Algorithm 2050

Algorithm 2050 is an in-universe sci-fi TV show set in the far-off year of 2050.
Despite being described as mostly a hacking/futuristic show, it swings between cyberpunk and arborpunk, the former being Cyberika/Space City and the latter being the destroyed earth.
Due to unknown reasons, the show was cancelled, and, even more mysteriously, the entire cast and crew disappeared without a trace. All episodes were without credits.
== Setting ==
The show is set in 2050, after the fall of civilisation. It is mostly set in the cyber-world of Cyberika, and ‘The Home’: a large bunker underground that houses the humans in stasis pods while they remain conscious online. Other locations include the overgrown earth, the remains of civilisation, a space station, and a Space City.
== Plot ==
=== Pre-Story ===
After the ‘Cyber Revolution’, humanity ran out of resources and nature began to reclaim the earth. Most of the remaining humans were assigned ‘soul codes’ and had their consciousnesses uploaded to a program known as ‘Cyberika’, a cyber world run by President Erik Kingsley.
Humans who did not enter Cyberika were either left to the apocalyptic earth or sent to a Space City. Among those sent were two scientists forced to leave their young daughter – Harmony Ackerman - in the care of Kingsley. Kingsley raised Harmony and indoctrinated her with his dictator propaganda.
Cyberika was under threat by a gang of hacker-survivalists known as the Mates of the XYZ - a rebellious gang aiming to take down the totalitarian government of Cyberika. To prevent damage to Cyberika’s code, Kingsley’s programmers created Doctor Programs that healed hacking damage.
One of the Doctor Programs achieved sentience after bonding with a programmer and, when she was exiled from Cyberika for rebellion, the program broke free of its confines and hacked reality to create a flesh-code body. It named itself Falconier Vova and joined the XYZ with the ability to enter Cyberika whenever he pleased, and heal injuries by hacking the wounds away.
Meanwhile, Space City became impoverished, rife with tension and gang activity. Cyberika refused to send stockpiled supplies to help their stellar sister city, and Space City vowed revenge – but Cyberika never expected them to make good on the threat...
With Vova working for the rebellion, Ackerman mature and a member of Kingsley’s Secret Police, and tensions between Cyberika and Space City running hot, the scene was set for Season 1 of Algorithm 2050.
=== Season 1 ===
Season 1 begins with Ackerman being ordered to take down the XYZ, who have been attacking Cyberika from a small camp near The Home. After a brief scuffle, she was badly wounded by a spike trap and nursed back to health by the gang’s doctor - a man named Falconier Vova.
Curious and conflicted over the XYZ’s claims that Kingsley was in the wrong, she enters Cyberika with Vova and attempts to find Kingsley in the Heart of the City, while under attack from Kingsley’s underlings who are quite insistent that they not see the president.
While looking for Kingsley, they find evidence that he plans to attack Space City with a missile launch, and they realise that Kingsley was never in Cyberika - the Heart of the City contains nuclear launch codes and destructive data, while Kingsley is somewhere else entirely - somewhere in the forgotten earth.
In the season finale, it is revealed that although Space City does not fully intend to make good on their threats of war with Cyberika, somebody in space does - a rebel who introduces himself to the XYZ as the mighty Fero, Space Cannibal. It also shows Ackerman accepting that Kingsley is rotten, and revealing that her real parents are in Space City somewhere.
=== Season 2 ===
Season 2 sees three intertwining plots - Vova and Ackerman searching and hacking to find out where Kingsley is, to confront him about his plans and intentions; the XYZ dealing with the Space Cannibal’s demands and wrath, and all of them trying to work together.
They finally find Kingsley, who reveals that there is no stopping the launches. He tries to win Ackerman over and almost succeeds; Vova manages to convince her that Kingsley is no good but Ackerman is trapped by Kingsley in Cyber Jail.
Ackerman hacks her way out and Vova destroys Kingsley by deleting him. The XYZ is under threat from the Space Cannibal who is enraged at Cyberika’s inaction in the face of Space City starving and forcing him into cannibalism, which has given him massive physical power.
Ackerman finds herself in Cyberika, which is turning anarchic. The Space Cannibal broadcasts his messages of destruction across Cyberika. With some precise hacking, Ackerman curbs the chaos and discovers Fero’s coordinates in space, hacking into the missile system which cannot be stopped, but can be changed trajectory-wise.
Vova, meanwhile, has been watching Fero’s previous distress calls, which growing more desperate and threatening progressively (similar to Rhada’s messages to the Doctor in Colki Who episode Roots). With time running short, Ackerman tries to convince Vova to destroy Fero using the missiles, but he claims to be in love with Fero.
Season 2 ends with Vova convincing Fero to call off his attack on the XYZ in the nick of time, and he promises to deliver supplies in an old rocket ship unearthed in the space station. Ackerman sees the opportunity to find her parents. Something exits the Home, however - a second Vova, but visibly corrupted, with a huge blade arm.
=== Season 3 ===
This season, controversially, was entirely comprised of prequel episodes. They included Ackerman’s childhood, the forming of the XYZ, Fero’s descent into cannibalism, the deterioration of Space City, Kingsley’s descent into madness and the truth about Ackerman’s parents - they were not rocket scientists working on Space City as the XYZ had previously assumed, but expert hackers trying to hack the ‘Mainframe’ - a huge computer taking over Kingsley’s mind. They were too late, technology took over, and they were sent to Space City. It also has an emotional arc featuring Vova’s coming to life - he chose his name after the programmer that inspired his humanity, Viva Falkner.
Despite not fulfilling any ongoing storylines, this season did reveal some major character elements, as well as the fact that Kingsley was not the highest power - The Mainframe was, controlling all technology and plotting its uprising. Ackerman’s parents had hacked time and forseen that the apocalypse would happen, but were too late to stop it, and gave Harmony the key to the secret room of the space station as a baby - hidden in her special eye - before they were taken away.
=== Season 4 ===
The fourth season shows Ackerman and Vova going to Space City to deliver supplies. They are kidnapped and held hostage by vengeful citizens. They are freed by Fero, but one of Kingsley’s missiles destroys part of Space City and sends the supplies hurtling into space, landing on a small island planet.
While Fero and Vova go to fetch it, Ackerman tries to see if she can find her parents and set up a shield system to protect Space City from any more missiles. Fero and Vova are racing against time, as the rowdy civilians threaten to kill two innocent people - actually Ackerman’s parents - if the food is not retrieved. Ackerman is also racing the clock, as she has limited time between missile strikes. To make matters worse, Kingsley’s old underlings have tailed them there, and plan on disrupting their work.
The XYZ is attacked by the evil Vova, named Coda, who reveals that he is one of the doctor programs that was damaged by the chaos in Cyberika. The XYZ fights him off, losing a few members, but the space station is soon attacked by all of Cyberika’s doctor programs - thousands of Vova lookalikes in various stages of decay. They are forced to leave the space station and form an army of survivalist humans to fight the flesh-code attackers that wish to destroy the human race - The Mainframe’s intention all along.
This season ended on various massive cliffhanger’s - the XYZ built a barricade in the streets of a run-down city and lay in wait behind it, hollering their battle cries as the flesh-codes burst through the barricade, led not by Coda but by Viva Falkner, Vova’s beloved creator - the battle begins when Viva shoots the XYZ’s leader dead and both armies rush at each other.
Vova is cast into the void of space by an underling during a fight and Fero mourns, but moments later he rises from the pit, enveloped in a fierce green glow, 1s and 0s spilling from his body and a fierce look on his face. Ackerman is fighting for her life, Kingsley’s underlings doing anything to stop her from pressing the button that will set up Space City’s shields, but as her hand falls inches from the button and the strike-timer clicks down to 5 seconds to the next missile, a voice yells “Harmony!” and she pauses, shocked, replying “Dad?”. The episode ended there.
The show was then cancelled for unknown reasons.
== Characters ==
=== Falconer Vova ===
Falconer Vova was a doctor program designed to heal parts of code that had been damaged by hacking or viruses. He achieved sentience when Viva Falkner, the programmer who created him, bonded with him and 'inspired his humanity'. When Falkner was removed from Cyberika, Vova rebelled over the injustice, willing himself to create a flesh-code body. He then joined the XYZ as their doctor.
=== Harmony Ackerman ===
Harmony was raised as Kingsley's obedient agent, but was convinced eventually of his corruption by the XYZ. Like her parents, she is an expert hacker. She has a special eye that can 'elevate' code and help her hack anything, but is also the key to a secret room in the Space Station.
=== The Mates of the XYZ ===
Led by Valiant Horatio (killed in the barricade battle in the final episode), they are a crew of hackers who rebel against Kingsley and Cyberika. They believe that humanity should start over instead of hiding away in the safety of technology. Their name seems to parody the 'Friends of the ABC' from Les Miserables.
=== Fero the Space Cannibal ===
The leader of a rebel tribe in Space City, Fero and his men were forced to cannibalism by Cyberika's reluctancy to send supplies. He sent multiple bombets (comet bombs) to earth to try and destroy the Home, and mistook the XYZ for agents of Kingsley. He later joins Vova and Ackerman, and may have a spark for Vova.
=== Others ===
* President Kingsley, who ruled Cyberika under the influence of The Mainframe, until Vova deleted him
* The Mainframe, the godlike hivemind of all technology that plans to destroy humanity, especially the meddling hackers
* Ackerman's parents, expert hackers trying to prevent the cyber-apocalypse. When it finally took over, the Mainframe's human slave Kingsley banished them to Space City and took their child. Taken hostage by angered Space City citizens in exchange for supplies, last seen stopping Harmony from pressing the button to activate Space City's shields.
* The doctor programs, led by Coda, a series of corrupted humanoids made of code-flesh that look vaguely like Vova but are wildly corrupted and glitchy. They are violently anti-human and can heal indefinitely.
* Viva Falkner, a loving programmer who made friends with the Doctor Program that would later become Vova. When she was taken away, she went insane in the wilderness and eventually bought the other Doctor Programs to sentience, trying to create another friend like Vova, with horrific results.
* Kingsley's underlings, who continued to be a thorn in Ackerman and Vova's sides even after their master's death.
* The citizens of Space City, Cyberika and the wilderness/destroyed earth, who are all pretty much equally insane.
== Reception and Fanbase ==
The first two seasons were well-recieved, with their campy effects and cheesy dialogue and constant suspense/races against the clock. Season 3 was a little less loved, resolving none of Season 2's remaining cliffhangers, but was good for exposition and character development. Season 4 went down a smash hit, but fans were outraged at the massive cliffhangers that it left before being cancelled.
After its cancellation, the fanbase dwindled slightly, but the show is considered a cheesy classic and is reminisced about fondly. Box-sets can be bought and many fans have theorised about how the show could've ended - the fate of the XYZ, Vova and Space City. The most popular ship in the fanbase by far is Vova/Fero, followed closely by Vova/Ackerman and Vova/Valiant Horatio. Vova has practically been shipped with every other character in the show at some point.
It is said that a certain pandimensional being has seen a number of alternate timelines in which the story was completed, but refuses to reveal any of the endings. In the non-canon fancomic Dressed to Kill, Vera Mona is shown to be a fan of it, as well as Doctor Cobra 2's holo-dolly decoy.
Category:In universe
Category:Television