Sci-Fi Storm

Stichers is the new SF procedural drama from ABC family, and features a couple of faces familiar to fans of this site – Salli Richardson-Whitfield, who played Allison Blake on Eureka, and Allison Scagliotti, who played Claudia Donovan on Warehouse 13. It debuted last week, and episode 2 airs tomorrow night at 9/8c.

The show follows Kirsten Clark (Emma Ishta), a Caltech student who has temporal dysplasia, which causes her to have no sense of time. She is at odds with her roommate, Camille (Scagliotti), another Caltech student who is a computer systems expert and is trying to kick her out. Kirsten encounters Maggie Baptiste (Richardson-Whitfield), who leads the Stitchers program – a covert government project (the agency we are not given) which has developed the capability to insert or “stitch” a person into a recently deceased victim’s memory for a limited time, with the hope that they might discover the truth about the person’s death. Kirsten’s affliction makes her perfect to become a Stitcher.

Helping on the team is Cameron Goodkin (Kyle Harris, The Carrie Diaries), a brilliant neuroscientist and acts as a guide while Kirsten travels through memories; and Linus Ahluwalia (Ritesh Rajan, Campus Life), a bioelectric engineer.

The first episode was extremely fast-paced – perhaps a bit too much, as there is a lot to follow for an introductory episode, but that doesn’t prevent the characters from coming through. And their interactions allow for a good amount of humor to lighten up the intensity, especially the banter between Kirsten, Cameron and Linus. It will be interesting to see how this translates in the long run.

Of course I had to wonder about the length of the “exit password” that Kirsten needs to type in to exit the memories…I tweeted about the fact that something you’d need to type in quickly should be much shorter…almost instantly I got a reply from executive producer/creator Jeff Schechter, who said, “It used to be ‘iheartjeffreyalanschechter’, but my wife objected.” OK, everyone involved is fun to deal with…

Check out some introductory videos below on each of the Stitchers.
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In a followup to our earlier story about Shadowhunters, the TV version of the [asin=1481400835]Mortal Instruments[/asin] book series by Cassandra Clare – reports say that McG (Supernatural) will direct the premiere episode for ABC Family. He also directed the pilot episode of Kevin From Work for the network, which has also been picked up for a series where he will continue to serve as executive producer.

Eureka‘s Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Warehouse 13‘s Allison Scagliotti have joined the production of Stitchers, an hour-long crime procedural drama with a bit of science fiction thrown in. The two were among three roles recast from the show’s pilot, with Ritesh Rajan (The Last Airbender, Campus Life) also joining existing cast members Emma Ishta (Manhattan Love Story) and Kyle Harris (The Carrie Diaries).

Stitchers follows Kirsten (Ishta), a young woman who is recruited into a secret government agency to be “stitched” into the minds of the recently deceased, using their memories to investigate murders and help solve mysteries before they go to the grave.

Working alongside Kirsten is Cameron (Harris), neuroscientist; Linus (Rajan), bioelectrical engineer and communications technician; Maggie (Richardson-Whitfield), who heads the program; and Kirsten’s roommate, Camille (Scagliotti), a computer science grad student recruited into the agency for her hacking skills.

Production began today in Los Angeles.

Stitchers was created by Jeffrey A. Schechter (Beethoven’s 3rd), who write the pilot and will executive produce with Jonathan Baruch and Rob Wolken. Todd Holland (The Larry Sanders Show, Malcolm in the Middle) will direct the premiere.