"Tonight, the part of Vancouver will be played by ..."

A new science fiction series called Continuum has just started up on Showcase.  The plot deals with political terrorists who manage to escape execution in 2077 by time-jumping to 2012.  One of the cops doing security at the execution is accidentally pulled back in time with the terrorists, and she undertakes the task of tracking down and neutralizing them before they remold the future by changing the past.

After watching the first episode, my initial reaction was neither here nor there. I'm pretty much up to speed on time travel plot options, and they haven't broken new ground as far as I'm concerned, but the writers do display a clear understanding of how the game is played.  The effects were acceptable but not brilliant, and as with any new science fiction program they've followed the tradition of loading the call sheet with actors from defunct SF shows:  William B. Davis, the Smoking Man from X-Files; Lexa Doig, who played Rommie on Andromeda; Victor Webster from Mutant X; and Tony Amendola - Bra'tac from Stargate SG-1.

However, I do have to give them credit for doing something unique.  Continuum is filmed in Vancouver, as so many other movies and TV shows have been - but it also takes place in Vancouver!  Yes, someone is finally producing a science fiction series in which Vancouver doesn't pretend to be Seattle, or New York, or Metropolis, or any one of a dozen other cities.  It was actually sort of fun to see the heroine wondering where she is, and having the computer wizard who is monitoring her implant cheerfully announce, "Corner of Pender and Beatty!"

- Sid