December Talking #7

[cosmic_llin]

beccatoria said: I still remember, the very first time I met you, you told me about this ~amazing~ sounding low budget S4C X-Files rip-off called Arachnid? And I spent a good forty-five minutes on google trying to find clips from it and failing, therefore, please regale me again with tales of its glory...

(For those not beccatoria - S4C is a Welsh-language TV channel.)

I remember that! I'm just going to burble out everything I can remember about it...

Yes, it was called Arachnid, it was a six-episode miniseries that went out in, I think, early 2001, and it starred Grug Maria (I think?) as a woman who ran an internet cafe, back when the internet was still new and cool. As far as I know the internet cafe itself was called Arachnid, hence the name of the show. It was set in South Wales somewhere, on the coast. She ran the internet cafe with a male friend, and I think they had a sort of will-they-won't-they romance going on. 

The spooky goings-on kicked off when a young man washed ashore on the beach, unaware of who he was or where he had come from. The main character, whose name I sadly cannot remember, was in some way involved - possibly she found him - and got to know him a bit as he slowly recovered from his ordeal over the course of the six episodes.

There was a big mystery around the young man, and possibly-played-by-Grug-Maria-lady was trying to solve it. I think there were also weird side things going on but I can't remember how or why she got involved in any of it. In one episode there was some sort of spooky wood where people kept dying, or something. Another episode involved her running around some sort of creepy abandoned building - a hospital, maybe? Or some sort of dockside storage facility? I remember the sea playing a part. There was also a cult who were evil and scary and trying to prevent her solving the mystery for some reason - at some point they captured her, I think. I think they were trying to find the young man and kill him? Because he had some sort of destiny?

I remember a spoiler about the ending, and who it turned out the young man was. It was a very sci-fi twist. I'm tempted not to tell you in case we ever get hold of it. Surely S4C must still have it in an archive somewhere?

From what I remember it was really cool - spooky and atmospheric and genuinely scary, relateable characters, kind of gory in places, good mystery, slightly more on the sci-fi side than the X-Files... but then I was like fourteen when I watched it, so it might not be as good as I remember - I really wish I could watch it again to find out but there's barely a trace of it even on Google...

Comments

[beccatoria]

Awww, dude. I was sort of hoping for hilarious tales of cheesy awfulness so I could laugh and be entertained but not super sad that I'd never get to see it, but this genuinely does sound cool. Like, I would sit through it being kind of cheesy and aimed-at-us-when-we-were-14 levels of cool. Or maybe I just want to watch a show about a time when internet cafes were things that made sense...

But seriously, this does sound awesome and I'm really sad that S4C will probably never, ever release it. On that note, I will defer to your judgement on the spoiler, but spoilers generally don't bother me or make me less likely to enjoy plot twists. So feel free if you want! I'm certainly curious, but like I said, I understand if you'd rather not.

[cosmic_llin]

I'm sorry! To be fair it could still be awful, I'm really not sure how good teen-me's taste was, but I do remember it being pretty cool.

Spoilers don't really bother me either - if you're happy to hear it I'm happy to tell you!

Basically it turns out that the amnesiac dude is from the future, and he's the son of the main character. She finds out she's pregnant in the last episode. I remember being kind of impressed because I'd never seen an unmarried/not-in-a-long-term-relationship character get pregnant on TV before without it being painted as something dreadful and wrong.

Arachnid

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, my name is Paul from North Wales and I remember watching this amazing Welsh television programme with excitement each week with my girlfriend Mererid.. Why is there no IMDb page for this show, no Wkipedia page for this show, hardly anything. For further speaks, catch me on Twitter as Dyslebritydawg aka Raul Strebo. All the Best

[mark jervis (from livejournal.com)]

I actually worked on that programming as one of the CGI animators. I asked s4c if they were going to re broadcast it but they said they had no plans to :(
I've searched everywhere for it as I did the opening credits animation where you flew through the eye of the sword which then zoomed in to the earth crashing into the sea where the 'water' type guy surfaced etc.
Did many of the CG anime (the dragon was mine) and the shots of all the crows flying over the castle and over the sea to the island were mine too :)

If anyone has a copy of the series I would love to get hold of it even though it is all in Welsh and I can't speak a word of it lol!

[cosmic-llin.livejournal.com]

Wow, cool! I remember really liking those credits! Shame they're not planning to show it again. Thanks for getting in touch! :)

[mark jervis (from livejournal.com)]

Yeah I wish they would show it again! ok its 14 years old now but i'd still like to see it again just to see how the animations look today! If you ever do come across any of it I would be very interested.

[cosmic-llin.livejournal.com]

If I ever get hold of anything I'll let you know! :)