Otherworld

• Created by Roderick Taylor
• January 26, 1985 to March 16, 1985
• CBS

Cast

• Hal Sterling (father) – Sam Groom
• June Sterling (mother) – Gretchen Corbett
• Trace Sterling (son) – Tony O’Dell
• Gina Sterling (teen daughter) – Jonna Lee
• Smith Sterling (youngest child)-Brandon Crane (pilot), Chris Hebert (series)
• Kommander Nuveen Kroll – Jonathan Banks
• Lieutenant Zero (Kommander Kroll’s aide) – Wayne Alexander

Finding themselves on a strange world very different from our own, the Sterling Family must keep ahead of a fanatical agent of that world’s government while looking for a way to get back home.

Otherworld was a short-lived family friendly science-fiction series from the mid-80s. Family friendly isn’t bad, but this show often travelled into cartoon family friendly territory and not live action family friendly. Character development is often poor, and the internal logic of the series is weak if existing at all per episode. Watching it now I find it a bit like a late 70s adventure cartoon.

Otherworld though certainly has its charm. Maybe it’s because I grew up during this time, but I do have a soft spot for the show otherwise I wouldn’t have re-watched it for this. This was from a simpler time when not everything needed to be so serious. There was no need to be a Debbie Downer about humanity or life or anything really.

I need to say that Jonathan Banks as Kommander Nuveen Kroll was probably one of the better science-fiction television villains of the 80s as well as being one of the better developed characters in this series. His character is a Zone trooper which is essentially the police force in charge of the planet Thel that the main cast family find themselves mysteriously on.

Kroll becomes the shows overarching villain and is what helps makes this show better. Jonathan Banks just blew me away in the part and still does all these years later.  He’s threatening and slimy and just devious and is a genuine threat to the main cast. What Banks brought here he has brought to other parts over the years.

Events of the series are set rolling when the Sterling clan stumbles across Kroll after arriving on Thel and he rather accidentally loses his access crystal which allows travel between zones/provinces of the world they are on and is exclusively the property of Zone Troopers. Travel is strictly prohibited on this world and one area knows almost nothing about the other. Another bit of assistance the Sterlings get is a history book in the pilot episode that acts as a guide to help them move about at points.

The Sterlings as a group could be rather bland. From Kroll to the one-off characters they encountered, others were vastly more interesting than they were. We have the all-knowing father. We have a happy homemaker mom who apparently does have a career that is insignificant to events of the show. We have a semi rebellious oldest son. We have the teenage daughter who is occasionally rebellious but wants to do stereotypical girl stuff. And then there is the precocious and cute son played by two different actors. It’s fairly standard stuff for the era. Their personalities bordered on the interchangeable.

There’s an endpoint for the family’s journey teased from the get-go. It’s a mysterious city called Imar that is strongly implied if not outright stated to have the knowledge to get them all back. Throughout the handful of episodes there are references implying other travelers. One could take when and where they arrived as the travel between the worlds was not present to present or that time ran differently between the two worlds thus indicating an alternate reality. Nothing is quite clear and that is a plus.

Otherworld had plenty of interesting ideas and it’s not a terrible watch. And despite its cheesiness it sticks in your brain. This is an instance of when the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. Though I watched what I watched on YouTube, I still found it weirdly engaging. It sucks you in and holds you.

It’s biggest shortcoming then as now is that it reached beyond its grasp. I think if the show had waited 10 or 15 years to come around it would’ve worked much better. Even a short time after it came on the air special effects technology has advanced enough courtesy of the proliferation of first run syndication the show could have adequately met its target. It just was incapable of doing what it wanted to do and do so on a weekly basis well.

Otherworld is not bad but it’s certainly not great. It was one of those shows that had a lot of potential that maybe if it had stayed on just a little bit longer or aired later it might have got there. What I was able to watch I found on YouTube but there are indications physical copies are available. I will give this an if you want only if you’re feeling nostalgic for the 80s.