''ReGenesis'' is a Canadian

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

television series produced by

The Movie Network Crave (formerly The Movie Network or TMN) is a Television in Canada, Canadian premium television network and Streaming service provider, streaming service owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. Launched in 1983 as the national service ...

and

Movie Central Movie Central (occasionally abbreviated as "MC", mostly in program guides) was a Canadian English language Category A premium cable and satellite television channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment. Movie Central was designated to operat ...

in conjunction with

Shaftesbury Films Shaftesbury Films is a film, television and digital media production company founded by Christina Jennings in 1987. It is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Background Shaftesbury is a creator and producer of original content for television and ...

. The series, which ran for four seasons from 2004 to 2008, revolves around the

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

s of NorBAC (North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission), a fictional organization with a lab based in the city of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. The organization investigates problems of a scientific nature, such as

bioterrorism Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents include bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi, and/or their toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in mu ...

, mysterious diseases, or radical changes in the environment throughout North America. NorBAC is headed by David Sandström (played by

Peter Outerbridge Peter Outerbridge (born June 30, 1966) is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as Ari Tasarov in the The CW, CW action series ''Nikita (TV series), Nikita'', Dr. David Sandström in the The Movie Network, TMN series ''ReGenesis'', Henrik "Han ...

), the chief scientist, and

molecular biologist Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

. Through this character, the show often addresses topical social, political, and ethical issues related to the science at hand. The series was originally broadcast on

and

, with rebroadcasts on

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

and Showcase in Canada. Internationally it can be seen on FX in the United Kingdom,

The Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, manuf ...

Halogen TV Halogen TV was an American digital cable and satellite television channel that aired feature-length films, documentaries, short films, and original reality programs that centered on making positive social changes and making the world a better pl ...

, and in syndication at

CW Plus CW may stand for: Science and technology * centiwatt (cW), one hundredth of a watt * Cω, a programming language * CW complex, a type of topological space * Carrier wave, in radio communications * CodeWarrior, an integrated development environme ...

in the United States, and

FX Latin America FX is a Latin American pay television channel. It is intended as a counterpart to Fox Life (which became Star Life, now defunct), the first being produced for the Young and Adult audience, while the latter is almost entirely programmed for the ...

in Mexico; as well as numerous broadcasters in Europe and Asia. International distribution is handled by Oasis International. , the show can also be seen on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

. , ''ReGenesis'' is available on The Roku Channel.

Aled Edwards Aled Morgan Edwards (born June 1, 1962) is the founder and Chief Executive of the Structural Genomics Consortium, a charitable public-private partnership. He is Professor of Medical Genetics and Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, V ...

, the scientific consultant for the series, is a noted Canadian molecular biologist, and the director of the

Structural Genomics Consortium The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) is a public-private-partnership focusing on elucidating the functions and disease relevance of all proteins encoded by the human genome, with an emphasis on those that are relatively understudied. The SGC pl ...

Interactive and other media

''ReGenesis'' has been an international pioneer in integrating interactive media elements into the series. The first successfully deployed

alternate reality game An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by int ...

paired with a major television broadcast is called the ''ReGenesis'' Extended Reality and was created by Xenophile Media in association with Shaftesbury Films. It won the Canadian New Media Award for Best Cross-Platform Project of 2004 and an FITC Design & Technology Award for Excellence in

Convergence Convergence may refer to: Arts and media Literature *''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen *Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics: **A four-part crossover storyline that ...

. In 2006 the alternate reality game won the

Banff World Television Festival Founded in 1979, the Banff World Media Festival (formerly known as the Banff World Television Festival) is an international media event held in the Canadian Rockies at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The festival is ...

Award for

Interactive Television Interactive television is a form of Technological convergence#Media, media convergence, adding data services to traditional television technology. It has included on-demand delivery of content, online shopping, and viewer polls. Interactive TV i ...

, a Gemini Award for Best Cross-Platform, and in 2007, an International Emmy for Outstanding Interactive Program. An exploratory game, the ''ReGenesis'' Extended Reality draws viewers into a conspiracy and mystery that weaves in and out of the TV series, using the internet, email, and other media to immerse the viewer, blurring the line between fiction and reality. ''ReGenesis'' Extended Reality harnesses the power of enthusiastic fans that seed the site with discussion content and collaborative investigations. Extensive knowledge of various chemistry and biotechnology issues is required to find out why the plot in many episodes can't be true (if it can't). Other interactive elements include ReGenesis: ReMixed, a 14-episode series of

podcasts A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

hosted by series Music Supervisor Andrea Higgins and produced by Arpix Media, featuring the music of ''ReGenesis'', as well as exclusive interviews with some of the people involved in putting the show together. However, neither of these was continued for the third or fourth season of the series.

Characters

Main characters

* David Sandström (

) – A

, he is NorBAC's chief scientist. * Carlos Serrano (

Conrad Pla Conrad Pla (born October 24, 1966) is a Spanish-Canadian actor and former professional kickboxer. He is best known for founding Tristar Gym and starring in the Canadian television series ''ReGenesis''. Early life Pla was born in Madrid and moved ...

) –

Geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic process ...

and Medical Doctor at NorBAC. Revealed to be gay after seeking to prevent his first lover's progression from

HIV-positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

status to

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

(Season 1, Episode 7). * Caroline Morrison (

Maxim Roy Maxim Roy (born March 7, 1972) is a French Canadian actress. In English, she is best known for playing Detective Isabelle Latendresse in the English-language version of the Canadian police drama television series '' 19-2'', Jocelyn Fray in the fa ...

) (seasons 1–2) – NorBAC's Executive Director. Speaks at least four languages: English, French, Spanish, and

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

. * Jill Langston (

Sarah Strange Sarah Strange (born September 6, 1974) is a Canadian actress. She has worked in a variety of American and Canadian television and film projects, including Helen in the Canadian drama ''Da Vinci's Inquest'' and as the voice actress for the male hal ...

) (seasons 1–2) – first replacement to NorBAC's original lead

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

, Hira Khan. * Bob Melnikov (

Dmitry Chepovetsky Dmitry Chepovetsky (born 1970) is a Soviet-born Canadian actor, best known for his role of Bob Melnikov in the TV series ''ReGenesis''. Early life and education Chepovetsky was born in Lviv in modern-day Ukraine. His family left in 1976 along wi ...

) –

Biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

at NorBAC, and a former student of David Sandström. He is deemed a genius, with an IQ score of 162 (Season 1, Episode 5), and has attained two Ph.D.s (Season 1, Episode 11). He has been diagnosed with

Asperger syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome or Asperger's, is a diagnostic label that has historically been used to describe a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and no ...

. * Rachel Woods (

Wendy Crewson Wendy Jane Crewson (born May 9, 1956) is a Canadian actress and producer. She began her career appearing on Canadian television, before her breakthrough role in 1991 dramatic film ''The Doctor''. Crewson has appeared in many Hollywood films, inc ...

) (seasons 3–4) – Second replacement as lead

at NorBAC and estranged wife of Carleton Riddlemeyer. * Mayko Tran (

Mayko Nguyen Mayko Nguyen is a Canadian actress. She has appeared in ''ReGenesis'', ''Rookie Blue'', '' Killjoys'', ''Titans'' and '' Hudson & Rex''. Early life Nguyen grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and currently lives in Toronto. Nguyen ha ...

) – Canadian.

Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...

Researcher and later NorBAC's second replacement as executive director. * Weston Field (

Greg Bryk Gregory Michael Bryk (born 19 August 1972) is a Canadian Film actor, film and television actor. He has appeared in numerous films and television series and is best known for his reoccurring roles in ''ReGenesis'' (2004–2008), ''XIII: The Ser ...

) – Assistant to NorBAC's executive director, Caroline Morrison. Later first replacement as executive director. * Carleton Riddlemeyer (

Geraint Wyn Davies Geraint Wyn Davies ( , ; born 20 April 1957) is a British-American stage, film and television actor. Born in Wales and educated in Canada, he became a citizen of the United States on 13 June 2006, having been sworn in by then Associate Suprem ...

) (seasons 3–4) – Science advisor to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

and estranged husband of Rachel Woods. * Enuka Okimba (

Karen LeBlanc Karen LeBlanc is a Canadian musical theatre actress and singer. Early life LeBlanc grew up in Tottenham, Ontario to family from Nova Scotia. She attended the musical theatre program at Sheridan College. Career Starting with a minor role in the ...

) (season 4) – Third replacement as lead

at NorBAC.

Recurring characters

* Hira Khan (Mishu Vellani) (season 1) – Original lead virologist at NorBAC. * Lilith Sandström (

Elliot Page Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor, producer, and activist. He is known for his leading roles across Canadian and American film and television, and for his outspoken work as an activist for LGBTQ righ ...

) (season 1) – David's 15-year-old daughter. * Mick Sloane (

Mark Rendall Mark Rendall (born October 21, 1988) is a Canadian film, television and voice actor whose roles include the lead in the 2004 film, '' Childstar'' and Mick in season 1 of the Canadian television drama series ''ReGenesis''. He played Bastian Bux i ...

) (season 1) – A boy Lilith's age who believes he was cloned. He was created as part of an in vitro procedure and was an identical twin to Cal, whose single embryo was implanted in Dr. Sloane's wife. The twin embryo - Mick's - was frozen, and after it was discovered that Cal had bone cancer, Dr. Sloane began manipulating Mick's DNA to remove the defective gene that caused the cancer. In the process, he ended up making other, unintended changes, which is what led to Mick's illness. It is known that Mick is 2 years younger than Cal and that Mick was born 2 years after his mother died (which is part of what had led him to believe he was a clone in the first place), but it's unclear if the 2 events are directly related. * Owen (

Michael Seater Michael Seater (born January 15, 1987) is a Canadian actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. His most notable roles are Spencer Sharpe in ''The Zack Files'', Lucas Randall in ''Strange Days at Blake Holsey High'', Tom Bellow in '' 18 to Lif ...

) (seasons 2–3) – A homeless 17-year-old living in the subway of New York City, who shows David Sandström to his subway home after stealing David's bag. He lives with David for a while but leaves after he gets arrested for

criminal negligence In criminal law, criminal negligence is an offence that involves a breach of an objective standard of behaviour expected of a defendant. It may be contrasted with strictly liable offences, which do not consider states of mind in determining c ...

, after a 14-year-old girl he was involved with dies of a drug overdose. David defends him in court during his bail hearing, but Owen is incarcerated for detention until his trial. Having a hard time in jail, he tries to hang himself, and then he agrees to a treatment that should alter his brain chemistry in order to overcome his addiction and possibly get him free. However, he suffers from side effects of the experiment, leaving him mentally damaged and physically handicapped. * Dr. Gordon Petras (

James Allodi James Allodi (born February 26, 1967) is a Canadian actor, writer and director. Career James Allodi earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a Major in Film, from New York University. Since then, the writer, director, and actor has amassed an impres ...

) – Therapist to whom the NorBAC team consults after traumatic events. * Dr. Simon Jessup (

Darren Boyd Darren John Boyd is a British actor who starred in the Sky One series '' Spy'', for which he won BAFTA TV Award for Best Male Comedy Performance. His work in television and film spans comedy and drama. Early life Boyd was born in Hastings, Su ...

) – British

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

visiting NorBAC. He assists Mayko with a case in Texas involving

mad cow disease Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and always fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of th ...

and IQ spikes, and later assists Caroline and Bob with Caroline's nephew Glenn.

Music

The main title theme song for ''ReGenesis'' is "Anywhere But Here" by the

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

band Behavior. Behavior is an alias for producer / composer Michael McCann. The show's score is primarily composed by

Tom Third Tom Third is a Canadian film and television composer. He is most noted as a two-time Gemini Award and Canadian Screen Award recipient, winning Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Program, Mini-Series or TV Movie at the 25th Gemini Awards in ...

, with numerous contributions throughout by film/TV composer Robert Carli, and was supervised by Ron Proulx and Andrea Higgins of Arpix Media.

Home releases

On November 11, 2008, Season 1 was released in North America on DVD by

Entertainment One Lionsgate Canada is a Canadian entertainment company and a subsidiary of Lionsgate Studios. Based in Toronto, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series. The company began on June 1, 1973 ...

. The four-disc set includes all 13 first-season episodes presented in a

letterboxed Letter-boxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting video-graphic image has mattes of empty space above and belo ...

format. Special features include a making of, photo gallery, and "The Facts Behind the Fiction" (the white papers published by the Ontario Genomics Institute). Shaftesbury Films claimed that Seasons 2, 3 and 4 would follow throughout 2009 and 2010, but as of February 2013 no such releases have emerged. The first season has also been released in the UK through Universal Studios UK. The second season was later released to European countries by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, though it was presented in a

pan and scan Pan and scan is a film editing technique used to modify widescreen images for display on a fullscreen screen. It involves cropping the sides of the original widescreen image and panning across it when the shot's focus changes. This cropping c ...

format. Seasons 3 and 4 have been released on DVD in Japan—Season 3 in

format and Season 4 in 16:9

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...

. The Japanese Season 3 boxset includes a 20-minute Making of video and the Season 4 boxset a 20-minute Peter Outerbridge interview titled "Pretending With Conviction". On January 30, 2015, Season 1 was released in Europe on Blu-ray by

. The three-disc set includes all 13 first-season episodes. Season 2 will be released on Blu-ray March 23, 2015.

International broadcasts

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Regenesis 2004 Canadian television series debuts 2008 Canadian television series endings 2000s Canadian drama television series 2000s Canadian science fiction television series LGBTQ speculative fiction television series Global Television Network original programming Television series by Shaftesbury Films Television shows set in Toronto Television shows filmed in Toronto Television series by Lionsgate Canada Television series by Bell Media Television series by Corus Entertainment First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Biopunk television series Television series about viral outbreaks Transmedia storytelling Autism in television The Movie Network original programming Movie Central original programming