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Delta State (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
animated television series, based on a comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
by Douglas Gayeton
Douglas Gayeton
Douglas Gayeton is an award-winning American multimedia artist, filmmaker, writer, and photographer who divides his time between a farm near Petaluma, California and Pistoia, a medieval Tuscan town....
(which was never released), featuring four amnesiac roommates with the ability to subconsciously enter an ethereal realm known as the Delta State. They face the dual tasks of piecing together their past lives and battling a group of Delta State denizens called Rifters, who seek to control the human mind. The main characters are Claire (Ilona Elkin), Martin (Dusan Dukic), Luna (Lizz Alexander), and Philip (Nicholas Wright
Nicholas Wright
Nicholas or Nick Wright may refer to:* Sir Nicholas Wright , English academic* Nick Wright , English footballer* Nick Wright , English footballer...
).
The series debuted September 11, 2004 on Teletoon, the Canadian cartoon television network. It is the first animated television series to be entirely rotoscope
Rotoscope
Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator...
d, taking over 27 months to complete.
Delta State is a French / Canadian co-production with designs, story-boards etc. done by Alphanim
Alphanim
Alphanim was a French independent animation production and distribution company, founded in 1997, with a catalogue ranging from pre-school through teens and family properties...
in Paris; shooting and recording were performed by Nelvana Canada. The project was conceived by Douglas Gayeton, who also directed the original pilot and wrote the bible for the show.
The show has won the Special Award for a TV program at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Frames 2004 for best Asian Production.
The series aired in France from March 9, 2005 on Canal+
Canal+
Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted...
.
Characters
- Martin Gold: 21 years old and the de facto leader of the group; he has the power of telepathyTelepathyTelepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
. Presently the boyfriend of Claire, though he was that of Luna's in his past life. He was a baseball player before a couple of thugs, hired by his own father, broke his arm, ending his career. - Philip Graff: 20 years old, a perpetually unemployed slacker; he has the power of psychometry, the ability to see the past experiences of selected objects. His mother abandoned him on a bus when he was a baby and he grew up in an orphanage. He has an aversion to lockers, likely because he spent much of third grade being stuffed into them.
- Claire Donally: 21 years old; she has the power of remote viewingRemote viewingRemote viewing is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using paranormal means, in particular, extra-sensory perception or "sensing with mind"...
. Claire's previous boyfriend was David, who was murdered by a friend named Thomas, because Thomas wanted the full share of the treasure he and David had found while SCUBA diving. - Luna Palacios: 22 years old and of Mexican descent; has the powers of precognitionPrecognitionIn parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...
. She was a bank teller at the Bank of Mexico. There was a robbery at the bank and the getaway car hit and killed Carlita, Luna's little sister.
Rifters
- Sven Ragnar: Commonly guessed to be the "brother" of Maria and heading the acquisition of human minds by Rifters. He seeks to kill Brodie and bares a grudge towards Martin.
- Maria Ragnar: One of the "bad guys", she has deep feelings for Philip and has put herself in danger for him on more than one occasion.
- Professor Robert Brodie: The group's guardian and mentor. He was involved in a government project to stop the Rifters, but left because he did not want the Delta State to be used for military purposes. It is revealed he is a Rifter at the end of "The Orb."
- Karla Schneider: The featured Rifter of “First Contact”, who displeased Sven and was disintegrated for her transgression.
- Professor Stork: This Rifter was expelled by Luna and Philip in "A Case Study."
- Dr. Ludwig Von Hayek: A mad scientist Rifter who worked at Icharus, perfecting cold fusion, an unlimited power source for Rifters. Von Hayek was destroyed by Martin, Philip, Luna and Claire in "Fusion."
- Louisa Forterre: The girl Philip has fallen for. Philip expels the Rifter at the end of “The Girlfriend.”
- Aldous Brant: He was possessed by a Rifter 15 years ago. He has Enzio's Rachnosis, a neural degenerative disease, and has less than a year to live. The Rifter in Aldous Brant took advantage of a situation to jump into Raymond Woodly, leaving Aldous dying in a coma.
- Raymond Woodly: Aldous Brant’s best friend and campaign manager. Woodly became possessed when a Rifter jumped into him from Brant. The Rifter was NOT expelled at the end of “Vote Rifter.”
- Dr. Van Heusen: He was destroyed by Philip, Luna and Claire in “Cabin Fever.”
Other
- Dan: Luna's boyfriend. He also works with Martin at "Soundz", a music store.
- Chantal Thomas: She was a TV psychic. Brodie described her as “sensitive to the vibrations of the membrane of our reality”. She was found and killed by Sven in “The Reading.”
- Jack Staffer: A friend of Philip’s, they met when they both worked at Icharus, in “Fusion.”
Quotes
"Four young amnesiacs hold the fate of human-kind in their hands. Their mission is to protect you from the "Rifters" who want to control the human mind. They may appear to be harmless and self-absorbed but they have astonishing, paranormal powers and an invincible motivation: To retrieve the secrets to their past-lives, hidden deep in the parallel dimension of the Delta State."- Professor R. Brodie, opening credits
DVD release
Teletoon first began releasing Delta State on DVD three episodes at a time on one disc (in sequential order), with a delay of several months between the next batch of episodes. First with "Delta State First Contact" (episodes 1 - 3) released May 16, 2006 and then with "Delta State The Reading" (episodes 4 - 6) release October 10, 2006.However after only two of these releases, and another delay of several months, "The Detour on Teletoon presents: The Complete First Season" was made available in a two-disc box set (a slightly thicker case then a regular DVD case) on February 13, 2007, with Teletoon's Detour banner at the top of the front artwork. This release however is not 'complete' as it only contains the first 13 episodes, not all 26. To date there has yet to be any corrections nor further releases; and have proven to be difficult to find for download as well.
There has been a re-release of this "first season" by Kaboom Entertainment on October 6, 2009, replacing Teletoon's banner at the top with their own. But according to the DVD menu listed by Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, this release only has the first 13 episodes on 2 discs as well. Oddly enough, Kaboom Entertainment's release is priced nearly $10 less than Teletoon's.
iTunes release
In the late summer/early fall of 2010, Delta State the TV series became available for download from the iTunesITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
store. It is offered via iTunes as it was originally intended to be marketed, where episodes 1 - 13 are entitled as 'Season 1', and episodes 14 - 26 are entitled 'Season 2'.