Ice Planet
Encyclopedia
Ice Planet is a science fiction film
released in 2003. It was produced as a pilot movie for an intended TV series. The film was directed by Winrich Kolbe
and its cast included Wes Studi
as Commander Trager.
's moon Io
. Base commander Noah Trager, aided by recently graduated space cadets, manages to escape to a nearby "Magellan" research vessel commanded by professor Karteez Rumla. Rumla (encouraged by Senator Jeremy Uvan who was on the military base) insists that the Magellan continue its original classified mission rather than return to Earth. Pursued by the alien spaceship, the refugees head toward section 9 in space—the Magellan's original destination—when the research vessel suddenly is ejected into hyperspace by an unknown space phenomenon. After travelling through interstellar space, the vessel is drawn towards an unidentified ice planet where it lands automatically in a crater. The planet has a breathable atmosphere and earthlike gravity, but an unknown force field keeps the Magellan and the 1426 refugees onboard trapped on the surface. The planet's orbit is also highly unusual, resembling that of a spacecraft rather than a planet. It is located so far from Earth even the Andromeda galaxy
is not visible in the sky. The Magellan is stranded and its crew has to cope with the fact that returning to Earth is impossible.
Rumla now reveals to the astonished crew that six years previously, a meteor
crashed into a remote area of Sumatra
. The meteor contained an extremely old and heat resistant crystal
, named "ICE-13" by Earth scientists who discover an encryption in the crystallized structure itself. Rumla managed to crack the code and discovered that it contained specifications for the construction of an advanced space vessel. The crystal contains space coordinates to sector 9 as well as well as dire warnings about some undefined threat in space, so a decision was made to build the Magellan and discover the source of the meteor. The mission was kept secret from the public although the Union leadership was informed about the threat.
The Magellan crew soon starts to explore their immediate surroundings. A ground survey team discovers a vast subterranean energy network with a power source located some 500 kilometers from the ship. Meanwhile, in orbit around the icy planet, two reconnaissance craft launched by the Magellan are attacked and destroyed by the same enormous alien spacecraft that destroyed Newton 5 and the Io military base. One pilot manages to eject, and the Magellan rescue team trying to locate him discovers an artificial cavern where the power source is located. A Native American
-like tribe called the "Inaku" also lives there and it is not clear how they ended up billions of light years away from Earth. Finally, a strange glowing tree-like crystalline organism is discovered, and analysis of a small sample of its tissue reveals vast amounts of encoded information about Earth civilization including dozens of extinct languages including Aramaic
and Sumerian
.
Back on the Magellan, an alien life form suddenly invades the vessel. It is revealed that the icy planet serves as a safe haven to an alien intelligence, but they have now been discovered by the "Zedoni" who launched the vast spaceship that also attacked the Newton 5 colony. The alien refugees deliberately transported the Magellan across space and time for some unknown purpose. The aliens show a vision of the Earth burnt to a cinder, but it is not clear if we see the present or the future ("you must play your part", offers the alien). The movie ends as the ice planet is transported through another space rift into a different solar system having four moons—the same moons previously seen in a vision by Professor Rumla.
was announced in 2005 by CHUM Limited
. Production of the series was several times postponed and has not started.
The TV series should revolve around Rear Admiral
Noah Trager, accompanied by his daughter and obsessed by the mysterious murder of his wife, who leads a military and science expedition on the recovery of an ancient alien artifact on the ice planet. The concept was created by German television producer and show host Hendrik Hey.
Production companies are SpaceWorks Entertainment Inc. (Canada) and Circles & Lines GmbH (Germany). German broadcaster RTL2 has acquired the rights to the series even before the show commenced shooting.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
released in 2003. It was produced as a pilot movie for an intended TV series. The film was directed by Winrich Kolbe
Winrich Kolbe
Winrich Kolbe is a German-born American television, film director and television producer, best known for his work in various Star Trek television series during which time he dated Star Trek Voyager's Kate Mulgrew...
and its cast included Wes Studi
Wes Studi
Wesley "Wes" Studi is a Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An...
as Commander Trager.
Plot
The movie takes place some thirty years after a devastating war between the Union and the Consortium that resulted in the death of 10% of the Earth's population. The Newton 5 space colony is suddenly attacked by a vast extraterrestrial spacecraft, killing 200,000 people in the process. The alien spaceship then proceeds to annihilate a military base on JupiterJupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
's moon Io
IO
Io, IO, I/O, i/o, or i.o. may refer to:-An abbreviation:* I.O., a theater in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to improvisational comedy* i.o., "in illo ordine", Latin phrase meaning "respectively"...
. Base commander Noah Trager, aided by recently graduated space cadets, manages to escape to a nearby "Magellan" research vessel commanded by professor Karteez Rumla. Rumla (encouraged by Senator Jeremy Uvan who was on the military base) insists that the Magellan continue its original classified mission rather than return to Earth. Pursued by the alien spaceship, the refugees head toward section 9 in space—the Magellan's original destination—when the research vessel suddenly is ejected into hyperspace by an unknown space phenomenon. After travelling through interstellar space, the vessel is drawn towards an unidentified ice planet where it lands automatically in a crater. The planet has a breathable atmosphere and earthlike gravity, but an unknown force field keeps the Magellan and the 1426 refugees onboard trapped on the surface. The planet's orbit is also highly unusual, resembling that of a spacecraft rather than a planet. It is located so far from Earth even the Andromeda galaxy
Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. It is also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, and is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to the...
is not visible in the sky. The Magellan is stranded and its crew has to cope with the fact that returning to Earth is impossible.
Rumla now reveals to the astonished crew that six years previously, a meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
crashed into a remote area of Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
. The meteor contained an extremely old and heat resistant crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...
, named "ICE-13" by Earth scientists who discover an encryption in the crystallized structure itself. Rumla managed to crack the code and discovered that it contained specifications for the construction of an advanced space vessel. The crystal contains space coordinates to sector 9 as well as well as dire warnings about some undefined threat in space, so a decision was made to build the Magellan and discover the source of the meteor. The mission was kept secret from the public although the Union leadership was informed about the threat.
The Magellan crew soon starts to explore their immediate surroundings. A ground survey team discovers a vast subterranean energy network with a power source located some 500 kilometers from the ship. Meanwhile, in orbit around the icy planet, two reconnaissance craft launched by the Magellan are attacked and destroyed by the same enormous alien spacecraft that destroyed Newton 5 and the Io military base. One pilot manages to eject, and the Magellan rescue team trying to locate him discovers an artificial cavern where the power source is located. A Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
-like tribe called the "Inaku" also lives there and it is not clear how they ended up billions of light years away from Earth. Finally, a strange glowing tree-like crystalline organism is discovered, and analysis of a small sample of its tissue reveals vast amounts of encoded information about Earth civilization including dozens of extinct languages including Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
and Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
.
Back on the Magellan, an alien life form suddenly invades the vessel. It is revealed that the icy planet serves as a safe haven to an alien intelligence, but they have now been discovered by the "Zedoni" who launched the vast spaceship that also attacked the Newton 5 colony. The alien refugees deliberately transported the Magellan across space and time for some unknown purpose. The aliens show a vision of the Earth burnt to a cinder, but it is not clear if we see the present or the future ("you must play your part", offers the alien). The movie ends as the ice planet is transported through another space rift into a different solar system having four moons—the same moons previously seen in a vision by Professor Rumla.
TV series
An Ice Planet TV series starring Michael IronsideMichael Ironside
Michael Ironside is a Canadian-born actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American productions. He is best known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed...
was announced in 2005 by CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
. Production of the series was several times postponed and has not started.
The TV series should revolve around Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
Noah Trager, accompanied by his daughter and obsessed by the mysterious murder of his wife, who leads a military and science expedition on the recovery of an ancient alien artifact on the ice planet. The concept was created by German television producer and show host Hendrik Hey.
Production companies are SpaceWorks Entertainment Inc. (Canada) and Circles & Lines GmbH (Germany). German broadcaster RTL2 has acquired the rights to the series even before the show commenced shooting.