''Crash Zone'' is an Australian children's science fiction television series which aired on the Seven Network from 13 February 1999 to 25 August 2001. It was produced by

Australian Children's Television Foundation The Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) is a national non-profit children's media production and policy hub. The ACTF helps develop children's television policy; distributes and pays for Australian children's television series; ...

, in association with the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

, and ran for 26 episodes. The series stars five high school students, "high-tech whiz kids" of varied backgrounds, who are hired by the president of the ''Catalyst'' software company to save her failing business. The premise of the series was unique in that it was one of the first series to examine the early use of the internet as well as the video game industry and artificial intelligence.

Plot

Mike Hansen (Nikolai Nikolaeff), Alison 'Pi' Renfrey (Cassandra Magrath), Rebecca 'Bec' Chan (Frances Wang), Marcello Di Campili (Paul Pantano) and Abraham 'Ram' Foley (Damien Bodie) are five Melbourne high school students who all have a strong interest in computers, online gaming and the internet. While playing an online computer game, they each discover a coded message. The message prompts them to follow a series of clues that eventually leads them to a meeting with Alexandra Davis (Nicki Wendt), president of the software company Catalyst. Confessing that she was the author of the messages, Davis reveals to the teenagers that her company is struggling and she would like to hire one of the teens as

game testers Game testing, a subset of game development, is a software testing process for quality control of video games. Moore, Novak 2010, p. 95 Oxland 2004, p. 301-302 The primary function of game testing is the discovery and documentation of software d ...

in order to design games for her company at "The Crash Zone". Davis proposes a competition in which the winner takes the job, and while the competition is fierce, she is impressed by their teamwork and offers them all positions in the company. The one exception is Ram, who she feels is too young, but who is allowed to remain with the teens. As well as the developing friendships with each other and their social lives, the teenagers also discover Virgil (Matt Parkinson), a mysterious artificial intelligence which exists on the internet. The second series has the teenagers returning from their

summer vacation Summer vacation or summer break is a school holiday, school break in summer between school years and the break in the school academic year. Students are off anywhere between three weeks to three months. Depending on the country and district, staff ...

s to find the financial situation at Catalyst to have become much more serious. Davis has been forced to lay off most of her staff and they may be next. Two new characters are introduced in the second series, 12-year-old Penny Gallagher and her father Matthew Gallagher. Penny Gallagher, who is befriended by Ram, persuades her father to offer Davis a deal to save ''Catalyst'' from

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. Although knowing very little about the video game industry, Matthew Gallagher is a very successful businessman and very quickly turns the company around. However, his changes often results in conflict between him and the staff.

Characters

* Alison 'Pi' Renfrey (

Cassandra Magrath Cassandra Magrath (born 1981) is an Australian actress. She played Miranda Gibson in the Australian ABC 1998–2000 television series ''SeaChange'' and Liz Hunter in the 2005 Australian horror film ''Wolf Creek''. Acting career Magrath began ...

) - The daughter of a highly popular actor and is usually regarded as the richest of the group. She is beautiful, spirited and occasionally rude. In season 2 Pi and Mike start dating. * Marcello Di Campili (

Paul Pantano Paolo Giuseppe Pantano (born 23 February 1982), known professionally as Paul Pantano, is an Australian actor. Early life The son of Italian parents, Pantano was born and raised in the Sydney suburb of Glebe. He attended De La Salle College Ash ...

) - Of Italian ancestry, he has high hopes of becoming super rich one day and often gets into trouble as a result of his various shady dealings. He is lively, humorous and comical. * Abraham 'Ram' Foley ( Damien Bodie) - The second youngest of the group but is the most creative and technically intelligent of the group. He remains one of Mike's best friends from the first. * Rebecca 'Bec' Chan (

Frances Wang Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis (given name), Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "French ...

) - Bec is of Chinese descent and is often portrayed as an intelligent, highly successful academic student. She is popular with the Catalyst staff. * Mike Hansen (

Nikolai Nikolaeff Nikolai Nikolaeff (born 26 December 1981) is an Australian actor who is best known for his roles in the television series ''Sea Patrol'', ''Power Rangers Jungle Fury'' and '' Daredevil''. Nikolaeff was born in Melbourne, and is of Russian and ...

) - Mike is probably the oldest of the group and the most successful game designer and tester. He often assumes control of the group when things go wrong. He is also the funniest of the group and is patient and quick-thinking. * Alexandra Davis (

Nicky Wendt Nicky is a diminutive form of the name Nicholas, Nicola and Nicole, occasionally used as a given name in its own right. It can also be used as a diminutive of Dominic. It may refer to: People Sports * Nicky Adams (born 1986), English-born Welsh ...

) - She is the president of Catalyst. * Nigel Hartford (Richard Moss) - He is Alexandra's assistant. * Virgil Reality ( Matt Parkinson) - Originally a "Buggy" Artificial intelligence experiment created by Alex when she was working for Sunjim. Virgil was "born" when Alex trashed the AI 2000 program when she couldn't get it to work properly. The remains floated about the internet like a ghost before forming the AI Virgil who spent the next few years wandering the internet before appearing in the Catalyst network server where he met the Crash Zone team and subsequently met his creator Alex. The name 'Virgil' is given to him by Mike. * Penny Gallagher (

Heidi Valkenburg Heidi Valkenburg is an Australian actress, artist and writer. She began acting at an early age, and her first big break came in 2000 when she was cast for the role of Penny Gallagher in the children's series ''Crash Zone'' alongside Cassandra M ...

) - She is the youngest of the group at twelve yet she is quick and computer savvy and has produced ingenious creations. She is introduced to Catalyst by Ram. * Matthew Gallagher (

Jeremy Stanford Jeremy Stanford is an Australian actor and director, known for his role of Tick/Mitzi in the initial stage run of the musical '' Priscilla, Queen of the Desert''. Career In 2022 it was announced that Stanford would be joining the cast of ''Wa ...

) - He is the father of Penny and a very successful businessman.

Episodes

Series One (1999)

Series Two (2001)

Reception

The series was the first collaboration with the

and the

. It proved a very successful show and eventually aired in Canada, Sri Lanka the United Kingdom as well. The series was nominated for several awards including the

Australian Film Institute Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...

Prix Jeunesse Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who als ...

and the New York Film Festival. It was also given honorable mention at The Chris Awards and was an official selection at the Prix Danube, the Chicago International Children's Film Festival and

The Museum of Television and Radio The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, dedicated to t ...

. In 1999, series producer Patricia Edgar was nominated by the

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsib ...

for "Best Children's Television Drama", specifically its first episode "The Dream Team". Esben Storm was also nominated for "Best Direction in a Television Drama" for directing its first episode. Edgar was again nominated to receive "Best Children's Television Drama", along with Bernadette O'Mahony, for their work on the episode "Skin Deep" in 2001. Its second season saw the series also nominated for "Most Outstanding Children's Program" at the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and 2002 Logie Awards. A

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

based on the series was written by

Amanda Midlam Amanda is a Latin feminine gerundive (i.e. verbal adjective) name meaning, literally, “she who must (or is fit to) be loved”. Other translations, with similar meaning, could be "deserving to be loved," "worthy of love," or "loved very much ...

and released in 2001.

References

External links

*
''Crash Zone''
at Australian Screen Online {{Disney co-productions 1999 Australian television series debuts 2001 Australian television series endings Australian children's television series Australian science fiction television series Seven Network original programming Television series about teenagers Television shows about video games Television shows set in Melbourne