The Houston Chronicle
January 18, 1998

'Earth 2'

Jessica Steen has a soft spot in her heart for Earth 2, a Wagon Train-style sci-fi series produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Studios. The show ran only one season (1994-95), yet she loves it because fans transformed it into a sort of mini-Star Trek.

"There's a fan base that is overwhelming," says Steen, who played Dr. Julia Heller and is currently filming Armageddon, a sci-fi film due this summer. "The fans have remained so supportive and so keen on the show, and I'm surprised someone hasn't picked up on that and wanted to make a closure movie of the week. Because we really didn't close anything out."

Earth 2 was the story of a group of colonists who had crash-landed on the wrong side of the planet that was to be their new home, meaning they had to embark on an arduous, pioneer-style journey to their original destination of New Pacifica. Had there been a second season, Steen says, the stories would have been radically different.

"And to be frank, what I loved best about it was that it was shooting in Santa Fe and it had sort of an epic quality with all those spectacular landscapes. But if it were to go again, it would be mostly stationed at New Pacifica. It would have become more dramatics between the groups instead of exploring. That, to me, would have taken a lot of the romance out of it."

The diehard fans should be thrilled now that the series begins life in reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel. Episodes will air at 8 p.m. Sundays, beginning Sunday with the two-hour premiere.

Last update: April 8, 2001 4:41 PM