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	20
Production
Running time	44 mins
Broadcast
Original channel	SPACE Showtime
Original run	21 June, 2002 – 15 October, 2002
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

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 were aired in 2004 on Showtime as "missing" episodes, which ostensibly included the open-ended series finale.) This unnatural pause and the summary cancellation were done due to Showtime's desire to move away from science fiction television, likely in an attempt to match the programming brought forth by rival HBO. This is despite the fact that the series was one of Showtime's highest rated original series.

The series made a full run of all 20 episodes in the United Kingdom on Sky One and on SciFiUK and in Canada. In 2004, the series aired in Finland on Nelonen and thus could also be seen in Estonia; 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 and the Sci Fi Channel in the United States.

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.

The series was produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Plot

The story revolves around a set of people on a routine spaceflight on August 7, 2007: three 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. The 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 turns out 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.

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 pressed 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 Taggert 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 he can before the end.

The series is very different from most science fiction, first because it is set in the present day – in a fashion similar to Stargate SG-1 and Sliders – but secondly 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, and it may be argued the world's destruction represents one of the possible variants of the technological singularity itself.

An intriguing idea is that the actions of the group may end up speeding up 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, showing that the details may change but the general thrust of history can continue. History in the show is completely malleable in smaller ways too, as Kurt makes a rather large bet on a football game he knows the outcome to, and the knowledge and pressure of knowing this is revealed to have an adverse effect on the kicker who would have won the game.

Cast

• Peter Weller — Chuck Taggart
• Sebastian Roché — Kurt Mendel
• Christopher Gorham — Neil Taggart
• Leslie Silva — Sarah Forbes
• Tamara Craig Thomas — Angela Perry

Episode List

(numbered as on the DVD)

1. Pilot (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

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]. The only extra feature is a commentary track on the pilot episode by Manny Coto and Peter Weller.

References

External links

• Odyssey 5 at the Internet Movie Database
• Odyssey 5 DVD page at Sony Pictures

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