FTL Newsfeed
| FTL Newsfeeds | |
|---|---|
| Created by |
F. Paul Wilson Matthew J. Costello |
| Starring |
Joseph McKenna Jon Avner Allen R. Middleton |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 seconds (season 1-4) |
| Production company(s) | The SciFi Channel |
| Release | |
| Original network | SciFi Channel USA Networks (US) |
| Original release | September 24, 1992 – March 21, 1996 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | FTL Newsfeed Special Behind the Scenes |
| External links | |
| Defunct Website | |
FTL Newsfeeds, shown on the Sci-Fi Channel, was the channel's first original program. The micro-series format gave viewers 30-second snippets of fictitious news bulletins that were supposed to have come from the year 2142. This future timeline was fraught with stories of genetic engineering issues, technology trends, space exploration, future entertainment, right to privacy issues and geopolitical intrigue. The series was created by F. Paul Wilson and Matthew J. Costello and was filmed in New York. The series ended in a cliffhanger in late 1996.
The World of 2142 is markedly different from our own. Europe has combined into the EC or European Community, which has given it enormous economic and political sway. The United States has combined with Canada to form the NAU or North American Union, still very bold and ambitious though not as economically powerful. Japan, the Pacific Rim and all other East Asian nations excluding Australia combined into the NACPS or New Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, a new isolationist Combine centered on improving itself from within. The Holy Islamic Federation controls the Middle East and African regions. Mexico, Central America and South America have become the HC, or Hispanic Commonwealth. All five government leaders met regularly in the World Congress.
The economy is controlled by a global banking entity called CenBank, short for Central Bank and was based in Geneva, Switzerland, and all transfers were electronic and highly monitored by the bank's AI and President Barton Poole. The "FTL Newsfeed" came from this future world's "Commlink" system which acted as an interactive global information network that merges the Internet, television programming of all sorts and virtual reality entertainment into one entertainment center. There was even a special voting message shown during the 1992 Presidential Elections that has all "Commlink" functions suspended until the following day as if to coincide with the elections of 2142.
Life on Earth is often interesting with virtual reality simulations so real that worldwide addiction is very common. Holography allows users to modify the appearance of their dwellings or selves into more appealing facades. Violent "future-sports" enable fast paced thrills with life and death consequences that keep the crowds coming back for more. Cloning has brought the extinct back to life and enabled mankind to create a subclass of humans that not only fill the need for cheap labor and exotic entertainment, but have now become a social cause for clone rights groups. In addition to earthbound life there are The O'Neills—a network of space stations and microwave generators that orbit the Earth and Moon bases, representing the major economic combines. Lastly, there is the great, if economically devastating, experiment of terraforming Mars.
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