The Lost World (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The pilot television movie was edited down into episodes 1 and 2 for the TV series.
• The original 93-minute pilot movie was released on DVD in 4:3 PAL under the title The Lost World The Beginning.
• During the original run, the weekly syndicated wildfeed used the Galaxy 26 satellite at 93° West longitude.

Plot

A group of British explorers, led by the visionary Professor George Challenger, sets out to find a legendary lost world. The mismatched team includes his rival Professor Arthur Summerlee, wealthy Marguerite Krux, hunter Lord John Roxton, and journalist Edward Malone. Their hot-air balloon crashes onto an isolated Amazonian plateau where dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts still live. There they meet Veronica Layton, a resourceful woman whose scientist parents vanished eleven years earlier. Together, the group battles carnivorous dinosaurs, ape-men, cannibals, and other dangers while trying to escape. Each episode followed two separate storylines at once. Later episodes revealed the party became trapped in 1919.

Episodes

The final episode of the third season ended with an unresolved cliffhanger. Producers have revealed details of proposed fourth and fifth seasons from 2002. If produced, fans would have learned that Professor Arthur Summerlee was alive, residing in Avalon near the Plateau, where Veronica's surviving mother Abigail Layton had become the Plateau's protector. She left a triangle artifact called the Trion, the Eye of Heaven, for Veronica to find. Veronica was to become the new Protector of the Plateau, opposing the line of Mordren. Marguerite and Roxton were always meant to be together; Marguerite is a descendant of Morrighan, a druid priestess who served as a third power within the Trion forces. Roxton would be her guide so she chooses good. Because Morrighan's line descends from a Protector and the line of Mordren, Veronica and Marguerite are cousins genetically but sisters spiritually. Finn would have been revealed as Malone's great-great-granddaughter. The series would have resolved with Malone and Veronica together in Avalon, while Challenger uses a teleportation invention to send himself, Roxton, Marguerite, and Summerlee to London in the year 2005.

Characters

Professor George Edward Challenger (Peter McCauley) is a scholar and visionary who leads the expedition to prove his claims to the London Zoological Society. Marguerite Krux (Rachel Blakely) is the selfish financier and heiress who joins for her own reasons. Lord John Richard Roxton (William Snow) is a nobleman and hunter who accidentally killed his brother; he serves as the group's protector. Edward 'Ned' T. Malone (David Orth) is an American reporter seeking fame. Veronica Layton (Jennifer O'Dell) is a jungle girl whose parents disappeared eleven years prior. Professor Arthur Summerlee (Michael Sinelnikoff) is a scientist who initially doubts Challenger's claims. Finn (Lara Cox) is a young woman from 2033 who debuts in season 3, hoping to prevent a post-apocalyptic future. Assai (Laura Vasquez) is daughter of the Zanga Indian leader and a childhood friend of Veronica. Tribune (Jerome Ehlers) leads a tribe of lizard men. William Maple White (Robert Coleby) is a scientist whose initial exploration instigates Challenger's expedition. Prehistoric animals on the plateau include Tyrannosaurus, Deinonychus, Ankylosaurus, Brontosaurus, Giant Bee, Dilophosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Plesiosaurus, Pteranodon, Smilodon (cut from the completed program), and Triceratops.

Broadcast

The first part of the series originally aired on pay-per-view via DirecTV in summer 1999, uncensored with nudity and extended scenes, before airing in syndication. The syndicated version on TV and DVD releases is edited. The first broadcast TV run ran weekly in syndication on hundreds of US stations, including the WB 100+ group stations. Each episode aired one week later on WGN America and on Space TV in Canada. The series reran in daily strip form on TNT in early morning hours. It aired in Europe on SciFi Channel Europe and was dubbed in Bengali for Bangladesh on ATN Bangla in 2009. As of 2022, the series airs on South African channel SABC 3 on weekdays around 01:00.