Návštěvníci (TV series)

Návštěvníci (The Visitors) is a Czechoslovak sci-fi TV series filmed between 1981 and 1983 by Czech director Jindřich Polák. The 15 parts were co-produced with television-companies of the Federal Republic of Germany (West-Germany at that time), Switzerland and France. As an additional 16th part for Germany a "Making Of" was produced under the title "Besuch bei den Besuchern" (Visiting the Visitors). In West-Germany the series got the title Die Besucher (The Visitors), in the German Democratic Republic it was called Expedition Adam 84.

Plot

In the 25th century—more precisely, in the year 2484—people live in a peaceful world. Thus, mankind is horrified when CML (Central Brain of Mankind), the main supercomputer managing the fate of humankind and Earth, announces an upcoming disaster. It has spotted a huge space object on a collision course with Earth. The impact is unavoidable, and the prediction is that a significant part of the Earth will be destroyed.

But there is hope. Professor Filip, biographer of the greatest physicist ever, Adam Bernau, offers a plan to save mankind — a time travel to the past. Adam Bernau was a genius mathematician and physicist of the 20th and 21st centuries, and winner of the Nobel prize. In his memoirs, Bernau stated that in his childhood he wrote down in his notebook a short formula that would allow the moving of whole continents, worlds and planets. This can save the Earth.

Professor Filip selects a four-member team for the trip, and their expedition begins. The expedition plans to spend just a few hours in the past to save the formula from being burned by a fire in Adam Bernau's home, but something goes wrong, and they are forced to spend several weeks. In the end they realize that the so-called formula was just a juvenile imagination of Adam Bernau and they return to the future, taking with them the old Mr Drchlík, who has helped them much in the past. Mr Drchlík notices the Central Brain standing asymmetric and fixes this with a wooden wedge, and suddenly the Central Brain realizes an error in its calculation. The whole expedition had been moot.

Reception

The series has been released in several other European countries, including Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania and Spain.

Miscellanneous

The soundtrack of the series was released in 1984 on LP Supraphon 1113 3473H, which also included the soundtrack of Létající Čestmír (1984), also composed by Karel Svoboda, a series with the German title Der fliegende Ferdinand (The Flying Ferdinand). The soundtrack was re-issued on CD by Czechoslovak Universal in 2004.

Gadgets and costumes were designed by Theodor Pištěk, later Oscar winner.

The widow of a real professor Filip sued the creators of the series for profanation of her husband's name. She won, and the main character had to be renamed Professor Richard.^[1] This hurt the quality of the sound in the Czech version in the whole series. In the German versions the name was changed to "Philip" to avoid changing the dubbing.

Episodes

References

External links

• IMDB Entry
• (Czech) Facebook group Fan Site