Bones: Skeleton Crew (lost spin-off web series; 2006)

Title card for Skeleton Crew

Status: Lost

Bones: Skeleton Crew was a twenty-six episode spinoff web series of the hit TV series Bones and did not have any of the original cast from the main Bones series. The series debuted on October 6th, 2006, via a subscription through the now-defunct Sprint TV service and followed three untrained investigators as they piece together the events of a mystery. The spinoff was made in conjunction with Fox's partnership with Sprint and MasterCard. Later, the spinoff was released on the official Bones website but was later removed without ever being archived. As of the writing of this article, none of the twenty-six episodes have yet to surface.

Plot

Bones: Skeleton Crew had 26 two-minute episodes produced and did not feature the main cast. The plot instead focused on three Jeffersonian Institute lab technicians who would use their various skills to piece together various mysteries.

The official Bones website lists the following synopsis:

On a Saturday night, three twenty-something employees of a prestigious Washington, DC museum are paged to the basement of the forensics lab, where they discover a mysterious box containing an incomplete animal skeleton and a threatening message. They quickly begin to put together the clues to prevent a catastrophe...but with no equipment, no official support, and no time, they'll have to use all their technical skills (not to mention their senses of humor) to stop a terrorist's insane plan. ^[1]

Cast

Thomas Smith as Scott
Ryan McGivern as Sloan
Alison Simpson as Dr. Webb
Jon Briddell as Sam Winston
Reghan Alexander as FBI Agent

Episode List

#	Episode	Synopsis	Status
1	Night Shift	The mystery begins when three talented Jeffersonian employees are summoned to a deserted lab.	Lost
2	Scare Tactics	The box is opened and the disturbing contents are revealed. There’s only one hour to solve the puzzle.	Lost
3	Box of Bones	The skeleton is identified drawing the investigators even deeper into the creepy mystery.	Lost
4	Four of a Kind	Vikki hits a dead end, Scott finds an important clue and Sloan makes a brilliant deduction.	Lost
5	Stranger in the Night	Someone’s been in the lab but was he friend or foe?	Lost
6	The Phone Call	It’s the call they've been waiting for but can anyone help them now?	Lost
7	Emergency Run	Vikki goes solo and Scott and Sloan realize that their opponent isn’t playing games.	Lost
8	Suspicious Minds	Could one of the three investigators actually be a terrorist?	Lost
9	Old School	Forensics gets dangerous and a new clue makes them wonder just where the killer is now.	Lost
10	Putting it Together	No one’s prepared for Vikki’s startling discovery.	Lost
11	Undressed	They’re tracking the intruder. Is he close enough to get them?	Lost
12	Fresh Meat	The clues point to a suspect but the most important piece of the puzzle is missing.	Lost
13	Dinner Time	The true danger becomes evident and the plot is bigger than they feared.	Lost
14	The Missing Piece	An overlooked clue leads them to a creepy destination. Is this a trap?	Lost
15	Skullduggery	Scott and Sloan break into the place where the mystery began.	Lost
16	The Meat Locker	Two investigators find the missing skull. But who's about to find them?	Lost
17	Trapped	Vikki comes to the rescue...but someone will get left behind.	Lost
18	Perfect Fit	The FBI gets on the case. But will they be too late to help?	Lost
19	Clueless	Scott breaks out the big guns. Vikki has an encounter with someone she's not expecting.	Lost
20	Deep Freeze	The terrorist's terrifying final message is revealed.	Lost
21	Back Seat	Time's almost up. Now it's a dangerous race to trap the terrorists.	Lost
22	Stage Fright	The team splits up and they're all headed for trouble.	Lost
23	The Perfect Poison	How do you murder a roomful of scientists? They're about to find out.	Lost
24	Out Of Time	They've run out of options. Will the terrorist's plot really succeed?	Lost
25	Face To Face	One last chance to save the day leads to a twist none of them saw coming.	Lost
26	The Mastermind	Who will get the last laugh?	Lost

^[2]^[3]

In addition to the official episode descriptions from FOX's website, plot synopses of all 26 episodes have been found on a Japanese Archive website. Note that these synopses are rough translations, as the original synopses were written in Japanese.

#	Episode	Synopsis
1	Night Shift	Vikki is summoned to the Jeffersonian Institute by an urgent email. It's just after 8 p.m. on a weekend, and there are only two men in the deserted lab, Scott and Sloan. Vikki asks what they called her for, but she says that neither of them texted her. On the contrary, they were called by someone in the same way. The three of them, who work at the same research institute but have never met each other because they are in different departments, begin to introduce themselves again. At that time, Vikki notices a suspicious cardboard box with a strange noise coming from inside. And on the box was written in blood letters, "Open immediately" ...
2	Scare Tactics	When I opened the box, I found that the cause of the sound was the alarm of an alarm clock. If you look closely, you can see that the alarm is set twice at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. The only other items in the room were animal bones and letters. The letter simply says, "There is only one hour left." At that time, the time was already 8:05. What the hell is going to happen in 55 minutes?
3	Box of Bones	Vikki tries to contact Dr. Brennan, aka Bones. However, Sloan says that the Doctor is on a business trip with Agent Booth and will not return until midnight. When she can't make it in time, Vikki tries to contact Dr. Webb instead. Meanwhile, Scott arranges the bones in the box and realizes that they are sheep bones...
4	Four of a Kind	Sloan tries to find out where the email that called them came from, but Vikki tells them that their computer is offline and unavailable on weekends. The sheep bones were apparently mixed with the bones of four sheep killed at different times. However, Scott notices that the shapes of the four bones, which are supposed to be separated, match perfectly without the slightest difference. This could not happen in nature, and the only explanation I could explain was that it was a cloned sheep ...
5	Stranger in the Night	Vikki and the others check the surveillance camera footage to identify the culprit who brought the box. However, the perpetrator seemed to know the position of the camera, and moved around the laboratory so that his face could not be captured. Is it the work of someone who knows the inside well? ... At that moment, someone calls Vikki's cell phone.
6	The Phone Call	The caller was Dr. Webb. He was at a meeting of past Nobel Prize winners, and he had only now noticed an email from Vikki. Sloan hurriedly explains the situation, but the doctor seems to be interested in the meeting, and instructs the three of them to examine the bones for the time being. And since the use of mobile phones is prohibited in the conference hall, he unilaterally hung up the phone, saying that he would call again when the meeting was over. Scott laments that even if he wanted to examine the bones in detail, he can't take them out because the tools for examination are locked. We have no choice but to resort to primitive methods, says Vikki. Yes, someone should run to the hardware store near the institute to buy a hammer.
7	Emergency Run	In the end, Vikki ends up going to the hardware store as the first person to say it. She runs to the store at full speed, but the door is closed right in front of her, and she refuses to say that the store is closed.
8	Suspicious Minds	Vikki, who manages to get into the store by asking the owner, hurriedly gathers her tools. Meanwhile, Scott realizes that the cardboard box, the letters inside, and the cushioning material used to protect the bones are all recycled materials made from recycled paper, and he suspects that this is the work of environmentally conscious people. When Sloan hears this, he says he has an idea. I wonder if it is the rhapsody of Vikki, a person who is passionate about environmental protection and knows the inside of the institute well.
9	Old School	Vikki came back with her tools. Is she really an eco-terrorist? Sloan and Scott look suspicious, but by that time there are already 39 minutes left. For the time being, Scott immediately crushes the bones with a hammer and realizes that the newest bone belongs to a sheep that was killed today.
10	Putting it Together	Vikki, who was rummaging through the luggage in the room to see if there were any other clues, inadvertently cuts her finger. When Vikki goes to the bathroom to wash her hands, Scott and Sloan realize that she has left her bag behind. Just as the two of them were about to open the bag to get evidence that Vikki was the culprit, Vikki came back with a change of blood.
11	Undressed	When I rushed to the bathroom, I found that the criminal's clothes on the surveillance camera had been taken off. Why did he bother to take off his clothes for disguise? Or is the culprit still in this laboratory? However, rather than spending time searching for the culprit, Vikki and the others prioritize analyzing the bones. The only thing that wasn't in the box was the sheep skull, which I thought was a mystery.
12	Fresh Meat	Sloan speculates that the scratches on the bones were inflicted with something like a ceramic kitchen knife. ... If so, wasn't this sheep killed for cooking? While listening to such a story, Vikki suddenly became hungry.
13	Dinner Time	When Vikki said she was hungry, Sloan suddenly flashed to him. The culprit who delivered the bones of the cloned sheep → against genetic manipulation? → How do you make it known to the public? → Terrorist attack at a meeting of Nobel laureates? Yes, at tonight's meeting, which Dr. Webb is also attending, I wonder if the sheep dish served for dinner is poisoned.
14	The Missing Piece	However, the location of the meeting is top secret, so Sloan and the others do not know the location. And they can't get in touch with Dr. Webb until the meeting is over... After further examination of the bones, Scott realizes that the most recent one belongs to a sheep that had been killed two hours earlier. If you count backwards in time, the bones were not brought from far away. Vikki suspects that the source of the bones is a mutton specialty store near the institute ...
15	Skullduggery	Sloan and Scott rummage through the trash cans of a mutton shop, but they can't find the skull they're looking for. Just then, the clerk who came out of the store forgot to close the door and left. The two sneak into the empty store just as an opportunity ...
16	The Meat Locker	Sloan and Scott finally discover a skull in a mutton cellar. However, at that time, the policeman who was patrolling saw a suspicious figure moving in the store, which was supposed to be uninhabited.
17	Trapped	As Sloan and Scott try to get out of the storage room, they notice a police officer inside. While Sloan pretends to be the shopkeeper to distract him, Scott escaped through the back door with the skull in his arms.
18	Perfect Fit	When I combined the skull I brought back with the other bones, I found that it belonged to the same individual. Scott immediately divested into the matter. Vikki finally gets a call from the FBI to support her, but by that time there are already 21 minutes left until the time limit. In the end, they learn that they have no choice but to solve the case on their own...
19	Clueless	As Scott prepares the scanner, Vikki notices a noise coming from the back of the hallway. Vikki made her way to the back of the hallway, only to find that Sloan, who had fled after being chased by the police, was about to enter through the back door. When he returned, Scott told them that when they scanned the skulls, nothing came out...
20	Deep Freeze	This time, Scott tries to cool the skull to absolute zero. Then a letter appeared on the surface. Sloan says that "C-C-V-I" is the Roman numeral "206". When Vikki hears this, she realizes that it is about the recently opened and popular restaurant "CLUB 206" ...
21	Back Seat	Vikki drives Sloan and Scott to "CLUB 206". The front of the store is guarded by FBI agents, and there is no doubt that Nobel Prize winners gather here. Vikki deliberately parks in front of the store to attract the attention of the investigators. In the meantime, Sloan and Scott enter the store through the back door. However, Vikki is arrested by an investigator who sees the bones piled up in the back seat of the car and is suspected of being a suspicious person ...
22	Stage Fright	After being frisked by investigators, Vikki is called "Bone Girl" and gets angry. Meanwhile, at the back door of the restaurant, Sloan and Scott were negotiating with the cook. He is told that if he pays $100, he will sneak him into the kitchen, but Sloan, who only has $20 in cash, asks if he can pay with a Mastercard. * * Since the sponsor is Mastercard, the Mastercard logo has been displayed unnaturally several times so far (laughs).
23	The Perfect Poison	Sloan and Scott manage to sneak into the kitchen. There is a large amount of mutton in the cellar, and there is no time to find out which of them is poisoned. However, if you think about it, the culprit seems to be a lone criminal, and the criminal side should not be able to do too elaborate tricks. Could it be that the poison was put in the sauce used for the dish, not the mutton itself? The two finally found those sauces and tried to destroy them, but they were found by the head chef.
24	Out Of Time	Vikki is arrested by investigators and taken to her boss. Luckily, the boss was Sam, an FBI agent who Vicky knew. Sam and the others believe Vicky's story and rush to the kitchen. There, Sloan and Scott were captured by the head chef. While Vikki, the FBI agent, and the head chef are arguing, the 9 p.m. alarm goes off to announce the game is over.
25	Face To Face	Finally, mutton dishes began to be brought into the restaurant. Scott, who can't stand it anymore, pounces on the waiter with the food. Dr. Webb appeared in the confused kitchen, and smiled fearlessly as he said, "It looks like you've made it in time."
26	The Mastermind	The culprit was Dr. Webb. Why would someone like Dr. do such terrorism ... Vikki and the others who can't hide their upset. Webb admits that he was the one who set it up, but says it was not terrorism. When Dr. Brennan asked if the three were "usable," Webb said it was a test to test their abilities. When the three of them finally feel relieved when they hear this, Webb tells them that they can eat whatever they want at the institute. But Sloan ordered a beefsteak, Scott ordered chicken, and Vikki ordered a salad, and no one dared to eat mutton. -End-

Availability

Despite Bones: Skeleton Crew being online, all of the episodes are no longer available online. None of the twenty-six episodes of Bones: Skeleton Crew have been released. Bones: Skeleton Crew was available on FOX's website between late 2006 and September of 2007. Bones: Skeleton Crew was also allegedly broadcast on the FOX channel in Japan for some time.^[4]