The Fantastic Journey
| The Fantastic Journey | |
|---|---|
The cast from left: Katie Saylor, Roddy McDowall, and Carl Franklin. At front: Ike Eisenmann and Jared Martin
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| Genre | Science fiction |
| Written by |
D. C. Fontana Richard Fielder Robert Hamilton Leonard Katzman Ken Kolb Howard Livingstone Michael Michaelian Katharyn Powers |
| Directed by |
Barry Crane Alf Kjellin Art Fisher Victor French Vincent McEveety Andrew V. McLaglen David Moessinger Irving J. Moore Virgil Vogel |
| Starring |
Jared Martin Ike Eisenmann Carl Franklin Katie Saylor Roddy McDowall |
| Composer(s) |
Dick DeBenedictis Robert Prince |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Bruce Lansbury |
| Producer(s) | Leonard Katzman |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 45–48 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Bruce Lansbury Productions Columbia Pictures Television |
| Distributor | Columbia TriStar Domestic Television Sony Pictures Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | February 3 – June 17, 1977 |
The Fantastic Journey is an American science fiction television series that was originally aired on NBC from February 3 through June 17, 1977.
The series concerns a family and their associates who charter a boat out into the Caribbean for a scientific expedition. After an encounter in the area of the Bermuda Triangle with an unnatural green cloud, the group find themselves shipwrecked on a mysterious uncharted island from which they are unable to escape.
They encounter Varian (Jared Martin), initially disguised as an Arawak native, who is later revealed to be from the year 2230. A 23rd-century pacifist, musician and healer, Varian explains to the travelers that, like he and many before them, they have been caught in a space/time continuum where people from the past, present, future and from other worlds are trapped, co-existing on the island in a series of timezones. The only way home can be found in a place called "Evoland", which lies "far to the rising sun". (It was indicated in interviews of the time that Evoland was also the name of the island.) The only way to travel between timezones is via invisible gateways that instantaneously transport individuals or groups from one zone to another. In one episode "Beyond The Mountain" the group also encounters a second cloud, which has much the same effect, but which also splits up the group.
After the initial pilot story, a steady group of travelers forms around Varian as de facto leader, and the series then follows this group as they travel across the many timezones of the island to find Evoland. On their way, they encounter people from different planets and times who are also trapped on the island and who have adapted to their plight in different ways. The pilot initially suggested the historical past would be explored; however, the producers of the show rapidly adopted a consistently futuristic tone during the series following pressure from the network. They also dropped three characters after the pilot as they wanted a more exotic group of travellers, hence the arrival of Liana and Willoway. Liana disappears from the last two episodes when Katie Saylor fell ill.
DC Fontana recalled that once the show had been commissioned, she and the producers had a very short period of time to develop and produce the show before filming commenced in January 1977. Additional scenes were filmed and inserted into the pilot which introduces the Atlanteans who are the focus of Episode 2, but this new material also quickly moves offscreen the characters Paul, Eve and Jill (who were originally intended to be regulars), as the network wanted a more diverse group of travellers. Also, a subplot involving the travellers finding a 1940s Air Force pilot held prisoner by 16th century pirates was removed from the first episode.
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