Up until late last year, no one associated with Continuum – not its showrunner, not its stars – knew whether the locally shot time travel procedural would be returning for a fourth season.
The multifaceted show – about kickass 2077 cop Kiera Cameron (portrayed by Rachel Nichols) who follows a group of fugitives back to 2012 Vancouver, and promptly gets stuck there – was one of the only sci-fi series both shot and set in Vancouver.
Its third season ended in June 2014 on a jaw-dropping cliffhanger: with the arrival of super-scary-looking Future Soldiers from an effed up, war-torn timeline.
As summer 2014 marched on, Continuum’s home network – Showcase – remained mum on renewal. Announcements rolled out for Showcase’s other shows, but not so for Continuum. Its on- and off-screen future grew ever bleaker.
Even Continuum’s showrunner, Simon Barry, expressed his frustration on social media, tweeting in August 2014: “If I don't get some #RenewContinuum news really soon, I will be launching an epic twitter rant... So that's something to look forward to.”
But diehard fans (who call themselves NuumNuts) organized. They bombarded Showcase with tweets and emails, and put the #RenewContinuum hashtag to good use.
And they got their wish: Continuum would return for a fourth and final (albeit, at six episodes, shorter) season, and the NuumNuts (not to mention Barry and cast and crew) would get the closure they so desired.
“We had a big plan that we knew we could do seven seasons in terms of story points, but at the end of the day, those plans are kind of like a road trip,” says Barry during a set visit in mid-May.
“So we were always prepared to do the short trip or the long trip, depending on what opportunities we were given. Regardless of how many seasons we got, the ending was always going to be the same.”
Barry’s seated at a table that fans of Continuum know well: the conference table in Continuum’s police station, located in the office building adjacent to the Plaza of Nations.
Photos of Continuum’s baddies and agitators (including Luvia Petersen’s Garza, and The 100 star Richard Harmon’s Julian Randol) hang on white boards, just as they would in a real cop shop.
The plan is to dismantle the police station set the very next day; the final shooting day is four days away.
By this point, the final scene is already in the can. Like most shows, Continuum shoots out of sequence, and on this sunny afternoon, they’re filming an emotionally charged scene involving Kiera, tech genius Alec (Erik Knudsen), and beleaguered VPD cop Carlos (Victor Webster).
These final episodes are more like a six-part movie than a six-episode season, says Barry.
“It’s an event series, and I think that was a great opportunity for us to not be locked into an episodic model of traditional TV, and really say, ‘hey, let’s make a six-hour movie, and spread it out over six parts,’” says Barry.
“That really freed us up to make the show feel more like an epic chapter at the end of the book.”
Adding to that event series feeling is the multitude of high-profile guest stars, many portraying the aforementioned Future Soldiers: Aleks Paunovic (The 100; iZombie), Michael Eklund (Eadweard), Lisa Berry, Ty Olsson, Garfield Wilson, and Kyra Zagorsky (fresh off of Helix, who describes her Continuum character as “a big mystery, and it’s a big secret that’s a pay-off in the final episode, but I was the only one who knew what that piece was”).
Barry “found a way to turn up the heat and really go out with a bang, and these last six episodes are pretty crazy,” says Webster in between takes a little later in the day.
“Somebody dies almost every single episode, and people go through major storyline arcs,” says Webster. “There are lots of explosions and gunfights and fistfights, and it’s pretty spectacular.”
But the story isn’t going to be “wrapped up in a nice package with a bow,” says Nichols, upon whose character’s shoulders rests the fate of time as we know it.
“[Kiera’s] journey this season is, if she’s going to get home, if she has that ability to get home, there’s no way that she’s going to leave here and leave it a mess,” says Nichols. “Morally, she wouldn’t do that, and I’m proud of her because Kiera [in] year one would have done it. She wouldn’t have had the relationships. She wouldn’t have seen the good that Liber8 can actually do, or the bad that the corporations and the corporate congress could actually do.”
As for the actor behind one of Continuum’s more menacing characters – Vancouver thespian Stephen Lobo, who portrays the rather dastardly (and oddly playful) Kellog – he’s grateful for the opportunity to have some closure.
“I’ve never been a part of anything that you finish on series television,” says Lobo, who co-starred on Godiva’s and Arctic Air (both RIP). “The axe falls, usually on a cliffhanger, and then you’re done.”
If you live in Canada, you can watch the first episode of the fourth season right now (ideally after binge-watching the first three seasons) on Showcase.ca.
The episode will be online until just before midnight on Sept. 3, at which point it’ll be removed and then the traditional weekly broadcast cycle will begin on Sept. 4 at 9pm on Showcase.
MORE FROM CONTINUUM CAST & CREW:
Victor Webster on Carlos’ journey in season four: “There is heartbreak. There are emotional challenges. There are character checks. There’s a lot of action. Carlos goes through quite a lot. A lot of good and bad things happen to people who are very close to him. At the beginning of the series, he was a cop who did the right thing, but he was also a jokester. He liked to throw the one-liners here and there, and didn’t take everything too seriously, but then there were the second and third seasons, where he took everything very seriously because it was a whole different world that he was exposed to now, especially last season which was very much an emotional rollercoaster for him. So I think coming out of that, that’s changed him forever, in the way that he looks at and deals with things. So in a way, Carlos is a completely different person because of his circumstances.”
Victor Webster on what he’ll take away from his time on Continuum: “I’ve grown a lot. Simon has challenged me with a lot of interesting character arcs. I’ve worked with some really good actors who have really stepped my game up. I’ve worked quite closely with Pat [Williams] and other great directors on the show, really watching their vision. My next step is to get into directing as well. So they’ve been very open with sharing their knowledge, and for me this was a great collaborative project. You have an idea, you bring it to them, and a lot of the times, they’ll incorporate it if it makes sense, or discuss it. Sometimes you just work together to make everything better, and this has been a great example of that.”
Victor Webster on his love for the sci-fi genre: “My whole career, I’ve always come back to sci-fi. I’ve done lots of other things, and I’ve always come back. I love it. I love that you get to push the boundaries of reality. You get to live in a world that only your imagination limits, and I find that really exciting. I love sci-fi movies. I love acting in sci-fi. I love TV shows, comic books. I love all of that stuff. I’m a big nerd inside. So to be able to do these fantastic shows, it’s a pleasure, and to see how they turn out when you watch them on the screen with all the special effects and the CGI and Artifex does their magic, it’s incredible to be a part of that, and I can sit back as a fan and just watch it and separate myself from the working in the show, and just watch the show.”
Simon Barry on the role that the NuumNuts played in getting a final season: “I think that when the network was in a mode where they were debating internally what to do, the fact that the fans were so vocal and also these fans were also watching other shows on the same network, I don’t think the network took that for granted. I think they really appreciate the loyalty of their fans, of their viewers, and I think they knew that by doing right by Continuum they were also protecting the other shows that they have on the network so they didn’t disenfranchise those fans, which I think is a good lesson.”
Simon Barry on his gratitude to the NuumNuts: “I want to say thank you, not just for the years of support, but also for the rallying cry of renewal that I think probably had a huge influence in getting season four, so on that front alone, thank you, I’m grateful. I think it’s a great gift to the fans to be able to give them the ending of the story and hopefully an ending that everyone is happy with [laughs]. I’m already happy with it, but I think, obviously, you can’t please everybody, but I think the fans will be satisfied.”
Kyra Zagorsky on the Future Soldiers: “We come from a very war-torn world, so that’s what we know. What we know is just war and pain and suffering and all of these kinds of things, so it’s not the world that Continuum has in the day of what we’ve been watching, even when they travel back. The future is a beautiful, pristine place, and yeah, there are some problems, and the Vancouver of now is one thing, but what we come from is hell. It’s not good… On this show, the scariest thing I had to do was – actually, I don’t know if I can say it. They’ve been testing my fear of heights on this show.”
Stephen Lobo on Kellog’s journey in season four: “I think the place that you leave me at the end of season three, that’s the journey. That’s the beginning of the journey. I don’t have many friends left [laughs], people are gunning for me, and it’s about survival. Kellog is going from season two and three where he’s been in the shadows, maneuvering, he’s put himself out there now. He’s taking the opportunity, he’s taking the chance, he’s taking the risk, and it’s all or nothing. It’s about survival… For me, the greatest pleasure is constantly being surprised by Kellog. Sometimes in series television, they devise these characters to be the same, to function the same way in this universe, but Kellog is always evolving, and I’m always surprised when I get to read the scripts: ‘Oh, wow, I get to do that.’”
Stephen Lobo on his favourite Continuum relationship to play: “Definitely my relationship with Kiera. Love-hate on my end, but more hate-hate, maybe, from her side, but I keep trying! I keep hope alive! It’s an interesting dynamic, because I think it feels like there’s a chemistry there between the two characters, and it’s one of those things where maybe in a different time, different place, different circumstances, different season, and if Kellog made different choices, who knows what could happen? But with Kellog, it’s more about the game for him, and I think having a mountain to climb and this beautiful woman is the ultimate challenge for him, and I think if he can capture that, I think that’s what’s exciting for him. And is he getting the unattainable? That’s his whole journey. That’s what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to rule the world and find a queen.”
Rachel Nichols on the biggest change that Continuum brought to her life: “When I first came here to shoot the first season, I’d never been to Vancouver. I’d been living in LA for about nine years, and so I came in January 2012 and I shot the first season, moved back to LA in June like you do, came for the second season in January 2013, and then met and started dating Michael in about April, and then he proposed in December 2013, and we just got married in September. So now, I have my permanent resident status here, and I love it here. I’ve loved Vancouver since I came, especially on a day like today which I know people listening to this won’t be able to see, but it’s just sunny and gorgeous and it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and we live just over the bridge in North Van. I’ve been so fortunate. Continuum has brought me a lot more than a job for four seasons. I have a whole family here now, between the family that is Continuum and many of the cast and crew were at my wedding because we’ve all become so close… but now I also have Michael’s family.”
