Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

BBC America is continuing to expand its original drama slate, teaming up with Misfits production company Clerkenwell Films for two new sci-fi shows, both of which will be distributed by BBC Worldwide.

Wired is written by Afterlife‘s Steven Volk and takes place in a world that looks exactly like today, except for one thing: this is a world with ‘Syns’ (‘Synthetic Organisms’), exact replicas of human beings and the newest luxury accessory money can buy. Wired explores our evolving relationship with technology, the boundaries of society’s values and moralities, our hypocrisies and contradictions – holding up a mirror to who we are today and what we might become.

The show was originally developed for Showtime, with Volk confirming on Deadline.com that he is “very excited about this BBC America announcement. And, no, they’re not replicants!”

Paranormal crime show The Dead Beat comes from Being Human writer John Jackson, and plays with the conventions of the crime genre. Two cops, one dead and one alive, become a reluctant team, working from leads in the world of the dead to track down killers in the world of the living. Subverting the crime genre, The Dead Beat brings a whole new meaning to cold cases, underworld informants, dead leads and buried evidence.