Odyssey 5

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Odyssey 5

Odyssey 5 title screen.
Format Sci-fi, time travel
Created by Manny Coto
Starring Peter Weller
Christopher Gorham
Sebastian Roché
Leslie Silva
Tamara Craig Thomas
Country of origin  Canada[1]
No. of episodes 19 (20)
Production
Running time 44 mins
Broadcast
Original channel Space
Showtime
Original run 21 June 2002 – 15 October 2002

Odyssey 5 is a Canadian science fiction series that first ran in 2002 on Showtime in the United States and on Space in Canada.

In the United States, the initial run of the series ran for 14 of the 20 episodes, leaving the six remaining episodes unaired for a period of roughly two years. (They aired in 2004 on Showtime as "missing" episodes, which ostensibly included the open-ended series finale.) The show was cancelled despite the fact that the series was one of Showtime's highest rated original series.[citation needed]

The series made a full run of all 20 episodes in the United Kingdom on Sky One and on Sci Fi Channel and in Canada. In 2004, the series aired in Finland on Nelonen and thus could also be seen in Estonia, and in June 2004 it premiered in Germany on Sat.1. In 2005, it aired in the Netherlands on NET 5 after midnight. In addition, Odyssey 5 is being or has been aired on RTL Klub in Hungary[2], and premiered in Australia on the Sci Fi Channel in December 2006. Currently the series airs on Cadena 3 (channel 28) in Mexico, the Sci Fi Channel in the United States, SIC Radical in Portugal, Mega Channel in Greece and extreme tv in Spain.

Odyssey 5 is the brainchild of Manny Coto, who served as a script-writer and executive producer during the series run. Through his website and in interviews, Coto has expressed his interest in returning to the series at some point, either continuing it or giving it a conclusion.[citation needed]

The series was produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The story revolves around a set of people on a routine spaceflight on August 7, 2007: four astronauts, a scientist, and a television news reporter. However, during the course of the flight, the Earth suddenly dissolves into a fiery ball, and explodes. Before regaining control of the shuttle, one astronaut is killed. The remaining crew of the space shuttle Odyssey resign themselves to death, but a non-organic being called the Seeker rescues them. Fifty other worlds have been destroyed in the same way as Earth, but the seeker has always arrived too late to observe it or find survivors. However, this is the first time he has met survivors of such a tragedy. He offers to send them back in time 5 years (and therefore to present day, at the time of the series), so that they can prevent the disaster. In a twist, their consciousnesses are sent back and not their physical bodies, as physical time travel is impossible. They only know the name of the thing that did this: Leviathan.

The villain seems to be a race of artificial intelligences developed by humanity. They are trying to learn about humanity through surrogates, called "Synthetics." In the course of their "learning," they apparently destroy the Earth. Though during the series another group of synthetics are discovered to be from Mars and that in the original timeline all the synthetics created by humanity are destroyed by a satellite designed for the purpose by a cabal within the US government. Whether this act of destruction is seen as a declaration of war by humanity's AIs or the Martian synthetics are to blame for the Earth's destruction is never resolved.

While they deal with the search for the truth, the team must also deal with being back in the past, with memories of what is to come. A running plot through the series is reporter Sarah Forbes trying to save her 5-year old son, who died of cancer. However, her efforts to get him experimental help end up with her husband leaving her, taking the boy with him. Astronaut Angela Perry must deal with her Senator father's corruption that would destroy her family. Commander Chuck Taggart must try to keep his family together, while his son Neil, a computer whiz, deals with being back in his 17-year-old body when he was known as a screwup. The last member, pessimistic scientist Kurt Mendel, doubts they can change history at all and wants to live life as much as he can before the end.

The series is very different from most science fiction because it is set in the present day – in a fashion similar to Stargate SG-1 and Sliders – also because the team of five is not a group of friends who always get along; the humanity of the team is shown through arguments, jokes, and their attempts to maintain social lives and help the world with their limited knowledge of the future.

Many of the show's plotlines revolve around technologies like AI, nanotechnology and neuroimaging.

A recurring idea is that the actions of the group may hasten the timetable to Earth's destruction. A character who was supposed to live until 2007 ends up dead in the first episode after helping the group out. This is a recurring theme of the series, of the group realizing that defeating history isn't as easy as it sounds. In one episode, Sarah and Angela, knowing a girl will be kidnapped, keep an eye on her to make sure it doesn't happen. However, the kidnapper simply takes another child. History in the show is malleable in smaller ways too, as Kurt makes a rather large bet on a football game to which he knows the outcome, but the knowledge and pressure of knowing has an adverse effect on the kicker who would have won the game.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Episode list

(numbered as on the DVD)

  1. Pilot (2hrs, usually broadcast in two parts)
  2. Shatterer
  3. Astronaut Dreams
  4. Time Out of Mind
  5. Symbiosis
  6. The Choices We Make
  7. Rapture
  8. L.D.U. 7
  9. Flux
  10. Kitten
  11. Dark at the End of the Tunnel
  12. Trouble with Harry
  13. Skin
  14. Begotten
  15. Vanishing Point
  16. Follow the Leader
  17. Half-Life
  18. Rage
  19. Fossil

[edit] DVD release

The series was released as a Complete Box Set (Region 1) on April 2006, and in Region 2 territories on the 26th June 2006 [1]. As an extra feature, the DVD set has a commentary track on the pilot episode by Manny Coto and Peter Weller.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Odyssey 5". http://www.dvdfr.com/dvd/f23242_odyssey_5.html. Retrieved on 2007-02-03. 
  2. ^ (Hungarian) List of shows in RTL Klub, retrieved on 2006-10-21

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey_5"
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