Total Recall 2070

Total Recall 2070
Total Recall 2070 title card
Format	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
Broadcast
Original channel	OnTV (Canada) Showtime (United States)
Audio format	Dolby Surround 2.0
Original run	January 5 – June 8, 1999 (1999-06-08)

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 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 in any way 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. The government mostly runs at the behest of 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. After his first partner is killed by self-aware androids, he is partnered against his wishes with Ian Farve, a naive android officer new to the department. 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, Farve, Hume's wife Olivia, and the mysterious manufacturer of Alpha Class androids (including Farve himself). Significant plot elements remain unresolved due to the cancellation of the series; 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

The Consortium

Company Logos for Minacon and Uber Braun

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

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.^{[citation needed]}

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

External links

• Total Recall 2070 at TV.com
• Total Recall 2070 at the Internet Movie Database