Cast and creatives from this new YouTube Originals Sci-Fi series assembled at the Vue Leicester Square on November 8 for a premiere screening of the first two episodes and answer questions. Greg D Smith was there to take in the show…

There’s a really obvious pun to make about this show, though it was one that unfortunately passed me by because I’m one of the few remaining genre fans who never actually watched an episode of JJ Abrams’ show. But my companion for the evening was happy enough to inform me of the parallels and so I am bound to report that Origin plays – in its first two episodes – like Lost, in space.

On the surface, it’s an interesting, if (ironically) not terribly original idea – a company is working on colonising a new Earth-like planet 5 light years from Earth in a future that seems not hugely removed from the present day but oddly balanced between sleek futurism and nihilistic dystopia. To get the workforce they need, the corporation offers a Tabula Rasa – a ‘blank slate’ – to anyone who signs up to go, happy to overlook any past sins of an individual in return for their commitment to the project. An opportunity for anyone to literally start over and become whoever they want to be.

From the first two episodes, the format appears to be that we spend roughly half the time with our protagonists in the ‘present’ as they wake up on the ship that’s supposed to be taking them to Thea and discover things are not going well, and the other half of each episode with flashbacks focusing on one of the motley collection and their own motivations for taking this trip. In the first episode it’s Sen Mitsuji’s Shun – an ex-Yakuza enforcer whose brother was a dedicated police officer. In the second we get the backstory of Natalia Tena’s Lana, a military or ex-military member who was last working as a close protection officer for a senator. This format is where the Lost comparisons come from.

From her comments in the Q&A afterward, it seemed apparent that series creator and writer Mika Watkins is not a particular fan of sci-fi (‘I’ve watched The Phantom Menace’, she declared after Tom Felton admitted to the audience he’d never seen a Star Wars movie) and that shows in this series in several ways. It’s not especially wrapped up in the actual here and now of the situation in which the characters find themselves, which itself is fairly standard people-on-a-ship-with-scares stuff. What this story is interested in is the motivations of each of the characters for being there, and it takes more delight in examining these through those flashbacks.

Shun’s life on Earth in the seedy underbelly of Tokyo is stylishly, if a little derivatively shot, with echoes of Ridley Scott’s LA of Blade Runner and both the anime and live action versions of Ghost in the Shell’s New Port City to the environment. The story, of Shun’s fractious relationship with his brother, and the journey that leads him to the decision to take the trip are heartfelt but a little familiar and not breaking any real ground. It helps that Mitsuji is a charismatic screen presence, and there’s an interesting juxtaposition in his protectiveness and likeableness in the present situation compared with the brutality we see of his past.

Lana’s story is equally not going to set any blazing new trails narratively, but the actress gives a committed performance. The eventual conclusion of her flashback tale is, in fairness, signposted to the audience by the script by one of her very early lines of dialogue, but she sells it well. Her trauma and, to a certain extent, ineffectiveness in the present contrasts sharply with her past.

Where things get a little less interesting is the portions on the ship itself. Woken from their hypersleep to find the ship empty of the other passengers and with no crew in sight, you’re waiting for some sort of monster or alien to appear from early on. There’s a lot of Paul W S Anderson’s signature jump-scare moments to the way this is filmed, as well as a decent amount of visceral gore and injuries, but again nothing that we haven’t already seen elsewhere.

If all this sounds as if I disliked Origin, I can assure you I did not. The characters are an interestingly mixed bunch (both in terms of gender, ethnicity and age as well as personality types) and even though Tom Felton’s Logan is chronically underserved by the script in the first two episodes (mainly requiring him to issue profanities like a sailor on leave every time he opens his mouth) there are hints towards the end of episode 2 that his character may have some intriguing hidden depths. The exploration of individual characters with an attitude that the sci-fi is there more as a backdrop than an integral element is a refreshing approach to the genre, and the visuals and sets suggest that this was not lacking in budget – doubly impressive for the first major work from a young writer, produced by an internet streaming platform. It won’t set the genre alight, but I was certainly tempted to grab myself a trial subscription to the YouTube Premium service to see where it goes.

The Q&A, featuring Mika Watkins, Tom Felton, Natalia Tena, Sen Mitsuji and producer Rob Bullock was an interesting insight into the production. Highlights included Tena’s story of being struck with chronic diarrhoea on the first day of filming, during which she had an action scene to film (‘the only time as an actor I’ve ever had to request a second pair of trousers be available to me on set’), Felton and Watkins’ story of how he introduced himself to her on set, having pictured someone entirely different to be the writer and assuming her to be a cast member (‘What’s your jamboree?’ he asked me, said Watkins. ‘I tried to style it out’ said Felton, after he recounted Watkins answering the question ‘What do you write? ‘ with ‘Well, I wrote this’), and Mitsuji’s assertion that he had trained far less physically than his fellow cast members, which his initial topless appearance in the opening shots of the first episode would seem to refute. Mostly, there was a sense that this was a cast who had enjoyed their time together, and mention was made of hopes for a second season, yet to be confirmed.

Verdict: A pleasant night with a beautifully shot, intriguing though slightly derivative new show. I’m certainly going to be watching the rest of the series to see exactly where it takes its narrative.

 

Episode One:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fUU6y5-rTc

Episode Two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h4ImWR2icY