Year:
2003
Studio:
Alliance Atlantis Communications
Feature:
3/5
DVD:
0/5
"Riverworld" is a 90 minute pilot for a series that was never made.
It's the adaptation of the Riverworld books by Philip José
Farmer. In the books, all humans have been resurrected on the
Riverworld which is a planet dominated by a hugely long river twisting
millions of miles. The river is bordered by steep mountains, making the
only reasonable direction of travel either up or down river.
In the pilot we are introduced to Jeff Hale (Brad Johnson), an
astronaut who died in 2009. He is the key character in that he was
awake briefly pre-resurrection and he gets brief visions of the future
and where he needs to go. Jeff washes up on the banks of the river and
is soon joined by dozens of others.
Among the new arrivals are some his soon-to-be companions: Mali (Karen
Holness), an African princess; Alice Hargreaves (Emily Lloyd), an
English-woman who died in the 1930's; and Lev Ruach (Jeremy Birchall),
a prisoner in one of the Nazi concentration camps. Also among the new
arrivals is Jeff's enemy of the week, Nero (Jonathan Cake), emperor of
Rome.
The group is quickly captured and meets the "bad" empire of Vandals led
by Valdemar (Kevin Smith). But they escape and flee to the "rebels" who
are led by Samuel Clemens (Cameron Daddo). Along with Clemens we meet
two other characters in the series, the alien Monat (Brian Moore) and
the girl-who-does-not-speak Gwenafra (Nikita Kearsley).
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Anyway, the
rebels are building a river boat to sail the river. Nero takes over the
Vandals and attacks, capturing the rebels. Jeff leads an escape and in
the climatic battle the river boat is launched and Nero is killed by
Jeff. Sam recognizes Jeff's leadership and they all start heading
upriver in the "Go For Broke".
If you've read the books (at least the first two), you can recognize
the elements that went into the pilot. For whatever reason a lot of
little details changed. But for the most part the basic concept remains
and the story is not too bad though there are problems.
1. Mali being surprised that African people were used as slaves by
white people. As if Africans didn't do that to themselves before white
people came along.
2. Nero's death. After showing his superior swordsmanship in his duel
with Valdemar, Nero dies by one of the more unoriginal moves in
swordfighting. He knocks down Jeff, who loses his sword. Then he winds
up for the big coup de grace and Jeff takes that opening to pick up his
sword and skewer Nero as Nero is swinging his sword downwards.
3. The whole Nero dying thing sets a bad precedent for the series. I
feel like this was an indication that it would be a "famous villain of
the week" type of show with Jeff somehow defeating and probably killing
the villain at the end of each episode.
The special effects are a bit below average for the SciFi Channel. In
particular the Vandal's castle and the river boat where obvious cgi
effects. The DVD includes a six-minute segment on the special effects
and that's the only extras on the disc. Overall it's ok to watch once
if you liked the books.
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