| The Lost World | |
|---|---|
| Format | Adventure Science Fiction Fantasy |
| Starring | Peter McCauley Rachel Blakely William Snow David Orth Jennifer O'Dell |
| Country of origin | Canada Australia New Zealand |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 66 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Greg Coote Jeffery Hayes Guy Mullally John Landis Leslie Belzberg |
| Running time | 44 minutes (approx.) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | PPV/DirecTV (1999), TNT (1999) (pilot/TV-movie only), syndicated (1999–2002) |
| Picture format | SDTV |
| Original run | February 1999 (movie pilot on DirecTV), April 3, 1999 (movie–pilot on cable), July 30, 1999 (series on DirecTV PPV), October 2, 1999 (series on broadcast TV) – May 13, 2002 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World is a syndicated television series loosely based on the 1912 novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World. Premiered in the fall of 1999 (after the TV-movie/pilot aired in February on DirecTV and then on the cable television channel TNT in April), it ran for three seasons before it was cancelled on a cliffhanger in 2002 after funding for a fourth season fell through. To date, the cliffhanger remains unresolved. All three seasons were released in DVD box sets through 2004. The series continued to be rerun in the United States on TNT at 5:00AM EST Monday through Friday, until eventually that came to an end as well.
The series originally aired on Pay-per-view via DirecTV in the summer of 1999 before it aired on syndication. Pay-per-view aired the show uncensored, containing nudity and extended scenes. The syndicated version on TV and DVD releases are edited.[1][2][3][4][5]
Contents |
At the dawn of the 20th century, a band of adventurers, led by adventurer and scholar Professor Edward Challenger, embark on an expedition to prove the existence of a lost world isolated from the rest of the modern world. The British expedition team consisting of a mismatched group of enthusiasts, all with less than selfless reasons for making the journey begin their trip under less than ideal conditions. The intrepid band consists of:
During their journey disaster strikes and their hot air balloon crashes in the uncharted Amazon jungle, where they end up on the prehistoric plateau. There they find themselves trapped and isolated in this dangerous land. The group is assisted by a young jungle-savvy woman named Veronica Layton (Jennifer O'Dell) whose parents disappeared eleven years prior. Her family was part of a research group that became isolated and then lost under mysterious circumstances. Together - along with a young woman from the future named Finn (Lara Cox) who joins the band near the middle of season three - the group fights to survive against fearsome dinosaurs, tribal headhunters, vicious ape-men, a race of Lizardmen led by Tribune (Jerome Ehlers), and other perils as they search for a way to escape.
| Episode # | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Journey Begins (Pilot pt. 1) | All or Nothing | Out of the Blue |
| 2 | Stranded (Pilot pt. 2) | Amazons | The Travelers |
| 3 | More Than Human | Tourist Season | An Eye for an Eye |
| 4 | Nectar | Stone Cold | True Spirit |
| 5 | Cave of Fear | Divine Right | The Knife |
| 6 | Salvation | Skin Deep | Fire in the Sky |
| 7 | Blood Lust | London Calling | Dead Man's Hill |
| 8 | Out of Time | The Prisoner | Hollow Victory |
| 9 | Paradise Found | The Games | A Witch's Calling |
| 10 | The Beast Within | The Source | Brothers in Arms |
| 11 | Creatures of the Dark | Trophies | Ice Age |
| 12 | Tribute | Voodoo Queen | The End Game |
| 13 | Absolute Power | The Guardian | Phantoms |
| 14 | Camelot | Under Pressure | The Secret |
| 15 | Unnatural Selection | The Outlaw | Finn |
| 16 | Time After Time | Quality of Mercy | Suspicion |
| 17 | Prodigal Father | Mark of the Beast | The Imposters |
| 18 | Birthright | Survivors | The Elixir |
| 19 | Resurrection | The Pirate's Curse | Tapestry |
| 20 | The Chosen One | The Visitor | Legacy |
| 21 | Prophecy | A Man of Vision | Trapped |
| 22 | Barbarians at the Gate | Into the Fire | Heart of the Storm (Series Finale) |
The list follows the credits order. The seasons during which each actor has been included in the main cast are marked in black. Note that the actors don't necessarily appear in every episode during their time as a main star.
When a starring actor also has appeared as a guest star during other seasons, this is marked in gray, with the number of guest appearances noted in italics. White square means the actor doesn't appear in that season at all.
| Actor(s) | Character | Appearances | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | S 1 | S 2 | S 3 | ||||
| Peter McCauley | Professor George Edward Challenger | ||||||
| Rachel Blakely | Marguerite Krux | ||||||
| William Snow | Lord John Richard Roxton | ||||||
| Jennifer O'Dell | Veronica Layton | ||||||
| Michael Sinelnikoff | Professor Arthur Summerlee | 1 | |||||
| David Orth | Edward 'Ned' T. Malone | ||||||
| Lara Cox | Finn | ||||||
| William deVry | Edward 'Ned' T. Malone | ||||||
Image Entertainment has released all three seasons of The Lost World on DVD in Region 1.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 22 | January 27, 2004 |
| Season 2 | 22 | April 20, 2004 |
| Season 3 | 22 | November 16, 2004 |
Lara Cox appeared in the second half of the third season as Finn, but was never given credit in the opening credits. In the 2nd season episode "Amazons" she had a guest appearance as the Amazon "Phoebe".
William deVry played Ed Malone in the two-hour telefilm that preceded the series (the film was split into two episodes for syndication purposes). David Orth took over the role at the start of the series proper.
The character of Arthur Summerlee, as portrayed by Michael Sinelnikoff, was killed off in the first season finale, but returned once as a ghost during Season 2.
During the third season both David Orth and Jennifer O'Dell were absent from the series for several consecutive episodes, due in part to financial constraints.
The show was primarily filmed on the Gold Coast, near Brisbane, Queensland on Australia's east coast.
Several well-known Australian actors appeared as one off characters throughout the series, including Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Rebecca Gibney.
The producers of the show have revealed some details of the proposed fourth and even fifth seasons from 2002. If the subsequent season had been produced, fans would have learned that Professor Arthur Summerlee was indeed alive, residing in Avalon. Avalon, near the border of the Plateau, is where Veronica's surviving mother Abigail Layton had become the Plateau's protector soon after her disappearance. She became the ruler of Avalon and had left behind a triangle artifact- the Trion, the Eye of Heaven- for her daughter Veronica to find. Veronica was to become the new Protector of the Plateau. Her tree-house dwelling was apparently the epicenter of the entire Plateau.
The new season would have also revealed that Marguerite and Roxton were always meant to be together from the beginning. As Veronica is the new Protector of the Plateau, Marguerite is a descendant of Morrighan, her ancestor whom came from "the line of Mordren;" they are the opposing forces against the Protectors. Marguerite as the "third power" within the Trion forces, was a free will agent allowed to choose good or evil in the battle against power over the Plateau. Roxton, Marguerite's knight, protector, and future groom would have been her personal guide so that Marguerite would ultimately choose "good." Also, because of Marguerite's Celtic heritage within the line of Mordren whose presence is on the Plateau and Veronica's bloodline with the Protectors, Veronica and Marguerite are cousins genetically, but spiritually are sisters. Roxton's role as Marguerite's modern day knight originates with his childhood and ancestral home having close proximity to Avebury, nearly twenty miles from Stonehenge.