Total Recall 2070

Total Recall 2070

Total Recall 2070 title card
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, 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 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

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:

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

  1. ↑ Robb, Brian J (2006), Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film, Titan Books, pp. 200–225
  2. ↑ 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
  3. ↑ "Downsview Park Film Studios". Archived from the original on 2007-02-10. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
  4. ↑ Robb, Brian J. (2006). Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film. Titan Books. pp. 200–225.
  5. ↑ Total Recall 2070 R1 DVD release
  6. ↑ "Watch Total Recall 2070 Online – Streaming Full Length Episodes". FanCast.com. Comcast. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Joost Channel Overview". Archived from the original on 2007-04-06. Retrieved 2007-04-03.

External links