It’s the time of year again, the Dream Show Challenge, and here is my show. With many thanks to @singledarkshade for organising us all and our cast lists.
My Cast List is:
Murderbot - David Dastmalchian
Slow Horses - Kristin Scott Thomas
Vox Machina - Taliesan Jaffe
For All Mankind - Joel Kinnaman
Only Murders In The Building - Selena Gomez
Star trek: Strange New Worlds - Celia Rose Gooding
Return To Paradise - Anna Samson
My show is:
Uplifting
Synopsis:
In the far future, the human race has moved into the stars and created a glittering civilisation, but they are alone. The human area of inhabited space is large, spanning several solar systems, and stable inter-system travel means that the huge distances of space can be traversed easily. For generations the humans thought they were the only intelligent species in the galaxy, but the reality is more surprising. They’re just the first to reach a stage where space travel is possible, and possibly the only ones who ever will.
As humanity enters its latest phase of expansion it encounters worlds which failed to make the jump to interstellar travel, some of which are dead, others are dying, and some that haven’t made it quite far enough in their journey to tell their outcome. It is clear that humanity’s path may be the exception and not the rule. Humans are faced with a clear choice, either they can let these alien civilisations die or they can try to help them find their path to join the humans as a peaceful multi-system civilisation.
The Alien Uplift Force was created to bring together the skills and individuals needed to facilitate this endeavour. It’s the greatest mission that humanity has ever undertaken, but humans are still only human and not every mission will go their way. Their sole mission is to shepherd new races into stable civilisations in the stars without losing their culture and identity. It’s a laudable goal, but perhaps there’s a reason why some civilisations failed.
Cast:
Maya Gardener (Anna Samson) –
Maya is a xeno-archaeologist, and a fitness and health nut. She has spent her career working on dig sites on forgotten planets and examining the reasons their people became extinct. She is a career driven scientist, respected in her field and no nonsense. She is intimately acquainted with all the ways that a civilisation can fail, and the history of humanity’s near misses. She is a natural and experienced leader, passionate about her mission. She is recruited to lead the first Alien Uplift Team, and struggles with the responsibility placed on her at first, but quickly comes to understand why she’s the one they chose. She is given a job without a manual and must save as many civilizations as she can.
Jonas Dale (Joel Kinnaman) –
Jonas is a soldier in a civilization without war. Humanity hasn’t fought wars for several generations at this point, although it isn’t without crime or anti-social behaviour. He began his career in the Centauri police, which is more akin to social work than anything else, although he was trained in firearms and other combat techniques. He decided to leave that all behind to join the protection detail for scientists going to dangerous locations. He leads a team of highly competent guards that deal with any threats from the local flauna wherever he is needed. In many places this is dull work, much less stressful than his previous career, but occasionally something reminds him why he’s here. This all changes when he joins the Alien Uplift Force. Maybe he will get his war.
Dr Titus Merrick (David Dastmalchian) –
Titus is a Sociologist, with a sideline in psychology. He has an uncanny knack of knowing when people are lying, which can be annoying and makes it hard for him to connect to others. He’s an expert in human societal behaviours and must now transfer that knowledge to the unknown of alien civilizations. It’s a steep learning curve, but one that he tackles with enthusiasm. He has a tabby pet cat that goes (almost) everywhere with him, called Bubbles Fellswoop. He refuses to explain the name and insists that the cat needs her own spacesuit for emergencies. He is somewhat eccentric and can be abrasive when defending his opinions, but his heart is usually in the right place.
Dr Dora Hawkwood (Kristin Scott Thomas) –
Dora is an expert in ancient alien languages. The idea that she might ever get to find a civilisation that speaks a living alien language is something that she never thought she would experience. She speaks several human languages, but they just help her to understand the things that she unearths. She is an expert in methods of communication. She was an obvious pick for the Uplift Force but hasn’t spent much time outside her University, preferring to work from data that survey teams bring back. It becomes clear that is no longer an option when dealing with a living language.
Dr Avi Navarro (Taliesin Jaffe) –
Avi has worked with Maya for nearly ten years as her research partner, travelling to far off planets and dead civilizations. His area of expertise is more anthropological than Maya’s. He digs deeply into the extinct civilizations and their societies. When the Alien Uplift Force is created, Maya doesn’t think twice about bringing him along for the ride, but he has a history of making poor choices in his personal life which makes Maya wonder if it’s such a good idea. He has a well-controlled mental health condition that only Maya is aware of, not because he’s ashamed but simply because there’s no need to tell anyone that he takes medication in this day and age.
Lupe Nishikawa (Selena Gomez) –
A rising star in political and diplomatic circles, Lupe has been given the task of making friends with any alien civilisations. She mostly has a background in communications and isn’t quite sure why she ended up with this task. She also has her doubts about its merits. Perhaps these civilisations would be better left to die and then humanity could claim the stars. She has a multicultural background, with three parents (two mums and one dad) raising her with her three siblings. It was a busy house in one of the major cities of the sector, which gives her a more grounded perspective than some of the scientists on the mission.
Nightingale Stone (Celia Rose Gooding) –
A computer genius, Nightingale is the youngest and least experienced of the group but she brings a huge amount of knowledge to the table. In a society that has extremely sophisticated computers, she is one of the people on the cutting edge of technology. She is used to being the brightest person in the room, but is aware that she knows very little outside her own field. If you ask her to do a task then it gets done quickly an efficiently. She studies how humans interact with machines and this makes her a valuable asset when it comes to working out how alien computers work.
Episode 1:
The story opens at Maya’s latest dig site on a planet which has seen the extinction of all life. There was clearly once a large civilisation here that reached at least the industrial age and had cities that spanned the planet, but it is a hot and dusty world with too much CO2 in the atmosphere. The team are all using breathing equipment. The conclusion seems to be that they damaged their climate and this lead to the end of their world. Avi catalogues the finds, an both are clearly excited by researching this civilisation.
Jonas is out on the perimeter of the site dealing with what appears to be some kind of giant cockroach with his team. It looks quite dangerous but they win the day. They head back to round up the scientists and call it a day, arriving back to the main camp just as a ship lands nearby.
Lupe has come to inform them that humans have finally found a civilisation that isn’t dead. They’re working on first contact and they need experts. They need Maya’s team.
The rest of this episode is pulling the team together to deal with the situation and to propose solutions. Titus suggests they shouldn’t interfere, and other members of the scientist team seem to agree, but it’s Nightingale, a huge Star Trek fan, who outright says it: “This isn’t like Star Trek. The Prime Directive was stupid, they broke it more often than they kept it. We can’t stand here and watch civilisation after civilisation die of stupidity, not because we were smarter than them but because we got lucky, time after time.”
Eventually it is agreed. Failing Civilisation 001, a humanoid culture that has inhabited only one planet in their solar system, needs their help.
Episode 2:
Research begins. They need to know everything about FC1, including how good their surveillance systems are. There is an immediate argument about whether they should try to help quietly without making contact and this carries on for the entire episode while Jonas and team head out in a ship to get closer scans and more intel. The team have a few close calls with orbiting satellites and some space junk, before nearly being spotted by a primitive space station. They return with a wealth of information. Nightingale is immediately out of her depth with the alien computers she encounters. She’s never come across a trinary system before but she’s delighted to start working out how it runs. Dora starts trying to crack the most prominent alien language with almost no cultural touchstones to work with, and enlists Avi and Titus to help.
The teams also set up the Echo station which will listen to the galaxy and find other lost civilizations.
Episode 3:
The team have enough information to launch their first operation. They decide not to make contact and work in the shadows for now. Titus has identified that the world is heading for a late stage capitalist nightmare and potentially nuclear oblivion. Lupe suggests that they work on finding pressure points to push to get the aliens to see sense, but Maya isn’t convinced anything short of revealing themselves will work. Nightingale manages to access some of the alien computers and writes code to ensure a nuclear launch will be unable to happen. She deploys it without checking with Maya first, who is livid, despite its success. However, they soon realise that Nightingale has triggered a chain of events that may lead to their discovery, as computer scientists the world over want to know why there are suddenly errors in their system which look unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.
Episode 4:
During the discussion about whether the situation is retrievable, Lupe announces that another dying civilisation has been discovered, designated FC2. This one seems to be older and larger than FC1, but no less damaged. FC2 is collapsing into fighting over resources, with a damaged home world that is choked with chemicals and failed terraforming attempts on other worlds in the solar system. FC2 is at war and it looks to have some very dangerous individuals in charge. Jonas is keen to offer them wormhole technology, as surely giving them more resources will fix the problem, but none of the scientists think this is a viable plan. Jonas points to the humans’ own history. Perhaps the occasional war is necessary, they just need a way forward to a better future. Avi suggests they start by helping them to clean up their planet first. Maya backs him and they work on a plan to get the necessary information to the right people in FC2.
Episode 5:
The situation on FC1 is worsening and now conspiracy theories are making the political tensions worse. Maya gives in and decides that they have to reveal themselves. Lupe, Maya, Titus and Dora begin first contact proceedings, involving the human higher authorities. Nightingale faces being dismissed from Uplift for her rash actions, and it’s only Titus’s arguments on her behalf that save her. The humans make their first first contact, which is a mixed success. They need to work on their relationship with the aliens and it’s not going to be easy to convince them they mean well. A lot of their media features aliens that attack their civilisation.
Episode 6:
In the final episode of the series the team come to an uneasy agreement with FC1. They will send them help if members of the FC1 species can also journey to the human area of space. Everyone is hesitant about this, but Jonas is worried about security. Will the FC1 find more than they bargained for? Will they steal technology that they’re not advanced enough to have? Maya sets up the necessary quarters and puts in place some guard rails.
FC2 actually seems to be going better and the introduction of the clean-up technology is going surprisingly well. It’s a victory for the team and it prevents them from being disbanded completely.
The season ends with the cliffhanger discovery of FC3 - an alien world that has discovered a form of AI that is currently engages in destroying all life.
It’s the time of year again, the Dream Show Challenge, and here is my show.
With thanks to @theadrogna for choosing my cast list for me.
My given Cast List is:
Firefly Gina Torres
Ted Lasso Nick Mohammed
Murderbot Alexander Skarsgard
Leverage/ Leverage Redemption Beth Riesgraf
Star Trek: Lower Decks Jack Quaid
Bridgerton Nicola Coughlan
Community Donald Glover
DREAM ON
Welcome to the Hayes Institute for studying sleep disorders, the effect of sleeplessness, helping those with night terrors and other sleep issues as well as trying to help those in comas. During their research they’ve found the Dreamscape, a central space which connects the spaces where people go when they dream.
Matt and Carly come to the Institute for a sleep study for different issues, during the first night find themselves entering the Dreamscape where they meet Jo. Jo is not a sleeper, but in a coma in the Institute. She guides them through the fun things they can do but as they go deeper inside the Dreamscape, they learn that there are others who use it, and other beings that could escape into the real world.
Starring
Gina Torres as Dr Jasmine Gordon
Jasmine, a neurosurgeon, but when her best friend Jo fell into a coma after an accident she accepted the position at the Institute, which her father and Jo’s father started. She uses her father’s old notes on sleep disorders, coma patients and his theories on a Dreamscape in the hopes she can find a way to wake her friend or at the least contact her.
A brilliant doctor, Jasmine is fiercely protective of her people. She feels responsible for Jo’s accident as they were meant to meet for lunch that day and she had to cancel.
Nick Mohammed – Dr Eric Mayhew
Originally a paediatric doctor, Eric lost his job when he disagreed on treatment for one of his patients with the Chief of Surgery and the father of the child. Despite being right, he was forced out. Needing a job, he applied for the post at the Institute hoping it would give him some money until he managed to get a ‘real’ job again. To his surprise, he not only enjoys working at the Institute but likes the people he’s working with for the first time and is intrigued by the Dreamscape.
Donald Glover - Davy Caine
Davy is the Institute’s IT genius who created most of the equipment used. Upbeat with a quirky sense of humour. He originally worked with Jo’s father, then Jo when she joined the team and hopes that the research they’re doing will bring her back to them. He’s the member of the team who has worked with every iteration of the Hayes Institute team and knows every secret from all of them as well as every part of the building.
Jack Quaid – Matt Jones
Matt was a lawyer with one of the largest firms in the city and dating the daughter of his boss. A night out with her, her brother and his girlfriend ended with them having an accident which injured both Matt and his girlfriend. The accident was blamed on him as he was moved to the driver’s seat while unconscious, but Matt was cleared thanks to security cameras from the store they crashed outside of. He still lost his job, and no firm will hire him thanks to his now ex-girlfriend’s father blackballing him.
He applies for the sleep study as he doesn’t sleep well after the accident and is reluctant to become a part of the team at first.
Nicola Coughlan – Carly Atkins
Carly has had a history of not being able to sleep well, from sleepwalking to night terrors. When she sees the advert for the sleep study decides to see if they can help her. Originally a nurse, she found that the shifts made her sleep issues worse, so she found a different career as an event planner. Currently between jobs she has the time.
Amazed by the Dreamscape, Carly is intrigued by the possibilities that come with it and accepts instantly when Jasmine hires her to work as a nurse.
Beth Riesgraf – Dr Josephine (Jo) Hayes
Jo is the daughter of one of the men who founded the Institute and was a researcher after she graduated from medical school. Almost a year earlier, during a fight between two men at the train station Jo was accidentally pushed onto the tracks, hitting her head and has been in a coma ever since. Jo has spent a lot of her time wandering the Dreamscape learning how to navigate it but because she is in a coma can’t contact anyone until Matt and Carly join her as dreamers. With their help, she is able to enter the dreams of Jasmine, Jay and Max to spend time with them while she becomes their guide when they’re in the Dreamscape.
Alexander Skarsgard - Max Anderson
Max used to be a police detective but after being injured couldn’t return to the force so opened his own detective agency, although he still has friends on the force. He was also Jo’s boyfriend, intending to propose the night she had her accident, he visits her as often as possible, despite everyone telling him she’ll never wake up.
Selection of Episodes
Pilot – Welcome to The Dreamscape
Jasmine Gordon runs the Hayes Institute helping people with sleep disorders, while researching what her father called the Dreamscape in the hopes of waking her friend Jo Hayes from the coma that she’s been in for almost a year.
Only certain people have the ability to enter the Dreamscape without help, but they never remember being there, which is what Jasmine and her team are working to change.
Matt and Carly are part of a group of six who have come to the Institute for help with their sleep issues. During their initial tests both are found to be candidates to enter the Dreamscape, to Jasmine, Eric and Davy’s astonishment. After months of searching for one candidate, they’re stunned to find two. Both are bemused when asked to go through additional tests but, in the end, agree.
In their dreams, they each find a door which takes them to a part of the Institute they’ve never been to where they meet one another and Jo. She’s ecstatic to see them as she’s been alone for a long time, although not as long as it’s actually been. Jo leads them to the Dreamscape, knowing this is why Jasmine has sent them there. Both are instantly lost in memories and dreams until Jo pulls them back, explaining that the Dreamscape can be extremely dangerous if you don’t know how to navigate it.
On their second test, Carly finds a door in Jo’s dream. Jo tries to stop them going through because she’s so afraid, they manage to persuade her to let them go through the door. Finally, she agrees and takes them inside to the day of her accident.
Carly and Matt watch what happened, seeing from a different angle from the security camera discover that the fight was a distraction and although the men came close, she was pushed by someone else.
When they tell Jasmine, she contacts Max, Jo’s boyfriend who vows to begin investigating what actually happened. Jasmine offers Carly a job as an on-staff nurse and asks Matt to help them for the next few weeks with their research which both accept.
Nightmares
Matt and Carly are bored while Jasmine and Eric put them through a series of tests to check both are healthy after the time they’ve spent in the Dreamscape as staying too long within it is not good.
The tests end when Jay arrives to visit his sister and is briefed about recent events.
Allowed to go into the Dreamscape to let Jay see what they’ve learned Matt discovers the ability to enter other people’s dreams without being invited. Unfortunately, he ends up in the nightmare of a child and gets trapped moving through nightmares as he can’t work out how to escape.
While Jo and Carly try to rescue Matt, the others in the real world worry about the effects of prolonged exposure to the Dreamscape on his body. When he finally wakes, Jay offers him a job as a lawyer for the Hayes companies, mostly based at the Institute.
But as night falls in the Institute, it looks like something followed Matt out.
With Special Guest Star Alan Tudyk as Jay Hayes
Jay is Jo’s older brother. Trained as an accountant like their mother, he took over the running of the Institute, as well as the other companies they started when their parents died. Distraught when Jo is injured and, it becomes clear she won’t wake up, he turns to Jasmine to take over the Institute and continue her father’s research. He visits randomly, sometimes for business reasons and other times just to spend time with his sister hoping one day she’ll wake up. He and Jasmine are close friends.
The Sandman
Depressed after talking to his ex-girlfriend, Eric and Davy take Matt out to the bar that is just next door to the Institute. Here they introduce him to Mike, the barman who claims to own the bar, and explain there is a second Mike on other days who also claims to own the bar. Eric explains they have never seen the two of them together, they’ve nicknamed them Mike One and Mike Two and no matter how much Davy digs he can’t find out the truth.
Back at the Institute, they have some new patients for the sleep study, one of which won’t wake up. Matt and Carly go in to find them, but even with Jo’s help can’t find them anywhere. While traversing the Dreamscape, Carly finally manages to find the other patient, trapped in a dark space that Jo doesn’t recognise. After saving the patient, the team head to the Sandman for a drink where this time Mike Two is behind the bar.
Nathan Fillion as Mike One
Arthur Darvill as Mike Two
Christmas Time Is Here
Despite the Institute being closed for the two weeks over the holiday season, bad weather cancelling flights and family issues mean the entire team along with Jay and Max are in the Institute for the holidays. As they all wander the halls, bored and feeling sorry for themselves at being stuck for the holidays the episode flashes back to how Jasmine, Jay, Jo, Max, Eric and Davy all came to be at the Institute.
From Jasmine taking her father’s place on the staff, Eric’s troubles with his former boss, Jo’s accident, Jay having to step into the shoes of his mother despite not feeling ready, from Max and Jo’s first meeting to his almost proposal.
On Christmas Day the entire team gather in Jo’s room to swap presents and spend Christmas together.
Lost
Max arrives at the Institute early one morning. He’s been contacted by a friend of his in the police due to a number of unexplained deaths recently where it appears that they’ve died in their sleep.
Jasmine agrees to let Matt and Carly head into the Dreamscape to get Jo’s help to see if they can see what’s happening. Following a lead from Carly and Davy’s research they manage to find the man who is bringing nightmares into people’s dreams from the Dreamscape which are frightening people to death as they are not for them. They race to stop him and to save his most recent victim. They manage to save the potential victim, nearly losing Carly into the nightmare zone. The attacker manages to escape into the deeper recesses of the Dreamscape but Jo breaks the connection he had so he can’t attack anyone again the same way.
Wake Up Time Part One
When working in one of the other offices of the Hayes corporation, Matt runs into his old boss and is horrified by how stressed, nervous and guilty the man can still make him feel. When he’s back in the Institute, Matt enters the Dreamscape with Carly but finds himself in the Astral Plane instead. Matt finds his former boss and begins to follow him. Confused he’s not there Carly continues on her mission to follow the trail of the man they think pushed Jo onto the tracks. Getting frustrated as missing something that flashes past her, Carly discovers that she can rewind, fast forward and pause dreams and memories.
Following the clues, Carly finds they were right, just as Matt overhears his ex-boss talking to his son about Jo’s accident. Horrified Matt returns to his body but as he starts to tell Jasmine, Carly wakes up and to tell them what she discovered.
Just as the entire Institute is plunged into darkness…
Wake Up Time Part Two
A dark creature stalks the corridors of the Institute, trapping everyone in different sections of the building. Davy desperately tries to get the Institute running again while Eric and Max try to communicate with the others trapped in Jo’s room.
Jo finds herself pulled into the far reaches of the Dreamscape where another of the nightmare creatures begins to stalk her pushing her further and further into the dark.
Davy, Max and Eric manage to get power back on and electrocute the creature, Jo’s heart stops. Thankfully the equipment has means Carly and Matt are able to enter the Dreamscape to try to help her. Together they manage to pull her free and Jo suddenly wakes from her coma. Everyone crowds round Jo, trying to understand what happened. Celebrating that they survived and that Jo is awake once more.
In the basement of The Sandman, Mike Two is lying unconscious on a bed while Mike One notes they may have to tell the Institute why they’re there. In the mirror with the Dreamscape behind him, Mike Two agrees as the nightmare creatures are only the beginning of what the Institute will face.
It's the Dream Show challenge again! This time, it's a movie! I hope you enjoy it!
The Marvelous Ms. Marbell
Quick Synopsis:
Sweet elderly Ms. Mary Marbell has quite the reputation for solving murders. But when an unpleasant business man with more money than sense, and more enemies than either, is found dead in his office, Ms. Marbell's investigation takes on some interesting complications.
Annette Badland - Ms. Mary Marbell, amateur detective extraordinaire. But does she have some secrets of her own?
Annie Murphy - Nicole Fletcher, Ms. Marbell's trusted aide. Ms. Marbell has the sharpest of minds, but she isn't exactly adept at wiggling through windows or creeping into closets. So when the investigation requires a bit more physical legwork, young Nikki is happy to oblige.
Elden Henson - Detective Jack Winchell, the investigating officer. He's never worked with Ms. Marbell before, and he's quite skeptical of her reputation. At least until he sees her results.
Michael Shanks - Darren Holt - Our victim. An entirely disagreeable fellow who any number of kind, simple folk would love to see dead. But who could have done it? And why duct tape?
Jeff Goldblum - Aaron Jacobson - One of many potential suspects, but the one with the most recognizable face. He lost a lot of money due to one of Darren Holt's shady business deals. He also made his fortune in hardware, particularly duct tape. Could he perhaps be the murderer?
Sonequa Martin-Green - Tara Mars - An American blogger and investigator who has teamed up with a like-minded British counterpart. Ms. Marbell once proved her father guilty of murder, but Tara still has questions.
John Boyega - Stephen Smith - A British blogger and investigator. He's been following Ms. Marbell's exploits for years, and he thinks he's started noticing a few concerning patterns.
--
Full Synopsis:
Businessman Darren Holt has been murdered and Ms. Marbell is on the case. Despite the skepticism of her new "partner", Detective Winchell, Ms. Marbell thorough and gentle examination of witnesses and evidence soon bring results, and Aaron Jacobson is arrested for the crime.
But that's when Tara Mars and Stephen Smith show up, with a lot of questions. While Ms. Marbell has been investigating murders, they've been investigating Ms. Marbell and they've come up with one heck of an alternate theory for the crimes.
Is Ms. Marbell simply a brilliant, yet underestimated, amateur detective? Or is SHE the murderer, carefully choosing the most unlikable, distasteful victims so that she can send her real targets to prison instead?
Complicating the investigation is the discovery that Stephen Smith and Nicole Fletcher had once been very close friends in their shared Ms. Marbell fandom.
Ultimately, the murderer is revealed to be Nicole Fletcher. She'd long admired Ms. Marbell, and as the elderly sleuth's reputation began to fade, she'd taken it upon herself to provide new cases. She's imprisoned, Aaron Jacobson is set free, and a devastated Ms. Marbell returns to her sad, empty home.
In the coda, Ms. Marbell is visited by her long estranged grandson, Philip (as played by Arthur Darvill). As they enjoy the fresh air, she notices a very angry fellow shouting at the women on the street. "That one next," she tells her grandson, who nods solemnly as they continue their pleasant walk.
It’s Dream Movie time again, my movie this time is called:
PORTALS.
Synopsis
The world is a barren wasteland, with only two cities left that are in a state of perpetual war. The only weapon they both have is a portal generator which allows them to move around the world, while they only have swords, staffs, bows and arrows to fight with.
The City of Victo is led by Donna the elected leader, and military advisor Jack. They’re both doing their best to protect their people, but they have a different style. Finding a secret recording which leads to what may be a weapon to destroy their enemy forever. They recruit Cal, one of their team leaders, they know it could be a suicide mission but as Cal’s girlfriend is pregnant, he wants to give his future child a future.
An old, dilapidated car has been converted into a machine to send Cal back to where they believe the weapon is hidden.
In Maxil City, the elected leader Drew and the military leader Blair have found a secret message which may lead them to a weapon that will end this war forever. They choose Adam, one of their best soldiers to go through but Adam was injured in the most recent skirmish, and he has been hiding how badly he was hurt. His sister, Mandy, a member of the medical team decides to take his place, and after sedating him, she uses the machine, this one in an old bus, to go back to where they think the weapon is hidden before anyone can stop her.
Separately Mandy and Cal head to Maxwell Tech, owned by tech billionaire Victoria Maxwell, where they believe the weapon is. They both end up being chased by security at different parts of the building, running into one another. Cal is hit by a taser as Mandy manages to open a portal, he falls into her which means electricity goes through her and they go through the portal to safety.
Realising they are with an enemy Mandy persuades Cal to let her clean a cut on his arm, and they reluctantly agree to work together to get into Maxwell Tech. Once they find the weapon then their truce will end.
As they sit eating the food they manage to find, Cal looks at the video his girlfriend sent him before he left. Mandy sees this and pulls out a photograph to show him a picture of her mother. It’s the same woman, with slightly different hair.
Confused, Mandy notices that there is a Maxwell Tech logo just visible in both videos.
Back in the cities, both are preparing for a final all out attack with the other. Donna is worried about Cal, knowing he can sometimes be impulsive while in Maxil, Drew and Blair are interrogating Adam about why Mandy went instead of him, reminding him if she fails, it’s his fault.
Managing to infiltrate the company, Cal and Mandy follow the information they were given on the recordings, realising that each had slightly different details which gets them to a lab only to find that there is no weapon.
This is where the portals are being tested and Victoria Maxwell appears. She takes their portal generators, and they discover their world isn’t the future. It’s all an illusion, and an experiment that they’ve apparently volunteered for, and coming for the weapon is something they’ve done multiple times, although usually it’s Cal and Adam who come looking for it and fight one another.
She’s intrigued as it looks as though the chips that usually stop them seeing anything that would raise their suspicions have been damaged – likely by the taser Cal was hit by and he shared when he fell into Mandy.
Victoria puts on a gas mask and is about to knock them out when several agents invade the room, two of whom were working as technicians in Maxwell Tech to get the evidence they needed to arrest her.
Shutting down the simulation, those in both cities see that the world they were in wasn’t real and with their chips deactivated remember their real lives
Standing together Cal and Mandy watch the people they knew as their friends and family stagger out, neither knowing what to say. Instead they just sit side by side and eat the last of their rations.
Starring:
James Roday Rodriguez as Cal
The reluctant leader of the Victo frontline team, he was raised in the war and knows nothing else. He remembers the stories his mother would tell him about before it happened and what the world looked like. He’s loyal to his people and wants the world to be better for the baby his girlfriend is expecting.
Smart and dedicated to his people with a quick wit, when he is sent to retrieve the weapon, meeting Mandy means he finds himself questioning everything he knows.
Gina Bellman as Donna
The Leader of the Victo, she has lost all her family in this war, lost all she had ever loved and is determined to ensure the people that she has been chosen to lead survive. She trained Cal, and trusts him, even though he drives her crazy at times. She hates sending him on what may be a suicide mission but knows there is no choice left.
Ted Danson as Jack
The Military Leader of Victo. He is cunning and single-minded. His daughter was badly injured in an attack several years ago and he does his best to care for her while planning the military strategy. Finding a possible way to win the war, he doesn’t care how dangerous it might be he wants it to save his people and will sacrifice Cal to do so.
Claudia Jessie as Mandy
She is a member of the medical team for Maxil. When her brother, Adam, the leader of the Maxil frontline team is injured, she takes his place to search for the weapon. Not as jaded as her brother, Mandy is more open minded and is the first to question why they need the weapon and if it is what they think it is. It’s her decision to help Cal’s injuries that means he agrees to work with her.
Rachel Luttrell as Blair
The new military leader of Maxil, she was promoted after the death of the former leader. She hates that she now has to lead, worrying that she has made the right choice sending Adam after this mysterious weapon. And even more worried to find out Mandy has gone on the mission to retrieve it.
Callum Keith Rennie as Drew
The leader of Maxil. He was injured as a child so was unable to join the military meaning he had to go into politics. He feels it’s the only choice to send Adam for the weapon. But even he worries that it won’t be enough to save his people. He is worried when he learns Mandy has gone instead.
Judi Dench as Victoria Maxwell
The owner of Maxwell Technology, who both teams believe may have created the weapon they are looking for. In fact, her company created the portal technology both sides use that history shows destroyed the Earth’s atmosphere. She is smart, knows every member of her staff and expects the best from her people.
Also Starring
Arthur Darvill as Adam
Mandy’s older brother, they are close as their parents died when she was young. He is the leader of Maxil’s frontline team, he tries not to show he’s been injured but Mandy knows him well enough to see it.
Aldis Hodge as ‘Maxwell Tech Technician One’
and Dulé Hill as ‘Maxwell Tech Technician One’
Each time a scene starts in Maxwell Tech it is in front of an elevator and each time the same two technicians are in there. The doors always open on the end of a joke that the other always laughs at. They are however the agents who have been undercover in Maxwell Tech to take down Victoria Maxwell.
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My cast list (chosen by @theadrogna) was:
Psych - James Roday Rodriguez
Due South - Callum Keith Rennie
Stargate SG1/SGA - Rachel Luttrell
Leverage/Leverage Redemption - Gina Bellman
The Good Place - Ted Danson
Bridgerton - Claudia Jessie
My Wild Card was Judi Dench and my item I had to include was car.
@singledarkshade set us a Dream Movie Challenge and gave me the following cast:
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Babs Olusnamokun
The Bear - Liza Colon-Zayas
Slow Horses - Gary Oldman
Umbrella Academy - Aidan Gallagher
911 - Angela Bassett
Beyond Paradise - Zahra Ahmadi
Wild Card - Martin Sheen
Item - A Pack Of Cards (playing or tarot)
Synopsis:
Some people feel more than others, these are Affinates, people who have such an intense Affinity for something that they can read it better than anyone else, and even manipulate its forces. Governments around the world have kept this fact a secret. There are more of them every day and no one knows why. The Affinity Unit is set up to unpick the mystery and deal with the new crimes that are created by these remarkable people. When Arden discovers her Affinity for fire, she is pulled into the strange world of people for whom the usual rules do not apply, where she only has a young, brash American with an Affinity for water as her guide. Together they must discover who is killing Affinates and what the motive behind it is.
Gilgamesh (Gil) Fontenot (Aidan Gallagher) – As a baby Gil was rescued from the flooding caused by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. His parents were never found. He is a recent recruit of the Affinity Unit and has worked for them for just over a year, straight out of his basic training with the FBI. He is a skilled investigator and a water Affinate. He lives on a house boat on the Thames, preferring to be close to the water at all times.
Arden Flammel (Zahra Ahmadi) – There’s a video of Arden being rescued from a burning multistorey building by firefighters. The fire made the news and killed her parents. She was only two at the time, and had nightmares for years afterwards. She raised by the firefighter who saved her, and followed in her father’s footsteps. She became a fire investigator with the London Fire Brigade.
Noële Travere (Angela Bassett) – A former Interpol Agent based in Paris, Noële is an experienced law enforcement officer who now heads up the Affinity Unit. She developed affinity late in life and no one is sure of her story. Her Affinity is for plants and her office is full of house plants on the verge of death that she lovingly brings back to life.
Harry Merchant (Gary Oldman) – An earthquake scientist who first identified the phenomenon of Affinity when he became one himself. He has an Affinity for stone, and was caught in a collapsing building, barely escaping with his life. Always impeccably dressed, he is occasionally called away to earthquake zones to identify points of stress and when the next quake might be. He says that he can now feel the rhythms of the earth. He is interested in trying to understand the mechanism behind Affinity and has all but abandoned his seismological research to work with Shirley on Affinity.
Shirley Ortiz (Liza Colon-Zayas) – Not an Affinate herself, but her son was one. He had a deep Affinity for machines, working as a Formula 1 engineer, and is currently missing. She is a pathologist and works with the Affinity Unit, helping them to research and solve mysteries. She also assists Harry with his research on the biological side.
Oluwatobi (Tobi) Iku (Babs Olusanmokun) – An assassin for hire, Tobi Iku was buried alive with his dead by his abusive father mother. He was eight years old at the time. When his aunt rescued him from the coffin, his first act was to kill his father. He is a rare Affinate who has an Affinity for death and can work out how to kill someone by simply starting a chain reaction of events.
Max McDowall (Martin Sheen) – An American billionaire who made his money in oil and is deeply suspicious of Affinity. He has firmly held beliefs that conspiracy theories are real and is the force behind the deaths and kidnappings.
Plot:
The story opens with a fire in St Martin’s church, London, that Arden is investigating. A single tarot card is affixed to the outside of the church door, Death. Whilst investigating, the body of a man is uncovered and instead of the police investigating, the case is taken over by Interpol agent, Gil Fontenot. Arden has little time for brash Gil, who seems to have a very strange way of investigating, tracing the lines of the water used to put out the fire and then the patterns of blood from the dead man, which should have been destroyed by the fire. However, he is struck by her fire investigation capabilities and recognises her as a fellow Affinate. He recruits her to the top secret Affinity Unit and helps her to recognise her power for what it is.
During their investigation they find that Tobi Iku is likely responsible for the body in the church – his calling card is the tarot card - and that he has been employed by someone very powerful. Gil has tangled with Tobi before and only barely lived to tell the tale. They race to protect the person identified as his next victim, but ultimately fail, leaving them disheartened and Arden wonders why she thought she could help.
Gil and Arden follow the clues to a warehouse in docklands where there is evidence that experiments are being conducted on Affinates. They are locked into a room within the warehouse and gassed into unconsciousness. They awake to find themselves on a ship at sea, the latest kidnap victims, and they are taken to a lab where blood is taken before they are thrown back in a brig. McDowall makes a brief appearance to see how his project is progressing, but Gil is somewhat distracted by the huge amount of water around him which messes with his Affinity and overwhelms him. Arden has to rescue them, which she does by destroying the boat’s engine using her Affinity for fire and pulling Gil out of his dazed state. The crew abandon ship, leaving Arden and Gil to die.
They call for help, and just have time to grab some important documents left behind. Gil uses his Affinity to ensure they stay afloat and they are picked up from the Atlantic by a military vessel sent by the Affinity Unit.
They analyse the data they have found, and realise that McDowall is trying to find a way to give non-Affinates their abilities, and ultimately combine all the Affinities into a single drug that he can sell to the highest bidder. Potentially this would build an army of super soldiers and destabilise the world. Harry creates a controversial drug that would remove Affinity and makes just two doses, for emergencies only. The Affinity Unit pull together all their resources for one final showdown with McDowall in Iceland, where he plans to demonstrate the capabilities of his Synthetic Affinates.
The Affinity Unity make use of all their contacts to destroy McDowall’s base and rescue Shirley’s son. The final showdown sees McDowall dosing himself up on fire Affinity and facing off against Arden, using a volcano as their weapons. Meanwhile Gil finally gets to finish his encounter with Tobi and this time gets the upper hand, using Harry’s anti-affinity drug to stop Tobi, who miscalculates and accidentally kills himself with set of circumstances meant to kill Gil.
The Affinates go home, knowing that the world is saved.
It’s once again time to create your Dream Movie (or Movie Franchise).
Send @singledarkshade a message or ask with a list of six of your favourite TV shows or movies (or a mixture of the two). In return, you will be given six actors from your chosen shows/movies.
In addition to this, choose a number between 1 and 10.
This will give you a ‘Wildcard’. The Wildcard is to be a cameo or a special part in the movie (think Samuel L Jackson's appearance at the end credits of Iron Man or Sean Connery appearing as King Richard in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.)
Additionally, choose a letter between A – L.
This will give you an item. This item must be included in some way (like Sam Raimi's car appears in every movie he does).
What you do then is create your Movie Bible:
This must include:
A one-paragraph blurb on what the movie is about (like you’d get in a Movie Guide)
What character each actor is playing (don’t need character names but you do need to provide a character description.)
Why your Wildcard Character is so important to the plot.
How your ‘Item’ appears in the movie and why it’s important.
For extra credit, a sketch of a plot arc with any twists.
If you choose to cast a few more “roles” in your movie, that is great too.
The amazing previous movies that have been created can be found here and here.
Send your show/movie list by 31st May 2024, and your ‘cast list’ will be sent to you ASAP.
Then your Dream Movie should be posted by 1st July 2024.
It's time for the Dream Show Challenge once more! I gave @singledarkshade a list of 7 TV shows or films and we were given a cast of 7 actors in return.
Here's who I had to work with:
The Umbrella Academy - Aidan Gallagher
Good Omens - David Tennant
The Mandalorian - Giancarlo Esposito
Leverage Redemption - Aleyse Shannon
Everything Everywhere All at Once - Ke Huy Quan
The Witcher - Freya Allan
Sense8 - Daryl Hannah
I present you with:
Rift Hunter
Synopsis:
Someone or something is trying to reach Earth, not through space but across a dimensional rift. A secretive agency battles to control the rifts and deal with the incursions that threaten humans and the very fabric of the world. Connor Harris is having a particularly bad day. He is broke, his girlfriend has left him, and he’s desperate for something to go right, when he stumbles through the wrong door on his way to a job interview for a job he doesn’t really want, and into the middle of an incursion.
He is thrust into a world of monsters, aliens and strange science. Jiang Bao heads up the Reality Incursion Fundamental Tactics and Science (RIFTS) Agency which takes in Connor and gives him a new purpose. The secretive agency is tasked with keeping mankind safe but also with making good use of any opportunities that the Rifts produce to further science and technology.
The show plays on Connor's love of video games and retro gaming, getting in references about video games and gaming culture. It has a retro 80s theme tune and a purposefully retro intro sequence. It makes use of garish colours to heighten the strangeness of the rifts and the denizens from it.
Aidan Gallagher – Connor Harris
In the wrong place at the wrong time, Connor never wanted to be part of the agency. However, his quick thinking and problem solving skills make him an ideal operative. He is a gaming nerd, whose last job was at a large game design company. He has very few friends and almost no real prospects after the company he worked for went bankrupt and fired all their staff, but he grows into his role at the agency. His main skills are in computers, but he also somehow gains an ability to predict when and where a rift will occur. He can also track the entities who come to Earth through the rifts.
Aleyse Shannon – Tia Adefope
Tia is a government military operative, and is quite secretive about her past. She has trained to a high level and is extremely competent. She never expected to need to use her skills in this way but she is ready for whatever comes. She now leads a team of soldiers who act as security for the RIFT Agency and protect the scientists and technicians from anything that would harm them. When she isn’t saving the world one bullet at a time, she has a pet cat called Discord and a vintage motorbike to restore. She doesn’t have any attachments because her job never allows her time to stay in one place, but she also secretly likes it that way.
Giancarlo Esposito – Jules Jackson
Jackson oversees the work of the RIFTS Agency. He is their liaison with government and ultimately in charge of everything that happens in the agency, their strategy and direction. He takes a no nonsense approach and takes his responsibilities seriously. Jiang would not have been his first choice to head up the agency and he would rather have found Connor a basement office that he could have left him in. However, he respects skill and comes to see the good points of the team.
Ke Huy Quan – Jiang Bao
Head of the RIFTS Agency. Strings were pulled to get him this job, and Jackson would have preferred a military candidate. Jiang is an expert in the little that is known about the phenomenon of the rifts. Jiang’s parents emigrated from Vietnam when he was only a few months old, but he embraced his new country, becoming an disaster analyst in the government. His area of expertise is seismic activity, which led him to discover the rifts, but since then he has branched into several other areas of science to learn what he needs to know. He is smart, tough and a little out of his depth.
Freya Allen – Corinna Salvor
An expert in aerospace technology, formerly of NASA, she was recruited to the team as an expert technician. She helps to deal with the technological threats that the team face on a daily basis as part of their work. She loves the challenge of her work and will happily pick up a gun alongside Tia. Smart, sharp and with a wicked sense of humour she loves nothing better than to prank Dr Caffrey or wind up Jiang. She is an expert at pressing peoples buttons and specialises in cutting sarcasm.
David Tennant – Dr Alex Caffrey
Alex is a biologist, who found himself disgraced for his unusual views on the origins of life on Earth. Whilst he wasn’t exactly correct, he was closer to answers than many of his peers. Life on Earth wasn’t brought here by aliens but by the rifts. One of his key discoveries has been that humans were not originally native to Earth and he continues to gather evidence for where we came from as he interacts with the creatures that come through the rifts. He is a maverick who continues to clash with the senior team members on academic matters, but has a kind heart and will do anything for his friends. He does not enjoy fieldwork, but there is no substitute for collecting alien goo oneself.
Daryl Hannah – Persephone Turner
Persi is a linguist and expert in psychology. She is empathic and gentle, not well suited to the work she is doing, but determined not to let her fear get the better of her. There is nowhere else that would give her the opportunity to speak to beings from other worlds or to learn how they communicate. Her tenacity means she is unwilling to let things go, even if they look hopeless.
Episode 1: Connor Harris and the Day of the Tentacle
Connor loses his job at EverByte whilst in the middle of programming a game that could make them all rich. Unfortunately for Connor, things go from bad to worse when he applies for a new job and arrives at the interview to then get caught up in an evacuation. He enters the wrong room and instead of the exit, he finds a glowing rift and a waving set of tentacles being fought off by the RIFTS Agency.
Tia rescues him but not before he is covered in a strange alien slime that gives him unusual powers. He is taken back to HQ for treatment and testing. During this period he becomes away that objects from other worlds have unusual auras that he can see under the right conditions. The team take him out into the field to test this ability and he is able to pinpoint a rift before the final incursion appears. The tentacle monster returns and tries to take Connor back through the rift, but the creature is killed by Tia.
When Connor asks what’s on the other side, Tia tells him that no one has ever returned from the other side of a rift.
I used two flashes for this. One lighting the front of the mini figure, and one behind, giving the blue light from the forge which has nicely spilled out onto the floor this side of the forge door.
