Mysterious Island (TV series)

Mysterious Island is a Canadian and New Zealand television series based on Jules Verne's 1875 novel L'Île mystérieuse. It ran for one season in 1995.

Mysterious Island
GenreScience fiction
Adventure
StarringAlan Scarfe
John Bach
Colette Stevenson
Stephen Lovatt
Gordon Michael Woolvett
Country of originCanada and New-Zealand[1]
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes22
Production
Running time45 minutes
Production companiesAtlantis Films
Tasman Film & Television Ltd.
Release
Original networkFamily Channel
Original releaseJune 15 (1995-06-15) –
November 9, 1995 (1995-11-09)

The beginning of the series is much as in the novel. A group of refugees attempting to escape the American Civil War in a balloon wind up stranded on a remote Pacific island, where they are able to improvise a comfortable living for themselves while they wait for a passing ship. As time passes, they become suspicious that some unseen force is watching and directing their movements.

The main difference between the protagonists of the series and those of the novel is the addition of a female character, the wife of Pencroft.

The unseen watcher, Captain Nemo, is more active and less benevolent than in the novel. Able to monitor the island through steampunk-style closed-circuit television and other advanced devices, he treats the castaways as human laboratory specimens, influencing their environment to test their behaviour under stressful conditions. As the series progresses, his tests become more extreme as their continued co-operation threatens his preferred thesis that all humans are, at base, selfish and untrustworthy.

In the series finale, Nemo apparently succeeds in breaking up the group; this proves to be a ruse by the protagonists, who are now certain of Nemo's existence. After they penetrate his hideaway, Nemo admits that the 'experiment' is ruined, and offers to return the castaways to civilisation in his submarine. In a final twist, he puts out to sea without them, apparently leaving them alone on the island, without his influence for good or ill.

Cast

DVD releases

On November 11, 2008, Echobridge Home Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 (US only) for the very first time.[2]

On June 14, 2011, Alliance Home Entertainment will release Mysterious Island- The Complete series on DVD in Canada for the very first time.[3]

References
  1. Laurence Sudret and Luc Metery, L'Ile mystérieuse, une adaptation peu connue, in Bulletin de la Société Jules Verne 195, November 2017, pp.46-62
  2. Mysterious Island
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-05-09. Retrieved 2011-05-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)


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