| Silversun | |
|---|---|
| Format | Children's Science fiction |
| Starring | Ryan Corr Cherise Donovan Angus McLaren Sarah Walker Eloise Mignon |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| No. of episodes | 40 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC TV |
Silversun is a science fiction children's television series made in Australia by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
The show features the adventures of the adolescent members of the crew of the Star Runner, an interstellar spaceship carrying a cargo of 550 cryonically suspended colonists to their new home, Silversun.
In the year 2052, the Star Runner and its crew are two years into their 90-year journey to a livable planet 45 light years from Earth. The crew's goal is to get the "New Settlers" safely to the Silver Sun and begin a colony there. Because of the 90 year length of the journey, the crew are mostly teenagers who will take over command of the Star Runner as the adults get older.
The ABC began showing Silversun on October 11, 2004 at 5:00pm daily as part of its "ABC Kids" lineup. The final episode of the first season was broadcast on December 3. So far there has been one season of forty episodes, each at twenty-two minutes. The program was originally aired on the Seven Network in two groups of twenty episodes, and then shown again without a mid-way break on the ABC.
The series was then later re-run, commencing on April 3, 2005 at 8.35am to be shown every Sunday morning thereafter. The "cliff hanger" ending was shown on January 1, 2006. It was re-run again in 2009 each weekday at 5:00pm, finishing on September 17, 2009. The ABC has no plans to create another series of the popular teen program.
Contents |
Although some episodes in the first season were self-contained, a majority dealt with problems occurring on board the Star Runner based in plots that spanned a number of episodes. These included the illegal re-animation of the character Zandie by the rogue crewmember Degenhardt in the earlier episodes, the crew's encounter with a wormhole, the infection of Commander Cyriax by an alien parasite, his subsequent cure through the use of a harvest clone of him discovered in suspension among the settler pods, and the clone's accidental awakening to full consciousness. The final episode was the culmination of a number of episodes comprising one of the most intricate and suspenseful plots so far encountered in the series, ending in a cliffhanger presumably to be resolved in the next season.
Much of the programme revolves around the relationships and issues experienced by the young crew as part of the normal process of growing up. There are, however, some occasional interesting ideas of an ethical and/or science fictional nature presented in the show - such as the question of whether the commander's clone should be treated as human or not, the unique human problems encountered by a crew on a lifelong voyage to the stars, and an encounter with a pulsar whose pulse cycle is in phase with the brainwaves of the crewmember Pancha, to her detriment.
Most of the technology seen on the show is a bit more Star Trek-Late 24th century and not mid 21st century tech.