Dynamo Dream is an ongoing project by filmmaker and visual-effects artist Ian Hubert
, director of Tears of Steel and Project London. It is set in his pre-existing Dynamo universe, and runs as a parallel story to that project.
The first episode, "Salad Mug", follows a day in the life of a poverty-struck young entrepreneur who grows vegetables and sells salads at a public market in Oldton, a suburb of the great city-state of Shade. Having inadvertently saved the life of a Very Important Person, she is called in (or down) by the governing authority of the market, who offers to thank her by fulfilling any request she may make... and she asks for just one phone call.
The second and third episodes, "A Single Point In Space" and "A Pete Episode", were released back to back in one week. "A Single Point In Space" follows rogue Shade Superintelligence Agency operative Maxwell Sterling as he attempts to observe the birth of a black hole — or something worse — in an alternate universe; "A Pete Episode" is about the mysterious, charismatic, but slightly dumb adventurer Pete and his quest to hunt down the enigmatic King of Them All, in order to either serve or destroy him.
As usual for the creator, Hubert builds much of the imagery himself in the open-source modelling software Blender and composits the live-action characters into the CGI world with Blender tools and Adobe After Effects.
This show provides examples of:
- After the End: It's implied Shade was built on the ruins — the ancient ruins — of our society. Jackie Simon mentions that his archeological dig is turning up "another layer of minivans".
- Alternative Calendar: There's a sign at the front of the Waterworks reading "est[ablished] 32". It's not clear what kind of era this was the 32nd year of, nor is any present date given to establish how long ago it was or what relation it has to our measurements. Likely a case of Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It.
- Another Dimension: The Dynamo reality consists of multiple universes known as States. Travel between them is facilitated by interdimensional gates called "drift depots", although certain people have the capability to drift on their own without needing a ship or a depot.
- Artificial Limbs: A soldier reduced to begging on the street has a clunky-looking mechanical leg. A cook at one of the Waterworks restaurants is seen stirring a pan full of stir-fry with a mechanical arm.
- Badass Boast: A rather odd one from Pete, as he faces off against the Reality Warper King of Them All.Pete: This can't be real. You've gotten into my mind... [begins warping reality himself] But I've gotten into my mind, too!
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: This trope is carried over from the original Dynamo, one episode of which showed soldiers without spacesuits standing on the outer deck of a spaceship in flight. In "A Single Point In Space", Sterling goes out onto the outer deck of his ship without a suit, in order to collect a malfunctioning drone. All he puts on to go outside is an odd device that sits on his shoulders and seems to emit fumes.
- Big Brother Is Watching: How did the Floorhead find out at all about what Jo had done to avert the assassination?
- Brain in a Jar: The Floorhead is literally a head in a jar. In addition to a mechanism that allows him to read books, he has a voice-synthesizer setup that enables him to speak using his eyes and an IPA phoneme chart.
- Call-Back: Sterling listens to a recording of his interrogation of somebody named Connor; at the end, he sics some kind of dangerous entity on Connor that injures his face. In the next episode, we meet Connor in person, and he has a steel mask covering what's left of his face.
- Cryptic Background Reference: The worldbuilding in Dynamo Dream is packed full of these. Among other things, there are references in the second episode to a man called Axel Rubix, who plays a major role in Ian Hubert's original Dynamo series but who has yet to appear in Dream.
- The disabled vet at the market has a sign claiming he lost his leg in "the lobster wars". There is no hint as to what these wars were.
- Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: Averted in "Salad Mug". It does rain at the opening of the story, but an overheard weather forecast declares that the skies are going to clear, and the sun is shining brightly by the time the Waterworks Market opens.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: Shade Tower, just barely glimpsed during Jo's train ride, is a miles-high construction with neon-like bars of light running up its sides.
- Fictional Sport: We see two futuristic sports, both being televised. Hyperball is, so far as one can tell, a combination of a ball game and a race, played by people riding vehicles that are 90% jet engine. Guard Match is a show about Humongous Mecha fighting other things — a Giant Enemy Crab in the episode we see.
- Foreshadowing:
- The words "He's an assassin," spoken by Cass as Jo watches a strange black vehicle or drone pass by outside their window, prove to be true less than an hour later when Jo sees the drone preparing to shoot another vehicle down and distracts it by making a racket. How Cass knew is not explained.
- One episode before we actually meet Pete, we hear a reference to him (and the guitar case he carries) in Sterling's interrogation of Connor.
- Fun with Acronyms: There is a robot called T.E.R.D., but the awkwardness of his name is never commented on.
- Giant Enemy Crab: A news broadcast shows a giant mutant crab attacking a convoy of freight trucks; another TV show has a human fighter in a Humongous Mecha taking on another crab, which steals his weapon and is later seen rampaging after escaping the arena.
- One of the personages Pete gets directions from in the desert is yet another giant crab.
- Hover Bot: T.E.R.D., a robot who resembles a flying fax machine, has an administrative position in the Market, and is the one who takes Josephine down to see the Floorhead. Two similar floating robots are also seen in "Salad Mug", one giving a guided tour of the market, the other carrying a payload of books to or from the Floorhead.
- In "A Pete Episode", Pete encounters an unhinged criminal named Russboy and Russboy's pirate-hat-wearing, knife-wielding Hover Bot sidekick.
- Huge Holographic Head: General Caput appears as a giant face in his videophone call to Sterling in Episode 2.
- Inside a Computer System:
- Hinted at by the Wham Shot after Jo passes out — the world alters rapidly around her and some kind of floating error message pops up.
- The enigmatic opening of "A Single Point In Space" shows what appears to be a gigantic server farm going slightly haywire under a power surge, before cutting directly to Jo lying unconscious at the train station.
- Layered Metropolis: As seen from the window of Jo's train ride, many of the neighborhoods of Shade consist of buildings on top of buildings.
- Living Shadow: Humanoid shadow creatures with glowing red eyes appear throughout the Dynamo universe; they may originate in the so-called Shadow States, but their history and true intentions remain obscure. One shadow appears on Jo's train right before she gets sick and passes out; at least one more is acting as a crewman on Maxwell Sterling's ship.
- Mega City: Shade is a city the size of an entire state; it may be the last city on Earth, if the lack of lights on the night side of the planet means anything.
- Neon City: Downplayed, but there are neon signs and light-up displays all over the Waterworks market. Jo's salad stand is under a sign that just says "PLAZ".
- Post-Cyberpunk: Definite hints of a high-tech dystopia, but focusing on the life and activities of ordinary people on the street. Averts the usual cyberpunk inclusion of Japan Takes Over the World — there are almost no signs in East Asian languages.
- P.O.V. Cam: Used in the Connor segments of "A Pete Episode", from the POV of a person speaking with him (or rather listening to him).
- Stylistic Suck: The acting in "A Pete Episode" is notably more stilted than the previous two episodes, but this is probably because we are seeing the story the same way Connor is supposedly telling it.
- Video Phone:
- Public telephone booths in Shade come with video screens, although the caller still has to use the receiver to talk and hear.
- Holographic transdimensional videophone calls are also a thing that happens in the Dynamo universe, to judge by Sterling's conversation with General Caput.General: Hey, fun fact: It costs two million a minute to keep the relays open for this call. Isn't that somethin'.
