‘Warehouse 13’ premieres tonight and after an explosive Season 3 cliff hanger, fans are no doubt wondering how the Warehouse Team will pick up the pieces of what happened and move forward.

Eddie McClintock, who plays Agent Pete Lattimer, and Saul Rubinek, who plays his boss Artie Nielsen, recently took time to talk to the media about what we can expect in the upcoming season and ScienceFiction.com was there to get all the juicy details they had to give.

Both agree that this season’s episodes will be much darker and although it would be so easy to correct all that was done in last season finale with an artifact, the writers have made the consequences much more severe:

Saul Rubinek: “Our show is not called Giant Chasm in the Ground 13, it’s called Warehouse 13, so obviously they’re going to figure out a way to bring the Warehouse back. But we’ve had artifacts. We’ve know that there’s a downside to using them. There are always consequences. And what the writers decided was that there had to be some consequences that were irrevocable. There were consequences that would be so dark that – so that it wouldn’t just be easy. So, “Oh, they’re dead. All right. We have an artifact for that.” “The Warehouse is gone. We have an artifact for that,” so everything becomes easy. It’s not going to be that easy. And whatever we use will have consequences for the life of this – of the characters and for the life of the series.

So that’s what I can tell you is that the use of artifacts becomes a darker and more dangerous and less takebackable thing than ever before. Would you say Eddie that’s true?”

Eddie McClintock: “Yes. And not necessarily that it changes the show totally, but certainly there will be fallout from the use of artifacts that we cannot take back, you know, that stay with everybody. The change, it changes everyone permanently… But definitely like Saul said, we don’t want the show to become predictable, so you have to be able to know that we can’t just fix everything every time.

This season will see a more sinister tone and it’s quite a risk for the show to take:

Saul Rubinek: “Yes. The show is definitely darker… As I told you, there are tremendous consequences to bringing the Warehouse back, which is what will happen. That’s not going to be a spoiler. People aren’t going to be shocked by that… No matter how dark we get, there’s going to be lighter moments. We don’t take ourselves that seriously. But on the other hand, we’re not so light so that we’re just fluff. And I think people care enough about these characters and see all these different sides to them that we can stretch…”

Eddie McClintock: “… it’s not necessarily that the show has taken a shift tonally, but there are these great consequences. The fact that H.G. Wells is dead, the fact that Jinks is gone, the Warehouse is gone, Mrs. Frederick is gone. We have to deal with that. And to come back from that and be jokey and ridiculous, it just wouldn’t make sense. It all seems disrespectful to the show.

Saul Rubinek: “I think you’ll see this season that they have taken some chances. I don’t know yet whether all those things have paid off. They seemed to when we were doing it. You don’t know until the show gets aired. I can tell you that certainly in the premier it paid off big time. They’ve taken tremendous chances. The writers, the producers, executives have all decided that we’ve earned the right – that Jack has earned the right and the staff has earned the right to raise the bar and to stretch things a little bit, and that our audience will go with us…So that’s what I can say without spoiling things for people. I hope the fans are the recipient of that kind of risk taking.”

As for Syfy extending the number of episodes this season, Rubinek did let out that “they’re really two seasons.” The first 10 episodes will air this year then the show will go on a break with the last 10 episodes airing sometime in the spring of next year. He also revealed that there wouldn’t be a Christmas episode much to the disappointment of those in attendance.

For fans of the show and the sci-fi genre, one of the best things of ‘Warehouse 13’ are the guest stars. Past alums include Jeri Ryan (‘Star Trek: Voyager,’ ‘Dark Skies,’ ‘Mortal Kombat: Legacy’), Tricia Helfer (‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ‘Tron: Uprising’), Lindsay Wagner (‘The Bionic Woman,’ ‘Alphas’), Mark Sheppard (‘Doctor Who,’ ‘Supernatural,’ ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ‘Firefly’), Judd Hirsh (‘Independence Day,’ ‘Taxi’) and, of course, Kate Mulgrew (‘Star Trek: Voyager,’ ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’). But the biggest news this season is the appearance of Brent Spinner who will be involved in a multi-episode storyline this season. This will be a reunion of sorts as the two last appeared together in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ but this time Spinner will be playing the adversary role:

Saul Rubinek: “Yes. I’m not going to tell you exactly what happens, but it does – the whole nemesis thing was great. We’ve even put some clues in for our fans that relate to us having done ‘The Most Toys.’ Some lines of dialog that suggest that we’ve worked together before, so that’s fun. It’ll be fun for fans to figure out. It was a great season for me because I got to work a lot with Brent. We got to renew our friendship because we live in different cities now. And we started off actually in the theater together. We did a play in New York together in 1979, and the reunion was when we did the Star Trek TNG in ’89. It was ten years after that and here we are, wow, 22 years after that. It was awesome. We had a great time.”

Of course the conversation went to the topic of artifacts and what were the stars’ favorite ones from the shows so far:

Eddie McClintock:  “My favorite artifact has to be Abe Lincoln’s hat. When Pete put it on he had an uncontrollable urge to free Mrs. Fredrick. I just thought that was…”

Saul Rubinek: “It was hilarious.”

Eddie McClintock: “…brilliant and I loved the fact that we can say things like that without people freaking out about it. Because we’re able to show that we come from a good place. That gives me hope – in humanity. If I had to create an artifact, I’ve always said that it would be Janice Joplin’s back stage pass from Woodstock. The holder of the artifact could travel through time to go to any concert that has ever been. I could go to see the Doors and Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, and all the bands that my dad turned me on to when I was a little kid but I was never old enough to go to the shows.”

Saul Rubinek: “That’d be a cool one. That would be really good. I’ve said the same thing for a couple of seasons, which is that I want to have an artifact that actually tells the true numbers of the audience Nielsen ratings that we’re actually getting, because I can tell you that it’s probably three times what they’re saying it is because otherwise, the advertisers would have to pay a lot more… So I think that, you know, they’re saying we’re being watched by three million. I think it’s over twice that, so I’d like that artifact. That’d be good.”

I had the opportunity to ask what is their biggest challenge they’ve had this season and surprisingly, it wasn’t anything they had done in front of a camera:

Eddie McClintock: “It’s just to not gain 30 pounds from the chocolate chip cookies that Craft Services bring in. I mean, every day they’re bringing hot chocolate chip cookies after lunch, so you know in regards to being…”

Saul Rubinek: “Really funny.”

Eddie McClintock: “That’s a big…”

Saul Rubinek: “Yes. I’m on Weight Watchers. I want to lose 50 pounds over the next year or so. It’s incredibly difficult. I’ve been struggling with that as a person for all my career. The shows can be really challenging to do, so I want to be healthy. So, that’s the biggest challenge. And the biggest challenge for Eddie and I, and we talk about this, is being good dads. My kids are 21 and 17, but still being a good husband and being a good dad, and trying to balance your career, that’s the hardest thing for us.”

Eddie McClintock: “Yes.”

Saul Rubinek: “All the rest of it is fine. I can talk to you about stretching the character and all the chances that we take. But look, we have one of the best jobs in the world. By the time I got this job I was concentrating much more on writing and directing. I was not expecting this at this point in my career, to get such a great job on a television series, let alone one that was going to be a hit. But the consistent factor is trying to be a good partner to my wife and a reasonably wise and not idiotic dad, which I am occasionally. And to make sure that my kids get into the school that they want to get into and be able to afford it. That’s the struggle for most of America, isn’t it? And that’s what it’s about.

I’m the old guy on the set and I want to set a good example, knowing my lines, for being there on time, for being a good support for everybody. It’s one of the things Eddie and I just talked about. Being a star on a television show or being a leader of any kind, one of the things I’ve learned all my life is that it’s not about how other people support you; leadership is about how you support everyone around you. That’s the quality of leadership, and it’s the hardest job.”

Don’t miss McClintock, Rubinek and the rest of the cast as this season of ‘Warehouse 13’ will be the most surprising one yet! As Rubinek says, “I’m absolutely positive about this. They are going to be shocked this year. Our fans will be shocked.”

Season 4 of ‘Warehouse 13’ premieres tonight, July 23, at 9PM ET/PT on the Syfy channel.