Origin: A Journey Through Space

When I came across the trailers for this YouTube exclusive, I was pretty surprised that YouTube going after the Amazon Prime model. A TV series that is exclusively available on YouTube. Who would have thought of that!

I watched a few of the trailers which focused on the interviews of the passengers. I was insanely curious. What was this series all about? I could detect the creepy, dark undertone to it as soon as I watched the first trailer.

The show is about a group of people who are travelling on a ship to a whole new planet, five light years away from earth, to a planet called Thea. Little do they know their journey is going to be more perilous than they thought!

My favorite characters

Shun Kenzaki - He was a part of the Yakuza. A stone cold killer, made to kill people on command, he feels no remorse. He is extraordinarily brave and intuitive. I guess that comes with his job. I was surprised that his brother, Takeshi was a cop. Even though they were on the opposite sides of the law, their brotherly love was strong and his brother never gave up on Kenzaki and wanted him to start a new life with a blank slate on Thea. 

Lana Pierce – A former cop who was assigned to protect a politician and his daughter. She had a special connection with the daughter, Ruby and fell in love with her father. She couldn’t protect Ruby when the house was attacked by assassins who were sent to kill her father. In a fight with one of the assailants, she accidentally ended up killing Ruby, something she can never forget.

Logan – An unusual character, who suffered from epilepsy. He was from California and he had a criminal record due to which he had to attend mandatory community service at an old age home. He met an old lady who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. They had somewhat an unusual friendship, mostly based on marijuana. Finally he actually began to look forward to community service and spending time with her. She opted for euthanasia (assisted suicide).  It broke Logan’s heart when she killed herself but there was a silver lining, she filled out the application for him to go to Thea and start a new life. He was Katy’s love interest on the show.

Katie Devlin – She was Logan’s love interest and a character with a shady past. She was arrested when she was a juvenile for murder, something she regrets and is ashamed about for a long time. She decided to live with her brother who was a priest, hoping to leave her past behind. But wherever she went, her past keeps creeping up to her; never giving her a chance to move on. She is one character I can relate a lot. I can never seem to escape my past either.

Planets

Thea

It is first known planet which is known to be able to harbor human life. It is five light years away from Earth. It is currently in the process of colonization by the Siren Corporation and they needed huge amounts of manpower to achieve this feat so they started the program in which Shun and several others signed up for in the promise of a blank slate.

Iris

A neighboring planet to Thea which was explored by Siren for research and possible colonization, but unfortunately they encountered a form of extraterrestrial life which infected and killed the first explorers. After this drastic turn of events, Iris was marked unsafe for human life.

The Ship – Origin

The Origin is one of a kind spaceship which is bound for Thea which transported passengers and crew who would be instrumental in it colonization. It had about 1000 passengers and 500 crew members. It had 10 levels called rings which had quarters for crew, hibernation cells, and food and life support systems for the passengers and crew alike for their long voyage to Thea. The first level was the bridge which was used to navigate and monitor the systems aboard The Origin. The rings were connected by a shuttle which was used by the crew to move aboard the ship.

Plot

A Rude Awakening

Shun wakes up in a hibernation capsule. Even before he could comprehend where he was, he was flushed out. Butt naked, he wonders if he is alone. Soon he finds some clothes and some people. They decide to explore the ship. At the shuttle, three of them decide to explore the upper levels of the ship using the ladder on the side of the shuttle. Baum finds a button. In his haste to find out what the button was for, he presses it. This retracts the ladder which forced the trio to climb as fast as they could to the next level. Lana and Shun were lucky to escape but the third (Young) was not so lucky, he fell to his death.

Seeing this, Lana and the others were terrified but not Shun, he was used to death because of his life in the Yakuza. He had killed numerous people and had also watched his brother die. Lana, even though she was a cop, accidentally killing Ruby was something that destroyed her and she was not in a position to take a life. Abigail on he other hand, had a panic attack and took Henri’s help to calm her down and find a friend on the Origin.

Cell 50

When the group was exploring the bridge, they heard a message on a radio they found.  There was someone alive, but hurt in Cell 50. Lana, Shun and Henri, who had some medical expertise decided to investigate. When they reached Cell 50, they found a woman, possibly crew whose gut was slashed and was bleeding. Henri rushes to stabilize the bleeding while Shun decides to investigate Cell 50, which was sealed shut. When Shun opened the door, he was greeted with the unbearable smell of decaying bodies. On further investigation, they found several dead people and one crew member who was contorting and bleeding through his eyes. The slashed crew member, whose name was Rey suddenly regained consciousness and warned the trio not to enter Cell 50.

Inside Cell 50 Shun found one shot, yet live human; Taylor. But he was infected. He was infected by an extraterrestrial parasite which had come on board from the asteroid which had collided with the ship, which forced the entire crew to abandon ship. Henri took Rey to the Medical Centre while Lana and Shun deliberated whether Rey was telling the truth about Taylor being infected.

The Autopsy

After Taylor died, Henri performed an autopsy to find out what was causing the infection. Henri found an alien parasite which had enveloped the brain and deposited Calcium in the Hippocampus. This caused the person to forget who they really were and forced them to take up another identity.  This could be used to find out whether a person was infected or not.

The Other One

There are supposed to 10 passengers in each cell, but in Cell 50 there was only 9. So there was someone who was infected walking among them. How could they find out who that was? Rey knew who it was and that person was out to kill her. It was Eric. Shun, Lana and Henri tried their best to kill him. Eric was smart and even escaped depressurization into space by climbing into a vent, which supposedly killed Venisha and destroyed Henri to do it.

Finding Eric’s Body

Lee found Eric’s body in the pool and Henri thought that there was a struggle by the pool which suggested that the alien had infected another host. An autopsy of Eric’s body confirmed his theory. There wasn’t a parasite in Eric’s brain. So who was infected now? The suspicion continues…

Logan & Baum Vs Lee

Logan and Baum suspected Lee was infected and decides to confront her. Lee wasn’t actually infected, she suffered from nosebleeds. Logan threw her away when she resisted, she hit her head and was knocked out. He also accidentally shot Shun’s arm. Shun and Lana decide that Logan and Baum were barred from using the upper levels

An Unlikely Friendship

Down at the farm level, Lee was working on a something which would expose the parasite with Logan’s help. Logan didn’t completely understand what she was doing but he wasn’t stupid either. He really liked Lee and was really sorry about confronting her.

Back to Cell 50

The coolant which held the asteroid in place and prevented depressurization of the ring was becoming unstable which was affecting the life support systems on the ship which would result in the detachment of Ring 10. Rey, Shun, Katie and Logan go down to fix it. While they were fixing it, the asteroid dislodged itself completely which exposed the cell to space, which injured Logan and resulted in immediate depressurization. While Shun and the group try to escape to the shuttle, the airlock traps Lana in the rapidly depressurizing ring with minutes to detachment from the ship. Shun keeps Lana calm by asking her about her life back on Earth and asks her to escape the Ring through space. Lana attempts her first spacewalk which almost killed Shun who was waiting by the shuttle in a depressurized airlock and an open door to space to catch Lana when she came close.

Lee’s Death

In the Medical Centre, Logan regains consciousness only to find a screaming Lee who collapses on him. Henri is asked to examine whether she was infected, but her brain was free of any parasite which suggested that she was stabbed by the person who was infected as she had information which could reveal the identity of the infected person on the ship.

Katie’s Secret

Katie was suspected to be infected as a bloody scalpel which was used to kill Lee was found in her room and she destroys the chip which contained information which could expose who was infected. She is arrested by Shun and Lana and she is forced to prove that she didn’t kill Lee and that she was not infected, with some help from Logan.

So close, yet so far

The group has Thea within their sights and they see a probe sent by the base in Thea to check if the Origin was free of any alien life. The probe took control of the ship’s systems and deployed a nerve agent to kill everyone on board in the effort to kill the infected host.

Rey tells the group that using Oxygen tanks might help them survive the nerve agent. So decide to get some in Ring 5. In the hurry to get every cylinder possible, Henri is exposed to the nerve agent that poisons him. He asks Lana not to tell Abigail anything.

Baum and Katie’s discovery

Baum decides to take an axe and hack the probe to smithereens. He made an astonishing find; the probe could take people to Thea. While he thought if he should leave alone on the probe, he is interrupted by Katie who teaches him some morality. They also find that the probe had a weight limit, so it could carry only two people to Thea.

The Liar among us

Shun discovers a photograph of Taylor and his brother by Taylor’s body. Taylor’s brother was Sam, but during the debacle in Ring 10, Lana mentioned that her brother’s name was Sam. Shun decides to investigate her room, where she finds a half paused video log of Taylor talking about his life on Earth. Shun knew then, Lana was the one who was infected.

He is immediately confronted by Lana at gunpoint. After some tense combat and a standoff, Shun chooses not to kill her and knocks her out. He takes her to the probe and sends it back to Thea. He couldn’t bear the thought of killing her as he trusted her more than anyone else on the ship.

The Ominous Warning

Lana wakes up in the probe; only to hear an ominous warning from a voice which was unmistakably Venisha’s saying that Thea is not safe.

Theories on Season 2

I think Season 2 will focus on their landing on Thea and further back stories on the characters that were not covered in Season 1. I suspect that there will also be more on the flashbacks of Shun, Lana, Logan, Henri and Katie.

I also presume the story will dive into more about Siren and its history and some more details on the expedition on Iris. I think there will be a lot more insight on planetary colonization and the work the characters have to do on Thea.

I certainly hope there is a flashback to Rey’s life back on Earth and she is one of the more likable characters along with Katie.

Conclusion

I haven’t watched Aliens or Lost, so I have nothing to compare Origin to in this review. This is the first Space series I’ve watched since Star Trek and there is no way I can compare it to that as their themes are completely different.

I believe this season leaves a lot to be desired, especially in terms of character development as most of the characters didn’t even have a flashback in this season. I really hope they reveal how Venisha survived the depressurization and how she was rescued in the next season as that is a complete mystery to me.

I loved the acting but Felton’s acting was top class, closely followed by Tena’s, Sen’s and James’. James is a terrific actor but I’m a bit partial to Felton as I was epileptic too when I was a kid and I’m a huge Harry Potter fan.

My Rating

Plot – 4/5

Characters – 2/5

Environment – 5/5

Acting – 5/5

VFX – 5/5