This week’s Danger Gal Friday profiles Myka Bering from SyFy’s new series Warehouse 13 portrayed by Canadian actress Joanne Kelly. Warehouse 13 is already getting pegged as “X Files Lite” with many comparisons between Bering and Scully. There are similarities of the good kind, but the show also has a Steampunk feel to many of its gadgets as well as a bit of a history lesson, in the pilot at least. The SyFy web site describes Bering as:

A woman born to be an agent. Organized and focused, Myka believes in hard work, solid planning, and steadfast execution. She never met a meticulously detailed mission outline she didn’t like, and her attention top minutiae has led her to status as a rising star in the Secret Service despite a “classified” situation in Denver, Colorado.

Pilots for series are often a little rocky as the writers and the actors are just getting to know the story world and the characters, but I thought Warehouse 13 came off mostly solid. I was never tempted to turn the channel and am intrigued by the hints at the character’s back stories.

In keeping with many a Danger Gal, Bering saved her male counterpart and twice to boot — once by pulling him from a wrecked car (and coming too first after being thrown) and in the end. Bering and Latimer saved each other on a few occasions, so I thought that aspect of the pilot was well-balanced. I don’t want to pay undo attention to Bering’s attire, but I always pay attention to see if a female character is costumed similarly to a male character — such as in Star Trek Uhura wears a capped sleeved mini-dress while the male characters are all in long sleeves and long pants. Someone on the Enterprise is either very chilled or sweating.

Bering and Latimer were both dressed appropriately and in fact Latimer showed off more skin than Bering did. I did think it odd that Bering would wear a skin-tight cocktail dress and heels to protect the President, but at least they made a point of showing her taking off those heels when she had to kick some ass. Later we see Bering wearing much more appropriate shoes with actual treads.

From a story development standpoint, Bering contributed just as much to solving the story problem as her partner did. Overall, a good start to a fun show, one not quite so deep as Fringe that I appreciate, and I’m looking forward to more.