S01E01 Genesis
The Battle of Richmond, March 20, 1865: Captured by Confederate forces, the group escapes their captors and flees in a helium balloon. Rising into the sky, the travelers and their balloon are carried away by...
Mysterious Island
S01E12: He's Not Heavy
Nemo intercepts a canoe and brings a wise old native woman to the island as a culture clash experience, but finds himself face to face with a superior power. Joanna's stand for women's rights has unexpected consequences.
Overview
Mysterious Island is a Canadian television series based on Jules Verne's 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 in a balloon wind up stranded on a remote Pacific 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, is more active and less benevolent than in the novel. Able to monitor the island through steampunk-style closed-circuit television 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.
Episodes
S01E02 Down Under
Herbert and Neb find Captain Harding alive in the cave but he has no memory of how he got there, only of slipping below the waves after jumping from the balloon. Reunited, Harding, Spilett and...
S01E03 Safe Haven
Following an earthquake, the group decides to seek shelter further inland. When a landslide strikes, Gideon becomes trapped beneath some large boulders. Harding and Neb set out to find materials to make an explosive change...
S01E04 White Water
Neb is rescued when a vine is lowered to him, although when Captain Harding and Herbert arrive, both deny being responsible. For Harding, it is another sign that they are not alone on the island....
S01E05 A Death In The Family
Jack leaps into the water to rescue his son from the unseen menace and they swim to the safety of the shore where Gideon has found a bottle. Back at Granite House a message is...
S01E06 Love Thy Neighbour
While the castaways grieve for Neb, Nemo revives him and puts him into suspended animation storage. Pencroft's jealousy leads him to hunt down Ayrton. Harding soon realizes the phantom presence on the island is causing...
S01E07 All That Glitters
Pirate Captain Cutler and three of his crew come to the island to collect their buried treasure and seek revenge on Ayrton, whose dark past is revealed.
S01E08 The Price Of Vengeance
Joanna stumbles into an underwater trap set by Nemo and the others race to free her. Shortly thereafter, Captain Cutler, sole survivor of his ship's destruction, makes his presence known on the island and leaves...
S01E09 The Phantom's Lair
Harding dives into Nemo's lair beneath the lake and is trapped in a chamber. Gideon is awakened by an intruder.
S01E10 It Should Be An Englishman
A tribe of native Islanders arrive on the island in search of Nui, a young native girl they believe has special significance.
S01E11 No One Rules Me
Nemo observes Harding's feelings about Joanna, manifested in romantic dreams, as part of his research into the workings of the human mind. Meanwhile, Joanna is trapped by an earthquake while Herbert discovers a cryptic note...
S01E12 He's Not Heavy
Nemo intercepts a canoe and brings a wise old native woman to the island as a culture clash experience, but finds himself face to face with a superior power. Joanna's stand for women's rights has...
S01E13 Make Yourselves A Home
Nemo fulfills a promise to Katira to bring the rest of her people to the island, then watches with glee as the natives take over Granite House and send the castaways into exile.
S01E14 First Impressions Are Skin Deep
A tattooed native man arrives on the island telling the castaways that he is on a spiritual quest. Nemo is delighted when his presence has a disruptive influence on the group.
S01E15 Gideon's Tale (1)
Herbert realizes that it is his birthday, but decides to keep it a secret. He is angry because he thinks Joanna has forgotten, and while she prepares a surprise gift for him, he decides to...
S01E16 Gideon's Tale (2)
When pirates bring two women to the island, Nemo uses the situation to study human mating habits. The women, meanwhile, set their sights on Gideon and Herbert, which encourages the men into a near fatal...
S01E17 Last Rites Of Spring
Joanna argues with Herbert after a dream about a baby, and leaves the Granite House, headed for Ayrton's cabin. She has an accident on the way there, and is rescued by Nemo, who drugs her...
S01E18 Labours Lost
Nemo's hidden camera in Granite House breaks down, so he disguises himself as a shipwrecked Englishman in order to gain admittance into the house to fix the equipment.
S01E19 The Visitor
A series of accidents leads Harding to come face to face with the mysterious phantom, and he struggles with how to share the shocking truth.
S01E20 What Are You Afraid Of?
The castaways share their experiences with the phantom and realize he may be their only hope of escaping the island.
S01E21 Plan And Attack
Nemo reveals to Harding that his need to complete his experiment is greater than his desire to help the castaways off the island, and Harding is forced to cut a deal.
S01E22 A Pact With The Devil
Harding carries out his part of the deal with Nemo, and the other castaways are enraged, moving from the Granite House into a makeshift hut on the beach, and prompting Nemo to announce his experiment...
S01E23 Going, Going...
Harding carries out his part of the deal with Nemo, and the other castaways are enraged, moving from the Granite House into a makeshift hut on the beach, and prompting Nemo to announce his experiment...
Cast
Alan Scarfe
Gordon Michael Woolvett
John Bach
Stephen Lovatt
Colette Stevenson
Andy Marshall
C. David Johnson
Jack Pencroft
