Before he was running the streets of Baltimore or solving heinous crimes in London, Idris Elba was going up against creatures of the night in a short TV series titled “Ultraviolet.” In case you missed it during its original run, you can now stream the series on Plex. Whether you enjoy seemingly lost media, or you’re a big Elba fan, or perhaps you’re just looking for Britain’s answer to the popularity of “The X-Files,” now is the time to stream “Ultraviolet.” Since it’s only six episodes, it’s not a huge time burden if you’re just looking for a vampire series fix.
Elba plays Vaughan Rice, the main security lead of Section V, the paramilitary organization responsible for investigating and eliminating the threat of Code Fives (aka vampires). Rice is the sole survivor of a squad of Gulf War soldiers who had been turned by vampires trying to study the effects of Gulf War Syndrome. Rice suffers from PTSD due to those events and comes off very cold at times.
In addition to Elba, “Ultraviolet” stars Jack Davenport and Susannah Harker. Davenport plays Detective Sergeant Michael Colefield, a man who discovers the existence of vampires and the secret government unit that hunts them while investigating the disappearance of his partner. Coincidentally, his partner is played by Stephen Moyer, who would eventually star in HBO’s vampire series “True Blood.” The show originally aired on Channel 4 in Britain for one season.
Series creator Joe Ahearne wanted Ultraviolet to be as logical as possible
All six episodes of “Ultraviolet” were written and directed by Joe Ahearne, who explained in a 2007 interview that he wanted the show to be more realistic than other vampire-related projects had been at the time. “I was trying to do something that’s more, ‘If there really were vampires around, what would be the logical implications of that?’ Trying to apply logic to a supernatural concept, treat them more as another natural phenomena, which we don’t have all the explanations for yet, but which can be combated scientifically,” said Ahearne (via scifibulletin).
This approach to vampires explains the more realistic and dark tone of “Ultraviolet” when compared to other supernatural series. Vampires are typically considered part of the fantasy genre, but Ahearne wanted “Ultraviolet” to portray the fictional bloodsucking monsters as more “sci-fi” than fantasy. One way he achieved this was by divorcing his vampires from their historical baggage by refusing to call them vampires and instead referring to them as Code Fives.
Despite initial success, “Ultraviolet” ended after six episodes. According to Ahearne, he simply believed the story felt complete as it was and he didn’t think there would be a good way to continue the series afterward. An American adaptation of the show was also developed into a pilot by Fox, with Idris Elba reprising his role, but ultimately was not picked up for a full series.
