where anything imaginable can happen… and does.”

Eureka also features a diverse and talented cast including Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Joe Morton, Erica Cerra, Neil Grayston, Niall Matter and James Callis. In addition, it will feature several guest stars for the new season including Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day and Stan Lee.

Check out the preview after the jump. Eureka returns Monday, July 11th on Syfy.

Salli Richardson-Whitfield has her hands full these days. Whether she’s directing an episode of Eureka, acting in independent films in her “free time”, saving Eureka from itself as Dr. Allison Blake, or taking care of her real-life kids, Salli remains calm as a cucumber.

In all the commotion, she somehow managed to find time to take dance lessons from Eureka’s resident blue-eyed boy, Colin Ferguson. Of course, I know more than a few ladies who wouldn’t mind being swept off their feet by Sheriff Jack Carter.

Fortunately, we were there when she was able to catch her breath and chat about playing a character who’s just as assiduous as she is.

The Flickcast: While there are a lot of women in power in sci fi, Allison is one woman who’s feminine as well.  How do you and the writers balance the complexity inherent in Allison Blake: a mother, leader, scientist, and single woman?

Salli Richardson-Whitfield: Well it’s very funny, because when we first started out, the first season or two… When a new director would come in they’d go, “So, a little softer”. They wanted to make sure she (Allison Blake) was never too hard. Maybe it’s just my personality can be a bit hard and cutting. I don’t know, it’s a Chicago thing or something. I’d be like, “I’m not being hard, that’s just how I am.  If they’d come to me, I think that’s how I’d say it.”

America’s smartest little town, Eureka, is known for its brilliant minds. Although Salli Richardson-Whitfield is not the head of some secret military facility or medical staff in real life, she does run the show from time to time…literally. Who knew she could direct the cast as well as she directs Global Dynamics?

We had the opportunity to sit down with the woman who plays a mother, leader, and love interest. So in essence, a real woman. During the interview you could tell she had a lot in common with Allison Blake: she’s graceful under pressure, smart as a whip, and one classy dame.

The Flickcast: We heard you’ll get the opportunity to direct an episode of Eureka this season. What’s it like to direct?

Salli Richardson-Whitfield: It’s something I’ve been wanting to do. Last season I wanted to do it and then I was pregnant and it’s not the best time to be directing for my first time. I would have been hormonally a little difficult.

But they’ve been very generous in giving me this opportunity and I’ve been taking it very seriously … The thing on the show is, once you decide you want to direct, once you start paying attention, you realize everything you haven’t been paying attention to. So, every director that comes on finds me sitting there. As they turn around, they bump into me because I’m sitting there and I’m like, “Well why did you do that?”

We’ve already brought you a ton of previews for many of NBC’s new Fall shows. Now, as we usually do on Fridays, we’ve got previews for tonight’s all-new episodes of Eureka and Haven to share with you and help get you psyched for these great shows.

First up is Eureka and an episode entitled “The Ex Files.” In this episode, people from the past come back to haunt the lives of Carter and the gang. That’s the thing about the past, you usually want to forget most of it — especially the bad stuff.

Next up is a Haven episode entitled “Ain’t No Sunshine.” This episode is a scary ghost story that comes true when a dark spirit begins claiming lives in a Haven clinic. Ghost? Hospitals? Yeah, I’m scared.

Check out clips for both shows after the break. Eureka airs tonight at 9/8C followed by Haven at 10/9C only on Syfy.

In a world of constantly evolving tech, SyFy’s Eureka stays ahead of the game. The writers seem to have an unending amount of innovations up their sleeves. Between the giant robot spiders, A.I. in the house of tomorrow, and cloud sculpting devices, the scientists at Global Dynamics are kept pretty busy.

That makes double for their new director, Douglas Fargo, played with an affable, geeky charm by Neil Grayston. Just like Fargo, Neil is curiouser than a cat when it comes to gadgets.

The Flickcast: What do you think of the future technology on Eureka that has actually come to pass?

Neil Grayston: I’m always blown away. Sometimes it’s funny if you look back at the first season, some of our “high-tech gadgets” have already been surpassed in the real world a billion times over. It’s like we were really on top of that, someone was really thinking back there. I like looking back and seeing what we maybe thought of before hand and then what the real world was actually leaps and bounds (developing). It’s kinda cool knowing what real scientists are doing and what they’re actually making up.

FC: Do you ever have trouble with the highly scientific, technical lines on the show?

NG: Those are the lines that I usually will…like sometimes I’m going to admit, I cheat, I have my little sides and I cut out just the little technical lines and I make them as small as possible and I hide them in my wardrobe so that you won’t see anything. And then just before a take I’ll just look them over.

I’m fine with the dialogue and the back and forth, but am I going to say a pulsating ionsphere photostar or is it a photographic pulsar ionsphere? You know it’s those little things that I can look up on Wikipedia forever and forever. Fortunately, the Wikipedia entries are written by people who know what those things mean.

SyFy’s Eureka and Warehouse 13 are filled to the brim with gizmos a plenty and government geniuses.  Much like the perfect swirl at Pink Berry, when these two shows crossover they form the perfect blend of high tech adventures. So, when The Flickcast sat down with the energetic, witty, and down to earth Neil Grayston, we couldn’t help but inquire about his fictional and non-fictional cohort Allison Scagliotti.

Neil Grayston, who plays Douglas Fargo on Eureka, it seems is an international man of mystery.  I say international because he is in fact from Canada, and mystery because who knew he used to be a wrestler and still keeps his black belt firmly pressed?  I’m sure this is why Allison Scagliotti of Warehouse 13 finds her pal perpetually fascinating.

The Flickcast: Is it fun seeing Warehouse 13’s Allison Scagliotti in San Diego?

Neil Grayston: Yeah, well it’s funny, Allison and I met a year ago, here at Comic-Con.  We hit it off pretty much right away and we’ve kept in touch and we’re like really, really good friends. And then, we got paid to hang out and work together for 2 weeks, and make out and stuff.

We have a very similar way of doing things- we answer each other’s sentences so many times and we have the same punch lines.  Like when another person has just said something and we’ll both try to make a clever quip and it’ll be at the same time with the same inflection.

It was really fun, I hope I can go back, because the whole Warehouse 13 cast is great and the whole Eureka cast is great, and we all sort of blend quite well together.

The future is always changing, especially if you’re a fan watching Eureka on SyFy this summer. This season, Eureka’s main characters changed their time line when they traveled back to 1947. They returned to find their character’s lives slightly altered. Apparently, they never listened to Doc Brown’s words of wisdom.

Douglas Fargo, once an impetuous and lovable assistant, is now the head of Global Dynamics and finds his employees haven’t taken well to his dictator-like leadership tactics of the past.

We got the chance to sit down with the new director of GD, Douglas Fargo, played enthusiastically by Neil Grayston. Surprisingly, he was more than willing to spill the classified goings-on of this nation’s most secret and innovative town.

The Flickcast: Which of Douglas Fargo’s personality traits will help him in his new position as Director of Global Dynamics?

Neil Grayston: Well I think it’s his strange, I’m not going to say tenacity, but his curiosity is probably going to help him. Because you know he is the guy who always pushes the buttons and maybe now he might actually take a little sec to ask what that button does before pushing it, but he’s still going to go and investigate and see what’s what. You know, he’s not one to be lazy on the job. I think that will work well for him.

FC: Can you talk about the new direction of the series and how the alternate reality has effected this season?

NG: Well the big thing with the time shift is that everyone’s been completely reinvigorated by it, from the actors to the writers and even the network are all very, very excited. This year I’ve been in and talking to people and everyone seems really, genially enthusiastic about it which is great.

Especially on our side, we’re having so much fun doing it, we get to figure out our characters again and try to figure out, ok, well what would they do if they were another person but they still remembered who they were.