Wicked Science – Episode 1, The Gift (2003)

On their first day back at Sandy Bay High School, Toby (André de Vanny) and Elizabeth (Bridget Neval) are zapped by a strange ray and become instant scientific geniuses. The battlelines are drawn when Elizabeth interferes with Toby’s first ‘scientific genius’ experiment, so that instead of cloning a cute dodo, he creates a ravenous T-Rex. It takes axolotl DNA, and the help of new girl Dina (Saskia Burmeister) for Toby to save his friend Russ (Ben Schmideg) and stop the rampaging dinosaur. Round one is definitely Elizabeth’s.

This is the opening episode of the 26-part series, introducing the main characters, the dramatic set-up and the setting. The spectacular dinosaur scenes and the associated special effects, along with the transformation of nerdy Elizabeth into Toby’s evil ice queen nemesis, make this a not-to-be-missed episode. It is also a good example of how science is used as a key component of the drama.

Wicked Science first screened on the Network Ten on 2 July 2003 and aired weekly on Fridays at 4 pm.