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Canadian television series (2004-2008) revolving around the scientists of NorBAC (North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission), a Toronto-based organization that is tasked with investigating both ethical issues involving nascent technology (genetically modified foods, designer babies) and threats to North America posed by pandemics, super-viruses, bioterrorism, and global climate change. The team is lead by David Sandström, a boozing, womanizing, arrogant [[
Not to be confused with the novel of the same name by [[C. J. Cherryh]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[All Just a
** The [[Grand
* [[An Aesop]]: The show frequently draws attention to various real-world issues and spends a little while having the characters discuss how important they are and what should be done about them. Usually done pretty smoothly, integrating the issues sensibly into an interesting plot where they have real relevance, but occasionally the message is more heavy-handed. Probably most blatant in a third-season episode where, near the end, the scientists gather and talk about how the best course of action is for everyone to stop using antimicrobial soaps outside of clinical situations, even though [[As You Know|they are all well aware of that
* [[Anyone Can
* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of
* [[Asperger's
** The fact that he has Asperger's is first time mentioned in the ninth episode, and only in passing. Up until then the viewer can easily have thought that Bob is just a socially awkward guy.
* [[Auto
* [[Ax
* [[Beware the Nice
* [[Bottle
** And the Grand Finale, set almost entirely inside a single room and mostly involves four characters arguing with each other over whether we can justify total freedom for scientific inquiry in the hope of bettering humanity when the same research can very well unintentionally destroy us all.
* [[Bury Your
* [[But I Can't Be
* Signature [[Camera
* [[Cartwright
* [[Child
* [[CIA Evil, FBI Good]]: Caroline Morrison, FBI, is the benevolent leader of NorBAC and spends most of her time trying to outwit the US army, government, CIA and [[MI 6]] to help David and the others in their investigations.
* [[Converse with the
* [[Clone
* [[Cloning
* [[Cure Your
* [[The
* [[Daydream
* {{spoiler|[[Dead All
* [[Dead End Job]]: There's a pretty high turnover rate for virologists at NorBAC. {{spoiler|Hira Khan died the third episode, Jill Langston was infected with a retrovirus and ''nearly'' died before being [[Put on a
* [[Depraved Homosexual]]: Averted right into a goddamn brick wall with Carlos. One of the best portrayals of a gay man as a normal, well-adjusted, successful and mentally-sound human being ever: he is possibly the ''least'' dysfunctional person in the entire cast.
* [[Did You Just Have Sex?]]: After David sleeps with Jill for the first time, he arrives at work and Mayko almost immediately concludes that "You either got laid or arrested."
* [[Distant
* [[Downer
* [[Driven to
** The first, only a few episodes into the first season, is {{spoiler|Danny, David's old school friend, when it turns out the hockey team he was trying to get into didn't actually want him}}.
** [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] a bit later in season one, where {{spoiler|David comes home to find his daughter Lilith, whose boyfriend recently died, sleeping on his couch and an empty bottle of sleeping pills on the table beside her. He understandably panics and tries to wake her up to ask her how many she took, only for her to sluggishly explain that she only took one but spilled the rest by accident. Indeed, he finds the rest of the bottle scattered around the carpet}}.
** Next, at the end of the double-length pilot of the third season, {{spoiler|we find out that David's father committed suicide sometime in the intervening months between seasons two and three, unable to cope with his Alzheimer's disease}}.
** Early in season four, {{spoiler|1=Wes, on interferon for his HIV and newly-contracted Hepatitis C, experiences severe depression as a side-effect and jumps off the roof of the NorBAC building, but [[Bungled Suicide|does not actually
** Finally, at the end of season four, {{spoiler|the half-crazed Olivier Roth shoots himself in the head as David is confronting him in his hotel room about the world leaders whose Jacobson's organs he activated with potentially horrific consequences}}.
* [[Dude, She's Like, in a
{{quote|'''David''': Guess you gotta be a prince for that to work, eh?}}
* [[Dying
* [[Dysfunction
* [[The Empath]]: Bob becomes one of these as a side-effect of the effort to regrow his optic nerve. This being hard sci-fi, it's explained by the activation of his Jacobson's organ (the same organ animals use to sense pheromones).
* [[Empty
* [[Eureka
* [[Evilly
* [[Final
* [[For Science!]]: Averted, even the more "fringe-y" scientists are shown to follow the scientific method and all of them have some practical application for their research in the end. Unfortunately, the law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head ever so often.
* [[Four Lines, All
* [[Genius
* [[Handsome Lech]]: David Sandström. Apparently his couch ''alone'' (he also loves his bed, his [[Making Love in All the Wrong Places|
* [[Hard Work
* {{spoiler|[[The Hero
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: David gets one once he realizes that he indirectly caused a Spanish flu epidemic in Denver.
* [[Hot
* [[How Dare You Die on Me!]]: When David is in a coma in episode twelve, at one point Mayko tells him, "David, if you die, I'll kill you."
* [[How We Got
* [[Imagine
* [[I Need a Freaking Drink]]: David does both versions of this quite a few times, such as when his father, who has Alzheimer's, tells him that when he's forgotten who his granddaughter is,
{{quote|'''Thomas Sandström''': I want you to put a bullet in my head.
'''David''': ...I need a beer. }}
* [[In Vino
* [[I Want My Beloved to Be
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: David Sandström is an asshole par extraordinaire, arrogant, aggressive, sarcastic and with zero patience for idiots. But he really cares for his 'patients' and especially for his co-workers, and his heart has a marked tendency to melt when people bring up sick and dying kids. Also has shades of the [[Insufferable
* [[Jump
* [[Ladykiller in
* [[Luke, You Are My
* [[Malignant Plot
* [[Meaningful
* [[Meanwhile Back At
* [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi
* [[Moment
* [[Multinational
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: See [[Heroic BSOD]].
* [[Near-Death
* [[Next Thing They Knew]]: Frequently with David and the [[Girl of the Week]].
* [[Not That Kind of
* [[Omnidisciplinary
* [[The
* [[Phlebotinum
{{quote|'''David''': Let's say I have a bacterium; we'll call him David. And David is a happy little bacterium, just bopping along through life, until he runs into a nasty piece of work called Hung. They trade DNA, and now, even though they look like they're the same bacterium, they're actually two new species, Havid and Dung. So Havid, he gets into your body, and your body doesn't recognize him as being bad, because he still looks like David. And Havid divides every twenty minutes, and after a day there's ten million Havids, and in another eight hours there's 83 trillion, and because of what they got from Hung, all those Havids are pricks and they're trying to kill you. [[The End]].}}
* [[Primal
* [[Put on a
** Also Jill Langston after season two: David speaks to her on the phone in one season three episode (at which time she does appear on-screen) and she is brought up in the finale, but otherwise she disappears completely for the latter two seasons.
* [[Really Dead
* [[Right Through His
* [[Sacrificial Lamb]]: {{spoiler|Hira Khan}}, who is murdered only a few episodes in after having a story arc set up and everything.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus
* [[Smart People Play
* [[Story Arc]]: The individual cases the team is working on usually take up at least a couple of episodes each, with bigger arcs often existing in the background at the same time; for instance, the overarching Miranda virus arc of season 1, though only the focus of the first couple of episodes and resolved in the last, is referenced steadily throughout the season, usually with Wes telling Caroline about progress that has been made in the search for the one who synthesized the virus.
* [[Teacher-Student
* [[Their First
* [[
* [[Trauma-Induced
* [[Typhoid
* [[Unwinnable Training
* [[Well-Intentioned
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