Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left

Did You Know?

• The novel's theme involves children forced to grow up too soon and take excessive responsibilities.
• In the novel, X cannot handle the stress and gets very ill, but is cured when she finds her place on the new planet.

Plot summary

The story is set on the planet Zyrgon, ruled by the galactic police called The Law-Enforcers. They pursue Mortimer, who has cheated the government lottery for the 27th time. His family is managed by his 12-year-old daughter X, who strives to save her father from the detention centre. The family includes Mother, who prefers designing clothing; oldest sister Dovis, a cosmic flier who writes poetry and levitates; and youngest brother Qwrk, a boy genius who is a professor at age 8. X must balance Earth customs like school with her duty to care for her family. Zyrgonians possess powers such as levitation, simulations, and kinetics, and live on an ultra-modern, dystopian planetoid.

Television series

The television adaptation of the story was produced in 1992 but did not air until the 1994–1995 season. It gained strong popularity in Australia and was broadcast in the UK on Children's Independent Television (CITV) and The Children's Channel (TCC), as well as across parts of Europe. No DVD release exists, but a few episodes came out on VHS in the United Kingdom during the early 1990s. The series consists of 28 episodes divided into two story arcs. The first arc closely follows the original novel, while the second introduces new material, some of which later appeared in the sequel novel Turn Right for Zyrgon. Filming took place entirely in Melbourne, Australia. The planet Zyrgon and the family’s interior home scenes were shot on the Crawford Productions sound-stage. The town of Bellwood was filmed in Williamstown, and the exterior of the family home is located in Surrey Hills. After production, the space raft props and other sets remained on the Crawford lot for a few years before being dismantled and destroyed. The series was repeated in the UK from 2007 to 2008 on CITV. A 70-minute compilation movie of the first three episodes aired on WIN Television as part of their Christmas Day programming. In Germany, the series was released on DVD under the title Quer Durch die Galaxie und dann Links, but only German language options are available.