# Please identify this science fiction TV show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 18, 2004, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-science-fiction-tv-show/264890 "2004-09-18T19:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-science-fiction-tv-show/264890/1 "2004-09-18T19:43:36Z")
I have a vague memory of seeing a science fiction TV show, which probably aired around five or ten years ago, probably for not more than a season or so. Or it may have been a TV movie. One of the plot elements was that some Great Sci-Fi Cataclysm had occured, which messed up people’s DNA. Consequently, everyone had to get a special implant (I think it was in their necks) and the implant glowed a certain color. You were only allowed to mate with someone who had the same color implant. You know, for the good of the species. Also they had transporters that you walked through, kind of like Iconian Gateways from Star Trek. So what the hell was that thing? ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-science-fiction-tv-show/264890/2 "2004-09-18T20:39:25Z")
[Island City](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110163/) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-science-fiction-tv-show/264890/3 "2004-09-18T21:18:57Z")
**dogbutler** is right … it was fairly obviously a pilot for a never-made TV series (and, if you watch it, it’ll be pretty clear _why_ the series was never made!) ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-science-fiction-tv-show/264890/4 "2004-09-19T04:14:52Z")
Anyone remember that show, I think it was called Mantis or something similar and I think the main character was a black dude that was in a wheelchair and he wore some exoskeleton thing so he could walk and he fought crime, I think it was on FOX…looking back it was like the worst show ever but at the time I enjoyed it. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-science-fiction-tv-show/264890/5 "2004-09-19T05:24:10Z")
> [@pool](#): > > Anyone remember that show, I think it was called Mantis or something similar and I think the main character was a black dude that was in a wheelchair and he wore some exoskeleton thing so he could walk and he fought crime, I think it was on FOX…looking back it was like the worst show ever but at the time I enjoyed it. That’s [M.A.N.T.I.S.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108843/combined), and I don’t remember that the letters stood for. The wheelchair dude was [Carl Lumbly](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0525855/) who played John Parker, the cake delivery guy in **Buckaroo Banzai**. I watched two episodes, found it unimpressive, and quit. DD ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-identify-this-science-fiction-tv-show/264890/6 "2004-09-19T17:21:16Z")
I kinda liked Island City. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t as bad as, say, Beastmaster or Andromeda or Mutant X or Earth: Final Conflict after the first season. And it was _way_ better than Farscape. :::d&r:::