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. Cast Hal Sterling (father) - Sam Groom June Sterling (mother) - Gretchen Corbett Trace Sterling (teen son) - Tony O'Dell Gina Sterling (teen daughter) - Jonna Lee Smith Sterling (youngest child) was played by two different actors, Brandon Crane and Chris Hebert. Crane played Smith in the pilot, which was aired as the first and fifth episodes. Kommander Nuveen Kroll - Jonathan Banks Lieutenant Zero, Kommander Kroll's aide - Wayne Alexander Episodes Syndication The series was rerun on the USA Network, and re-shown several times on the Sci-Fi Channel. Otherworld was aired in the United Kingdom on the ITV network, except in the Thames/LWT region. References External links John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Film/TV Television Obscurities - Otherworld 1985 American television series debuts 1985 American television series endings 1980s American science fiction television series CBS original programming English-language television shows Television series by Universal Television Television series about parallel universes Television shows set in Egypt