Dark Matter
released 2015
www.ink2quill.com

”Dark Matter” is an Canadian drama, scifi, thriller TV series created by Joseph Mallozi and Paul Mullie. It stars Marc Bendavid, Melissa O´Neil, Anthony Lemke, Alex Mallari Jr., Jodelle Ferland, Roger R. Cross, Karl Ang, Pay Chen, David Hewlett, Jessica Sipos, Hiro Kanagawa, Amanda Brugel, Gage Munroe, Kirsten Alter, Tig Fong, Don Gough, Bridget Wareham, Ishan Morris, Russell Yuen, Rob Stewart, Chloe Rose and Zoie Palmer. It was released in Russia, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Poland, Australia, US and of course Canada. Its list of producers are Caitlin Brown, Jay Firestone, Martin Gero, Keith Goldberg, Joseph Mallozi, Paul Mullie, Vanessa Piazza, Mike Richardson, Ivon R. Bartok and Norman Denver. Its list of directors is Andy Mikita, Ron Murphy, T.J. Scott, Paolo Barzman, Bruce McDonald, T.W. Peacocke, Lee Rose, John Stead and Amanda Tapping. Its writers are Trevor Finn, Joseph Mallozi, Paul Mullie, Robert C. Cooper and Martin Gero.

It is important to give an honorable mention to some of the actors like the Richard William ”Wil” Wheaton III who played the character of Wesley Crusher on the hugely successful, highly recommended Star Trek: Next Generation. He really is sci-fi royalty. We also need to recognize Melissa O´Neil and Roger R. Cross as two very talented actors that do a standup job on Dark Matter.

The series begins when 6 people awake and find themselves the crew of a derelict spaceship with no memory of who they are or how they got there. They´re joined by a seventh crew member who is an android, played by Zoie Palmer. The android´s memory has also been erased except for knowledge of how to run the ship and bits and pieces from retrieved computer data.

When they finally do retrieve data about themselves from the computer it has them all as murderers and criminals (with the exception of number Five, played by Jodelle Ferland) even though the way some of the crew act clearly contradict the computer data files. Since they don´t remember their own names they give each other the number of the order they woke up in. So the first to wake up was called ”One”, played by Marc Bendavid.

This is a fun series to watch as the story develops in unpredictable directions. From the very beginning the crew has to decide whether or not to help a colony who is resisting the powerful corporate mining interests that would throw them off their planet or kill them. What I really liked about this series was that we learned so much about who the characters really are, in some cases, before even discovering the truth from their memories. In some cases the memories cleared up some false impressions about the characters, such as the case of number Four, played by Alex Mallari Jr..

This is a great series with very good story development. I recommend making it your Saturday marathon choice and giving goodies like The Twilight Zone and Star Trek re-runs a rest.

(Commentary by www.ink2quill.com )
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