Across the world, eight people begin having vivid visions of a woman in the last moments of her life – the last moments before she takes her own life before her pursuers catch up with her. In Chicago, in London, in Mumbai, in Seoul, in Kenya, and elsewhere, eight otherwise unconnected men and women witness the suicide as if they were there. Then they begin seeing each other, or momentarily seeing things from one another’s perspectives, with no explanation for why this has started to happen. A Chicago cop, rattled by a recent experience on his beat, sees a DJ from London appear in the abandoned church where they both realize the suicide occurred. But every vision and every shared experience ends, sometimes leaving them stranded in desperate situations…and with inexplicable new perspectives.
Just before she takes her own life, the woman named Angelica is confronted by two men – one who knows she must remain in hiding, the other who is looking for her. Both men will be looking for the others, whose awakening awareness of one anothers’ presence has just begun.
written by The Wachowskis & J. Michael Straczynski
directed by The Wachowskis
music by Johnny Klimek & Tom Tykwer
additional music by Gabriel Isaac Mounsey and Ethan Stoller
Cast: Aml Ameen (Capheus van Damn), Doona Bae (Sun Bak), Jamie Clayton (Nomi Marks), Tina Desai (Kala Dandekar), Tuppence Middleton (Riley Blue), Max Riemelt (Wolfgang Bogdanow), Miguel Angel Silvestre (Lito Rodriguez), Brian J. Smith (Will Gorski), Freema Agyeman (Amanita), Terrance Mann (Mr. Whispers), Anupam Kher (Sanyam Dandekar), Naveen Andrews (Jonas), Daryl Hannah (Angelica), Max Mauff (Felix), Ness Bautista (Diego), Joseph Mawle (Nyx), Paul Ogola (Jela), Christian Oliver (Steiner), Matt Stokoe (Jacks), William Burker (Deshawn), Felicia Fields (Head Nurse), Margot Thorne (Sara Patrell), Maxwell Jenkins (young Will), Katrin Sara Olafsdottir (young Riley), Edward Ashley (Nocker), Chichi Seii (Shiro), Margaret Akech (Older Woman), Godfrey Ojiamo Muyungi (Passenger), T.K. Kitana (Hawker), Sylvester Groth (Sergei), Marina Weis (Sergei’s Wife), Matthew Burton (Dunkle), Rainer Reiners (Priest), Viola Meinecke (Teacher), Bernhard Schutz (Anton), Rafaela da Silva (Natalie), Lenius Jung (young Wolfgang), Georg Ebinal (Steiner’s Bodyguard), Ari Brickman (Director), Cassandra Sanchez Navarro (Nun), Arnoldo Picazzo (Padre), Rocio Garcia (Key Makeup Artist), Jeronimo Best (Assistant Director), Ki-Chan Lee (Joong-Ki), Heon Tae Jeon (Yuen Tan-Wu), Hana Hwang (Sun’s Assistant), Sean Dorsey (Sean), Jamison Green (Jamison), Shawna Virago (Shawna), Tina D’Elia (Dyke #1), Jeanette Aguilar (Dyke #2), Max Kelly (Dyke #3), Tino Rodriguez (Green Fairy), Virgo Paraiso (Purple Fairy)
Notes: Created by the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix trilogy, Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending) and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, Crusade, Jeremiah), Sense8 was pitched to traditional cable outlets before landing at Netflix, which expanded the show’s ten-episode order to twelve at the showrunners’ request. All twelve episodes premiered on June 5th, 2015 via Netflix’s streaming service, the latest of several major series to bypass existing broadcast and cable channels altogether. This was Straczynski’s first TV project since his frustrating experiences working on Jeremiah for MGM; he had worked chiefly in movies (Thor, World War Z, Changeling) and major comics titles in the interim. Naveen Andrews was previously one of the stars of Lost, while Freema Agyeman had traveled aboard the TARDIS as Martha Jones in Doctor Who. Daryl Hannah has a long list of big-screen credits, including several genre movies (Blade Runner, Memoirs Of An Invisible Man), while Brian J. Smith was one of the stars of Stargate Universe.
LogBook entry by Earl Green
At an exhibit of Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork, the Doctor thinks he’s spotted – in a painting – evidence that an alien creature that may have been stalking the Earth in Van Gogh’s time. The next stop for the TARDIS is in Provence, where something has indeed been claiming the lives of numerous people – and Van Gogh, considered a crazy outsider, has been blamed for the deaths. The Doctor and Amy offer to help, but how can the Doctor save any lives when Vincent is the only one to actually see the alien creature? And will helping Vincent fight the beast change the painter’s own future?written by Richard Curtis
Notes: Guest star Bill Nighy – whose name was not shown in the end credits of the episode – was, at one time, considered the hot contender for the role of the Doctor when the series’ return was still in pre-production (in fact, one prominent British newspaper announced that Nighy was picked for the role of the ninth Doctor). He has featured in the Harry Potter film series and appeared as Slartibartfast in the 2005 film adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Oscar-nominated writer Richard Curtis penned the screenplays for Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Love, Actually; prior to his film career, however, Curtis wrote or co-write every episode of Blackadder, starring Rowan Atkinson, who would play another ninth Doctor in the 1999 Comic Relief spoof The Curse Of Fatal Death (written, coincidentally, by one Steven Moffat). Curtis also founded the Comic Relief charity.
