Continuum Star Rachel Nichols Previews Season 2
Before season 2 of the Canadian sci-fi hit Continuum premieres tonight (April 21st), the show’s star, Rachel Nichols (Kiera Cameron) shared some scoop on a press call earlier this week about what to expect from the sophomore season.
On Kiera going from a life in 2077 where she was completely assured of her decisions and saw things with a clear dichotomy of right and wrong, into 2013 where she is discovering a grey area and adopting a much more complicated worldview
We spoke about it before many times but you know, in 2077 she knows who she is. She knows what she’s doing. She knows that she’s on the right side of the law. She’s the good fighting the bad. It’s very cut and dry. She comes back in time and in 2013 over the first season there’s a blatant recognition of the idea of the gray area so it’s not so black and white.
Season 2 obviously yes, she still wants to get home. It’s a primary goal, nothing has changed there. Season 2 is very much about responsibility and when I say responsibility I mean the end of Season 1 Kagame gives a speech and we used some of his speech as sort of a tagline for Season 2, which is you know if you drop a pebble in the ocean on one side of the world does it become a tsunami on the other.
So season 2 is very much about the things that Kiera is doing well here in this time. Her acknowledgement of the responsibility that she holds and so does everybody else, how they affect the future and how they affect where she’s from and how maybe the decisions she’s making here in this time are actively sacrificing the future that she’s so trying desperately to get home to and because she’s here fighting the good fight and doing what she was doing in 2077 anyway.
Is she actually jeopardizing her family, her husband, her son. Could she possibly do something that can cause her to never be born, in the future? And so yes, it’s the black and white is not so cut and dry this season and there are a lot of questions she have to ask herself. At the end of last season, if she had prevented that building from blowing up, what would that have meant for the future? And these are questions that are very prevalent in season 2.
On science-fiction moving into a darker direction, Continuum’s reflection of this trend and how it represents the mood of the world today.
You know, the sci-fi genre is enchanting and sci-fi fans are also equally enchanting. I love the genre because in sci-fi you can get away with maybe being a little bit political, maybe having a bit of special commentary, all of these things that were very prevalent in the first season and you can get away with them on a certain level where your show is not a political show, it’s a sci-fi show, but you have these aspects to it. And yes, I think for Continuum to have been purchased by the number of countries that it was purchased in, on Syfy in the U.S., Syfy in the UK and on Showcase here.
Yes, there’s a fascination. There’s still the desire to escape when you watch TV or when you watch a movie I think for the general population. But yes, feeling a little bit darker or a little bit more mysterious and I caught – it’s definitely prevalent and we have a lot of that in the show, where we talk about corporations in 2077 own and run the government. They own and run the police forces.
There’s no crime in 2077. There’s all this technology. It’s painting a picture of what might become reality and painting a not so great picture of what might become reality and then in effect obviously invite change in the present. But yes, there’s a fascination with the darker underbelly of what may come and we obviously did this a lot on our show sci-fi as a great genre to do that, to speculate about the future.
And the best outcome of that is when fans, whether it’s on Twitter or any other medium sort of start to participate and ask questions and want to have this dialogue about this dark future that may happen. That’s ideally what we want, people who continue to be fascinated with it and I think our show handles it very well.
On the duality of Kiera who encompasses the sometimes conflicting roles of cop and mother.
They do clash more because in the second season there is – the more prevalent idea in the second season is everything Kiera does now in the present is costing her something potentially in the future. So she is a cop here, a protector in the future.
She’s a mother in the future. She has a son that she wants to get home to and a husband that she wants to get home to. But while she’s here in this time period she wants to do everything she can to uphold the law, do what’s right by the people. So there is that question and it’s very prevalent in the season.
The longer Kiera spends in the present, the more quickly the future starts slipping away and it’s a risk that she kind of doesn’t really have a choice. It’s not as though she’s going to say all right, well then I’m done fighting crime in 2013 and I’m just going to go home and knit for a while until someone gets me on a time travel machine back to the future. It’s not really an option, so she has to interact with the people of today. She has to make decisions. She has to be proactive. She causes change. And she knows she’s causing change but it’s a very difficult choice for her because of the fact that she is very aware of the idea that changing things in the present day may be potentially deleting her family from the future or maybe even her herself. Maybe some of the stuff she’s doing in 2013 is going to prevent her from ever being born in 20 – whatever year she was born — sorry my math is not going to work right now — but yes, that psychotomy. The pull is still there and it’s even stronger because it’s a reality that she may be sacrificing everything that she’s fighting to get back for by fighting for the common good in this time.
On the possibility of a crossover with other science fiction series
I would love that. I think that would be fantastic. I – the funny thing for – obviously the show is very complicated and a lot of sci-fi shows are. I’m on a need to know basis and I asked for this from the first season, from the first episode of the first season.
I’m on a need to know basis and if I need to know something for performance wise — you know, Darth Vader is my father, if I needed to know that then Simon Barry who created the show would tell me that but I’m pretty much left in the dark when it comes to the rest of the stuff because I like the new episodes and I like to read the scripts and I like to be surprised and I like my jaw to drop when I take the twists and turns the audience will eventually take when the show is on TV.
So crossover, I’d love it. Do I have any knowledge of it ever possibly happening? I don’t. That’s a question for Simon Barry but I would definitely support it for sure.
On Kiera relying on her tech and the dangers it poses
The tech is kind of a double edged sword because yes it’s very powerful and useful and it does help her solve crimes and get where she needs to be. We have to be careful about the amount of tech that we use on the show and obviously her suit’s still with her.
Alec fixed it in the first season. She’s got her multi-tool. She’s got her gun but she also needs to be human and I think the writers do a very good job of keeping her human by limiting the amount of power that the tech has. In season 1 Carlos at one point says, “You know, you have to rely on your instincts.” And in season 1 when we did the flash forward to the future when they say, “Don’t rely on your instincts. Trust the tech. The tech will never let you down.”
Kiera has to really adapt to 2013 and yes she’s gotta use her instincts and she’s got to rely on things other than the tech because that’s how it works in this period of time so there is the ongoing debate about this too and the multi-tool and all that. But yes, season 2, she’s definitely learning how to operate without them. I know it sounds really vague but if I said certain things they might kill me.
On the changing relationship with her 2013 allies, Carlos and Alec
Season 2 – Alec is Kiera’s lifeline. He is her best friend. He knows everything. He’s also her eye in the sky. He’s the guy in her head. Their relationship is I think for — and this is just me talking — the most important relationship on the show and she relies very heavily on Alec. And at the end of season 1 Alec receives a message from his future self and he’s really not sure if he likes who he becomes.
And so there’s the idea for Alec of changing his own path and Kiera, she needs him on a certain level to become who he becomes because she wants to get home. And so their relationship is very strained. She’s very much a lone wolf at the beginning of Season 2.
Her relationship with Carlos goes through an extraordinary change, happening through Season 2 and she’s kind of relegated to the fact that she’s here. She’s here for a purpose. She’s got to make the best of it and these are her two dearest friends and those relationships need to be respected and protected. She does what she can but it’s increasingly difficult in Season 2.
On shooting in Vancouver on a series that is set in Vancouver
I would just like to add that we are very proud that we shoot our show in Vancouver and when it’s on the air we say that it’s set in Vancouver because that doesn’t always happen a lot and I’m a big fan of the city, I’ve got to be honest. I had never been here until I moved here to shoot the show last year and all I can say is I’m looking to buy an apartment here now because that’s how much I like it.
I think it’s really important. I think it’s really nice. And I think it’s really refreshing that we’re giving credit where credit is due and very happily shooting and set in Vancouver for the show. I just want to get that across because it’s sunny and I’m looking out my window and it’s a great city and I don’t think everybody knows that that’s not here.
Continuum returns with Season 2 tonight at 9pm on Showcase. Until then, watch a sneak peek of tonight’s episode:
