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Earth2 is a 22-segment
science fiction series co-produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment
& Universal Television. The series executive producers are Mark Levin
("The Wonder Years"), Carol Flint ("China Beach") and Michael Duggan,
("Law & Order") none of whom have previous science fiction credits.
NBC scheduled Earth2 to
play opposite CBS's ratings star, "60 Minutes" and just before "SeaQuest
DSV," another Spielberg science fiction production for NBC. It premiered
on November 6, 1994, with the two-hour "First Contact." By close of the
season in June, 1995, the program had been
preempted eleven times. Earth2
does not fit the mold for science fiction adventures, the series is shot
in the open vistas of northern New Mexico and is short on special effects.
It features strong leadership roles for four females and spiritual or
nurturing attributes for some of the male characters.
Considering Spielberg's involvement it is not surprising that Earth2
would have a mythic base similar to "ET" but on Earth2
it is we who are the aliens. Set 200 years in the future when the depleted
Earth(1) is mostly uninhabitable, this series turns us back on ourselves
to reconsider our relationship to our own planet, indigenous peoples and
other species. While post-colonial and frontier metaphors abound, it is
the metaphysical themes and the unique semi-sentient planet that set this
program apart from other science fiction and adventure series. I will
argue that the series uses archetypal figures and mythic themes to promote
ideas of connectedness and wholeness as found in popular conceptions of
the scientific theory known as the Gaia hypothesis.
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