One of the more notable points of Prisoners of Gravity's history is that the series was canceled during the height of its popularity. Then sudden ending, or rather, lack of an ending, has left people wondering if there is more to the series than the original five seasons. The sad truth is there are no official sequels or continuations for Prisoners of Gravity. It finishes at the end of the fifth season and that's it.

There have been some failed attempts at picking up the series again, as well as some major projects and rumours related directly and indirected to Prisoners of Gravity.

The Second Series

Rumours of a "second series" to pick up where the first left off aren't too uncommon. Sometimes it's just a fan writing a proposal and sometimes there's word that an executive is interested in carrying on the series. Nothing has developed out of these rumours.

The rumour with the most weight was that CHUM Limited was looking into the possibility of resurrecting the series. A collection of episodes ran on Space when the station first appeared in 1997. Despite the Prisoners of Gravity's location on the prime time schedule, the audience numbers just weren't there to demand new episodes. The show was quietly shuffled to a location in the morning schedule.

It has been over 10 years since Prisoners of Gravity's cancellation, so any hope for a direct sequel is next to nil. Everyone has gone on to other projects. At least we can take some assurance that the show is still on the air in some form and that someone will hopefully realize that there is a demand for similar programming.

The CD-ROM

The Prisoners of Gravity CD-ROM series was a spin-off that entered production after the TVOntario cancellation. The company creating the CD-ROMs, Mackerel Interactive, went out of business and the project was never finished.

The CD-ROM series was to follow the format of the TV series in that each CD-ROM covered a single topic. The content was to include general information and interviews. Some interviews were being gathered for the CD-ROM before production ended, but it's not known where they ended up after the production shut down.

The most unusual aspect of this project is that the wrap-around storyline was focused on Nan-Cy instead of Commander Rick and dealt with her "slowly being transformed into a sentient being". The impression that myself and many fans I've met have is that Nan-Cy was already sentient; she could think for herself, have opinions and showed some emotion. This may mean that the wrap-around of the CD-ROM was to take place before the TV series or it could have taken place afterward and expanded the world of the series in ways that we can only imagine.

Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

This is not the same as the failed Mackerel Interactive CD-ROM. The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is an CD-ROM adaptation of John Clute and Peter Nicholls's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Because a CD-ROM allows access to multimedia material, the CD-ROM version includes audio and video based on entries.

All the author video interviews included in the CD-ROM are taken from episodes of Prisoners of Gravity. While there is an entry for Prisoners of Gravity in paper version of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, I'm not certain if one is included in the CD-ROM.

The Anti Gravity Room

Ah, The Anti Gravity Room, the source of much debate. Was it a rip off of Prisoners of Gravity? Should we fight over which one was better? Personally, I see Prisoners of Gravity and The Anti Gravity Room as two siblings; PoG, the elder sibling, has long since accepted its dorkiness and is proud of it. AGR is the younger sibling and, while it will grow up to also become a dork, it tries to grip tightly to a few strands of "coolness". But then, I think up strange things like this all the time.

The Anti Gravity Room began as a call-in show on public access television. Viewers would call in with questions on comic books and host Nick Scoullar would answer them. Word of the show got around and it was jointly picked up by Canada's YTV and America's Sci-Fi channel. The show was expanded into more of an news/information show that still covered comics, but also more literature, games, movies and music. Two more hosts were added: Phil Guerrero and Shashi Bhatia. Nick was based in New York, Phil in Toronto and Shashi in Los Angeles. Shashi would later be replaced by Jaimy Mahlon over the course of the series' four year run. The final season of The Anti Gravity Room was only aired in Canada, as it seems that Sci-Fi decided to can the series early.

Many people are quick to pick up that there are some strange similarities between the two programs. It's true; there are some things that seem a little suspicious when you compare them, but there's a very good reason for that. Mark Askwith, one of the creators of Prisoners of Gravity, also worked on The Anti Gravity Room. This is why both shows "feel" very much the same at points. There's no great conspiracy, just shared staff members.

Warp

Like Prisoners of Gravity and Anti-Gravity Room, Warp covered science fiction, comic books and other forms of underground media. Also like Prisoners of Gravity, Warp had wrap-around segments with fictional characters. However, while Prisoners of Gravity's segments were cheesy but amusing, Warp's were just plain bizarre. They focused on the misadventures of a super hero and his sidekick (Phil Guerrero and Paul McGuire, but I can't remember which was which) who often drove around in an invisible car. So, you had footage of two guys in capes running around streets and walkways while pretending they were driving. I wasn't kidding about the bizarre part.

Warp was created for YTV to fill the void left by The Anti-Gravity Room and in fact, some of the crew for the two shows was the same. The show didn't last that long in first run; its production company only lists 13 episodes. It was then subjected to endless reruns and probably died a lonely death in the early morning hours along with YTV's other cast offs.

I swear, I wish that I had recorded a few episodes just to prove that Warp existed, since it remains obscure. You may be more familiar with Warp's sister program, Gamerz, which had a more successful run. Gamez had a similar news magazine format, only it changed the focus from literature and media to strictly video games, replaced Paul with a female host and dropped the whole"superheroes with an invisible car" deal.