After the group helped the police solve several murders they were brought together as a consultant group named ‘Search Engine’. Their police contact was Officer Michael Petelie, a long suffering beat cop, unpopular within the force for exposing corruption. His assignment to the Search Engine group was meant as a punishment but over the course of the series he rose to the rank of detective.
The series was popular among the fringe groups as many crackpot theories would be discussed during each episode, irrespective of if the theory applied to the case they were investigating. Many pop culture references would be used to the delight of the fans, Lord Prime even wore a ‘Life Line’ T-shirt in several episodes.
Over the nine seasons of Search Engine the team investigated werewolves, aliens, zombie sharks, magic using cultists, time travelling serial killers, sentient moons and things that defied definition. During the entire series the Search Engine team never left their keyboards, leaving it to Officer Petelie to fight the menace on his own.
SELECTED EPISODES:
WHO WOULD WIN?
Actors of old films and television series are being kidnapped and forced to fight to the death. The Search Engine team realise that someone is enacting the frequent internet debates over which fictional character would win in a fight.
After following several false leads (Ultimatelover65 is convinced it’s the work of a resurrected President Lincoln) Officer Petelie finds the culprit is the self titled ‘Flaw’. The criminal taunts the police officer when he tells him
“It is all real. Every story, every program, every film. They tell you they’re
lies so you ignore the truth.”
CUTTING EDGE
UFO Watcher is seduced by the offer of cybernetic implants by mysterious company DEMONEX. This distraction forces Ultimatelover65 and Lord Prime to investigate the rain of cars that destroyed a town on their own.
DISCONNECT
Just as the team is about to solve a case where people are vanishing into thin air their internet connection is severed. The group go into shock, envisioning themselves in a fantasy world where they are top paid athletes.
Realising someone is targeting the group Officer Petelie races to save them. The problem is he has never met any of the group and doesn’t know where they live.
TRIVIA:
A pilot for the show was original made in the 1980s but due to the state of the internet at the time it obviously took much longer for the group to gather information. The exciting climax revolved around printing out a killers identity on a dot-matrix printer.
Kenny Quinn, who played Ultimatelover65, was illiterate, requiring people to read the script to him in order for him to memorise it and would just mash the keyboard to give the illusion that he was typing.
Nick Summer, who played Prime Lord, was a big fan of Alison Combe (formerly the lead actress of ‘Ant in Love’) and despite that fact she was in her 70s he asked her to marry him in the middle of filming a scene together. She turned him down resulting in Nick bursting into tears. This outtake is often shown as science fiction conventions, especially ones that Nick Summer is appearing at.
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