Monday, 3 January 2011

ReGenesis

ReGenesis is a Canadian programme created by Christina Jennings and starring Peter Outerbridge, Conrad Pla, Dmitry Chepovetsky, Mayko Nguyen, Maxim Roy, Greg Bryk, Sarah Strange et al.  It ran for four seasons (series), tallying up 52 episodes. It started in 2004 and ended in 2008. It centred around a fictional virology/micro-biology company called NorBAC - a joint venture between Canada, the USA and Mexico to counter bio-terrorism.


The chief scientist and molecular biologist in the lab is David Sandstrom. He is assisted (mainly) by Carlos Serrano - a geneticist and medical doctor, Bob Melnikov - a biochemist, Mayko Tran - a bioinformatics researcher and Jill Langston - lead virologist (later replaced by Rachel Woods followed by Enuka Okimba). The lab manager (and later Exceutive Director of NorBAC) is Weston 'Wes' Field. The Executive Director of NorBAC is Caroline Morrison.


David and his team are regularly asked to find cures to new biologically engineered diseases, that have been designed for bio-warfare as well as new day-to-day diseases/infections that occur. They also often end up helping people that come to them for help on a variety of things. A side storyline was also people working against them to sabotage their work.


They fight many diseases including new outbreaks of Spanish flu (caused by David not following the correct procedures) and lethargica.


Each episode is very well structured and thought out, and it keeps me intrigued from start to finish. The characters all play their parts very well and very professionally, but most importantly, they play their roles realistically.


Many episodes bring up a lot of real life issues (such as aids in Africa) as well as moral dilemmas (such as an occasion whereby David thought he had made a mistake about certifying GMO fish as safe or using stem cells for research). There are also references to American companies only caring about money and not doing what they can to help where it is most needed.





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