Series overview
In the first episode, the Sterling family (Hal, June, Trace, Gina, Smith) take a tour of the interior of the Great Pyramid of Giza at the same time as a once-in-ten-thousand-years conjunction of the planets. Inside, they are abandoned by their guide, and as they try to get out, they are mysteriously transported to another planet which may or may not be in a parallel universe.
On this other planet (called 'Thel'), which is inhabited by humans, there are no familiar countries or states. The area they are in is divided up into self-contained "zones," each with a wildly different style of government and way of life, although the province of "Imar" (ruled by a Praetor) appears to be the central seat of government for this entire world. Most of Thel's history is not revealed, although the pilot episode contains references to "territories", android creators, and "wars of unification". It is thus unknown whether Thel is an alternate universe version of Earth, or another planet entirely.
Travel between zones is so strictly regulated to the point that no one can travel outside their home zone province (save for the zone troopers), and all maps have been banned by the state. Thus, the inhabitants of each zone know absolutely nothing about life in other areas. The family could not know about the travel ban, and approach a soldier (the first Thel native they met) in all innocence, seeking help, while the soldier - Kommander Nuveen Kroll, reputed to be the worst, and most ill-tempered of all zone troopers - views them as lawbreakers and treats them as such. When Hal insists they need help, Kroll attempts to arrest them and gets rough with Smith, the youngest of the Sterling sons. The Sterlings resist and, in the struggle, Kroll's sidearm weapon goes off, and the ricocheting laserblast renders Kroll unconscious. The Sterlings take his access crystal, (which is possessed only by zone trooper officers, and which gives them security access to state-controlled equipment and information data banks) his vehicle, and his sidearm and drive away. For the rest of the series, Kroll is resolute in his attempts to recover his crystal, capture the Sterlings (whom, in a report to his superior, he would later regard as a band of "armed terrorists") and subject them to severe punishment.
The Sterling family's first night in Thel is spent in a province called Sarlax. This province is an ages-old mining colony where androids labor at mining a radioactive mineral also called "sarlax". The mineral is just radioactive enough to make humans sick, which necessitates the android labor force. The androids are sophisticated enough to have created a culture of their own, and are related to the ancient robots that ruled Thel in the past. It is here that a friendly android couple gives the Sterlings the historical Book of Imar which chronicles the history of not just the planet, but the androids and the culture of Thel.
The Church of Artificial Intelligence is the official state religion of Thel, and no conflicting ideologies are permitted. Very few actual details about this religion are known, except that it appears to be centered on the worship of robots, computers and cybernetic technology (adherents are, in one episode, said to use "worship modules," which are electronic in nature). There is mention in the first episode of a race of humans that created primitive robots and then died out. Eventually the robots evolved by themselves through continued upgrades and modifications until they created what is known as a plasmoid being: an android that was a biomechanical equivalent of a true human in almost every aspect. These plasmoids were so in love with their creators that they even built in lifespans into their being so that they would be able to emulate death much like their onetime human masters. Eventually they began the process of recreating humans by a process that is not explained but once again Thel was populated by a majority of human lifeforms.
A series of Egyptian-like stone markers (obelisks), each with one eye, are supposed to mark the way to Imar, a city with beautiful buildings and a suspension bridge (the city shown in the opening credits, apparently intended to be Imar, is a photographic negative of New York City).
Each episode has the family dealing with the bizarre ways of life in each zone, and at the end of the episode, fleeing one zone for another, pursued by Commander Kroll (Jonathan Banks) and his zone troopers. Kroll is intent on revenge, given that the Sterlings stole his high security access crystal, acquired during their disastrous encounter in the first episode.
Technology in Otherworld
Though Thel had many similarities to Earth of the 1980s, there was quite a bit of advanced technology displayed throughout the series. First, a state religion was the unifying ideology of the land. The Church of Artificial Intelligence, a rigid, computer based ideology without equal, the church wields powers of censorship, worship and could even put people to death in cases of heresy. The Church of Artificial Intelligence, however, may be just a means for the government to add one more measure of control to the everyday lives of the peoples of Thel.
Computational machines were advanced enough in Thel that certain facilities were maintained and monitored by artificial intelligences that substituted for human control when humans were busy with other concerns. For example, the Sarlicon brain was an ancient but artificially intelligent computer tasked with the safekeeping of the memories of the android population of Sarlax. The computer was subject to humans with high level access crystal keys but could defend itself from human attempts to circumvent the machine's operations. In Thel there also existed robot technology that allowed android design including androids so advanced they were indistinguishable from flesh and blood humans. These advanced androids are known as "Plasmoids" and they occupy the province of Sarlax serving as miners that can tolerate the minerals' radiation.
Access crystals were the method of securing high level databanks, travel, power sources and other high security areas of Thel. The crystal was basically a faceted glass appliance, several centimeters long, purplish in color, with a series of electronic chips and components inside. They are individually numbered and have the "mark of Imar" engraved on the bottom. Though not fully discussed in the series, it might have operated by being optically read or perhaps the electronics were of an RFID type. The crystal was read by a reader that simply allowed insertion of the crystal less than halfway into its interface shaft. A light would illuminate the crystal as it was being accessed and most readers were shown tied to computer terminals but in some cases they were freestanding units not unlike keyholes and used to secure doors. It was mentioned in the pilot that Kroll possessed a "class 1" access crystal, which is possibly the highest access class. What the lower class crystals' abilities were was never revealed.
It was mentioned in the episode "Metraplex" that advanced electronic entertainments known as "wave games" and "gratification intensifiers" existed. How these devices functioned was never revealed but it was also mentioned in the same episode that the province also produced "particle beam" weaponry had access to a "disintegration chamber" and subjugated an entire underclass population with "Vibratory Behavior Modification Modules". In another episode, weapons called "electrum bolts" are mentioned; they are supposedly deadly and exotic in what they do to living tissue.
The state soldiers, the Zone Troopers, are armed with a sidearm known as a "bioruptor". Bioruptors are sleek, black tubes with a rear-facing pistol grip at the butt end and are held with the barrel flipped from a natural pistol fashion with the trigger on top of the pistol grip. A single switch on the side of the bioruptor barrel serves as a "safety" to prevent accidental discharge. Though the devices could be quite deadly in the right hands, the weapons were capable of being adjusted from a light stun to a kill setting. The weapon's bright blue laser-like beams were said to affect the heart so they could be an electrical discharge type of weapon.
There also exists in Thel the ability for rudimentary holographic video which is used not only as entertainment but for education and telepresence communications. In the pilot episode we see a vehicle that sounds and looks like a hovercraft of some kind, however there also exists combustion engine technology as seen in the episode "Village of the Motor Pigs". Though it is suggested in the episode "Rock and Roll Suicide" that wind-powered turbines may exist (the father designed windmill blades) there is probably more than one source of energy available to the various provinces of Thel. In addition to these, we also were shown advanced biological research that could stop the aging process as well as weather control and shielding that can protect from laser storms.
