Who remembers the short-lived 2002 Canadian sci-fi series “Odyssey 5,” starring “RoboCop” actor Peter Weller? Who remembers loving it? Perhaps too few, as the premise of “Odyssey 5” is rather brilliant. Sadly, it only lasted for a single 19-episode season.
Created by the late Manny Coto, “Odyssey 5” is set in the then-near future of 2007 on board a space shuttle called the Odyssey. The ship is crewed by a small group of professionals, including the stalwart astronaut commander Chuck Taggart (Weller), Taggart’s son Neil (Christopher Goram), a fellow astronaut named Angela (Tamara Marie Watson), a geneticist named Kurt (Sebastian Roché), and a reporter named Sarah (Leslie Silva). While orbiting the Earth, the Odyssey witnesses the planet, without warning, rapidly sizzle up and implode. The universe’s human population is abruptly reduced to single digits.
Just when the astronauts begin to figure that they’ll die in space, a mysterious inorganic alien called the Seeker (John Neville) appears to them. The Seeker reveals that many inhabited planets in the universe have been similarly imploding, but it is unable to stop the cataclysms from happening. The Seeker can, however, shunt the consciousnesses of the five remaining survivors, the Odyssey 5, back in time to the year 2002, allowing them to inhabit their old bodies, and begin investigating what happened that caused the Earth to implode.
What follows is a widespread sci-fi conspiracy series about a government program nicknamed Leviathan and groups of warring human-like androids called Synthetics, which are under the control of a villainous non-corporeal species called the Sentients. It’s also a personal drama about the five main characters trying to re-adjust to life in 2002 with the foreknowledge of the next five years of their lives.
Odyssey 5 only lasted for one season
The drama on “Odyssey 5” was two-pronged. Half of the series is devoted to sci-fi intrigue as the main characters — not close friends who sometimes resent their shared time-travel experience – investigate aliens and androids. The other half is all the personal drama that stems from knowing too much about your future. Sarah, for instance, is reunited with her dead son, who had, in 2007, recently died of cancer. Angela knows that her father, a senator, is about to be busted for deep corruption scandals. Neil, meanwhile, is suddenly 17 again.
Causality is clearly not an issue in the world of “Odyssey 5,” as the main characters had been sent back in time to explicitly rewrite history. As such, history begins changing around them. Kurt decides to get rich by betting on a football game he knows the outcome of, but it seems that, through an oblique set of circumstances, the outcome changes.
The blend of the sci-fi and the personal can make for some pretty amusing plot synopses. In one episode, Neil finds that he is being followed by an insidious A.I. monster called Kit-10. In that same episode’s B-plot, Sarah loses visitation rights to see her son. Those are both dramatic stories, of course, but of much different consequences.
Talented people from “Star Trek” are all over “Odyssey 5.” David Carson, who directed “Star Trek: Generations,” directed the pilot. “Generations” may be the most useless “Star Trek” movie, but it’s also weirdly one of the best sci-fi films of 1994, and Carson did an exemplary job. Peter Weller, meanwhile, would later appear on “Star Trek: Enterprise” and also in “Star Trek Into Darkness,” and directed a few “Odyssey 5” episodes himself.
They’re far from the only “Trek” veterans involved with this show.
Odyssey 5 has a lot of Star Trek talent involved
“Odyssey 5” creator Manny Coto would eventually become a showrunner on “Star Trek: Enterprise,” and several episodes of “Odyssey 5” were written by the late Tracy Tormé, the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” writer who popularized holodeck episodes. Another “Next Generation” writer, Melinda Snodgrass, wrote one episode of “Odyssey 5.” Additionally, one of the show’s recurring characters, Neil’s older brother Marc, was played by Kenneth Mitchell, an actor who has had multiple roles on the newer “Star Trek” shows. If you were missing that “Star Trek” vibe in 2002, and “Star Trek: Enterprise” wasn’t quite doing it for you, “Odyssey 5” may serve as an intelligent substitute.
Reviews for “Odyssey 5” were all positive back in 2002, and the series has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on a mere seven reviews. Laura Fries, writing for Variety, noted that it was a welcome replacement for “The X-Files,” which had recently gone off the air, only given a little bit more edge because of its cussing and nudity (“Odyssey 5” aired in the United States on Showtime). She also noted, though, that Peter Weller, although the big celebrity “get” of the series, was also its weakest link. “Weller has proved he has the stuff to carry a show,” Fries wrote, “but in this debut episode, he doesn’t appear physically up to the challenge. […] Taggart should be less RoboCop and more Buckaroo Banzai.” (That’s a reference to a different Peter Weller movie character.)
The premise, however, outstrips any criticisms. Maybe “Odyssey 5” should have kept on going.
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