Breathe, Bob, breathe!

I just got done watching all four seasons of a Canadian show called ReGenesis. It was a pretty awesome show, but it sadly jumped the shark about mid-way through season 3 when a sweet biochemist, Bob, evolved into a higher being. More on that later.

It’s not that this show wasn’t science-fiction, but the emphasis was mostly on the science with fiction coming on in believable bites. As someone who knows a tiny bit about infectious diseases (it’s just a hobby!) I found the science to be smart and up-to-date. Ultimately this makes the leaps of imagination easier to take. Initially the show reminded me of Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx & Crake where in the not too distant future, all we know about science today can easily turn into tomorrow’s nightmares.

NORBAC (The North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission) stands in the way of those nightmares. The scientists would chase down outbreaks of various viral or bacteriological diseases and then scamper home to their headquarters in Toronto to pour over the data. Hot trendy music would accompany virology montages of the hot trendy scientists as they pipetted, beakered, and sequenced DNA. Chief scientist and #1 man-whore David Sandstrom (played by Peter Outerbridge) would storm through the lab barking out orders and generally being a rebel and a loner. All the women scientists are icy hotties who apparently have all slept with Sandstrom, which seems to be how they got their jobs. If they didn’t sleep with him, they got killed. Seriously.

Case in point is the lead virologist. The first one didn’t sleep with David and was killed by a crazy man (possibly a terrorist), the second did sleep with David and left NORBAC after being blown up by terrorists, the third (no sex with David) is killed when a terrorist forces her to inject herself with weapons-grade Measles, and the final one slept with David and… well, the show ended before she could do much else. Conclusion, being the lead virologist at NORBAC is about as lucky a job as being Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in the Harry Potter books… unless you sleep with David.

Two scientists managed to get out of the “Sex with Sandstrom” loop and that’s Carlos the Mexican doctor (who is gay, so the potential was there), and Bob. Yes. What about Bob? Played by Dmitry Chepovetsky (I double checked that spelling!) Dr. Robert Melnikov is a genius with two PhDs and Asperger’s syndrome. He worships David and it’s their relationship that makes Sandstrom at least slightly likable.

Achingly sweet and naïve, Bob is the best character on the show. He is honest, intelligent and not haunted by all the usual crap people are haunted by. Sandstrom (with enough baggage to bury several people) could get outside of his considerable ego when in Bob’s presence. Bob was a better basketball player, a better chess player (with his eyes closed no less!) and a general all-round better person, but never made Sandstrom jealous. It just made him stop and think. David for his part became very protective and proprietary towards him but was always around to remind Bob to breathe when things got a bit overwhelming.

Bob was injured during a season ending cliffhanger which lead to his being (in no short order) blinded, sighted again after a radical procedure, had his Jacobson’s organ awakened, which made him empathic (this was the evolution to a higher being), being pursued by nefarious businessmen, being cloned, and ultimately responsible for the deaths of over a billion people. For this I will never forgive the producers and writers of this show.

The final episode, like the final episodes of Enterprise and Babylon 5 show a future where those that remain have to live with the consequences of their actions. Bob and Bob Jr. (the clone) are at the center of the storm which places like NORBAC where supposed to curtail. But this future may very well have been a dream as we are left with a final image of David lying in the snow, heartbreakingly abandoned by Bob (after Bob's evil wife Nina whacks him with a shovel), his wanton life flashing before his eyes.

If you wanted to see the show and I gave too much away, I apologize. You can do yourself a favor however, and stop watching about the middle of season 3. This was the point where Bob’s ability to sense other people’s emotions gets out-of-hand and I no longer believed the science or the relationships. If you stop watching at that point you can easily use your imagination to weave an alternate universe where everyone is happy, NORBAC protects us from nasty germs and David is always there to remind Bob to “Breathe.”