"Other Worlds lie outside our seeing; beyond the beyond; on the edge of within. The Great Pyramids: erected by the Ancient Ones as a barricade at the portal between two dimensions; two separate realities. This is the story of one family drawn through a mysterious vortex into the other world and their perilous trek homeward."
-Opening narration to Roderick Taylor's Otherworld (1985)
From
the age of nuclear family sitcoms such as The Cosby Show (1984 – 1992) and Family
Ties (1989) arrives this family-oriented science fiction series, Otherworld
(1985).
Created by Roderick Taylor and airing on CBS, Otherworld -- much like The Fantastic Journey (1977) -- concerns a tightly-knit group of displaced people trapped in an alien world, moving from place to place, civilization to civilization, in search of a path home.
Created by Roderick Taylor and airing on CBS, Otherworld -- much like The Fantastic Journey (1977) -- concerns a tightly-knit group of displaced people trapped in an alien world, moving from place to place, civilization to civilization, in search of a path home.
In The Fantastic
Journey, that prized destination was the Devil Triangle's “Evoland” (in the East…) where
wayward travelers could return to their time periods and lands. In Otherworld, that destination is
“Emar,” a city where wayward travelers could also find portals home and return
to their lands as “sorcerers” and “kings.”
But where The Fantastic Journey
concerned a group of characters who became an ad-hoc family over the course of
many episodes and adventures, Otherworld focuses instead on an already-existing American family: The Sterlings.
That name sounds a lot like “Serling” (as in Rod Serling), which may or may not be an intentional tribute given the Twilight Zone nature of the premise.
That name sounds a lot like “Serling” (as in Rod Serling), which may or may not be an intentional tribute given the Twilight Zone nature of the premise.
More importantly, the word Sterling is defined as “genuine, pure or true,” and those descriptors very much apply to
this suburban family. The family
consists of resourceful engineer and Dad, Hal (Sam Groom), Mom and veterinarian
June (Gretchen Corbett) -- seemingly
named after June Cleaver -- teenagers Trace (Tony O’Dell) and Gina (Jonna
Lee), and little Smith (first Brandon Crane, then Chris Hebert).
In the first episode of Otherworld,
titled “Rules of Attraction,” the Sterlings are finishing up a summer vacation in
Egypt, where Hal has been working to construct a hydro-electric plant.
On the day of a great planetary alignment -- which has not occurred for 10,000 years -- the family visits the Great Pyramids. In short order, the family is zapped through a whirling vortex (shades of The Fantastic Journey, again), and whisked into an entirely new, alien world.
On the day of a great planetary alignment -- which has not occurred for 10,000 years -- the family visits the Great Pyramids. In short order, the family is zapped through a whirling vortex (shades of The Fantastic Journey, again), and whisked into an entirely new, alien world.
Specifically, the Sterlings arrive in
a barren “Forbidden Zone” outside the province of Sarlex, and have a terrifying
run-in with a Zone Trooper Kommander named Nuveen Kroll (Jonathan Banks). After Kroll attempts to arrest the family for
traveling in a restricted area, the Sterlings overpower him and appropriate
his military hover-craft. More importantly, the
Sterlings take Kroll’s “access crystal,” a small, cylindrical key which permits unlimited access
to travel and information banks in this bizarre totalitarian world. In short order, Kroll is ordered to catch the
fugitives and retrieve his access crystal.
Hoping to hide and blend in with the populace, the Sterlings soon settle
down in the mining Province of Sarlex, which seems a weird reflection of 1950s
America. Everyone seems to live by the edicts of a
strangely-worded Bible, and in Leave it to Beaver-styled family units. The government of Sarlex even orders Mom – a medical
professional – to become a “housewife.”
Meanwhile, Trace falls in love with a high-school classmate, the
beautiful Nova (Amanda Wyss).
But the Sterlings have a shock
coming. Everyone in the town,
including Nova herself, is an android, a “plasmoid replicant” designed to work
the mines, which produce a radiation poisonous to human beings.
When June falls ill from exposure to the radiation, the Sterlings realize they must flee their new home, in search of another, and Nova helps the family escape through a series of subterranean tunnels. Before Nova says farewell to the Sterlings, she also tells Trace of Emar, the capital province where a technology is located that can send them home. She also informs them that in this strange world “every province is completely different” and also that “a long time ago, people would follow” strange monuments to reach Emar.
When June falls ill from exposure to the radiation, the Sterlings realize they must flee their new home, in search of another, and Nova helps the family escape through a series of subterranean tunnels. Before Nova says farewell to the Sterlings, she also tells Trace of Emar, the capital province where a technology is located that can send them home. She also informs them that in this strange world “every province is completely different” and also that “a long time ago, people would follow” strange monuments to reach Emar.
Cutting to the chase, “Rules of Attraction,” the pilot for
Otherworld is a really great opening hour, and one that wastes no time
beginning the adventure. We learn just enough about the family before the unexpected trip through the vortex,
and then suddenly, we’re in an entirely different world, and in a new adventure.
In the finesttradition of science
fiction television, “Rules of Attraction” also involves a social critique of
the then-contemporary “real” culture in which it was produced. Specifically, Trace has trouble accepting
that Nova – as an artificial life form – can feel love as fully as he does. “It’s not the same,” he declares
This
is the old, widely-accepted fallacy we have all heard over the past few generations in America: that people of
different ethnicity, religion and race don’t possess the same evolved sense of family,
love and humanity as we do; that they are somehow “inferior” beings. In this case, Trace suggests that Nova must leave
Sarlex with him, since he can’t possibly leave his family. Of course, she points out that she can’t
leave her family, either. But Trace has
a tough time seeing the families as equivalent.
“If you cut me, I bleed. It’s the
same,” Nova declares, hoping to sway him.
Making her point in brilliant, pointed fashion, Nova later shows Trace exactly where her “soul” is located (in a wall
of computerized machinery beneath the city), and then challenges the Sterling
boy to show her his soul.
Of course, he can’t so easily pinpoint his own soul, and so the question becomes, how do we know we have souls? Is it possible that the machines are more “alive” and “spiritual” than we are?
Of course, he can’t so easily pinpoint his own soul, and so the question becomes, how do we know we have souls? Is it possible that the machines are more “alive” and “spiritual” than we are?
Talk about a heady brew for a first
outing on network television...but Otherworld is extremely ambitious in terms of its subject matter and perspective on that material. At its root, “Rules of Attraction” brilliantly
discusses racism in this subplot of Trace/Nova, which involves, essentially, an interracial
romance. I must confess, I was gratified
to see the series so quickly and so efficiently move into the “meat” of its
theme, when so many opening episodes of cult-TV require laborious set-up and lengthy exposition. But Otherworld gets right to
the action, and right to the beating heart of its premise.
There’s an even more subversive
aspect of “Rules of Attraction” as well.
The Sterling family meets with neighbors (who resemble the Flanders on The
Simpsons) and there’s this uncomfortable sense of someone behind-the-scenes (the androids progenitors?)
intentionally creating a world of social inequality, a world of 1950s stereotypes. For instance, women are not supposed to hold
down jobs, only do the shopping. Why have the androids been created in the image of...an outmoded patriarchy?
At episode’s end, Hal battles for
replicant rights by destroying a main computer under Sarlex that can audit the personal
memories of each android, thus freeing them from domination by the Zone
Troopers. With this very Captain-Kirkian
blow against a corrupt establishment, one gets a sense of Otherworld’s burgeoning
sense of morality and ethics. I
remember watching this pilot in January of 1985 and thinking, at the time, that
Otherworld was as close to a new Star Trek as we were likely to get in the
1980s in terms of TV sci-fi probing the edges and parameters of the human equation.
Of course, Star Trek: The Next
Generation premiered less than two years later. So I was wrong.
Still, there was a delight in discovering Otherworld on CBS, and its full-throated sense of humor and social commentary. Simply put…I loved this show. And I can't figure out why in Hell it isn't available on DVD, or at least for streaming. I know it boasts an avid cult-following...
Still, there was a delight in discovering Otherworld on CBS, and its full-throated sense of humor and social commentary. Simply put…I loved this show. And I can't figure out why in Hell it isn't available on DVD, or at least for streaming. I know it boasts an avid cult-following...
Next
Week: Otherworld episode 2, “Zone Troopers Build Men” starring Mark Lenard.
A DVDr version is available. I have it and recently watched it again after all those years. I agree, the pilot episode is really strong. But by the middle of their 8 episode run, the wheels were coming off the wagon. Definitely uneven in terms of quality.
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