Orphan Black

Orphan Black
File:Orphan Black intertitle.png
Genre	Science fiction Drama
Created by	Graeme Manson John Fawcett
Starring	Tatiana Maslany Dylan Bruce Jordan Gavaris Kevin Hanchard Michael Mando Maria Doyle Kennedy
Country of origin	United States Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producers	Ivan Schneeberg David Fortier Graeme Manson John Fawcett
Production companies	BBC America Original Production Bell Media Temple Street Productions
Original release
Network	BBC America Space
Release	March 30, 2013 (2013-03-30) – present

Orphan Black is a Canadian–American science fiction television series that stars Tatiana Maslany as several identical women who are revealed to be clones. The plot primarily focuses on Sarah Manning, a woman who steals the identity of another clone, Elizabeth Childs, after the latter commits suicide. The series raises issues about the moral and ethical implications of human cloning and its impact on issues of personal identity. The show premiered at WonderCon in Anaheim, California on March 29, 2013. The television premiere of the first 10-episode season was on March 30, 2013. On May 2, 2013 BBC America renewed Orphan Black for a 10-episode second season to air in 2014.

Cast and characters

• Tatiana Maslany as a number of clones (see below). The primary focus of the series is Sarah Manning, a small-time con woman at the start of the series. Other clones include Elizabeth "Beth" Childs, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, and Helena (whose last name is unknown).
• Jordan Gavaris as Felix Dawkins, Sarah's foster brother and confidant
• Dylan Bruce as Paul, Beth's boyfriend. It is revealed that he is a monitor for the double blind experiment. For awhile he was fooled by Sarah's impersonation of Beth, but learned of it and has taken her side against the forces that are using them both. He has since fallen in love with her after she rescued him from being killed and is now Sarah's romantic interest.
• Kevin Hanchard as Art Bell, Beth's police partner
• Michael Mando as Vic, Sarah's abusive ex-boyfriend
• Maria Doyle Kennedy as Siobhan Sadler. Called Mrs. S by her foster children, Sarah and Felix, she has acted as guardian to Kira, Sarah's daughter, while Sarah has been away.

Recurring

• Skyler Wexler as Kira, Sarah's biological daughter
• Kristian Bruun as Donnie Hendrix, Alison's husband
• Matt Frewer as Dr. Aldous Leekie, head of The Dyad Institute and the face of the Neolution movement.
• Évelyne Brochu as Delphine Cormier, Cosima's monitor and romantic interest. She, like Beth's Paul, is a monitor, keeping watch over Cosima and reporting back to Aldous Leekie. Unknown to her, Cosima strongly suspected from the beginning that she was her monitor.

Known clones

Name	Nationality	Born	Died	Notes
Sarah Manning (aka "Beth")	United Kingdom	March 15, 1984	Alive	A con artist/thief. She took on Beth Childs's identity upon Beth's death, originally as a scam to steal her life's savings, but then gets drawn into the hidden conspiracy of illegal human cloning. She has a biological seven-year-old daughter, Kira, a foster brother, Felix, and their foster mother Siobhan Sadler. Street smart and tough, Sarah at first wants no part of the big picture about the clones, only caring about getting together enough money to start over somewhere else with Kira and Felix, but discovers that she cares more about other people than she thought. Sarah has no monitor because the Neolutionists lost track of her after her birth mother hid from them and gave her up for adoption. She and Helena are twin sisters. Sarah's daughter Kira appears to have inherited an enhanced healing factor from the experiment, as she is able to recover quickly from being hit by a car.
Elizabeth "Beth" Childs	Canada	Birth Certificate: April 1, 1984 (Cosima's Chart: March 13, 1984)	November 23, 2012	Police detective. The series begins with her suicide by walking in front of a train. Prior to the start of the series, she was suspended from the police department pending an investigation into the shooting of a civilian, Maggie Chen, who was really an agent of the Prolethians. She apparently was on several prescription medications prior to her death, due to mental issues brought on by stress. Beth found out about the clones when Katja Obinger contacted her about the assassinations in Europe; Beth then tracked down Allison and Cosima and they formed a group for mutual protection. Paul was her monitor.
Alison Hendrix	Canada	Birth Certificate: April 4, 1984 (Cosima's Chart: April 18, 1984)	Alive	A "soccer mom", she is married and has two adopted children. She is the clone that Beth, then Sarah, is the most in direct physical contact with, due to their geographical proximity. Conservative, orderly and highly protective of her family, she is prone to emotional instability when taken out of her comfort zone. She has suspected both her husband Donnie and her friend Aynsley of being her monitor, with Alison becoming convinced that it is Aynsley, but the identity of her monitor has not been revealed yet.
Cosima Niehaus	United States	March 9, 1984	Alive	PhD Biology student focusing in evolutionary developmental biology at the University of Minnesota. She has the most scientific understanding of her fellow clones and the possible reasons as to why the illegal project started and why Helena wants to kill them, but is somewhat overconfident in science and her own ability to pursue risky courses of action. She is originally from Berkeley, California. It is established that her romantic interest Delphine is her monitor, and Cosima has revealed to Delphine that she knows.
Helena	Ukraine	March 15, 1984	Alive	Assassin, known to have killed Katja Obinger, and probably the other deceased clones, with the exception of Beth Childs. Her last name has not been revealed. A religious fanatic, she believes she is the "original" while the other clones are satanic doppelgängers, and that it is her duty to kill them all. Mentally unstable, she self mutilates in a gesture of atonement to God. A man named Tomas, who is a member of a group called the Prolethians that is against Neolution, was subjecting her to physical and emotional abuse and instructing her to kill her fellow clones. Helena has no monitor because the Neolutionists lost track of her after her birth mother hid from them and gave her to be raised at a convent. She and Sarah are twin sisters.
Katja Obinger	Germany	March 24, 1984	November 25, 2012	Killed by Helena via sniper rifle while meeting with Sarah as "Beth". She is the second clone Sarah met (Elizabeth was the first but they did not speak to each other) and it was Katja's death that got her directly involved in the conspiracy. She was also the one who contacted Beth and told her about the existence of the clones and that their counterparts in Europe were being killed. At the time of her death, Katja was suffering from a serious respiratory illness; Cosima is trying to determine if this is a genetic risk to all the clones.
Danielle Fournier	France	Birth Certificate: March 20, 1984 (Cosima's Chart: March 12, 1984)	September 24, 2012	Presumed dead before the events of the series.
Aryanna Giordano	Italy	Birth Certificate: April 4, 1984 (Cosima's Chart: April 28, 1984)	April 11, 2012	Presumed dead before the events of the series.
Janika Zingler	Austria	March 10, 1984	July 13, 2012	Presumed dead before the events of the series.

Production

Orphan Black was initially developed at the Canadian Film Centre by Graeme Manson. Bell Media announced on June 12, 2012 that they had commissioned a 10 episode season of Orphan Black that would be produced by Temple Street Productions and distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide.

On June 26, 2012 BBC America announced that they had picked up the show in the U.S. The casting of Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany as the lead was announced on September 17, 2012. The rest of the principal cast was announced in late October 2012 as production began in Toronto for the first season. On February 7, 2013 it was announced that Matt Frewer had been cast as an edgy philosophical professor, Dr. Leekie, and Évelyne Brochu was cast as a graduate student in molecular and cellular biology. Filming of season 1 was scheduled to be completed by February 12, 2013.

Maslany created different music playlists to listen to, to help her differentiate the various characters she portrays. When filming scenes in which Maslany has multiple parts, cameras were mounted on dollies which would replicate movement, thereby allowing for more action in scenes where she interacts with herself.

Location

Orphan Black is shot on-location in Toronto, Canada. Although some U.S. critics have suggested that the city shown is a "no-name" city that stands in for New York — in the first episode, Sarah gets off a commuter train as another is announced as heading to New York City, and the police use NYPD mugs — the show reveals clues about its Canadian location: cars sport Ontario license plates, Beth's driving licence is Ontario issued, the multi-colored money, and a plane ticket that is displayed in the pilot episode clearly identifies Toronto's Pearson International Airport. In subsequent episodes characters mention by name several well-known Toronto neighborhoods, such as Parkdale and Scarborough, though these are both also residential areas surrounding New York City.

Episodes

Season 1 (2013)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"Natural Selection"	John Fawcett	Graeme Manson	March 30, 2013 (2013-03-30)	1.03
2	"Instinct"	John Fawcett	Graeme Manson	April 6, 2013 (2013-04-06)	TBA
3	"Variation Under Nature"	David Frazee	Graeme Manson	April 13, 2013 (2013-04-13)	0.40
4	"Effects of External Conditions"	Grant Harvey	Karen Walton	April 20, 2013 (2013-04-20)	0.36
5	"Conditions of Existence"	T.J. Scott	Alex Levine	April 27, 2013 (2013-04-27)	0.32
6	"Variations Under Domestication"	John Fawcett	Will Pascoe	May 4, 2013 (2013-05-04)	0.34
7	"Parts Developed in an Unusual Manner"	Brett Sullivan	Tony Elliott	May 11, 2013 (2013-05-11)	0.28
8	"Entangled Bank"	Ken Girotti	Karen Walton	May 18, 2013 (2013-05-18)	0.36
9	"Unconscious Selection"	T.J. Scott	Alex Levine	May 25, 2013 (2013-05-25)	N/A
10	"Endless Forms Most Beautiful"	Unknown	Unknown	June 1, 2013 (2013-06-01)	N/A

Season 2 (2014)

The show was renewed for a second season of 10 episodes on May 2, 2013. The second season will air in 2014. Perry Simon, the General Manager of Channels at BBC Worldwide America said: "We’re excited to commission a second season from the talented team of Graeme, John and Temple Street Productions, and we can’t wait to see who Tatiana shows up as in season two."

External links

• Orphan Black at BBC America
• Orphan Black at Space
• Orphan Black at IMDb