A number of reports have appeared during the past week or so, telling of a new children’s game show based on a future robotic war, and entitled Mission 2110.
Note: (This series first aired on CBBC, beginning Monday, May 3, 2010.)
Location manager Stephen Burt has been reported as saying, “This is potentially an award-winning show. It is set in 2110 in a world where robots have taken over. The children who take part will be time travellers from 2010 and will battle the robots.” The game has been described as a cross between Crystal Maze and Doctor Who. There are to be 20 mission for the participants during the contest, with only one winner to be left at the conclusion.
The setting for the show will be two of the six Maersk container ships currently stored in cold lay-up in Loch Striven, and presently rendered surplus to requirements thanks to the worldwide downturn in trade caused by the recession. The loch has seen similar service over the past decades, as worldwide influences have rendered various cargo ships and tankers redundant, sometimes even before they have been completed, such is the time taken to build them in relation to market swings.
The action will take place within the massive holds of the ships, which are currently empty, and through the engine rooms, which are presently silent, as most of the engines have been laid-up to preserve them, awaiting re-activation when the vessels return to service.
Participants will live on board the ships for the three-week duration, and Maersk Beaumont and Bentonville (see below) appear to be the chosen venues for the activities, which will see three robots, created by a London-based special effects team which has worked on Doctor Who, and the sets arriving during December.
They will not be on holiday for the duration, and will be expected to take part in the competition, and take their schoolwork with them, and complete 15 hours of tuition per week.
Filming is scheduled to take place between January and March of 2010, and the show will appear on CBBC beginning on April 21, 2010.
The raft containing the six Maersk ships is shown below, with the two chosen ships being the second from the left (Bentonville), and second from the right (Beaumont).
The six Maersk ship raft on Loch Striven, left to right, Maersk Brooklyn, Bentonville, Baltimore, Sealand Performance, Beaumont, and Boston
You can find further pictures of the vessels here: Maersk at Loch Striven Photo Gallery by Zak at pbase.com
Update
The BBC Press Office issued a Press Release regarding the new series and its production, on January 27, 2010:
Production starts on ambitious new CBBC game show Mission:2110
Date: 27.01.2010>
Category: Scotland; Children’sBBC Scotland is currently in Argyll filming Mission:2110, an ambitious and bold new 13-episode sci-fi game show for CBBC from the team behind Raven.
Set in a post-apocalyptic landscape, in each episode a team of four contestants span time and space to travel to the futuristic setting of our planet, long after mankind has disappeared, to try to restore peace and stability.
The young recruits, guided by their mentor Caleb, have to battle, in a series of missions, against the Roboidz – intelligent towering cybernetic entities who now rule Earth – snatching Bio-Rods, the enemy’s vital fuel source, in order to shut down their empire.
The sheer size and scale of the mighty Roboidz was such that the production team needed to find an alternative location to the traditional studio format to create Future Gate, the Roboidz base.
After scouting numerous locations the production crew discovered that the empty container ships based on Loch Striven on the Clyde would provide them with the the industrial background needed to create a suitable backdrop.
Production has already started on the ship and filming is set to continue until early March, after which state-of-the-art compositing and computer-generated work will bring the futuristic world alive.
The series is set for transmission in the spring.
Prosthetic and costume specialists Millenium FX (Doctor Who, The Day Of The Triffids) are creating the Roboidz and Shades (humanoid slaves to the robots) and writer Phil Ford (Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures) has created the back-story.
Lindsay Duncan (Doctor Who, Rome) will voice Neuros and Cybele, the good and evil alter egos of the Roboidz creator Laura Gant. The series also stars CBBC’s newest recruit Stuart Goldsmith, who plays the show’s hero Caleb.
Executive producer Sue Morgan says: “Mission:2110 is an exciting ambitious and challenging new fast-paced game show where the contestants will need to use all their cunning and guile to avoid elimination.”
Mission: 2110 is a BBC Scotland production for CBBC, series produced by Nick Hopkin (OOglies, Hedz), directed by James Morgan (Trapped, Den Of Doom) and executive produced by Sue Morgan (Raven, Ed & Oucho’s Excellent Adventures).
VT
Locals will be able to see the ALI CAT travelling to and from the raft, as the passenger ferry has been chartered to run twice a week – on Monday and Friday – to Loch Striven with production crews and children taking part in the programme.
Secret Scotland 