Welcome to Paradox is a science fiction television series aired on the Sci Fi Channel in the U.S. and on Showcase in Canada. Despite being filmed in Canada, the series was broadcast first in the United States. It first aired on August 17, 1998, and ran for one season, ending on November 9, 1998. As this was part of a crop of new shows produced in 1998 by Sci Fi Channel and it was not successful beyond the first season, it was never placed in syndication. Betaville was the original title for the series. The series is an anthology hybrid. The stories all took place in the fictional future city of "Betaville", a nod to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville. However, the majority of the stories were adapted from short stories that originally didn't have anything to do with the fictional city. The stories were adapted from older works by famous science fiction authors which explored the impact of certain technologies on the human body and psyche, and the theme of humanity being overwhelmed by hostile technologies. Each episode had a host—originally to be named "Paradox" until the concept was dropped—that served as a narrator, adding a prologue and epilogue to the show as with The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. The Volkswagen New Beetle was chosen to be the transportation of Betaville. Any time it was called for a car to be featured in an episode, a New Beetle was used.
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Episode 1
A police detective with intuitive powers is assigned an unusual case: a 3-D hologram of the holy Madonna is being used in an extortion scheme. But much to his surprise, he discovers the hologram may be real.
Episode 2
A scientist bent on accelerating human evolution makes the mistake of using himself as a test subject.
Episode 3
In a futuristic prison without bars, prisoners are controlled with pain-producing implants - until one prisoner fights back.
Episode 4
An inquiry agent (private detective) investigating the disappearance of an ordinary citizen discovers that both he and the man he is looking for are living in a simulated cyber-reality.
Episode 5
A homeless, suicidal woman gets a second chance when her brain is used as a remote controller of a beautiful body which has been artificially grown.
Episode 6
A wealthy man clones himself in order to live in perpetual youth by transplanting his brain into younger versions of his own body.
Episode 7
A young woman whose body can feel no pain tries to hold on to her humanity when she becomes a human guinea pig.
Episode 8
Hemeac is a student at a school run by machines. There the students learn to not only expand their mind with education but temper it with machine logic and perfection. However this perfection comes at a price and when the Android Dean begins to malfunction its up to Hemeac to rise above the machine ideal and reestablish order. However some lessons are too ingrained to be ignored and in the end Hemeac is incapable of expressing himself as a human individual and becomes dormant and silent like the remaining students and the now disconnected machines.
Episode 9
A therapist develops a device to erase the troubling memories of his patients.
Episode 10
A wealthy, but lonely man seeks solace from his failing marriage in the arms of a biologically enhanced robot
Episode 11
When new biological procedures allow men and women to change gender at will, a wife undergoes the treatment to try and understand her husband's philandering ways.
Episode 12
A man's fantasies come true when he begins a real life romance with a Virtual Reality megastar-until he realizes that his feelings no longer belong just to him.
Episode 13
Lawagons, highly intelligent law enforcement automobiles, are the last line of defense against crime in Betaville. Howver, when the on-board computers start to malfunction, they become mobile judge, jury and executioner.
