A band of adventures sets off to prove the existence of dinosaurs deep in the forest of the Amazon. After an unfortunate accident leaves them stranded, they must put their trust in a jungle girl to save them from the dangerous predators on the plateau.
Marguerite makes a deal with a local chieftain to get off the Plateau. The deal is to hand over Veronica to the chief for marriage, something she wants no part of. Like all such schemes, things don't work out as planned and the team must fight a variety of threats in order to save the chiefs daughter, Veronica's virtue, and their own necks.
Roxton is looking for the materials for a crossbow to bag a T-Rex, but when one actually interupts him in his labors, he runs in the direction opposite his fellow travelers to keep them safe. He winds up falling into a hole that suddenly opens up. When the rest of the group search for him, they also fall into the hole, which turns out to be a whirlpool. It sucks them all under the water, and they emerge in a lake. They quickly find out that in this part of the plateau, the dominant species are lizard-like men, descendents of dinosaurs, and the humans are subservient to them. There is an ancient Roman structure to this civilization, including gladiator-type battles. While Marguerite and Veronica are forced to change into silky gowns for the entertainment of Tribune, the lizard-people's leader, Roxton is chosen to fight another human prisoner. The slaves and travelers rebel, and overthrow the lizard-men's intolerable rule, but not without loss ~ Roxton's opponent's sister ~ a rebel leade
Veronica and Summerlee are out gathering fruit and floral specimens when they are attacked by a huge bee, one the size of a man. Summerlee is stung, and it leaves him near death. The only cure is the nectar in the heart of the hive. Veronica, Malone and Roxton travel to the hive, leaving Challenger and Marguerite behind at the treehouse to care for Summerlee. Summerlee is delirious with fever, and imagines Marguerite is his long-dead wife. She plays along, to sooth him. In the meantime, Veronica, Malone and Roxton do make it to the hive, work their way deep into it, gather nectar, and head back quickly to the treehouse, just in time to save Summerlee's life.
Challenger, Malone and Veronica are searching for sulfur, in order to make more gunpowder, when they walk into a burial ground. They are attacked by warriors in black and white paint who capture Challenger. That night the group sneaks into the warriors' village...to find Challenger sitting quietly and drinking tea with a beautiful blonde woman named Cassandra. She and her husband had been part of an early expedition, also stranded and found by the warriors tribe twelve years ago; they were soon made king and queen there. She tells our group that going onto the burial grounds was considered taboo, and for this Challenger would have to remain captive for life. The only way they can save him is by going to the Cave of Fear and retrieving her husband's bones for burial. They set off, but soon discover why the cave is avoided ~ it's walls are covered in a hallucinogenic fungus, wtih a really nasty additional effect. It drives those affected to suicide - which Cassandra apparently knew when
In this episode, Challenger, Summerlee and Veronica save a little girl from drowning and Summerlee has to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation. Tolmac, of the Christec people, brands Summerlee a witch for bringing the girl "back to life." The Christecs have mingled the Catholic and Aztec religions, with a touch of Conquistador Inquisition, to form their theocracy. Veronica gets away to summon help from the others, but Challenger has to act as Summerlee's lawyer ~ if found guilty, both men will be burned at the stake.
While wandering the plateau, Roxton is attacked by a young man, who bites him during the struggle. Roxton's infected with a disease whose symtoms are slightly bizarre ~ intense craving for blood, pain when exposed to sunlight, a powerful feeling of kinship with nature and "creatures of the night" - he is as a vampire. He runs mad and into the gothic mansion of Calista, a beautiful woman with the same disease. Back at the treehouse, a young native man, Niko, comes forward, declaring his love for Veronica. He and Malone argue and decide to fight to the death for her; she is not pleased! Outside the treehouse, Malone and Niko do start to fight, but quickly stop when Veronica tells them she will kill herself to stop them, and has a knife at her stomach to prove it. Niko leaves, but tells her he'll never forget her. Veronica remains mad at Malone for a while for trying to fight her battles. In the meantime, Marguerite and Challenger discover all about the disease, and search for Roxton, not
Roxton, Marguerite and Malone are mapping a series of caves, trying to find one that leads off the plateau without much luck. Marguerite, all the while, has been gathering gleaming gemstones in her backpack. At least she will not go back empty handed. A fog begins to fill the air around them...dense...deep fog. From out of the mist forms take shape: cloaked figures and eerie rock formations, encircling a stone slab. They find themselves surrounded by Druid-like figures who swarm over Marguerite. Roxton tries desperately to protect her, but she is torn from his grasp. The two men are restrained and Marguerite is carried away and deposited on the stone slab. It turns out that Marguerite figures in an ancient prophecy and that her fate has finally caught up with her, here. What it means, she must discover for herself, but it involves retrieving a sacred jemstone. She, along with Roxton and Malone, must go through several obstacles like headhunters and a leap of faith to accomplish Marguer
The aged guide who brought Veronica's parents to the Lost World dies in Challenger and Veronica's arms, humming "Ode to Joy," leading the explorers to seek out a hidden paradise, where Veronica suspects her parents might be.
While out in the jungle, Malone is hit in the neck with a poisoned dart and dies. A shaman, Lento, heals him and Malone is brought back to life, but Lento has been driven mad. He is sentenced to die by his village, but Malone rescues him. Summerlee is kept captive and will die unless Malone, Roxton and Challenger can bring Lento back. Lento leads them a merry chase, having booby-trapped the jungle, but the men do eventually catch up to him , and he is killed. In the meantime, back at the treehouse, Veronica and Marguerite have had a huge fight, and wind up down an old well, with a hungry dinosaur waiting for them above and snakes, water and each other, in the hole!
Tracking a stream, Challenger, Veronica, Malone and Marguerite run into a group of Vantu headhunters. There is nowhere to run or hide, except in what looks like an overgrown cave opening. They dash into it only to discover it is man-made, an old, crumbling mine shaft. There's a loud rumbling that leads to a cave-in. Veronica escapes, but the others are trapped inside. Near death from suffocation, they are saved by Garza, part of a group banished to the mine by a plague-like disease, and led by a blind little boy known as The Oracle. The boy decrees our group must remain underground forever, and is unswayed even by Challenger's discovery that the tremors are caused by a sleeping volcano waking up around them. On the outside, Veronica manages to get Roxton and Summerlee from the treehouse, but they meet up with the Vantu again, who are not easily persuaded to let them rescue the others from their mountain prison.
Roxton saves Tayra of the Tinta people from a Hikari warrior who is chasing her. The two men fight and the Hikari man is killed. Roxton discovers that the Tintas live in fear of the fierce Hikari, and pay them a tribute to ensure the Hikari leave them in peace and protect them from other dangers. The Tinta are very peaceful, a fishing and gathering tribe, and do not know how to fight, but are determined to stop the tribute practice, but freedom may come at a high price. Roxton and Veronica teach them some fundamentals of hand to hand, help set up some traps to slow the Hikari down and help the Tinta organize in defense of their village, which the Hikari are due to strike, since there was no tribute paid. Challenger reluctantly helps, since he is not sure whether the Tinta are going to survive the fight ~ he does rouse them the night before with some inspring words from Shakespeare. The day of battle dawns and at the end, the fight is won, but the cost is great in Tinta lives, including
When he finds a powerful crystal, Professor George Challenger gains the powers of a God, putting himself and the other explorers in great danger.
Marguerite is the future Queen of Camelot as far as a boy King is concerned, but the explorers and Marguerite, as well as the King's crafty advisor don't agree.
Challenger, Roxton, and Veronica come upon an old friend of Challengers, who resembles the sadistic "creator" Dr. Moreau. Elsewhere, Summerlee, Malone, and Marguerite meet an elderly woman who has a radio headset.
Though the explorers find a gateway that can transport them back home, following them are enemies: one who doesn't want them to return, and one who does but wants them to bring a deadly virus with them.
Veronica thinks she has found her father, but instead she has found an imitator, with deceit in mind.
Deep in the jungle, Marguerite, Challenger and Malone come upon a half-buried, mummified corpse. They are shocked when it shows signs of life. They learn the would-be corpse, Ramses, is Egyptian royalty. He weaves a tale about a wonderful kingdom with untold riches and how he was to become king. He then enlists our heroes in a plan to reclaim the throne he says has been stolen from him by his sister, Nefertiti. After agreeing to help, the three discover there is more to the dispute than Ramses is revealing. He rules with an iron fist, enslaving his former enemies. He blinds his sister, and leave her to die. Marguerite, Challenger and Malone help her escape. The adventurers decide they must defeat Ramses by convincing the true heir, Nefertiti, to accept the responsibility of rule, and helping her regain control. Meanwhile, Summerlee is relentlessly pursued by a T-Rex after she mistakenly believes him responsible for the death of her babies. Roxton and Veronica must help their friend or
After days of searching the mountains for a pass off the plateau, Roxton and Marguerite are camped for the night when they are taken by surprise by Norse warriors. Roxton is run through with a sword by the leader, Ursula. As he sinks to his knees, Marguerite is hauled off by the raiders. Near death, Roxton is visited by a mystical young boy named Osric, who offers a deal. Osric will restore Roxton's life so he can save Marguerite. However, there is a catch. Roxton agrees to the deal and Marguerite is saved. It turns out that Osric is the soul of evil who has been imprisoned on the Lost World. He reappears and gleefully informs Roxton that he must murder Bergen, an old man with a long-standing hold over the boys' manipulative intentions. Roxton refuses to kill the old man, but Osric has many deadly ways to get what he wants. Meanwhile, Malone and Veronica must defend their Treehouse from a band of cutthroats who will stop at nothing to take it from them.
When the explorers rescue a fortune teller from her runaway horses, she tells them their future, which begins to come true little by little, but in a different way than they expect.
Teenage Gideon and his mentor Davos are on a mission to fulfill the boy's destiny of leading his tribe of Moya out of the bondage of the evil Goths. Roxton and Marguerite come upon them, just as Davos is fatally wounded in a Goth attack. Before he dies, Davos charges Roxton with ensuring Gideon and the "Star of Hope" quarterstaff he carries, reach their destination. What they discover is that Gideon has been taken from his parents as a child, raised by monks, and chosen to lead his people from the isolated caves where they have hidden for a generation. The time has come for him to take his rightful place... but he has been betrayed, his mentor murdered. Roxton resolves to escort the boy back to his people. Marguerite reluctantly goes along. The trio meets up with Gideon's brother Lucas and they reach the Moyan elders. Unfortunately, they discover the Goths won't rest until the Moyans and their friends are dead. At the Treehouse, Malone bonds with a woman named Kaya who kisses him ...
The explorers are caught in the middle of a war between Tribue, with gunpowder in toe, and Drakul and his barbaric raiders. One of them will be lost, possibly forever, when this battle reaches its cliffhanger!
On a bridge spanning a deep gorge, a fierce battle unfolds with Drakul's raiders. Marguerite and Veronica watch as Summerlee is hit. Tribune, betrayed by Drakul, hurls a bomb that destroys the bridge...throwing the men into the river far below. Veronica clings to the hope that her friends have survived and searches for them with Marguerite. Once reunited, they discover that Tribune has saved Roxton's life and demands a favor in return. Since they need a boat to return home, they follow Tribune to a run-down fishing village - where he disappears. A beautiful prostitute named Raina informs them that Nemak has enslaved the town. When our gang clashes with Nemak and his goons, they are thrown into jail.
While looking for a way off the plateau, Roxton, Malone, and Challenger are saved by three Amazon women from an attack by a vicious flock of pterodactyls. Invited back to their camp, they find there are no men or boys, yet they are welcomed with open arms. While the Amazons celebrate by the light of a full moon, the men happily learn that it's breeding time -- and they have been chosen as studs. By the time they realize they will die as soon as they have served their purpose, it's too late to save themselves.
Challenger is trying to harness the energy of lightning when a gigantic bolt splits the sky. In a blinding flash, the ground is scorched, and by some miracle, no one is injured. In the silence after the thunder, the sputtering sound of a small engine is heard, and a small plane appears in the distant sky. It drops from view, crashing into the jungle. All survive: four modern day tourists - a couple, a middle-aged man and a gorgeous young woman. The group are set upon by a hostile tribe and taken prisoner. Our explorers arrive to find only the disabled plane, which Challenger and Malone set about trying to repair. Kenner, the leader of the hostile tribe, is fascinated by his captives but keeps them in a dungeon. Roxton and Veronica devise a plan to save them.
While mapping an unexplored valley, Roxton is surprised by a terrified young woman, who after uttering an enigmatic warning, dies in Marguerite's arms. Roxton, Marguerite, and Malone head toward an ominous castle when a sudden rainstorm forces them to seek shelter. There, under a mysterious influence, the three are led to separate rooms where they each find opulent evening wear of the same vintage as that worn by the young woman. Marguerite and the two men begin to take on new personalities, eerily re-enacting a romantic triangle of intrigue, with Marguerite playing Roxton against Malone as both men compete for her attention. Meanwhile Challenger and Veronica similarly find themselves at the castle, where they are welcomed by Roxton, Marguerite, and Malone, all strangely possessed by the spirit-wearers.
A riderless horse approaches our explorers, as if on a mission. When Roxton saddles up, the horse carries him to a mountain tribe, who welcome him as their king. Roxton tries to decline, but when the royal advisor, Balar, tells him that if he's an imposter; he shall die, Roxton reconsiders. Using the horse, Roxton tries to warn his friends. Balar has the horse followed and they are captured. One of the customs of the tribe is to sacrifice a virgin to appease a monstrous dragon, but Roxton saves the young woman and steps right into Balar's trap. The only way to stop the dragon now is for the rightful king to hunt it down and kill it.
When Marguerite starts being nice to everyone, they wonder what she's up to. Even when pushed to find out why she's acting this way, she maintains her uncharacteristic serenity. In the jungle, Roxton and Veronica are attacked by a dinosaur that after giving them a huge scare, starts to move very clumsily, giving them a chance to escape. We learn that an alien invader, who could not control the dinosaur's huge body, occupied it. We also learn that Marguerite's body has been possessed when she drops her spoon into a vat of boiling water and plunges her arm in to retrieve it - with no ill effect. We discover that the Alien Invaders are skeletons that our heroes have to fight.
Our adventurers recover an ancient map showing the escape route from the Lost World. Knowing they will face skeptics in the scientific world to which they shall return, Challenger and Malone capture a T-Rex egg to take with them. Veronica cannot share their joy, however, for she must continue her search for her long lost parents. Malone's dreams of successfully returning to his beautiful fiancée in London appear to come true. But is this what he really wants?
A mysterious old woman, a shape-shifter, appears to Veronica, convincing her that her lost parents are safe in El Dorado. The woman gives her the directions to its entrance in a rock wall, and warns that she must tell no one and can never return. When Veronica unwittingly releases a savage giant from captivity, Marguerite and the others must use all their talents to subdue him again.
Empress Centuria has ordered her Lizardmen to hunt and kill Tribune, who flees to the treehouse for help. They track him there and overwhelm our heroes. Malone, Marguerite and Roxton are taken prisoner along with Tribune and brought back to Centuria's city. Malone, posing as Professor Challenger, is ordered to make gunpowder, while Roxton and Tribune are sent to the gladiators' dungeon.
The Lost World is in the grip of a crippling drought. Our adventurers are saved from a pack of thirsty Raptors by a magnificent young woman who begs them to escort her to her pueblo. She confesses that she is a survivor of the original colony, which had discovered the Fountain of Youth. Her supply is diminishing, however, and she must return to the Fountain cave--or die. Marguerite, with visions of eternal youth and wealth, leads the others after Ana.
The Lost World is shattered by gunfire as trophy hunters try to capture a Troglodyte child. Veronica swings through the jungle to save him, and becomes the hunters' new target. She escapes to the Treehouse to warn her friends just ahead of the hunters. One of the hunters declares that he has been commissioned to locate the Challenger expedition and help them return to England. Despite Veronica's warnings, and Marguerite's suspicions, the hunters are welcomed and set up camp nearby.
As mysterious drums sound through the jungle, Roxton is stalked and seduced by a beautiful woman, Danielle, who tells a harrowing tale of Trogs attacking and taking over her village. Seeking refuge at the Treehouse, she manages to charm the men but arouses the women's suspicions. Their mistrust is justified when Danielle makes a voodoo doll in Roxton's image and lures him back to her village, where it turns out, she is the one who controls the Trogs and an army of zombies. When the others discover that Roxton has been enslaved, they quickly devise a plan to infiltrate the village and rescue him.
Challenger is knocked unconscious by a falling pig trap while searching for medicinal herbs. The three young hunters who set the trap drag him back to their hidden village. Veronica and Marguerite follow the hunters' tracks and make their way past the jungle defense into the village, populated by a group of young orphans. They learn that the village is protected by an enormous plant that emits a deadly gas when disturbed and must be fed fresh meat daily. While the trio attempt to find a way out of the village, the tribe seizes Challenger and pushes him toward the plant's jaws. Will Challenger be the plant's next meal?
The explorers have a strange guest at the Treehouse who impresses Challenger with his knowledge of geology. Meanwhile something attacks Challenger's electrostatic accumulator. The explorers chase after a group of underground dwellers whom they believe to be the culprits. Their guest turns out to be one of them, and the explorers are soon taken hostage. It turns out that the underground dwellers need Challenger's scientific expertise to help them evolve above ground.
Roxton and Marguerite are out looking for a way off the plateau when they discover a promising looking crevice. Once through, they discover an old English village where they meet a masked woman who has just robbed the local pub. She drops her bag of spoils in front of the two explorers and vanishes. Roxton and Marguerite enter the pub in an effort to find the rightful owners of the loot, when they are promptly arrested by the local prosecutor. When Roxton tries to escape, he is shot!
Veronica and Malone are captured by an angry mob who need slaves to mine their quarry. They soon discover that their fellow prisoners are not human; they are machines who are helping aliens repair their spaceship. Will the aliens discover that our heroes are human?!
Roxton and Marguerite return to the tree house to find it raided by a monkey. They follow the monkey to a cave where they find an amulet that leaves a mark of a dinosaur skull on their hands. Those infected with the mark soon begin to morph into their "animal" selves
Challenger and Marguerite discover an ancient Temple whose entrance is guarded by a carving of three armed warriors. When Marguerite falls into a pit of spikes, Challenger must leave her, to get help. As he leaves, the Guardians come to life. While Marguerite lies bleeding, she hallucinates. As Challenger is returning with the others, the Guardians attack them with invincible strength, but stop suddenly when they see Malone bleeding from a chest wound. While Veronica takes Malone home, the others hurry to the temple. When Roxton and Challenger reach her, Marguerite is baffled when they can see her hallucination, Adrienne. Following Adrienne's claims there is an exit from the plateau via the Temple, Challenger follows her map to the Temple's altar where he is confronted by William Maple White, a dead colleague whose journals had led him to the Lost World.
Marguerite and Roxton are enjoying an intimate moment, when suddenly the earth moves! They find themselves sprawled in the bottom of a pit, with a pirate's skeleton and his cursed treasure chest filled with a fortune in booty. Unimpressed by a little curse, Marguerite takes it to the Treehouse. Challenger and Malone find the pirate's journal, and decide to unravel his story. Traveling to the described inland sea, they are ambushed by pirate descendant Pappin, who seizes the journal. He sends his men to find the treasure, then shackles Malone in a tidal cave, leaving Challenger tied up in his shack
When Malone is slashed by a beast in the jungle, he shoots wildly. While looking for the animal, he and Veronica come across Danu, her childhood sweetheart, wounded, and warning them of the danger from this beast. Later that night, the team is disturbed by a howling animal, and discovers Danu gone and Malone feverish. Marguerite stays to nurse Malone, the others search for Danu, hoping to learn more about Malone's condition. Veronica leads them to his village, where only a witchdoctor and a few warriors armed with silver-tipped weapons, remain. The witchdoctor tells them that Danu has become a werewolf and must be killed by silver or fire, there is no cure. She gives Veronica a potion to delay the onset of Malone's transformation, then sends Challenger and Roxton to the Valley of Shadows where the werewolves live. Danu, wanting to transform Veronica to a werewolf like him, drives her towards the Valley of Shadows.
During a powerful thunderstorm on the plateau, all five of our heroes experience dreams and visions of their "lost" colleague, Summerlee, who had disappeared into a raging waterfall and presumed dead. Malone sets off after this ghost, and Challenger Marguerite and Roxton follow Ned. The three are ambushed by cannibals who fancy Marguerite's arm for an aperitif. Roxton and Challenger break free and save her, and then the three resume their hunt for Malone, only to be trapped by a hungry T-Rex. Ned meanwhile, has fallen and knocked himself out. He regains consciousness, concussed and thirsty, and follows Summerlee's ghost along a dry riverbed. He stumbles and twists his ankle, but still hobbles on. Summerlee appears to be leading him to the now dry waterfall where he was last seen.
Our heroes are astonished to see a British Navy dirigible flying low over their plateau. Malone, working away from the rest, is close enough to catch the last rung of its boarding ladder and clambers aboard. He finds the airship damaged and without crew, but as he opens a logbook, Capt. Askwith appears, and knocks Malone unconscious. As the airship flies beyond view, the others hear screams from a T-Rex hatchery. Luring the dinosaur away, they rescue, not Malone, as they expected, but Askwith! He claims not to have seen Malone. Marguerite is quite taken by him, and offers to bring him back to the Tree house to recover. Roxton, a little jealous, and very suspicious, accompanies them, as Challenger and Veronica follow the airship. They locate it in foothills nearby, and discover that the damage is not too serious, and enough fuel for three days flight off the plateau.
There's no escape for the Challenger Expedition when Captain Askwith's mysterious airship explodes in a fiery crash. But moments later, when Challenger, Roxton, and Marguerite appear on a British air station in 1915 -- on the same day the airship was launched on its final mission -- they realize they truly have taken the place of the captain's original crew. After two years of struggling to escape the Plateau, Challenger and his friends must now fight to return to it by once again taking flight on the doomed dirigible. At the same time, Veronica appears on the Plateau, and in a shocking confrontation with Captain Askwith, realizes she has her own mission to complete: pursue Askwith and somehow return him to his ship.
While searching for the missing Malone, Marguerite is saved from a cannibal attack by a dashing trio of bandits. Their leader, the elegant Francois Locke, invites her to join his band of thieves. Marguerite declines his offer, only to be presented with proof that Locke can give her what she desires most - a way off the Plateau. Meanwhile, as Challenger, Roxton, and Veronica search for Marguerite, they discover evidence that the bandits are something other than human. Even worse, they receive a ransom note from them, demanding Marguerite's jewels in exchange for her release. But when they deliver the ransom, they're shocked to see that Marguerite isn't a prisoner at all - she appears to have joined Locke's group!
While exploring a mysterious dinosaur bone yard, Roxton is attacked by a charging Ttriceratops and kills it, not out of necessity but in anger. However, the bone yard is actually a sacred animal burial ground, protected by a beautiful, half-human, half-dinosaur guardian named Oseena. To punish Roxton for his crime, Oseena curses him to become the prey in a hunt that will end only with his death. Shaken by his encounter with Oseena, Roxton returns to the treehouse, but the hunter tracks him relentlessly and then captures Marguerite, using her as bait to lure Roxton into a deadly trap. Roxton returns to Oseena's burial ground to confront the hunter and save Marguerite.
An unsettling dream and a ghostly encounter convince Veronica that Malone is trapped in the spirit realm and needs her help to escape. At the same time, Assai and Challenger investigate a mysterious symbol burned into a field of grass, which Assai identifies as the mark of Saros, a bloodthirsty warlord who was overthrown by the Zanga and died swearing to return from the grave to wreak vengeance on the living. Back at the treehouse, Marguerite and Veronica use a Ouija board to contact Malone, which results in a frightening display of poltergeist-like activity, and a brief, but terrifying manifestation of Saros. Assai is convinced that any new attempt to rescue Malone from the spirit realm threatens to release Saros instead.
When Malone finds a knife, he is transported back to the East End of London in 1888, the scene of Jack the Ripper's brutal murders. In the nightmare of his visions, Malone sees his friends playing key roles in the crimes, both as conspirators and victims. Meanwhile, Veronica is approached by a famous British doctor, who enlists her to help find his missing knife. Could this man be Jack the Ripper? Or is it the Scotland Yard Inspector who runs into Roxton and Marguerite? Charmed by the Inspector and his claim to know a way off the plateau, Marguerite is eager to assist him in apprehending the Ripper. Marguerite realizes she could be walking into a deadly trap. Veronica is left to confront and defeat the infamous killer to prevent the murderous cycle from being repeated on the plateau.
Challenger, Malone and Veronica are exploring ruins on a riverbank, when a man stumbles out of the jungle in a hail of deadly arrows. Malone drags the wounded man to safety, who dies in their arms issuing a cryptic message to find a man named Pierson Rice. Challenger recognizes the name as that of a vain glorious hunter whom Roxton once held in high regard. The trio send a message to Roxton and Marguerite, then hurry on in search of Rice. Roxton is disgusted to learn that his one-time hero may be alive and well. Arriving at a native village, our heroes discover that Rice is far from peril -- in fact, he has made the natives his loyal subjects. With the help of his cold-hearted lieutenant, Rice plans to eliminate the queen and marry her beautiful daughter to consolidate his power.
When Roxton happens upon a hangman's noose dangling from a lonely tree in the jungle, he's suddenly transported back to the American West where he finds himself at the end of the rope. Facing him is Challenger, but in this world he's known as Sheriff Jack Challenger, a cruel lawman who neither recognizes Roxton nor listens to his plea of innocence. Saved by a rancher's widow, Roxton begins a strange journey to clear his name and find his way back to the Lost World. Along the way he runs into all of his friends but none of them recognize him -- Malone is a cold-hearted gunslinger, Veronica runs the local saloon and trading post, and Marguerite is the beautiful widow who saved Roxton's life. As Roxton struggles to make sense of it all, he is drawn to a final showdown in the saloon, where he must face his friends in a deadly shootout.
Challenger develops a new way to create lift in the balloon. All go along for a test flight, but the balloon is drawn into violent turbulence then crash-lands inside the vast caldera of an extinct volcano where our heroes find themselves trapped in a world beneath the earth's surface. With the balloon damaged and the supply of iron lost, our heroes can only survive for a matter of days in this hot and hostile environment. Aleece, a strong-willed female warrior-in-training, hurries to the rescue. In exchange for a ride in the balloon she offers to help replenish the iron that is needed. Malone accompanies her to a mine, but instead of raw ore, her plan is to steal from the supply of a vengeful exile named Arjax. After being caught by Arjax, Malone and Aleece face death unless they lead Arjax back to the balloon.
When a powerful witch named Dame Alice feels threatened by Challenger's science, she calls upon her two beautiful acolytes to help undo his power. In order to earn full witchhood, the two must lure Challenger's "guards" - Roxton and Malone - to the witch's castle while she goes head to head with the "wizard" - Challenger - herself. While the two young witches distract Roxton and Malone, Dame Alice visits the Tree house for a visit. In spite of Marguerite's protests and warnings, Challenger is intrigued by the witch's power and too easily lowers his guard. When Dame Alice sabotages Challenger's newest invention and almost kills him, it is only Marguerite's quick thinking that saves the scientist from his own folly. But in the end it is not Challenger's life that is in danger, but the lives of Roxton and Malone.
When Keeran Raiders attack, a deadly poison dart forces Malone to relive a long-suppressed memory-his baptism of fire as a battlefield correspondent in World War I. Caught up in this nightmarish hallucination, Malone is once again an untried reporter cut off from Allied lines when an enemy advance pushes deep into No Man's Land. When the three battle-weary British soldiers who've been assigned to escort him are picked off by enemy action, the young reporter who's never fired a gun must take up arms to save his own life and the life of a wounded sergeant.
When a blindingly bright meteor strikes the Plateau, Challenger, Roxton, and Marguerite set out to investigate the impact site. But the closer they get, the colder the temperature becomes. As the explorers turn back, they discover what appears to be a victim of the intense cold - a beautiful, blue-skinned woman, unconscious and nearly frozen. To save her life, the explorers take her back with them. When the frigid temperatures reach the Treehouse and all attempts to warm the woman makes her condition worse, Challenger suspects that things are not as they appear. Roxton and Marguerite are attacked by a group of blue-skinned male warriors and the truth becomes clear - the heat-absorbing meteorite now buried in the Plateau is the first step in a terrifying invasion of creatures who need the cold to survive.
Ambushed in the jungle, Roxton narrowly escapes with his life only to learn that he has apparently cheated death once too often. The Grim Reaper, in the guise of a dark seductress - is determined to add his soul to her collection. Transported to her domain - a bleak and desolate wasteland - Roxton must face a series of challenges if he hopes to get out alive. And to make the game more interesting, Death raises the stakes by putting the lives of his friends on the line as well. Confronted by shifting rules and deception, Roxton cannot hope to win. At every turn, Death torments and goads him, encouraging him to abandon his friends to save himself. Round one goes to Death, rounds two and three as well, and with growing horror, Roxton loses Challenger, Veronica, and finally his beloved Marguerite to Death's netherworld inferno.
Alone in the jungle, Veronica hears piano music and follows it to its source - a 19th century German village that has suddenly appeared in a fog choked valley. To her surprise, the handsome musician, Thomas Ducart, announces that he wrote the beautiful melody for her. Flattered by the musician's attention, Veronica takes him to the Treehouse, but Challenger is concerned. He fears that Ducart's village may be unstable, and Veronica could disappear into another dimension if she returns to the village with Ducart. Even more disturbing, are Challenger's ill feelings about Ducart's designs on Veronica, but Challenger's warnings only drive the beguiled Veronica further into Ducart's passionate embrace.
A mysterious visitor attacks Veronica, leaving an enigmatic ivory tile as his calling card. But when Marguerite finds the tile, she hides it from the others because only she knows what it means… one of the deepest secrets of her past has finally caught up with her, and now endangers her life and those of her friends. Back on the Plateau, with her friends facing death because of her actions in the past, Marguerite has no choice but to finally reveal the real reason she funded the Challenger Expedition, and what she has come to the Plateau to find.
Using the Plateau's mysterious energy lines as a source of power, Challenger constructs a machine to send the explorers back to London. But when he, Roxton, and Marguerite find themselves in the same place they started from, they conclude the machine is a failure and head back to the Treehouse-only to discover the Treehouse is gone! While investigating what else has changed, Roxton is captured by slavers with automatic weapons and stripped-down cars, and learns the shocking truth-he and his friends are in the year 2033, eighteen years after an apocalyptic war devastated every place on Earth except for the Plateau.
When a lost archaeological expedition discovers a mysterious burial urn, the young student who opens it suddenly collapses in convulsions. Though she quickly recovers, Professor Hamilton, the expedition's leader, suspects she's contracted a disease from the urn's skeletal remains. He believes that's the only rational explanation for the inscription on the urn, warning that an evil demon is imprisoned within. But the next day, Roxton and Marguerite discover the expedition's camp has been torn apart, and that of all the archaeologists only two survive-Hamilton and his rival, Professor Campbell. In a tense standoff, the two men claim the other is possessed by the demon. Roxton's and Marguerite's intervention only succeeds in making the archaeologists suspect the demon has jumped into one of the two explorers.
Challenger, Roxton, and Marguerite take Finn to a cave where one year earlier a blinding light opened a doorway to another reality. Once inside, the explorers witness an eerie apparition of a man Finn recognizes and fears. But when Finn races from the cave, the three figures who follow are not her friends-they're Kayle, Una, and Rixxel, three demons who have taken the place of Challenger, Roxton, and Marguerite. If the demons can remain on the Plateau for two days, they will permanently replace the explorers, and Kayle will be free to bring chaos and destruction to the world. In the final deadly showdown between Finn and the demons, Finn must make the decision of her life-save the future or save her friends. Until an unexpected sacrifice changes everything.
Hoping to end starvation, Challenger becomes the first human subject to test his new experimental substitute for food. But his nutritional beverage is not as successful for him as it was for his lab mice, and he quickly becomes obsessed with discovering the reason why. Then obsession leads to madness as Challenger is confronted by two opposing hallucinations. The first is a vision of himself as a young, driven scientist. The second is his beloved wife, Jessie, as he left her in London three years earlier. Unconscious and near death, Challenger is finally discovered by his friends. But will their limited medical knowledge be enough to reverse the ravages of his experiment, without placing him in even greater peril?
When Challenger discovers the wreckage of a World War I transport plane, he's captured by its pilot, Lieutenant Drummond. Drummond has been stranded for five years since the crash, protecting the plane's cargo crate of iridium ingots stolen from the Royal Navy. Challenger is astounded to see the iridium because it had been intended for his secret wartime research. The sight of it prompts him to remember the night five years earlier, when he was questioned about the theft by two British intelligence agents working for MI5. Back on the Plateau, when Challenger and Drummond arrive at the Treehouse, Marguerite recognizes the iridium, too as she also was a suspect in its theft, and she recalls her own MI5 interrogation, the same night Challenger was questioned. Amazing twists and turns. We find out that there may be more than just coincidence that has brought our small group to the plateau.
Led by a dream, Veronica touches her mother's pendant to a stone monolith. A flash of mysterious energy knocks her unconscious, causing her to relive her last days with her long-lost parents as a young girl. When she awakes, she's shocked to realize her new memories don't match what she's always remembered of that time. With the fate of her parents no longer unknown, Veronica is at peace, though she realizes a larger mystery is still to be revealed-her mother's pendant is somehow the key to her own destiny and that destiny is fast approaching.
A peaceful day of exploration turns deadly when a sudden explosion traps Marguerite and Roxton in an underground chamber. Their only hope for escape is Challenger, but the same explosion has left him with no memory of who he is, or what has happened to his friends. Meanwhile, a contest of friendly rivalry between Veronica and Finn leads to an enigmatic discovery at the Treehouse, as another memory from Veronica's childhood is literally uncovered. Faced with certain death, Roxton and Marguerite reveal emotions best left buried, so that even if they do survive their ordeal, there's a chance their relationship will not.
Two days before Challenger's latest attempt to leave the Plateau by balloon, Veronica and Finn encounter a strange phenomenon and are briefly transported into the post-apocalyptic future of New Amazonia. Soon after, Roxton finds himself being chased by 17th-century Conquistadors while Marguerite is captured by Druids determined to sacrifice her in order to avert a mysterious storm which is fast approaching. As different planes of reality continue to collide, Veronica at last realizes the time has come for her to fulfill her destiny as Protector and wield her mother's pendant-the Trion. But even as she prepares to sacrifice her life to save her friends, she does not know if she's made the right decision-for once the power of the Trion is unleashed, will it save the Plateau, or destroy it?
The original pilot.
