Otherworld

One part Sliders and one part Lost in Space, this show was too hard to understand and too brief on TV. Creativity unleashed, the series was wild and fantastic with a knock-out babe of a daughter, a Ken doll perfect son and an annoying little brother who with their parents found themselves trapped in a quantum reality which our world could have been - separated even more by social, political and religous boundaries. Maybe it could have survived as a Saturday morning show, but like the castaways and the Robinsons, we had to leave them left behind.

This show tried to take a different road from most. A story of a family who fell through a "hole" into an alternate reality, it took that premise in directions that most have never tried. It contained some of the most sophisticated writing that science fiction television had seen up to that time, with a deceptive subtlety couched in satire. Part allegory, part drama, part family, with frequent "winks" to the audience (characters spouting lines that seem to convey that they know more than they are supposed to, but the lines that follow add a more consistent context). CBS never knew how to promote it. "Rock and Roll Suicide" (in which the kids -- stuck in a place where the entertainment is REALLY boring -- invent rock and roll) is a sociological commentary on non-conformance with several stabs at dogmatic religion (the Church of Artificial Intelligence to be precise). "Mansion of the Beast" is essentially a retelling of that fairy tale. The show is not completely successful. Series television is inevitably a crap shoot. You try your best. But its fresh outlook, intelligent scripting, and tongue-in-cheek humor put it a cut above most. It deserved more of a chance. Also, although the episodes as they ran on the Sci-Fi channel were deftly cut, some of the humor was lost. Pity. I recently learned that there are 5 episodes that never aired. Let's bring this one out on DVD with the missing episodes included.

Although the characters and the plot was different, the premise is very similar: a group of people (a family this time) are on a parallel world trying to get back to their own. Instead of sliding from one universe to the next, they travel extensively on the world they originally entered. Each "province" they travel to is as different as the worlds that the Sliders visited.

Of all the shows to come and go during the 80's, Otherworld established itself as a series that needed better. Perhaps time and the powers that be could'nt save this show, but it definately had a storyline that could have really been spectacular. Filled with alternate universe strangeness, tinges of cultural mirroring and a 80's futuristic feel and look that permeates it right down to the pseudo Tangerine Dream soundwork of Sylvester Levay, the series progressivly reached highs and lows with some of its stories, however that was not totally unexpected. Audiences back then were not very tollerant of sci-fi programming like they are now, and the world created by Mr. Taylor was definately in need of more time and a better litmus test before it could fully become a hit. At last, it was not to be, but it still lives in the hearts and minds as one of the more interesting series to come about during the rocky road of sci-fi programming.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it was the on-going saga of the Sterling family who find themselves trapped in a alternate universe during a visit to Egypt during a planetary conjunction. The world they now wander has many provinces each with their own unique twist. Sarlax: with its population completely comprised of androids. Adore: where society is based upon female control or Metraplex: A society controlled the MacroElite with MicroWorkers being the underclass. Futuristic sights and sounds pervade this strange world as they seek the province of Imar and a way to get back to Earth but its not an easy task as every place they go has an unexpected danger, as well, hot on their heels is a commander in this worlds armed forces known as Zone Troopers who will stop at nothing to capture the Sterlings and restore his honor that they took from him.

The series is currently owned by SciFi/USA networks so it will undoubtedly show up from time to time on possibly both channels. If you are fortunate to catch it, view with an open mind and an unassuming heart and you might just be surprised.

When this show was on the air, I was in high school. I thought the show had lots of imagination. Some episodes worked, others didn't. But when they worked, they were great! I just wish there had been more episodes produced. I think there were only like 8 episodes made.