TORONTO – Talk about a dead ringer.

Late one night, standing on an otherwise empty subway platform, a street-smart orphan named Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) watches in horror as somebody jumps in front of a train. She looks down the platform and notices the dead woman left behind her purse. She grabs it and finds cash, keys to an apartment and a startling ID photograph: the woman’s name was Beth, and she looked exactly like Sarah.

Thus begins “Orphan Black,” a compelling, shot-in-Toronto thriller premiering Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on Space — right after the season premiere of “Doctor Who.”

Sarah discovers she has more in common with the jumper than looks. She and the dead woman are clones.

Furthermore, there are more clones out there who look exactly like Sarah — genetically identical individuals planted in foster homes — and somebody appears to be trying to kill them all.

What seemed like a way to clean out someone’s bank account becomes a whole new mysterious way of life for Sarah. Caught up in a larger investigation, she has to take on the dead woman’s accent, clothing and attitude — as well as her nerve-racking job as an undercover police officer.

She also has to fool Paul, Beth’s boyfriend (Vancouver native Dylan Bruce). Paul notices there’s something new and improved about his lady, but seems more than ready to go along with the fact that she’s suddenly a tiger in bed.

The only person Sarah can confide in is Felix (“Degrassi” grad Jordan Gavaris), her foster brother and a struggling artist. Also starring are Maria Doyle Kennedy (“Downton Abbey”) as Sarah and Felix’s foster mother and Kevin Blanchard (“Republic of Doyle”) as the detective trying to figure out what’s up with his police partner.

Despite having to take on several identities during the course of the series, Maslany — interviewed on location at a suburban Toronto hospital — doesn’t wish she could be cloned.

“Somebody asked me if I would want my clone as my roommate,” says the 27-year-old Regina native. “That would be the worst! ‘Cause, the thing is, you always hate in others what you hate the most about yourself.”

The role is a dream job, she says. “Sometimes I’m playing three characters in one day. To get to play this many complicated, well-developed individuals who could all have their own shows — ridiculous.”

“She’s a real chameleon and that’s what this role calls for,” says Graeme Manson (“Flashpoint”), who co-created the series with director John Fawcett (“Spartacus,” “Lost Girl”).

Maslany was already familiar to Fawcett from her work in a film he co-produced, “Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed.” She was highly recommended, but the challenging “Orphan Black” role still came down to five actresses.

“We did hair and makeup with all of them and chemistry reads with some of the other cast,” says Manson. This required Maslany and others to disappear into several different characters at the audition stage, “a grievous audition process for those actors for sure,” says the producer.

Maslany describes it as “two days of insanity.”

It was worth it, however. “At the end of the day, Tatiana really knocked everybody’s socks off,” says Manson. “It was unanimous with the networks as well.”

This commitment to character extends even to interviews. Both Maslany and Gavaris’ main characters hail from London and Gavaris especially stays locked into his Cockney cadence throughout the day.

This despite the fact Gavaris hails from Caledon, Ont., not the U.K. “My only experience with an English accent, aside from two weeks I spent in England, was ‘Coronation Street,’” he says. “My Mum’s a big fan.”

Gavaris marvels at the way Maslany balances her roles. “She’s brilliant,” he says.

Co-star Bruce heartily agrees. “I’m just playing one character and that’s daunting enough for me,” he says. “She’s a savant when it comes to the different accents and mannerisms and jumps in and out of characters quite quickly. The audience is just going to fall in love with her.”

Maslany says she finds many of the characters in the hair and makeup chair with help from the crew. “It’s where I get to shift into character,” she says. There’s also “different pieces of me in all of them.”

Ten episodes in, she’s more convinced than ever that the key is to commit to every character.

“We all have that in us as actors and it’s what we’re trying to tap into all the time. It’s always all about revealing our own life through other people.”

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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.