''Mysterious Island'' is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

television series based on

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

'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 The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

in a

balloon A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light so ...

wind up stranded on a remote

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

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 Captain Nemo (; later identified as an Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' ( ...

, is more active and less benevolent than in the novel. Able to monitor the island through

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...

-style

closed-circuit television Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

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.

Plot summary

Cast

Frank Whitten Frank Edgar Richard Whitten (15 November 1942 – 12 February 2011) was a New Zealand television actor. He was more recently known for playing Ted "Grandpa" West in the New Zealand television show '' Outrageous Fortune''.Megahey, LeslieEsteeme ...

as Ayrton * Colette Stevenson as Joanna Pencroft *

Alan Scarfe Alan John Scarfe (born 8 June 1946) is a British–Canadian actor, stage director and author. He is a former Associate Director of the Stratford Festival (1976–77) and the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool (1967–68). He won the 1985 Genie A ...

as Captain Cyrus Harding * C. David Johnson as Jack Pencroft * Stephen Lovatt as Gideon Spilett *

Gordon Michael Woolvett Gordon Michael Woolvett (born 1970) is a Canadian actor from Hamilton, Ontario. Career Woolvett's most enduring role was as Seamus Zelazny Harper on the television series '' Andromeda'' (2000–2005). Prior to ''Andromeda'' he starred in anoth ...

as Herbert Pencroft *

Andy Marshall Andrew John Marshall (born 14 April 1975) is an English former professional footballer who played for Norwich City, AFC Bournemouth, Gillingham, Ipswich Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Millwall, Coventry City and the England under-21 team. He ...

as Neb Brown *

John Bach John Bach (born 5 June 1946) is a British-born New Zealand actor who has acted on stage, television and film over a period of more than four decades. Though born in the United Kingdom, he has spent most of his career living and working in New Z ...

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

References

External links

* * 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 {{Canada-drama-tv-prog-stub