I’m a decidedly out-of-the-closet sci-fi nerd. I even made sure I married a fellow sci-fi addict, just so I wouldn’t have to feel shame for occasionally completing the dialogue while watching reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation. (All right, fine – even my wife thinks that’s a little strange.)

So when the SciFi channel rebranded themselves as SyFy this month, I joined my legions of fellow nerds in lambasting the switch. The network largely ignored the complaints and went ahead with the rebrand anyway, with president Dave Howe assuring fans that new, stunning shows like Warehouse 13 would win over the naysayers.

At this point, it’s hard to say if that strategy is going to work. Reviews for Warehouse 13 so far have been largely mixed, with many people saying they like the concept (c’mon, what’s not to like about the idea of a secret government warehouse storing away mysterious historical objects?), but they’re not sold on the execution. I missed the premiere on Tuesday, but I watched the two-hour pilot on Hulu on Wednesday afternoon. After taking a gander myself, I tend to agree. It’s okay, but the next Battlestar Galactica it isn’t.

The odd-couple formula of pairing Secret Service agents Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) is tired and predictable. Fortunately, McClintock creates a pretty immediately likeable character. Kelly’s party-pooper, stick-in-the-mud character, on the other hand, isn’t quite so endearing. But they’re both upstaged by warehouse curator Artie (Saul Rubinek, who, in a testament to my nerdiness, I immediately recognized as having played Kivas Fajo in a single episode of Star Trek: TNG in 1990). I’m sure  that if the show becomes successful, Rubinek will be a big contributing factor.

So from the perspective ye olde average viewer, Warehouse 13 is a bit of a wash. For South Dakota residents and visitors, however, the show’s got another let-down up its sleeve: its crummy portrayal of South Dakota’s Badlands, where the titular warehouse is supposed to be located. All the filming takes place in and around Toronto, which isn’t surprising – filming in Canada is fairly commonplace these days, and the scope (read: budget) of the show almost certainly doesn’t justify filming on location here in the Black Hills area. (You know, even though we’d love to have them…)

That said… couldn’t they have tried even a little harder? The closest they come to any actual Badlands scenery in the pilot episode is a broad, sweeping landscape shot of Pete driving his SUV down a hill to the warehouse entrance. Some realistic-looking Badlands footage has been electronically inserted into the background (see above), which makes for a pretty convincing shot. But that’s where the realism ends. Scenes at the warehouse entrance thereafter seem to have been filmed at the bottom of a pebble-strewn rock quarry, which doesn’t really resemble the sandy buttes of the Badlands. When Pete and Myka drive a few miles away to a B&B in an unnamed town, we see lush, green forests as a backdrop – a far cry from the wind-swept and largely tree-free plains of southern South Dakota. And what’s that town doing there, anyway? It’s supposed to be unnamed and unincorporated – but from the few seconds we see of it, it looks even larger than Wall, the most populated town in the area.

Picky? No doubt. And in the scheme of things, it doesn’t detract significantly from the show. But for us Black Hills travelphiles, it’s just one more thing about Warehouse 13 that annoys.

Hey, at least they get their hands on a genuine-looking South Dakota license plate!