Earth 2 (TV series)

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Earth 2

Earth 2 opening title.
Format Science fiction
Created by Michael Duggan
Carol Flint
Mark Levin
Billy Ray
Starring see below
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 22 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 45 min. approx.
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run November 6, 1994 – June 4, 1995
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Earth 2 is a short-lived science fiction television series which aired on NBC from November 6, 1994 to June 4, 1995. The show was canceled after one season of 22 episodes.

Contents

[edit] Plot

A Grendler
A Grendler

In 2192 most of the human population had fled Earth to live on large orbiting space stations. Only a small number of humans remain on the Earth’s surface as the Earth had become mostly uninhabitable.

Billionaire Devon Adair's eight-year-old son, Ulysses Adair, had contracted a rare but fatal disease called the Syndrome, a condition whose existence is not acknowledged by the government and medical community. It is theorized that this disease, which affects only children, is somehow caused by the lack of an Earth-like environment. Most children who are born with the disease do not live past the age of nine.

Desperate to save her son, Devon puts together an expeditionary project called the Eden Project, which intends to travel to an Earth-like planet called G889 in an attempt to find a cure for the illness. More than 200 other "Syndrome families" intend to follow Adair's advance party, joining them on the planet 22 light-years away from Earth to form a colony called New Pacifica. The project, however, is opposed by the government and secretly monitored and infiltrated with agents.

Eight hours before the group intends to leave the space stations, it is discovered that a bomb may be on the ship, set to explode the moment it leaves the station. Devon orders the group to leave immediately against government orders; the bomb is found and jettisoned before it explodes.

Twenty-two years later, the passengers and crew of Eden Project awaken to discover they have arrived at G889. But their excitement is short-lived: the advance party crash lands on the planet, an event they later discover is the result of government sabotage. With much of the party scattered across the planet and most of their supplies stolen, Devon's party regroups and begins its westward journey to their planned site of New Pacifica. But they soon find out that they are not alone.

Terrians
Terrians

Soon after arrival the colonists come into contact with a semi-intelligent race named Grendlers, traders and scavengers whose saliva is a cure-all for virtually any disease. Exploring further they meet an intelligent subterranean alien species named the Terrians, who seem to have a symbiotic relationship with the planet and can only communicate with the colonists through a dreamscape that few of them understand.

During the series the colonists learn they are not the only humans on the planet; it had previously been used as a penal colony so the government could learn more about how to colonize the planet. They also learn that the Council—a government group that seems to wield most of the power on the space stations—wants to gain control of G889 for resettlement. But through their various experiments, they have learned that they cannot remove the Terrians without killing the planet itself. This means that Uly, who has been healed by the Terrians and who had begun to exhibit some of their unique characteristics, has become the key to the Council's plan for the planet. The interactions among the original crew, the convicts, the government and the local aliens and their planet forms the basis of many of the story's plot lines, as the colonists learn more about their new home while trying to avoid detection by the Council.

The main characters also include crewman and mechanic John Danzinger and his young daughter True, both former indentured workers on the space stations; Alonzo Solace, a cold sleep pilot far older than he looks; Dr. Julia Heller, a genetically modified junior physician the colonists later learn is an agent for the Council; Yale, a former convict and part cyborg whose memory has been erased and behavior altered under a government program for the purpose of becoming a tutor for the children of wealthy families; Morgan Martin, a government official supervising the Eden Project, and his wife Bess, who grew up on the mines of Earth.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Earth 2 episodes

The series premiered on November 6, 1994 with a one-hour, thirty minute pilot episode that ran from 7:00 – 9:00PM EST (including adverts – it was later split into two episodes for syndication). The following week it moved to a regular timeslot. On April 23, 1995 two individual episodes were aired back-to-back from 7:00 – 9:00PM EST. Shows were also shown in Australia later in 1995 and in Poland.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Location

Exterior shots for Earth 2 were filmed in northern New Mexico around the Santa Fe area. Locations such as Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks and Diablo Canyon provided an alien-like setting for the series.[citation needed]

[edit] Merchandise

[edit] Novels

Three Earth 2 novels were published between December 1994 and May 1995. The first was a novelization of the two-part premiere. The remaining two were original stories.

[edit] DVD release

DVD cover Episodes Discs DVD release date
Region 1
22 4 (dual sided) USA: July 19, 2005

[edit] References


[edit] External links

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