The Colony (American TV series) season 1

34°02′26″N 118°13′27″W / 34.040461°N 118.2242°W / 34.040461; -118.2242

The Colony is a reality television program. The first season was filmed in an industrial area bordering the Los Angeles River on the edge of downtown Los Angeles, and follows ten cast members in an environment that simulates life after a global catastrophe.^[1] The series first aired on the Discovery Channel on July 21, 2009.^[2] Filming began on February 28, and ran until April 28, 2009.

Cast

Allison White, "The Nurse," is a 29-year-old registered trauma

Joey Sciacca, "The Independent Contractor," is a 37-year-old contractor hailing from Los Angeles, California. He is a Black Belt in Tang Soo Do. He also is proficient in plumbing, electrical maintenance, drywall refurbishing, framing and framework, concrete construction, and is also seen to be an artist. Joey has admitted to being incarcerated for six consecutive years for trafficking but stated that he is now a changed man. Joey now works in construction, where he utilizes his skills as an eco-friendly contractor.

Leilani Smith, "The Martial Arts Instructor," started her martial arts career at the age of 28. She now works as a personal self defense instructor in Tacoma, Washington. Smith played a role in defending the colony by designing a gym and instructing the other colonists in the practice of self-defense.

Michael "Mike" Raines, "The Handyman," is a 47-year-old actor

Morgan Hooker, "The Aerospace Engineer" is a 23-year-old

• boiled
  to remove bacteria, as only then will they have a safe water supply.
• Cooktop: To cook their food, the colonists suspend a steel plate over a fire inside a steel drum.
• Giant Bed: Using some
  pallets, box-springs
  , fabric and foam, the colonists assemble a giant bed to sleep on.
• Night Watch: In this post-apocalyptic world, security can be compromised at any time, so at night one or two colonists stay up to look after the others at certain times through the night.
• Battery Array: To get electricity, the colonists
  inverter
  . It provides just enough power to last just a week, so a generator will need to be built to recharge the batteries.
• Cistern: Keeping a supply of drinking water is crucial to the colonists' survival. To guarantee a steady supply, they move the filter on a warehouse shelf and place a large container beneath it.
• Rain Catching: When a rare LA storm approaches, Mike and John V. modify the gutters of the warehouse to catch and stockpile rainwater, thus saving them a river trip.
• baking soda, and to clean their clothes they use a piece of corrugated steel as a washboard.^[2]

• pressure washer, a pulley system from a ventilation fan, and a car alternator
  . The engine's drive shaft must turn the pulley and the pulley must spin the alternator. Just like in a car the alternator converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, which is needed to charge the battery array.
• Wood Gasifier: To keep the generator engine running they will need a constant fuel supply. One way is to scavenge for gasoline, but that method is dangerous and barely sustainable. John C. proposed building a gasifier after noticing an abundance of wood. A gasifier is two containers each holding wood scraps. The wood in the first container is used to build a fire. The fire heats the wood in the second container releasing a flammable vapor called wood gas
  . The wood gas is then piped directly into the generator engine.
• Escape Vehicle: Everyone agrees that the warehouse, or the city for that matter, is not an ideal place for long-term survival in this post-apocalyptic world. Noticing a broken-down flatbed truck out on the yard, everyone brings it inside the warehouse and into the main work area so it can later be used for their exodus.^[2]

Episode 3

Projects

• Solar Shower: The immediate project is a shower. A
  gray water is then piped out of the box and into a bucket. Water is pulled up by a bicycle
  pulley to the roof.
• Fish Trap: Amy makes a
  fish net
  to help with fishing in the river.
• Visual Diary: Morgan starts a picture diary about the colony's day activities in the Hieroglyphic room.

Episode 4

Projects

• Warehouse Fortification: The immediate project is securing the warehouse with better defenses. Joey fixes the hole in the back wall that was previously breached by putting trash on the stairs. He also puts chainlink on the wall where they were previously attacked to prevent any openings in the wall and puts wooden board secured with metal screws to keep the front door shut.
• Weapons: The colonists build a series of weapons for defending their home. John C. creates a flamethrower and a large taser that can be used from a few feet away. Vladimir starts building claymore mines out of some small materials.
• Gym: Leilani builds a small gym to teach everyone self-defense for when they need to leave the warehouse. She makes a punching bag by filling a nylon bag with dirt from the yard and suspending it with chains.
• toiletries, and nine yuccas
  .
• Escape Vehicle: Mike and John V. get to work on the two-ton truck to get it running again. The colonists wish to use to leave the city and move into the country for a more sustainable existence. Mike discovers that one of the engine's pistons and the carburetor's butterfly valve were rusted in place and that the engine won't start. Fortunately he manages to fix them, so now the engine runs.

Episode 5

Projects

• Solar Panel Rig: Using the generator obtained from the traders in Episode 4, Mike, Joey and others set out to build a rig for the
  solar panels they obtained from the roof of a nearby building and along the railroad. John C. works to build a device that incorporates two photodiodes
  and a small motor into a solar tracking device, allowing the solar panels to follow the sun during the day, and return to starting positions at night.
• Washing Machine: To make the laundry duty easier, John V. modifies the interior of a steel drum, then sets it on an angled base mounted with wheels so no water can get out. To conserve electricity, he gets the drum turning by hooking it up to a bicycle so it runs on pedal power instead.
• Escape Vehicle: Their next objective for the escape vehicle is to get the bed stripped by removing the damaged truck bed and the remaining part of the trailer body, that way they can have something to work with.

Episode 6

Projects

• Clinic: Allison and George clean part of the lookout for a sanitary environment for a clinic. They assemble the furniture and shelving found in a typical doctors office and place a scale to check the colonists' weight. The colonists' conditions are recorded in a journal.
• Morse Code
  .
• alligator clip
  across the wires, she can pick up different AM frequencies.
• SOS Banner: Hoping to get help from someone, Mike and Allison paint an SOS message with instructions to transmit over the AM band on a large piece of fabric and hang it on the roof.
• shotgun shells and other flammable materials inside cardboard tubes. To safely set them off from the roof, he builds a detonation
  system so he can fire them from a safe distance.
• Escape Vehicle: Joey continues work on the escape vehicle by getting to work on the truck's bed. He puts in benches, hidden compartments, and a tank to hold 75 gallons of drinking water.

• Ozonator: With their propane supply gone, the colonists must find an alternative method of sterilizing the filtered water. One way is to use the cooktop to boil water, but that method isn't efficient enough to purify the amount of water they use every day. John C. gets an idea to use ozone as a way to purify their water supply. The plan is to build a tesla coil to generate ozone, then using a pump scavenged from hospital equipment, pipe the ozone into a bucket of water to be purified. John C. completes the project with some help from Mike and the colonists are now able to sterilize
  their water.
• Phonograph: Morgan is sick of all the stress and noise of colony life, so she decides to fix an old phonograph that she found. She discovers that the cartridge is broken, but is eventually able to fix it. The colonists celebrate by dancing.
• lavender and lemon
  . As it has now set they test it and discover that it works.
• Film Projector: John C. decides to fix an old film projector. The projector is missing the lamp so John C. uses the halogen lamp from a car headlight. He gets the projector running and the colonists spend the end of the day by watching some home movies that John Cohn found.
• Escape Vehicle: Mike and Joey use body panels from cars to
  armor the truck
  and protect it from projectiles.

Episode 8

Projects

• trike
  using a 120-volt electric motor, car batteries and two solar panels.
• Surveillance Dirigible: Morgan and Allison build a
  surveillance camera is mounted and computer fans
  for steering are attached. The dirigible is anchored to the ground using wires and a television so the colonists can observe from the ground.

• Scout Vehicle: Mike gets to work on a Ford Ranchero in hopes of making it into a third vehicle to be used for their escape.
• Trading: The traders return looking to haggle for items of interest that the colonists need. The colonists trade two solar panels, two
  beans and a jar of peanut butter
  .
• Escape Vehicle: With a low gasoline supply the flatbed truck won't go very far, so Vlad, John C. and Diane build a bigger version of the gasifier.

• Escape Vehicle: Vlad completes the cooling system for the trucks gasifier by using a radiator and a fan scavenged from an old car. At the same time Mike and John V. create a motorized solar panel array to place on the truck to provide electricity.
• Warehouse Defenses: Joey organizes security for the warehouse. John C's flamethrower has its range increased and mounted, and Amy makes a set of
  Molotov cocktails to be thrown from the roof. The warehouse doors are barricaded, and an electric fence
  and an oil trap are installed. All this is intended to buy the colonists time during an attack so they can escape.