October 3, 2000: The TV show Dark Angel premieres on Fox, making a star of 19-year-old Jessica Alba.
The backstory: A secret U.S. government institution code-named Manticore creates genetically enhanced children, raised, and trained to be soldiers and assassins. Given that the Season 2 character of Joshua (Kevin Durand), an "X-2," is several years older than the "X-5" group, it's clear that Manticore has been doing this since well before the 2000 births of the X-5s. On February 17, 2009 (a little over 8 years in the future when the show premiered), 12 of the X-5s escape, including the one designated as X5-452 (Geneva Locke).
On June 1, 2009, at 12:05 PM Pacific Time, terrorists detonate an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) in the atmosphere over the U.S., which destroys the vast majority of computer and communication systems, throwing the country into chaos and an economic depression.
(A depression in 2009 is one of the few predictions the show got right, although it was due to standard economic issues, and it didn't last long, because, in real life, the federal government was ready, willing and able to meet the emergency. One episode specifically takes place on February 6, 2020, and, of course, no mention is made of the COVID epidemic that happened in real-life 2020.)
When the show begins, it is 2019, and the U.S. has fallen into a Fascist dictatorship, which sees the continuing depression as a way to control people, so there's no reason to end it. It is a surveillance society, and the people live in fear of both unemployment and arrest.
Now 19, X5-452 (Alba) has adopted the identity of Max Guevara. Her genetic enhancements have given her strength, speed, reflexes, durability and senses far beyond those of ordinary humans. However, this includes feline DNA, and so her "superhero weakness" is that, like a cat, she goes into heat every 3 months.
She lives in a slum apartment in Seattle with a roommate, Cynthia McEachin (Valarie Rae Miller), a black lesbian calling herself Original Cindy (the name is a play on "original sin"). They both work for a company run by an archconservative jerk named Reagan Ronald, nicknamed "Normal" (J.C. MacKenzie). Max keeps her abilities a secret from Cindy until circumstances force her hand halfway through Season 1. Another employee and friend of theirs is known only as Herbal Thought (Alimi Ballard, using a fake Jamaican accent), a Rastafarian who considers himself something of a philosopher, who only appears in Season 1. No explanation was given as to why the character did not appear thereafter.
The show's setting in Seattle, with its frequent rainy weather, helped give the show a damp, dreary look, emphasizing the show's depressions, both economic and spiritual. It also led to shots of Max sitting atop a now-closed Space Needle. However, it was filmed 140 miles up the Pacific Coast, in Vancouver, which has similar weather, and several of the actors were Canadian.
Max uses her abilities to commit petty crimes, to supplement her meager delivery income. In the pilot, she breaks into the apartment of Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly), a cyber-journalist who uses his knowledge of computers to bring down the corrupt power brokers of the new millennium. Heir to a family fortune, Logan hacks into television cable networks, and delivers his broadcast entitled Streaming Freedom Video under the pseudonym and alter ego "Eyes Only," claiming he "cannot be intimidated or bought."
When he discovers Max trying to burgle his apartment, Logan notices her Manticore barcode tattoo on the back of her neck, and offers to help her locate the other Manticore children in return for helping him on a vigilante mission. Max denies his offer, and Logan is rendered a paraplegic after he is shot on the mission. Max then accepts Logan's original offer, and the two form a close friendship and romantic interest.
Max and the other X-5s are pursued by one of Manticore's officers, the sadistic Colonel Donald Lydecker (John Savage). Late in Season 1, he is betrayed by his boss, Elizabeth Renfro (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine veteran Nana Visitor), Lydecker switches sides and helps Max and Logan prepare to destroy Manticore. He becomes a valuable ally in the fight, but disappears under mysterious circumstances early in Season 2.
Season 1 ends with an assault on Manticore headquarters. It succeeds, but in trying to escape, Max is shot by a later variant, an X-7, a virtual clone of hers (also played by Geneva Locke, who had been appearing as Max in flashback scenes). Although she is saved by Renfro at a backup government facility, she is now a prisoner.
As Season 2 begins, Renfro is attempting to repopulate her project by having the remaining X-5s mate, and pairs Max with Alec (Jensen Ackles). He is willing, she is not. It takes 3 months for her to break out (apparently, the "horny cat" phase does Alec no benefit), and now there are "transgenics" let loose in the world, including the aforementioned X-2 named Joshua.
Logan has exposed Manticore to the world, but when he and Max reunite, he nearly dies. They discover that Manticore has infected Max with a virus specifically designed to kill Cale, and the two must avoid all physical contact to keep him alive.
The show was canceled, and its last episode, first airing on May 3, 2002, is set at Terminal City, an abandoned part of Seattle, where hundreds of outcast transgenics have been hiding. When the police begin to surround Terminal City, Max convinces the other transgenics to stand their ground rather than run. The series thus ends on a "permanent cliffhanger."
Mystery writer Max Allan Collins was hired to write companion novels. Dark Angel: Before the Dawn is a prequel, filling in Max's life between her 2009 escape and the show's 2019 beginning. Dark Angel: Skin Game sets the series finale in May 2021. In this novel, information that Max had given to Logan forces the government to call off the invasion of Terminal City is called off. When Kelpy, a shapeshifting transgenic, takes on Logan's form, he is killed by the virus Max carries, thus eliminating that threat to Logan.
Finally, in 2003, Dark Angel: After the Dark was published. It tells of the final showdown between the transgenics and the "breeding cult" that inspired Manticore and created them. Victorious, Max finds Lydecker in a prison cell at the cult's headquarters. He promises to help her find her mother if she saves him, and she agrees. The book ends with Logan and Max finally consummating their relationship.
Fox's record with science fiction is terrible. They canceled Dark Angel and Firefly too soon, and have now let The Orville go after 2 seasons. It was picked up by Hulu.
Fox did have one good reason to cancel Dark Angel, though, and it wasn't the ratings: Its stars, Alba and Michael Weatherly, 32 years old when the show debuted, started dating, and became engaged, but broke up. Ruining her 1st adult relationship, she could no longer work with him.
Weatherly became Agent Tony DiNozzo on NCIS, starting out as a parody of his real personality at that point. Alba became an even bigger star, before (mostly) leaving show business and going into real business, becoming a billionaire through The Honest Company, selling ethical household products. (Not, however, including "Honest Tea." That's a separate company.)
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October 3, 2000 was a Tuesday. Baseball player CJ Abrams was born. Like CC Sabathia, he does not use periods on his initials.
Major League Baseball started its Playoffs. St. Louis Cardinals rookie starter Rick Ankiel set a modern-day major league record by uncorking 5 wild pitches in the 3rd inning of Game 1 of the National League Division Series, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Despite the embarrassing display, the Cardinals still defeat the Atlanta Braves, 7-5. I have a separate entry for that event.
The other NLDS started the next day, and the New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants. In the American League, both series played their Game 1. The Oakland Athletics beat the New York Yankees, 5-3 at the Network Associates Coliseum (as the Oakland Coliseum was then known). Former Yankee Randy Velarde victimized his former team with a 2-run single in the 5th inning.
And the Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-4 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. John Olerud hit a 3-run home run in the top of the 10th inning.
Football was in midweek. The NHL season started the next day. The NBA season started 4 weeks later.
Also on this day, the 1st Presidential debate of the 2000 election was held, on the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts, a few blocks from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. The Republican nominee, Governor George W. Bush of Texas, as he usually did, made himself look like he was not smart enough to be President. The Democratic nominee, Vice President Al Gore, was caught on camera sighing over some of Bush's dumb answers.
The reaction of most of the American media was not that Bush was too dumb to be President, but that Gore was too rude to be President. This was the problem: Bush, a known recovering alcoholic, was seen as "the kind of guy you'd like to have a beer with," while Gore was "stiff," "uptight," and "a know-it-all."
As comedian Bill Maher put it, "God forbid, the President of the United States should be smarter than we are." But he also addressed Gore's image: "People like what he stands for. They just don't like him."
In the years to come, Donald Trump, certainly not stiff, turned out to be too rude to be President, but people liked it. Very stupid people.
