ODYSSEY 5
2002-3
19 Episodes
Created by: Manny Coto
Never has a television series started with something quite as epic as the idea of a bunch of astronauts seeing the shining blue Earth beneath their ship suddenly and inexplicably destroyed, leaving them hanging in space with no home to go to. After a opening like that you don’t really have anywhere left to go, do you? Except, for the five members of the spaceship Odyssey, back in time by five years (courtesy of a friendly alien) to try to figure out what caused the big kablooie in the first place...
It’s a grand idea given suitable gravitas by Peter Weller as the head of the Odyssey five – the kind of gravelly, no-nonsense butt-kicker you’d want to investigate the end of the world if such a thing were required. The rest of his team spread out and do their own thing: one tries to get rich because he knows who’s going to win every sporting event for the next five years; one tries to prevent her daughter from dying, but these are domestic distractions away from the bigger picture: what destroyed the Earth, and how?
Guess we’ll never really know, seeing as this stylish and intelligent series went all kablooie itself. Curses! At least Manny Coto, a man of great taste and class (he reads SFX – cough) went on to better things: after jazzing up the ailing Enterprise, he’s now making Jack Bauer’s life a living hell in 24.
Go to the next one-season wonder: MIRACLES
