A select group of young cadets in the twenty-first century is sent off on a spaceship to find a new home for humanity when Earth is deteriorating.A select group of young cadets in the twenty-first century is sent off on a spaceship to find a new home for humanity when Earth is deteriorating.A select group of young cadets in the twenty-first century is sent off on a spaceship to find a new home for humanity when Earth is deteriorating.
- Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys
- 2 nominations total
- Huxley Welles - Navigation
- (as Tom Breznahan)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJonathan Hays was born in 2067.
- GoofsThe ship supposedly catches up with radio waves broadcast from Earth in the past. However, their objective was only 18.7 light years away. Especially since they had only begun the trip, they should not have received any broadcasts older than a few weeks or months old. The broadcasts they received range from 1927 to 1987, which should have been 101-161 light years from Earth by the year 2088, more than five times the distance to Demeter. Also, because light cannot vary speed, they would not have caught up to all the broadcasts at once. The broadcasts would have gradually gotten older as they traveled further from Earth. (Additional note: There is no reason to suspect that the intercepted radio signals were original broadcasts; although that is the aside made in the movie. These could be rebroadcasted (reruns) programs from Earth on the same day in the same spatial direction.)
- Quotes
[Jake enters the ship's gym, looking around]
Brody: -Crew members are required to work out to maintain muscle tone.
Jake: -I'm not a crew member.
Brody: -But what about your body?
Jake: -What about it?
Brody: -Aren't you worried about letting it go?
Jake: -I'm a nice guy, I let it go wherever it wants to. Besides, I only need it to carry my brains around.
- Alternate versionsOriginally shown in two parts
- ConnectionsEdited into The Magical World of Disney: Earth Star Voyager: Part 2 (1988)
For years, this was in the back of my head, but I just assumed it a completely lost and forgotten TV film until I found bits and pieces of info. about it recently online. I finally found a bootleg of it on ebay from an original video someone had taped back in '88 and decided to relive a part of my childhood. The result: it holds up surprisingly well 17 years later.
Reading all the reviews here of people with fond memories of this now-forgotten gem, I realize that the central quality of the movie was its writing and characterizations. The writing especially: as I watched it again, I found myself remembering immediately many lines from this movie which I hadn't heard for years - they were that good. I have long maintained that solid writing and strong characters are the keys to great film-making; special effects and other things are important, too, but these two key ingredients were present here, and that is why I believe people remember this so well almost two decades later. The special effects do hold up rather well - probably because they were the work of Hollywood effects veteran Robert Edlund. Also, film composer Lalo Schifrin contributed what, in my opinion, is his best musical score.
In fact, doing some research on IMDb.com, I discovered that the director of this was a seasoned veteran of television going all the way back to "Rawhide" in the 1950s, "The Fugitive", and even a few classic episodes of "Star Trek." The writer was the creator of the TV series "Kung Fu." Obiously, some top-notch talent was involved. It's a shame that none of the actors or actresses went on to significant accomplishments beyond forgettable TV and B-movies - except for Henry Kingi, who played the Borg-like Shell. He is a popular Hollywood stuntman to this day in such films as "Constantine" and "The Matrix Reloaded," and he did display a true presence in ESV.
The creativity at work here was definitely on a par with the original "Star Trek" series - another work which had dozens of visionary ideas in addition to memorable characterizations. "Star Trek" eventually got resurrected times ten, and I think Disney is long overdue in releasing this on DVD in the U.S. (which it never did on VHS, either). It seems to me that a great deal more work went into this than the typical forgettable TV pilot (Disney CEO Michael Eisner even appeared in two television introductions on the set), and yet somehow Disney/Buena Vista just abandoned this. I personally emailed the company requesting a release, and received a reply stating that they are taking it into consideration. Hopefully, this has gotten the ball rolling.
- Sturgeon54
- Jul 2, 2005