Colin Ferguson is living a charmed life. If only he could take advantage of all of it. The Eureka star is getting all sorts of offers for directing other shows’ episodes, but being a producer this year on his Syfy series, as well as directing an episode in Eureka’s fourth season (premiering tonight), Ferguson just doesn’t have the time. It’s just as well since Eureka — which is “definitely a well-oiled machine at this point,” Ferguson says — is in for some MAJOR changes and a definite show reboot starting with tonight’s episode. The town of Eureka, a haven for genius scientists and their wacky inventions and discoveries, is celebrating its Founder’s Day, and Sheriff Jack Carter (Ferguson) and other townsfolk wind up back in 1947, where they run into a military outfit and one of those Eureka founders, Dr. Trevor Grant (played by former Battlestar Galactica mainstay James Callis). Ferguson is on vacation and spending some time visiting his parents near Toronto before heading to Comic-Con in a couple weeks, but he called in Wednesday to chat about what this season holds for him and what he has in common with the canine population. Read below for our Q&A (WARNING: Spoilery bits ahead, so you may want to hold off reading till after tonight’s episode), and check out a clip from the season premiere with Ferguson and Callis.

Photos courtesy of Syfy

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Without saying too much, tonight’s episode really embarks upon such a big change for you guys in terms of the structure of the show.
The tough bits beforehand were when people asked questions about it, and we were told not to give anything away. It all hinges on what happens! That’s what was so genius about it: They actually managed to reboot while keeping the relationships the same. It managed to do what I didn’t think was possible.

So this thing that happens will be the main through-line of the season?
The ramifications of it. It’s not so much “it” but the ramifications of it. There are ripple effects all the way through the season. They don’t just sweep it under the rug, which means there’s more stuff to play. Relationships end up changing slightly. All sorts of new relationships start and old relationships are challenged. It’s the relationships that end up being the thrust of this season.

Dealing with the different relationships, has that also rebooted the enthusiasm for the cast as they play their characters tweaked a tad?
It has. We were the only game in town for a little while there, and that means all eyes were on us at all times. That’s a lot of people with a lot of opinions. That’s no fault of anybody’s, but it just wears you down after a little while. You sort of want to go, “Just leave me alone. I’ve got this. It’ll be fine.” The fact that Warehouse 13 is doing well means a lot of people are looking at them, and that lets us feel more like we get to do what we want to do. We get a season like this, which is actually a genuine reboot, and that’s really exciting. It’s a really bold idea and we got clearance for it. We feel it was a bit of a new lease on life.

At the end of last season, it didn’t look like Carter was going to have a relationship when Tess (played by Jaime Ray Newman) left for Australia. That seems to be back on now in a different kind of way.
Yeah, which is nice. And I love stuff to play against because it sort of gives it subtext. I find in plot-driven television, too often you’re left stating the plot and stating your emotions half the time, and that just gets really old. It’s so much nicer to have something under the surface and you’re talking about something else. It just feels a little more realistic. Or I’m a duplicitous bastard. One of the two.

Was it neat to do an episode set in 1947 and don some vintage threads?
Visually, yeah, it was amazing to walk around in. On a practical level? I’m stunned the second World War happened. Those shoes, are you kidding?! We’re so blessed these days with support and all sorts of things. The shoes were a slab of wood on the bottom of your foot. Then you’re wearing double-layered wool shirts. A shirt! It was awful! The technical problem of it was, by week’s end working 16 hours a day with wool shirts, all of a sudden everybody started to rash up around the collar line. You’re hot and you’re sweating through wool and your skin’s not used to it.

The season premiere also introduces James Callis to the cast. Did you guys bond over being part of the Syfy Leading Man Club?
[Laughs] The fun thing about having James around is he always extended himself. This goes way back to the first season where we were shooting on the lot with Battlestar, and James was always incredibly giving. It was like, “Oh, welcome to the lot!” The fact that it was James who joined us we thought was really fitting and appropriate. He’s such a nice man. It’s a little preposterous.

What I like about Carter is even though we’ve had three seasons of scientific nuttiness, he still has that youthful enthusiasm for all the things going on around him. Does that cross over for you in terms of enthusiasm for something new from the writers every episode?
It comes from both of us. I think that’s what they saw in me that they see in themselves real well. I’ve always been compared to a dog as a person: “You’re just so like a dog!” Because I am. I’m loyal and I do my thing, and at the same time you’re just like, “What’s that?!” I’m always game for whatever’s going on. I know it comes for me very naturally, and the writers are always so excited. Even if it’s a terrible idea — because sometimes they are, right? — they’re like, “We got this idea! It’s going to be great! There’s this little button and it sticks in your neck…” And we’re going, “That’s a terrible idea!” Everyone is very giving with their enthusiasm and that’s very genuine.

What else can you say about the season without getting into trouble?
Salli [Richardson-Whitfield, who plays Allison Blake] and I hook up, in a real way this year. We have Ed Quinn coming back for an episode. Wil Wheaton popped in for an episode. Oh, and Jamie Kennedy came in to do an episode. We almost had Dave Foley, but whatever, Dave. He’s a friend of mine, so it’s OK to bug him. What’s really nice about it is that this year, it seems the guest stars have gone up a rung. People want to come and do the show. Maybe that’s the recession talking, or maybe we’ve hit our stride a bit. Why not, let’s hope we’ve hit our stride.

If Carter’s hooking up with Allison, does that create a love triangle with Tess?
Well, yes, I think it might! Unfortunately, part of you would love to do a Thirtysomething episode where you really get to dig into it for longer periods of time. But when you’re doing standalone, plot-driven TV that’s really fun and sort of funny, you can’t get maudlin for very long. We want that as actors, but no one really wants to watch it. [Laughs]

I heard about a Warehouse 13 crossover.
Neil Grayston goes over there, and Allison Scagliotti comes over to visit us. We shot that, and Neely and Scags get along amazingly. It was a good person to choose. Jack Kenny, the executive producer of Warehouse 13, is actually a very good friend of mine. Jack and I were actors on a show together in ’99 [Then Came You].

So when is the crossover with one of those trademark Syfy B-movies, maybe with a Megashark involved?
That would be awesome! I directed one of those last summer, Fossils. It got backburnered because there were having problems – I won’t tell you what they’re having problems with. That would get me in trouble. But it worked really well right out of the game and they were stoked with it so they want me to do a couple more of those. It’ll air sometime this summer.

Do you have a next one already?
I don’t know when I’m going to get a chance to do it, but when it’s one of their favorite ones that they’ve seen and it comes in under budget, then all of a sudden it’s like, “Get him back!” It was also a really good script, which I had nothing to do with but I’ll take credit for it.

I imagine when those scripts are in, they’d blow one’s mind.
Mine had a nice tongue-in-cheek quality to it. The dialogue worked. I find that the challenge on most of them is to keep the drama going. If you go too tongue-oin-cheek with it, it’s dead. You’re 45 minutes in and you’re like, “Yeah, I get it. I’m done.” You’ll watch it and you’ll tell me if it’s any good. [Laughs]

How are you as a director on a scale of 1 to Scorsese?
I’m amazing! I’m a 10. [Laughs] I’m pleased with where I’m at right now. Every time I do it, I learn more. I look at some guys and I go, “You know, he’s better than I am,” and I look at other guys and I go, “I might actually be better than him.” I’m confident and I’m happy with my progress so far.

I read that you guys used to play street hockey on the Eureka set in Vancouver. Is that still happening?
No, we lost it. We had a spare stage that no was using back when Battlestar was on the same lot. Then we took over Battlestar’s stages this year, and Fringe is on our old stage. Fringe also got a lot of our crew because we went down for 12 months. Fringe is a glutton!

Well, following your Twitter feed, it sounds like you’re getting bruised up enough doing the show.
[Laughs] That’s the funny thing, though, when you show up on stage and you’re ready to do a scene. You look around and there are five people without a mask and it’s all the actors, and everyone else around you is wearing an asbestos mask. They’re like, “No no no! It’s totally safe!” We get banged up a bit, but it seems like that’s what works. It works when I get knocked down a set of stairs or hit by a car.