Mysterious Island (TV series)
| Mysterious Island | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction Adventure |
| Starring | Alan Scarfe John Bach Stephen Lovatt Gordon Michael Woolvett |
| Country of origin | Canada and New-Zealand[1] |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Production companies | Atlantis Films |
| Release | |
| Original network | Family Channel |
| Original release | June 15 – November 9, 1995 |
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.
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[]
- Frank Whitten as Ayrton
- as Joanna Pencroft
- Alan Scarfe as Captain Cyrus Harding
- C. David Johnson as Jack Pencroft
- Stephen Lovatt as Gideon Spilett
- Gordon Michael Woolvett as Herbert Pencroft
- as Neb Brown
- John Bach as Captain Nemo
DVD releases[]
On November 11, 2008, 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[]
- ^ 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
- ^ Mysterious Island
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-05-09. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links[]
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- Canadian adventure television series
- Television shows based on French novels
- Television shows based on works by Jules Verne
- 1995 Canadian television series debuts
- 1995 Canadian television series endings
- 1990s Canadian drama television series
- Television series set on fictional islands
- Works based on The Mysterious Island
- Canadian television show stubs