| The Lost Room | |
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The Lost Room's DVD cover |
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| Genre | |
| Creator |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | Sci Fi Channel |
| Original run | December 11, 2006 – December 13, 2006 |
| Running time | 284 minutes |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
The Lost Room is a science fiction television miniseries that aired on the Sci Fi Channel in the United States. The series revolves around the titular room and some of the everyday items from that room which possess unusual powers. The show's protagonist, Joe Miller, is searching for these objects to rescue his daughter, Anna, who has disappeared inside the Room. Once a typical room at a 1960s motel along U.S. Route 66, the Lost Room has existed outside of normal time and space since 1961, when what is only referred to as "the Event" took place.
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The Room is the nonexistent Room 10 at the abandoned Sunshine Motel outside of Gallup, New Mexico. At 1:20:44 p.m. on May 4, 1961, something happened at the site of the Room that erased it and all its contents. This is referred to as "the Event" or "the Incident", and is thought to be the reason for the unusual properties of the Room and the Objects from within it. At the time of the Event, the motel was in serviceable condition, holding ten rooms before the event and only nine afterwards. One of the Objects, the undeveloped Polaroid picture, allows a person to view the tenth room as it was at the time of the Event by standing at its current vacant location at the Sunshine Motel ruins.
The Room can be accessed only by whoever has the Key. The Key will open any hinged door with a pin tumbler lock anywhere in the world, turning the door into a portal accessing the Room regardless of where that door would normally open. As Joe Miller sees on the surveillance tape, while the door that originates the portal is open, it still appears closed to the observer on the other side of that door. When exiting the Room the door opens not necessarily to the original place of entry, but to any room the holder of the Key has in mind, or to a random room if the user does not focus. To reach a specific room the user must have a clear picture of the room's door and the area around it. The "Lost" Room thus serves as a means of instant travel between similar doors anywhere on Earth. Hinged doors with types of locks other than a tumbler lock or with no lock at all, sliding doors and rotating doors cannot be used to access the Room.
The holder of the Key can bring other people into the Room, but to exit they must leave together or the key-holder must let the others out of the room while remaining behind, since the Room "resets" whenever the door is opened from the outside using the key: everything is restored the way it was originally, minus any Objects outside the Room. If something from outside the Room (including a person) is left in it when the holder of the Key leaves, it disappears. If Objects are left in the Room, they return to their original position at the moment of the Event when the Room resets. A benefit of this is that an Object may be retrieved from something within which it may be encased or hidden (such as a safe) by leaving whatever the Object is in inside the Room and resetting it. This can also let someone distinguish a real Object from fakes, since the fakes disappear.
Objects, when outside the Room, possess special powers and are indestructible. When inside the Room, the Objects lose their special properties and can be destroyed. However, according to the Occupant, a new Object will take the destroyed Object's place, a phenomenon he refers to as the Law of Conservation of Objects. The Occupant states that there are many Rooms, and so any non-Object left in the Room does not disappear, but exists in a different instance of the Room. The reset, in turn, represents a confluence of these Rooms, allowing the Occupant (the only Object capable of consciously existing during a reset) to retrieve things lost during a reset, provided he has a clear idea of what he wishes to retrieve.
The Event is a shorthand term given to the moment in time that the Lost Room was created. It occurred at 1:20:44 p.m. on May 4, 1961, and erased the room and all of its contents from history. The reason behind this and the ultimate purpose of the Objects is yet unknown, though two primary hypotheses have been postulated. Even the man occupying the room at the time of the event doesn't seem to know what happened, so the truth remains a mystery. Both hypotheses essentially lead to the same conclusion, but attribute the event to different causes.
One faction, the Order of the Reunification, operates under the belief that the Objects are pieces of God's mind or body (God having presumably died or been killed somehow) and that reuniting them will allow them to communicate with God. More extreme versions of this view hold that reuniting the Objects will turn one into God or at least give that person God-like powers. Martin Ruber purports that the Occupant confirmed this particular theory for him in a vision, making him the self-proclaimed "Prophet of the Objects", but his near-death state from dehydration and heat exhaustion at the time casts doubt on his claims. Additionally, the Occupant himself shows no knowledge of the circumstances behind the event. The Deck of Cards, which gives one who is exposed to it a vision of the events during the Collectors' failed attempt to use the objects on Room 9 of the hotel, may be the source of their beliefs, as it is used in their rituals.
Another (though not necessarily contradictory) view of the phenomenon suggests that reality was somehow shattered at the location of the Room, thus separating it and everything in it from time and giving its contents metaphysical abilities. Should the items be collected and returned to the room by an individual, that person would then have complete control over reality. This theory works under the assumption that the one gathering the objects has the knowledge to utilize them properly. Since the Objects are just considered tools, they would do no good if the user were unaware of their paranormal functions.
The Objects are powerful artifacts and consist of roughly 100 everyday items one would expect to find in an occupied motel room in the 1960s. They are indestructible (except when inside the Room) and possess various other-worldly powers when taken outside the Lost Room, but do not work within the Room itself. According to the Occupant (Eddie McCleister), when an object is destroyed within the room, another object takes its place. Whether the new object takes the former's properties partially or totally is unknown. Various characters repeatedly put forth the opinion that, over time, Objects lead to something akin to bad karma or bad luck for their owners. All of the items (including the occupant) attract to one another, wanting to come together. The Occupant states that the objects are aware of each other, constantly sending out pings to each other and that for a living mind this is torture.
Many Object-seekers have organized themselves into groups, known as "cabals". Wars between cabals are mentioned in the series. There are at least three cabals:
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Key and the Clock" | Craig R. Baxley | Story: Christopher Leone & Paul Workman Teleplay: Christopher Leone & Laura Harkcom |
December 11, 2006 |
| Joe Miller learns about the Key and the other Objects. | ||||
| 2 | "The Comb and the Box" | Michael W. Watkins | Christopher Leone & Laura Harkcom | December 12, 2006 |
| Having lost his daughter during a reset of the Room, Joe begins to search for the Prime Object, which can supposedly bring her back. | ||||
| 3 | "The Eye and the Prime Object" | Craig R. Baxley | Christopher Leone & Laura Harkcom | December 13, 2006 |
| Having learned of the Occupant of the Room, Joe searches for him in the hopes of learning more. | ||||
| Release dates | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 3, 2007[3] | August 27, 2007[4] | March 11, 2009[5] | ||
The miniseries is presented as six "one-hour" (44 minute) episodes, rather than as three "two-hour" episodes as originally broadcast. These are named "The Key", "The Clock", "The Comb", "The Box", "The Eye", and "The Occupant". The DVD also includes an 18-minute long making-of featurette, "Inside The Lost Room", with comments from the writers and actors.
The Region 1 release of the DVD has had reported problems—the menus do not always display correctly, the previews of other Lionsgate attractions cannot be skipped (fast-forward and skip buttons are disabled), subtitles appear to be turned on by default in each program set (meaning that even if the viewer uses their DVD player's menu to turn them off, they will reappear whenever the disc jumps from one episode to the next), and the "play all" button does not work as expected.[6][7]
The Lost Room received mixed and average reviews, scoring 58 out of 100 on Metacritic. Positive reviews included Mike Duffy of the Detroit Free Press who called it "a terrific, six-hour miniseries, beautifully written and sharply directed." David Hinckley of the New York Daily News called it "a very complex metaphysical mystery, the enjoyment of which comes, in no small part, from the surprises that spill out as it slowly unfurls." Negative reviews came from Matt Roush of TV Guide, calling it "an especially silly descent into incoherence."[8]
The miniseries received two Emmy Award nominations, for Outstanding Main Title Design and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie.[9] It was nominated for Best Presentation on Television at the 33rd Saturn Awards.[10] Writers Laura Harkcom, Christopher Leone, and Paul Workman were nominated for a 2008 Writers Guild of America Award.[11]
In July 2010, the series' creators announced at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International that Red 5 Comics will be publishing a sequel, in comic book form, to The Lost Room.[12] Publication was expected in late summer or early autumn 2011 but it has yet to be released.[13]
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