L5 (2012 Web Series)

2012’s L5 delivered the promise of an intriguing and professionally produced space-based web series, but it unfortunately only produced the pilot episode.

What Is It?

This web series follows a deep space expedition that returns to a dying Earth two hundred years later than scheduled after exploring Barnard’s Star in hopes of finding a new home for the human race. Once the ship is back in Earth’s orbit, the crew can see no signs of life on the planet and they receive no radio communication. They encounter a large O’Neill cylinder colony in orbit known as L5 that was not previously there and appears equally lifeless, and two members of the expedition head to the station to try and find some answers.

Aired: 2012, 1 Episode

Cast: Chad C. Burns, Miriam Mintz, Kaelan Strouse, Tony Lee Gratz, James Barbee

Crew: Stanley Von Medvey (Director), Tom Ptasinski (Writer/Director/Executive Producer), Stanley Von Medvey (CGI Animation)

Legacy:

This sci-fi web series stirred the interest of the sci-fi community and drew notable crowdfunding support, and it offered an ambitious production at a time when there was a dearth of space-based shows on television.

A Closer Look:

2012 was right about the peak period of the initial surge of web series, and L5 definitely pushed the format to its limit. It is an ambitious, space-based, sfx-heavy web series that had plenty of potential, but this medium was perhaps not quite ready for this type of production. The creators initially turned to the sci-fi community and received a notable amount of support in the form of crowdfunding. But that dried up, and sadly only the pilot episode for the series was completed.

The initial episode runs about twenty-five minutes (without credits) and introduces us to the crew of the Argo (particularly Commander Richard Adams and the ship’s doctor Rodney Lewis) as they return to Earth from their extended mission and find that much more time has passed than they expected and that something seems to have happened to the people of Earth. This episode sets up the bigger story that will follow, but it does so without bogging itself down with expository details. It is a grand tale that L5 seeks to deliver, but in the first episode it unfolds with a cramped, almost claustrophobic feel to it (by necessity due to the budget limitations). But this actually lends to the atmosphere of the show and sets up a good direction for the series to follow.

L5 was definitely made with limited funds (as you would expect from this type of series), but the CGI graphics are actually quite impressive more often than not, especially compared to other web series. The acting is somewhat choppy and the dialogue can be stilted at times, but for the most part, everybody delivers a professional performance. We don’t get a good feel for the characters in this episode, but we get enough glimpses of their personalities that further episodes could build upon.

At the time that this series was made, there was very little in the way of space-based episodic programming on television, coming between the Stargate Universe and Caprica cancellations and before the arrival of shows like Dark Matter and The Expanse. Fans were definitely craving this type of show, as indicated by their willingness to support it initially. And this represented a next step of sorts for the web series format, going beyond 10- to 15-minute episodes and looking to tell a larger tale. But there was not a good way at that point to make a production like this profitable, and unfortunately it only produced the one episode. It is still worth a look, though, to see what it accomplished at a time when indie creators were trying to strike out on their own away from the confines of the broadcast and cable networks.

Cancelled Too Soon?

Since L5 only produced a single episode, it certainly counts as a show cancelled too soon. As mentioned, it received plenty of support from the sci-fi community early on, but crowdfunding could only take a production so far. YouTube had not yet risen to the point that it could support an ongoing series of this magnitude, and the fans were only willing to shell out money for so long. Even today it would be difficult for a production like this to support itself from YouTube advertising revenue unless it went viral, but perhaps it would have had a better chance of producing more episodes and possibly getting picked up by one of the streaming services.

Should It Be Rebooted?

Yes. There was a pretty good idea here, and I would love to see the creative team revisit the concept. It would be hard to carry on with the original actors because fourteen years have passed since the pilot episode was made. But they could certainly still use the completed pilot to shop the property around to the streaming services to draw some interest in rebooting it. They already know how to produce a series on a budget, and that could be a selling point, seeing as the streamers are more cost-conscious these days (or they claim to be). The series certainly had potential, and I would love to see that realized at some point.

Interesting Fact:

The series was created by producer, director, and writer Tom Ptasinski and 3D artist Stanley Von Medvey under their production banner Studio Hemogoblin.

Where Can You Watch It?

The pilot is available to watch on YouTube at this link.

Read More About the Show:

IMDb.com

If you produced an independent sci fi/fantasy web series during the 2000s and/or 2010s, please contact us at cultscifi.com@gmail.com with the information about the show. Or if you know of productions from that time, please pass along that information as I am working on a project documenting the rise and fall of this format.