''Surface'' is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

created by

Jonas Jonas may refer to: Geography * Jonas, Netherlands, Netherlands * Jonas, Pennsylvania, United States * Jonas Ridge, North Carolina, United States People with the name * Jonas (name), people with the given name or surname Jonas * Jonas, one of ...

and

Josh Pate Joshua Warren Pate (born January 15, 1970) is an American screenwriter, director and producer. He wrote '' The Grave'', '' Deceiver'', and '' The Take''. Pate also co-created '' Good vs Evil'', ''Surface'', and ''Outer Banks''. Early life Jos ...

, that premiered on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

on September 19, 2005. The program aired ten episodes before going on hiatus on November 28, 2005. It returned for five more episodes on January 2, 2006, and ended its run on February 6. On May 15, 2006, NBC officially announced that the series had been cancelled after one season.

Synopsis

During a routine

submersible A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...

dive in the North Pacific Ocean,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...

Laura Daughtery (

Lake Bell Lake Siegel Bell (born March 24, 1979) is an American actress, screenwriter and director. She has starred in various television series, including ''Boston Legal'' (2004–2006), '' Surface'' (2005–2006), ''How to Make It in America'' (2010–2 ...

) is attacked by an unknown life-form that appears out of a field of craters on the ocean's floor. Miles Barnett (

Carter Jenkins Carter Mark Jenkins (born September 4, 1991) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Aliens in the Attic'' (2009), ''Valentine's Day'' (2010), and '' Struck by Lightning'' (2012). On television, Jenkins was part of the ...

), a 14-year old North Carolina teenager, finds himself face to face with the strange sea creature after falling off his wakeboard during a nighttime outing with his friends. Meanwhile, Richard Connelly (

Jay R. Ferguson Jay R. Ferguson (born July 25, 1974) is an American actor, known as Taylor Newton in '' Evening Shade'' (1990–1994), Stan Rizzo in ''Mad Men'' (2010–2015), and Ben Olinsky in '' The Conners'' (2018–present). Biography In 1990 Ferguson pla ...

), a

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

man on a fishing trip, loses his brother in a suspicious diving accident when a creature drags him to the depths of the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. All around the world, strange things are occurring in the world's oceans. Shooting stars fall from the night sky into the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

; a horrific howl tears apart a South African

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

. In

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, an unknown carcass washes up on a public beach, prompting the government to evacuate and cordon off the area, claiming it as a beached

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

killed by red tide poisoning. Meanwhile, Daughtery's research is seized by government officials led by a mysterious Croatian scientist, Dr. Aleksander Cirko (

Rade Šerbedžija Rade Šerbedžija ( sr-Cyrl, Раде Шербеџија, ; born 27 July 1946) is a Croatian actor, director and musician. He is known for his portrayals of imposing figures on both sides of the law. He was one of the best known Yugoslav actors i ...

); after attempting to confront them, she is fired. Curious as to what he's seen, Miles ventures back to the area where he first spotted the creature only to find the water covered in strange pods he classifies as "eggs"; he takes one home and places it in his parents' fish tank. Unable to cope with his brother's disappearance, Connely ventures to South Carolina to see the creature for himself. Connelly meets Daughtery upon arrival after they are both taken into custody due to asking too many questions. When the fish in Miles' tank disappear and the tank breaks, Miles discovers that something has hatched from the egg; he attempts to conceal it but it escapes and causes havoc at his sister's pool party. Daughtery and Connelly sneak onto the beach and bring back a

hagfish Hagfish, of the class Myxini (also known as Hyperotreti) and order Myxiniformes , are eel-shaped, slime-producing marine fish (occasionally called slime eels). They are the only known living animals that have a skull but no vertebral column, a ...

that had been feeding on the carcass. Each returns to their home, and Daughtery sends the fish's stomach contents to be tested. As they wait for the results, reports of strange creatures beaching themselves around the world begin to surface. These three strangers may have stumbled upon the greatest secret in human history. The creature that hatched from the "egg" Miles found appears to be a kind of web-footed aquatic lizard, possibly a

Pliosaur Pliosauroidea is an extinct clade of plesiosaurs, known from the earliest Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. They are best known for the subclade Thalassophonea, which contained crocodile-like short-necked forms with large heads and massive toot ...

(this is later proven to be false, as the show progresses to reveal the origin on the species). It has the ability to zap objects with an electrical charge and heal instantaneously. Miles's friend Phil names the creature

Nimrod Nimrod (; ; arc, ܢܡܪܘܕ; ar, نُمْرُود, Numrūd) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of ...

, shortened to "Nim". Dr. Cirko discovers the origins of the creature, but is murdered before he can tell anyone. His assistant gives his research to Daughtery, who has already teamed up with Connelly. In the remaining episodes we learn that agent Lee is actually a clone of one of the men on the original Kessler expedition. After some of the other young creatures attack him, Miles develops some of the creatures' abilities- electrical surges and a need for excess salt (as well as some form of communication with the creatures), due to Nim healing him by licking his bites and scratches. In the series finale the creatures' activities on the sea floor cause a massive earthquake which turns into a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

that destroys

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

and heads toward the east coast. Rich discovers a

cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...

version of Noah’s Ark in the Iderdex plant, along with dozens of monorails being sent into the

Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maximum know ...

. The series ends with Miles finally meeting Laura and Rich during the evacuation. The last shot is of Miles, Laura, Rich and Caitlin looking out from the church steeple that they had climbed to in order to escape the waves to see how the

has placed all of

Wilmington, NC Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is th ...

under water.

Themes

This TV series encompasses possible implications of

genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...

, and modern

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

. The underlying theme of the series involves the artificial creation of an organism, through a secret biotechnological company. One scene in episode #113 involves a scientist (Dr. Morris) going for an interview for the company, where the interviewer reveals revelations such as the recovery of the

Archaeopteryx ''Archaeopteryx'' (; ), sometimes referred to by its German name, "" ( ''Primeval Bird''), is a genus of bird-like dinosaurs. The name derives from the ancient Greek (''archaīos''), meaning "ancient", and (''ptéryx''), meaning "feather" ...

, and that cloning

Dolly the Sheep Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finnish Dorset sheep and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a ...

was 30 years after their secret company discovered how to clone.

Cast and characters

Episodes

Home media

On May 1, 2006 it was announced that

Universal Studios Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA Home Video, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette, Inc.) is the home video distribution division of Am ...

would be releasing the ''Surface - Season One'' DVD set on August 15, 2006. The DVD set was released with the title of ''Surface: The Complete Series''. The complete series was released in Australia on April 4, 2007.

International distribution

Broadcast history

During the show's initial airing, Surface was also broadcast in syndication on the

Sci-Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Launc ...

in the United States. In addition to U.S. network the programme was also broadcast in Canada on CH, as well as

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

in the UK,

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

in Australia, VT4 in Belgium, on

La Sexta La Sexta (; "The Sixth"; stylized as laSexta) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel. It is privately owned and was originally founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV that began broadcasting on 1 April 2001, that same year. By 21 July 2003, the ...

and Calle 13 in Spain and on Universal Channel in Mexico. During the summer of 2006, the series was broadcast on

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

in Germany, by Fox on Portuguese and Brazilian cable networks, in Israel on Yes network, and on

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

in most of Scandinavia. During the summer of 2008, the series was broadcast on Veronica in The Netherlands. The entire series was repeated in the UK on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

between 23 July 2009 and 30 October 2009. ''Surface'' was subsequently broadcast in Italy on Italia 1 and in Norway on TVNorge (started in June 2007), Portugal on TVI on Saturday afternoons, Australia on

on Sundays, 6.30pm, reruns on

Sci Fi Channel (Australia) SF (formerly Sci Fi Channel) was an Australian subscription channel that aired science fiction, fantasy and related programs. It was available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television subscription platforms. In 2012 the channel rebranded from Sci ...

, Spain on La Sexta (started in September 2007), Finland on

MTV3 MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertisement ...

, rebroadcast in Germany on ProSieben and in Canada on

Space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

. In July 2007 the series was also being broadcast in Mauritius on MBC3 on Tuesday afternoons. In Poland on TVN Siedem broadcast the series starting in August 2007, and starting May 2008 it was repeated on

TVN TVN may refer to: * TVN (Australian TV channel), a former horse racing channel * Televisión Nacional de Chile, a public broadcaster * TVN (Indonesia), a former television station; predecessor of Rajawali Televisi * TVN (Norway), or TVNorge, a comm ...

. Starting in November, 2007 it was broadcast in Greece on

Alter Channel Alter Channel, better known as Alter, was a private TV channel in Greece. It launched in 1990 and was owned by Eleftheri Tileorasi S.A. and was headed by Andreas Kouris. Programming mainly consisted of news, current affairs shows and entertainme ...

on Fridays at 21:00, in New Zealand on TV3 late Friday evenings, and in Croatia (Hrvatska) on

RTL Televizija RTL (previously known as RTL Televizija) is a Croatian free-to-air television network founded on 30 April 2004. It was owned by the RTL Group from 2004 to 2022. Since 1 June 2022, it is owned by the CME Group. The logo consisted of three prima ...

Wednesday at 22:30. The series was shown in March 2008 on StarWorld in Singapore, with repeats airing the next day at 11:00. On December 10, 2008 ''Surface'' started to be shown on Digit Alb + in Albania. As of December, 2009, with the exception of episodes eight, eleven, and fourteen the show is available to stream on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

. As of 2010 the series is available to view in its entirety through

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

's Instant Watch streaming service.

List of broadcasters

*Albania:

Digitalb DigitAlb is an Albanian media, digital satellite and terrestrial TV platform based in Tirana, Albania. The TV platform began terrestrial broadcasts in July 2004, and satellite broadcasts by the end of that year. At the same time, DigitAlb bega ...

*Argentina: Canal 13, Spanish, Mon-Fri (from March 2009). *Australia:

Sci Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

*Belgium:

RTL-TVI RTL-TVI is a private French-language Luxembourg based television station in Belgium owned by DPG Media and Groupe Rossel, it was originally owned by the RTL Group until 31 March 2022. Within the French-speaking area of Belgium, it is the mos ...

*Brazil:

Rede Record RecordTV (), formerly known as Rede Record, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network. It is currently the second largest commercial TV station in Brazil, and the 28th largest in the 2012 world ranking. In 2010, it was elected by the adverti ...

Universal Channel Universal TV, formerly Universal Channel, is an international pay television network specializing in movies and television series in the thriller, drama, comedy, horror, crime and investigation genres, owned by NBCUniversal International Netwo ...

*Canada: CH,

*Colombia:

Citytv Bogotá Citytv is a Colombian free-to-air television channel, owned by El Tiempo Casa Editorial (ETCE), owner of the newspaper of the same name. ETCE licensed the Canadian brand Citytv from CHUM Limited (later sold off to Rogers Rogers may refer to: ...

*Croatia:

(Croatian title: Stvorenja) *Chile: Red TV *Denmark:

DR1 DR1 (DR Et) is the flagship television channel of the DR (broadcaster), Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). It became Denmark's first television station when it began broadcasting in 1951 – at first only for an hour a day three times a we ...

*Dominican Republic: Teleantillas (Canal 2) *France:

, TF1 *Finland:

, Sub,

*Germany:

, kabel eins (German title: Surface - Unheimliche Tiefe) *Greece: Alter (Greek title: Άγνωστος Εχθρός - Unknown Enemy) *Hungary: TV2 *India:

Star World Star World (formerly known as Star Plus) is an English language entertainment television channel originally launched on 15 December 1991 as Star Entertainment () by STAR TV in Hong Kong as the old iteration of Star Plus. On 30 March 1996, the ...

(from 2008) *Israel: yesSTARS *Italy:

Sky Uno Sky Uno ( en, Sky One) is an Italian entertainment television channel, based on the defunct reality television channel ''SKY Vivo'', both owned and broadcast by Sky Italia. It broadcasts the Italian version of the shows ''The X Factor'', ''Got T ...

Italia 1 Italia 1 (Italian pronunciation ) is an Italian free-to-air television channel on the Mediaset network, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It is oriented at both young and adult people. Italia 1 was launched on 3 January 1982 and, originally, was o ...

*Latvia: TV6 *Lithuania: TV6 *Malaysia: TV3 *Mauritius:

MBC3 MBC 3 is a free-to-air children's channel launched on 8 December 2004, and appeals to children under the age of 15. All foreign television animated programs have been dubbed into Arabic. The channel also produces its own original programmes. It ...

*Mexico:

*New Zealand: TV3 (from 2007) *Netherlands: Veronica (from May 2008) *North Macedonia: Kanal 5, (Macedonian title: Суштества) *Norway:

and

Tvnorge TVNorge (literally "TVNorway"; originally abbreviated TVN, now just abbreviated N in the logos) is a Norwegian television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA. History TVNorge went on the air on 5 December 1988 and was the first adver ...

(from 2007) *Paraguay: Canal 9 SNT *Peru: America TV *Poland:

Canal+ Poland Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow und ...

, TVN Siedem and

(Polish title: Na powierzchni - ''On the Surface'') *Portugal: TVI,

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

*Russia: Channel One *Romania:

Antena 1 Antena 1 may refer to: * Antena 1 (Portugal), a Portuguese radio station *Antena 1 (Romania) Antena 1 () is a Romanian free-to-air television network owned by the Antena TV Group, part of the Intact Media Group. Its programming consists of tel ...

*Saudi Arabia: ShowSeries 1 *Serbia:

RTS2 RTS2 (Serbian Cyrillic: РТС2; Second program of RTS ( sr, Други програм РТС-а/), Second channel of RTS (/ ) or only Second (/ )) is a Serbian public TV channel operated by RTS. It focuses on culture, in addition to offering mus ...

*Singapore: StarWorld Ch18, Starhub Cable. (Mon-Fri, from March 10, 2008) *Slovenia: Supernova,

POP TV Pop TV is a Slovenian generalist television channel operated by Pro Plus d.o.o., a subsidiary of Central European Media Enterprises (CME), which is in turn owned by Czech investment company PPF. News programs POP TV's current news programmin ...

*Slovak Republic: STV 1 (Mon-Fri, from Sept. 2008) *Spain:

laSexta La Sexta (; "The Sixth"; stylized as laSexta) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel. It is privately owned and was originally founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV that began broadcasting on 1 April 2001, that same year. By 21 July 2003, the ...

*Sri Lanka:

DialogTV Dialog TV (DTV) is a direct broadcast satellite pay TV service provider based in Sri Lanka. A fully owned subsidiary of Dialog Axiata PLC, Dialog TV was launched in July 2005 under the name "CBNsat". It was later renamed to Dialog TV in Februa ...

*Sweden:

, tv400 *Turkey:

Dizimax beIN Series, formerly DiziMax, is a series of satellite television channels available on Turkish satellite television provider Digiturk. It consists of DiziMax, DiziMax HD, and DiziMaxMore and is available on Sinema Paketi (Cinema Package). It wa ...

*Ukraine:

1+1 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

*United Kingdom:

Thursdays from 23 July 2009 until 30 October 2009

. All subsequent episodes (pilot first shown on ITV1) *United States:

, UniversalHD

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Surface 2000s American science fiction television series 2005 American television series debuts 2006 American television series endings NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television Television shows filmed in North Carolina Television shows filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina Television shows set in North Carolina