Eureka! I think they've got it!

"Eureka," Sci Fi's cheeky action comedy about a secret town filled with geniuses who create gadgets and defense weapons for the government, returns for a truncated, eight-episode season three tonight, with a character that portends dire things: The Fixer (Frances Fisher), the author of "The Art of War: The Guide to Global Downsizing," is coming to Global Dynamics to make it run as efficiently as any for-profit corporation (but have you looked at the state of our banks lately?).

One could read this, if one were a myopic employee at a print newspaper, as a metaphor for corporate greed stomping hard upon ephemeral ideas - there are certain businesses you just shouldn't get into if all you're interested in is making money. The Fixer has just about everyone at Global Dynamics and in Eureka in general worried over whether they'll have a job when she's done with her assignment. She's even targeted Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson), who can hardly be blamed for going over budget when he's routinely saving the entire universe from getting fragged by an errant Global Dynamics gizmo. She blames Carter for everything, kvetching, "This town is out of control."

And anyway, Carter's got enough bad news to process, as his arch enemy Stark (Ed Quinn) has asked Allison (Salli Richardson-Whitford), whom he's not-so-secretly sweet on, to remarry him.

So anyway, the first thing The Fixer witnesses is The Viper, Global Dynamics' heretofore highly successful missile defense system, get its ass handed to it by Martha, a predator drone with rapidly evolving artificial intelligence, who sets the whole town into a panic. Yes, the town is out of control, but that's Jack's fault because...? Jack almost manages to capture Martha, but when his efforts prove in vain, he laments, "We so don't rule."

"Eureka" remains the same sort of frothy fun that it has been since its inception. You kind of wish it had a bigger audience so that it wouldn't be tagged with the indignity of a measly eight-episode season, but that's what happens when the world is run by the bean-counters and the geniuses are merely expendable payroll.

Oh, and do I even have to mention it? - The Fixer has a secret that's probably pretty sinister.

- "Eureka:" 9 tonight, Sci Fi Channel.

(This is a reposting of an earlier entry that our blog server thoughtfully eradicated. Enjoy anew.)