Highly Recommended: Orphan Black by T. S. Jones

Imagine walking around downtown on your way to a subway platform ready to go home and the craziest thing you could ever think of happens. Being half a foot away from the mirror image of yourself who proceeds to jump in front of a moving train.

That happened to Sarah Manning…

This is how the BBC Original Series begins the journey we take with the con artist who only wanted to return to her daughter’s life and start fresh. What she would soon find out is her world is much bigger than she thought. Noticing that this mystery woman left her belongings on the platform, Sarah takes it upon herself to assume her identity. On the surface what harm could it be right? Not really, if there was an identity NOT to steal; it would be this woman’s.

It turns out that the woman who chose to take the train in a more unconventional way, is a woman named Beth Childs who was a cop for the for the city of East York in Toronto, Canada. She came upon a discovery that she wasn’t the person she grew to become. One could imagine that Beth felt overwhelmed with the information she obtained and didn’t want to process it any longer. Sarah, through the contents in Beth’s purse, learns about her doppelganger’s life; including a fabulous home & a hot boyfriend. Sarah on the other hand, comes from a life of being a foster child to Siobhan along with her foster brother/best friend Felix who she lovingly nicknamed Fe (or Fee, depending on the how the viewer interprets this).

Felix is an artist who is beyond comfortable with this sexuality. Ever the expressive, he has no filters and makes sure everyone around him is aware of it. That’s a part of his charm, not to mention the big heart he has for those he cares about the most. Thankfully for Sarah, he has no problem in helping her get Kira back and start a new life as well as finding out more about this newfound, yet strangely unique, extended circle of friends. Despite this being a shock to her system, Sarah seems rather well adjusted in processing the fact that there may be others who look like her. While working on assuming the identity of Beth Childs, Sarah & Fe would learn that Beth is the beginning of one of the craziest webs of deception brought upon in the name of science.

I present to you…The Clone Club!

Allison Hendrix

Allison is a suburban soccer mom, Allison can be considered the mother hen of the doppelgangers. She’s a strong type A person – a place for everything and everything in it’s place. Allison is more wound up than a pocket watch. As much as she hated to process the fact that she was a clone, Allison would become the resourceful one in the group. While it wasn’t expressed as much, it would be easy to say that she was more relatable to Beth; the closest to a real sister she could possibly have. Beth may have also taken Allison more seriously than Cosima did. And yet, she has a wild side that not only humanizes her; her husband Donnie seems to rock with it.

Finest Moment: During her campaign speech for school trustee, Allison lets her guard down and truly speaks from her heart & won over the audience in the end. It seems that the growing bond within the sister circle has been an empowering influence on her personality.

Cosima Nichaus

The super geek of Clone Club, Cosima has a scientific mind that would impress Stephen Hawkins & Nikola Tesla. Despite her quick intellectual thinking, she does know how to have fun and let loose. She crosses paths with a fellow intellect name Delphine who she became very drawn to. They connect while going to a speaking engagement featuring a popular scientist Dr. Aldous Leekie – there’s an interesting subplot with that one. Sensing a possible opening to becoming more than friends, Cosima gives a surprising kiss to Delphine. To put it plainly, Cosima is out and proud of her sexuality. Her best friend is Scott, another student who later became her right hand; he had her back no matter what.

Finest Moment: Getting her grove on at Felix’s art show dancing on a portrait of Rachel Duncan, the Queen Bitch of the Dyad Institute. She brought up a couple of drag queens & Scott to join in. It really exudes the beautiful spirit she has. Besides, who wouldn’t want to party with Cosima, yeah?

Helena

Having grown up at a church orphanage in the Ukraine, Helena is not actually a clone; she’s Sarah’s biological twin sister. Their initial meeting is not one to tell friends at dinner parties that’s for sure. She has the mannerisms of a highly skilled assassin and a heart full of love. She, it would come as a surprise to her other “sestras”, is excellent with children; they really do take to her. She had quite a terrible upbringing in the orphanage; primarily due to catching a nun in the act of loving herself. She was put in solitude and this same nun bleached her hair with actual bleach. Hence the blonde hair and the frigid look that continued when an opposition of science named Tomas took her under his wing. That’s something to check out for sure.

Finest Moment: While impersonating Donnie’s wife Allison, Helena wasn’t too pleased to hear drug supplier Pouchy’s niece threaten the Hendrix’s children; not to mention holding the cannister with her harvested eggs as collateral. The result, Helena took matters in her own hands ensuring they wouldn’t be bothered by him or his people again. It was an epic moment.

And then there’s…

Rachel Duncan

While not a member of the Clone Club, Rachel was presented as a cold calculating bitch; that’s putting it lightly to be honest. She would eat, sleep and breathe the Dyad Institute from when she was a young girl having been raised primarily by Dr. Aldous Leekie. She began to take much interest in the clones upon finding out that Sarah had Kira naturally. Rachel may come across as someone who runs the entire ship at Dyad but that’s not entirely accurate. She does conduct much business for the organization, but she has her limits and there are people behind the curtain to make sure she doesn’t forget that. She protected her heart so much that she failed to understand real understanding. She wanted order and nothing else; unless it were to raise her arousing level behind closed doors.

Finest Moment: All I can say about Rachel’s finest moment is that it’s one where it was out of pure empathy. A chance to do a good deed if you will. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.

There were some other clones in Canada that Beth either reached out to or were found by Cosima with the help of Scott. I like to call them Honorary Clone Members. The following is a brief description of said members:

Krystal Goderitch

A self-proclaimed fashionista with a large following on her YouTube channel, Krystal is not just a pretty face. She, along with her friend Brie, use their YouTube platform to tell their subscribers some of the dangers in various cosmetic products. While she is made aware of the cloning situation, Krystal can still be on the oblivious side that shows her as someone who is loving her life while masking her intelligence with the self-confident beauty; her attitude has bite as well.

Tony Sawicki

Formally known as Antoinette, Tony is a transgender male who is a career thief and was one of the first people Beth reached out to after discovering she was one of the clones. He didn’t stick around after meeting Felix and Sarah; they insisted that he moves out of the city for his safety.

MK

Perceived to be a hardcore conspiracy theorist, MK had her finger on the pulse of this madness that became their lives. She was careful with whom to trust when it came to the girls. Sarah was someone since Beth that she felt comfortable enough to talk with…eventually. MK helped to piece a lot of things together for the girls; giving them a broader understanding of Dyad Institute as well as the Leda and Prometheus clones.

Along with the clones from around the world, there were some other great and yet interesting supporting characters. For instance, Detective Arthur “Art” Bell who was Beth’s partner that was woven into the Clone Club and discovered he gained an extended family. Siobhan aka Mrs. S wasn’t just a foster mother to Sarah & Felix as stated earlier, she was a resistance fighter in her day and stayed in contact with some who were still active while under the radar so to speak. Donnie, Allison’s very supportive husband whose genuine love for his wife extended to her growing family. And Delphine, who started out at as a mole for Neolution who eventually fell for Cosima while in grad school at the University of Minnesota.

And we cannot forget Vic….

Known properly as Victor Schmidt, Vic is Sarah’s annoying ex and former con partner who was beyond the borderline of being obsessed with her. So much so that he was willing to go against some of the most dangerous people who on the surface wouldn’t seem like much of a challenge. Case in point – Vic thought he could take on Paul and get Sarah back; think again Vic. There are a lot of comical moments in this series and Vic had many of them.

These clones (Project Leda) were impressively played by Tatiana Maslany and has presented what could be called one of the greatest jobs to have as an actor. In saying that I mean that in one show she has shown she can play various personalities. So, should the question of whether she can play a certain part or not, the answer is found in this show. She rightfully won a Leading Actress Emmy in 2016 for her work on this hit Sci-fi/Drama that I found to be not only entertaining; innovating as well.

This show has developed a strong following that’s very comparable to that of The Walking Dead. So much so, it spanned a limited comic book series published by IDW Publishing as part of their "Deviations" series. Meaning they put a spin on the detailed back stories on the clones as well as the events at Helsinki; you’ll have to check out the show to find out more on that.

Orphan Black is a who’s-who’s show for Sci-fi fans as there are many familiar faces from other shows seen over the years in this long-standing genre. You can find the series on Amazon Prime (Seasons 1-4 are available with a Prime Membership – Season 5 is available for purchase), Google Play, iTunes, other streaming providers for purchase or you can add the complete series to your DVD/Blu-Ray library. If you consider yourself a true Sci-fi fan and love seeing a visual story being told in a way that it leaves a lasting impression worthy to be part of a nerdom conversations, I highly recommend the BBC Original Series Orphan Black.

That’s my opinion and everyone is entitled to one.