Lost, a remake of Earth 2?

Lost is a remake of Earth 2. Both shows contain subtle differences with very similar story lines.

May 22nd 2009, you will find my list below published (pages 18-20) in today’s Telefilm Central Fanzine Number 4 May 2009.
http://www.telefilm-central.org/fanzine and Here

Here are a list of the similarities between Earth 2 and Lost. Even with an exhaustive list of similarities below I would not say Lost is a rip-off of Earth 2, it is, however, no coincidence. I only have a few Lost theories or Earth 2 theories about the similarities.

I’m not going to list when occurances happen, which episode or in any particular order, just things that are remarkably similar.
(e) = Earth 2, (l) = Lost

All similarities below reference both shows or Earth 2 first then Lost.


1. They are called the Eden Project/Dharma Initiative.

2. They crash landed on the planet (G889)/island (origin unknown).

Both first episodes were 2 hours long about the crash, each following episode is related to a particular character. Both shows have a large main cast. Both with less than 50 survivors. We know that the Eden Project was crashed on purpose, many people think that the Plane crash from Lost was also on purpose.

3. There are people who live on the planet/island called Terrians/Others. Terrians/Others appear the be much stronger than humans. Terrians/Others have great ability to be stealthy.

Did you notice that when the others were first introduced that they were extremely strong. Now they appear to have been regular people. I don’t think they came up with a good reason for them being strong and dropped that characteristic.

4. Pilot Seth Norris/Cmdr. Broderick O’Neill is killed within a few days of the crash.

5. The planet/island healed Ulysses Adair/John Locke who couldn’t walk.

6. Ulysses Adair/Walt Lloyd has a connection with the planet/island. Both boys exhibit powers. The Terrians want Ulysses Adair, the Others want Walt Lloyd. Ulysses Adair/Walt Lloyd would not be the first child the Terrians/Others have taken.

7. We continue to learn about each characters past through flashbacks.

8. There are a few regular characters that receive little to no lines and very little screen time.

9. They live at the crash site for only a short time, then move on.

10. They crashed landed with single parent families.

11. The survivors have strange dreams and hallucinations. These dreams/hallucinations communicate different information to the person.

12. They met up with people that crash landed on a different part of the planet/island (married couple/tailees).

13. They meet a crazy person who has been on the planet for about 15 years with long frizzy hair (Gaal/Danielle Rousseau). Both of these characters killed everyone that was with them. Both characters attempt to abduct one of the survivors children.

14. James “Sawyer” Ford/Morgan Martin is seeing boars/grendlers that no one else is seeing and it’s making them think their going crazy. Added 1/6/2008

15. Yale/Claire Littleton are without memories of who they were (Yale’s were suppressed as part of the Yale program, Claire Littleton lost hers while with the others). Yale/Claire Littleton reclaim the memories of who they were within a few weeks.

16. They found a dome left image/station right image. The dome in Earth 2 is a geodesic dome and the station from Lost is underground and contains a geodesic dome of approximately the same size.

17. The dome left images/station right image has a special logo. The first image Yale had in his database and the second image was on the dome itself, both containing the image of a dome. In Earth 2 the logo may stand for the Federal Agreement of Science. The Lost Swan station logo is in the shape of a dome from above. Added 2008/03/30

18. Jack Shephard/Devon Adair has visions of a person who is dead.

19. They find a message from a woman Dell Curry/Danielle Rousseau that has been looping for more than a decade.

20. They found the bones of a man and a woman where they setup camp in the dome/cave. I think John Locke on Lost called them Adam and Eve. Reminder, the Earth 2 group is called the Eden Project.

21. We met a girl (Mary/Alex) who was raised by the Terrians/Others and is now a young adult. Mary is the daughter of the couple from the dome, Alex is the daughter of Danielle Rousseau. Both of these girls helped someone escape the punishment of the Terrians/Others.

22. There is a married couple (Bess Martin and Morgan Martin/Sun Kwon and Jin Kwon) that argue a lot. Both shows have one episode devoted to the marital problems of the couple. The husband is one class and the wife is another. The husband has relationship problems with his father-in-law.

23. Martin/James “Sawyer” Ford is always annoying and looking for the percentage in things. Both of these characters are weasels.

24. Shephard/Desmond Hume sends a message to Devon Adair/Penny Widmore through space/time to save the life of Ulysses Adair/Desmond Hume in the future. Added 3/30/2008

25. John Danziger/Sayid Jarrah is electronic handyman with curly hair.

26. Javier Grillo-Marxuach (writer/producer).

27. Terry O’Quinn played a character on the show (Reilly left image/John Locke right image).

John Locke, after whom the character John Locke is named, was a famous social contract philosopher who dealt with the relationship between nature and civilization.

This is an interesting name choice as both shows deal with the relationship between the island/planet and the people that crashed there.

I have to think that Terry O’Quinn is aware of the similarities between the two shows, he may have been chosen for this reason in an unexplained way.

28. Clancy Brown played a character on the show (regular cast member John Danziger left image/Joe Inman right image, is a C.I.A. agent in the episode “One of them, 2006”).

29. Clancy Brown played a character on the show (regular cast member John Danziger left image/Kelvin Inman right image, is ex-C.I.A. Spook in the episode “Live Together, Die Alone, 2006”).

30. Devon Adair and John Danziger/Jack Shephar and Kate Austen are trapped by vines/net next to one another and the female reaches in a compromising position to get the knife/gun that the male character has near his belt which is used to escape.

31. The name Rom was going to be used in Season 2 of Earth 2 for a mischievous cyborg, that name was used for Ethan Rom, an other than pretended to be a survivor.

32. Cmdr. Broderick O’Neill/Nikki Fernandez and Paulo were thought to have been dead after being stung/bitten and were buried alive. Added 6/5/2007

33. Dr. Julia Heller/Dr. Juliet Burke are spies and suppose to find out what they can about the survivors and report back. Dr. Julia Heller reports to Reilly (Terry O’Quinn) and Dr. Juliet Burke reports back to Ben. Both doctor characters abandon who they are suppose to report to and join the group they were reporting on. Added 3/27/2008

34. Both shows have temples with stone steps down into pools of water that have magical qualities. Added 2/8/2010

35. There is an area on the planet/island with an extreme magnetic pull. Added 2/10/2010

36. The planet/island have areas that allow for teleportation. Added 2/10/2010

37. There are spiders on the planet/island that make grendlers/people sleepy. Added 2/10/2011

With so many similarities why did Earth 2 end after 1 season and Lost is one of the top shows on television? I think it has to do with the Science Fiction element, Lost removed any part of the story that related to space, space ships, other planets and aliens leaving us with fiction drama that appeals to a much wider audience.

It’s nearly impossible to find legitimate information online about the connection between the two shows, but they know we know. I think they knew it was a good story 12 years ago and tweaked it for todays audience.

WEIRD BUT TRUE, last week (5/7/06) I had a dream that I worked with Terry O’Quinn in an office and asked him to do an interview for my blog. I got turned down by the Terry O’Quinn in my dream, he said he didn’t think it would be right, damn that sucks. I would have posted it too.

Terry, if you ever read this please contact me, hopefully the real Terry O’Quinn won’t turn me down for an interview.

Earth 2 DVD. It appears as though when the DVD for this show was produced they didn’t do their homework to list the episodes in their production order and laid out the DVD in the same order the shows aired on TV, which is incorrect.

2007/03/26 So where are we today? Well I think for the most part the similarities have ended. Lost has lasted far longer than Earth 2 and it appears that any similarities to Earth 2 have been exhausted. I look forward to seeing a few more actors from Earth 2 making there way into Lost.

2008/03/29 I’m watching Earth 2 again and more similarities are coming out. I guess the writers for Lost have a few more pages of Earth 2 to go through.

15 thoughts on “Lost, a remake of Earth 2?

  1. random guy

    i haven’t watched “Lost” ever (a friend is supposed to give me the first season on DVD) but when i read the premise, first thing i thought of was Earth II.

    I kinda liked Earth II, but it was a tad cheesy, too. That may have been the problem as much as the Space aspects– people don’t dislike scifi, they dislike CHEESY SCIFI on primetime.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    Very funny. I watched lost for the first time, all seasons plus the first three of 2006/2007. I told everyone it reminded me to a show called Earth 2. No one remembered the show. I did a search and you all agree.

    Reply
  3. Brian

    I also noticed that 3 escape pods crash landed in different places on the planet in Earth 2. On Lost, the plane crashed in three sections in different places on the island. The middle section, the tail, and the cockpit. Also, lines/phrases from Earth 2 sometimes pop-up as titles of Lost episodes. There is also a scene in Earth 2 where the commander teaches True and Ulysses a lesson based on the 2 sides of a coin. This is strikingly similar to Locke talking to Walt about the 2 sides/colors in a backgammon game.

    Reply
  4. Brian

    This one might be a stretch, but it’s all just oddly similar. I suppose if you scrutinously compared any two shows, you could find many like things…but…
    The smoke monster on Lost sometimes travels in tunnels (the tunnels are noted on the blast door map and the smoke monster tries to pull Locke into one at the end of Season 1). On Earth 2, the crew finds tunnels that “teleport” people to other places on the planet. Teleportation seems to exist on Lost…Linus and a polar bear end up in Tunisa. In fact, the island itself seems to be able to teleport. The direction one travels through the tunnels on Earth 2 are dictated by spiders, right? Well…on Lost, the smoke monster that sometimes travels in the tunnels on the island seems capable of taking the shape of many things…Eko’s brother Yemi and the drug smugglers that Eko killed. Well, in the Nikki and Paolo episode from season 3, many folks think that the smoke monster took the form of the spiders that paralyzed Nikki (you hear the ratchety receipt printing sound of the smoke monster when the spiders appear). Is it all related…I don’t know…I’m really not sure if it all fits togeter logically…just seems to similar to be unintentional.

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  5. Brian

    OK, one more and I’ll stop being obnoxious…I only just noticed though when looking at the pics form the article. The DHARMA symbol is said to have Buddhist/Taoist origins. The patch from the environmentalists that landed on Earth 2 prior landing of the Eden crew also contains a religios symbol. There are 2 Stars of David in the background of each logo.

    Reply
  6. rachel

    Julia and Julliette are both doctors who act as spys for “others” and look a lot alike.

    I have been a big Fan of Lost and recently started watching Earth 2, which I havn’t even heard of til recently on Net Flix. I was really struck by the similarities. I noticed it just moments before the actor that plays Locke arrived on the scene in Earth 2. It was eerie.

    Reply
  7. Rob Jones

    rachel, I watched Earth 2 back when it aired on television in 1994. A decade later I watched the first season of LOST when it aired on television in 2004. I was half way through the second season of LOST when I got the Earth 2 DVD’s. It wasn’t until after I started watching the Earth 2 DVDs that I noticed the similarities.

    After I noticed the similarities I started documenting them, which became this article. Since I started my documentation each season has revealed even more similarities which is why I date them. I’m looking forward to seeing what similarities season 5 will hold, which starts 3 weeks.

    Reply
  8. David

    It’s so weird I found this website. I started watching Earth 2 recently because it’s on netflix. After the second episode, I couldn’t get Lost out of my mind. Besides the obvious similaries (large ensemble cast, the groups get split up, the crash not being an accident), there was one similarty that really made me start thinking something was up. There is an episode in Season 2 of Lost that was written by Brian K. Vaughn. There were these spiders that bit the two Lost characters. The people buried them alive. This happened in both shows. Then when Terry O’Quinn showed up, I KNEW this wasn’t a coincidence. Also, in Earth 2, Terry is an obvious badguy. Terry O’Quinn is an ambiguous badguy in Lost. That’s not really a similarity, only a notable difference between the characters. You never really know with Locke.

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  9. Brigon7

    I didn’t notice #14 and #15 until recently re-watching EARTH 2. Great compilation of data by the way. I’d like to make some sort of video composition of this.

    Id also like to bring up that LOST is similar to CARNIVALE as well. maybe not as much as EARTH 2, but deserves a note. LOST has adopted all the best of CARNIVALE and EARTH 2.

    An source of great energy also exists underground on both the island and planet.

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  10. Jason

    *bump*

    Watching Earth 2 on Netflix feeling very much on the same page.

    There was an episode (seven or eight) that had duality as a theme. At the end of the episode, instead of the abrupt black screen with the credits the producers hit you with abrupt white – opposite of what you’ve become accustomed to. Very Lost!

    I feel there may also be a little bit of Earth 2 in the Firefly/Serenity series that came a little later. Battlestar Galactica certainly comes to mind as well. Since the latter is a remake of a series that pre-dates Earth 2 I can’t help wonder who can take credit for what. Very tangled webs!

    Enjoying this show…

    Reply
  11. Tomás from ATX

    Man, I’m late to the party, but I really enjoyed your article and the comments. I just started watching Earth 2 a couple of weeks ago. I’ll add that both shows were shot in popular tourist destinations. Lost was shot mostly on the island of Oahu, the third largest Hawaiian island and Earth 2 was shot in and around the Jemez Mountains outside Santa Fe, NM. The Hawaiian islands are all volcanic, of course, and the Jemez Mountains were formed by an ancient super volcano, the land around it shaped by it’s eruptions. The youngest of the two volcanoes on Oahu last erupted about 32,000 years ago and the last Jemez eruption was about 50,000 years ago. Also, Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii is on Oahu and Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, is near the Jemez. Of course, this has to be purely coincidental, but still fun. Genre shows always benefit from compelling settings.

    Editorial note: I’ve still not finished the Earth 2 season, and I’m enjoying it so far, but it’s really sad that there isn’t a higher quality digital transfer. The show was shot on 35mm film using Panaflex Cameras and Lenses by Panavision, extremely high quality media and equipment, so it should look amazing. I would love to see a good Bluray version. That area is a place I love visiting, but it’s been stuck in a terrible drought the last 16 years or so and it’s just not that same as it was in 1994.

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