Total Recall 2070
| Total Recall 2070 | |
|---|---|
|
Total Recall 2070 title card | |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Created by | Art Monterastelli |
| Starring |
Michael Easton Karl Pruner Cynthia Preston Michael Rawlins Judith Krant Matthew Bennett |
| Composer(s) |
Jack Lenz Zoran Borisavljevic |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 44 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
OnTV (Canada) Showtime (United States) |
| Audio format | Dolby Surround 2.0 |
| Original release | January 5, 1999 – June 8, 1999 |
Total Recall 2070 is a science fiction television series first broadcast in 1999 on the Canadian television channel CHCH-TV and later the same year on the American Showtime channel. It was later syndicated in the United States with some editing to remove scenes of nudity, violence and (in most cases) strong language. The series was inspired by the 1990 film Total Recall,[1] based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", and by Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, with a visual style and plot elements heavily influenced by the film Blade Runner,[2] itself very loosely based on the same novel. However, other than the Rekall company and the concept of virtual vacations, the series shares no major plot points or characters with any of these works. Philip K. Dick is not credited on the series main or end titles.
The series was filmed in Toronto. It was a Canadian/German co-production. Only one season, consisting of 22 episodes, was produced.
Story
Total Recall 2070 takes place in a dark, crowded, industrial and cosmopolitan setting, with a noir sci-fi aesthetic. The government bureaucracy is heavily influenced by a small number of extremely powerful companies called "the Consortium" (including computer memory and virtual-reality vacation provider Rekall and android manufacturer Uber Braun). David Hume is a senior detective for the Citizens Protection Bureau (CPB), a police agency focused on general public safety. After his partner is killed by self-aware androids, he is partnered against his wishes with Ian Farve, a naive officer new to the department, who is himself secretly an "Alpha Class" android—a model with a more complex psychological nature. Hume and the CPB often have conflicts with the Assessor's Office (the investigative agency that has sole jurisdiction over crimes related to the Consortium) and with the private security forces of Consortium companies. The main story arcs of the series concern the agendas of the Consortium, the mystery of Farve's origins, Hume's wife Olivia, whose memories have been tampered with, and the mysterious manufacturer of Alpha Class androids. Significant plot elements remain unresolved by the end of the series run, due to cancellation; a crucial story arc from the series was the suggestion that the memory expansion used on self-aware androids was part non-human DNA and that a material found by a remote base on Mars could create a hybrid of human and android DNA.
Main characters
| Character | Actor | Description |
|---|---|---|
| David Hume | Michael Easton | CPB Detective |
| Ian Farve | Karl Pruner | Hume's android partner |
| Olivia Hume | Cynthia Preston | Hume's wife |
| Martin Ehrenthal | Michael Anthony Rawlins | Hume's superior |
| Olan Chang | Judith Krant | CPB forensic and computer scientist |
| James Calley | Matthew Bennett | Assessor's Office representative |
The Consortium
By the year 2070, Earth and Mars (as well as space stations) are ruled by a unified government known as the Interplanetary Council (IPC). However, much of the real power is held by the Consortium, composed of at least six multi-global companies that financed the colonization of Mars.
The known six companies are:
- Rekall, the information technology powerhouse of the 21st century. Rekall also provides the Operating Systems for the Androids manufactured by Uber Braun.
- Minacon, the energy supply company, provides both the oil on Earth and the deuterium on Mars.
- Tashimo-Pacific, the transport company, created "Johnny Cab."
- Uber Braun, the rocket and robotics corporation, build the service androids.
- Variable Dynamics, the medical and bio-tech company, is interested in creating synthetic humans.
- Tillman Heath advertising boards are around the city in the series. Tillman Heath is the agriculture and chemicals giant but its real purpose was not unveiled in the 1st series. Its slogan is "Bringing the world's food supply to you."
Production
Most of this series was filmed at the Downsview Park studio, at the location of a former Canadian Forces Base in north Toronto. An entire futuristic environment of different sets was constructed for the production.[3]
Episode list
| Episode | First airdate | Plot[4] |
|---|---|---|
| 1. "Machine Dreams" (part 1) | January 5, 1999 | David Hume and his new partner Ian Farve must track down a gang of androids. To be continued... |
| 2. "Machine Dreams" (part 2) | January 12, 1999 | The detectives' hunt for the androids takes them to Mars. |
| 3. "Self-Inflicted" | February 2, 1999 | CPB investigates a potential biohazard situation. |
| 4. "Allure" | February 9, 1999 | Hume investigates a puzzling suicide. |
| 5. "Infiltration" | February 16, 1999 | Hume and Farve investigate the murder of an Uber-Braun employee. |
| 6. "Nothing Like the Real Thing" | January 19, 1999 | A motiveless murder leads Hume to investigate black-market memory implants. |
| 7. "Rough Whimper of Insanity" | February 23, 1999 | Farve starts behaving erratically. |
| 8. "First Wave" | March 2, 1999 | The CPB computer network goes haywire. |
| 9. "Baby Lottery" | March 9, 1999 | A baby is taken from his parents because of a genetic disposition towards crime. |
| 10. "Brain Fever" | March 16, 1999 | The head of the Mars Miners Union is shot by a member who then attempts to kill himself. |
| 11. "Begotten Not Made" | March 23, 1999 | Dr. Latham is starting to cooperate, when a lawyer from Rekall shows up demands his release. |
| 12. "Brightness Falls" | March 30, 1999 | Farve and Moralez investigate the death of a cult leader. |
| 13. "Burning Desire" | April 6, 1999 | CPB investigates the death of a man who was fried in his sublimator. |
| 14. "Astral Projections" | April 13, 1999 | Hume and Farve investigate a cargo transport that went down in the freezing "New Territories". |
| 15. "Paranoid" | April 20, 1999 | Farve and Hume investigate the murder of the head of the Nexus dating service. |
| 16. "Restitution" | April 27, 1999 | Brant is kidnapped on his way to a Mars safe house. |
| 17. "Bones Beneath My Skin" | May 4, 1999 | Farve and Hume investigate the destruction of an android at a chemical company. |
| 18. "Assessment" | May 11, 1999 | Farve and Hume are ambushed and captured by a rogue section of the assessor's office. |
| 19. "Eye Witness" | May 18, 1999 | Olivia finds a friend's rich husband standing over a bloody corpse. |
| 20. "Personal Effects" | May 25, 1999 | Olan decides to keep a vial found on a corpse in a crashed shuttle out of her report. |
| 21. "Virtual Justice" | June 1, 1999 | After witnessing a fellow cop kill a cornered prison escapee, Hume looks into the dead man's case. |
| 22. "Meet My Maker" | June 8, 1999 | Farve takes Hume to meet the alpha-android's creator. |
Distribution
DVD releases
In 1999, the complete series was released on DVD in Japan (in English and dubbed in Japanese). The 2-hour series pilot ("Machine Dreams") has been available on region 1 DVD (Canada and the United States) since 2000. The series was broadcasting in Italy as of 2010 on Fantasy channel (Sky pay-TV), dubbed in Italian language.
On February 22, 2011, Alliance Home Entertainment released the complete series for the first time on DVD (uncut) in Canada only.[5]
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment announced Total Recall 2070: The Complete Series on DVD.
Online
Since September 2009, the entire 22-episode series (in the censored US versions, and with advertising) has been available in low-resolution Flash Video format via Comcast's official Hulu-based "FanCast" streaming video online service.[6] The whole series was also formerly available online through the beta version of the Joost online TV content distribution system.[7]
References
- ↑ Robb, Brian J (2006), Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film, Titan Books, pp. 200–225
- ↑ Platt, John (1999-03-01), "A Total Recall spin-off that's an awful lot like Blade Runner", Science Fiction Weekly: Issue 98 Vol.5 No.9, archived from the original on 2008-01-15, retrieved 2008-02-06
- ↑ "Downsview Park Film Studios". Archived from the original on 2007-02-10. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
- ↑ Robb, Brian J. (2006). Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film. Titan Books. pp. 200–225.
- ↑ Total Recall 2070 R1 DVD release
- ↑ "Watch Total Recall 2070 Online – Streaming Full Length Episodes". FanCast.com. Comcast. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
- ↑ "Joost Channel Overview". Archived from the original on 2007-04-06. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
External links
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