'Ocean Girl', in some cases also known as 'Ocean Odysee'. It is a new-age Australian eco/sci-fi/adventure epic. Ocean Girl had 78 episodes, 4 seasons (Seasons 1 & 2 13 episodes, Seasons 3 & 4 26 episodes in each case.) It was Produced by: Jonathan M. Shiff Productions Pty. Ltd, in association with Network Ten Australia Beyound Distribution Pty. Ltd., Tele Images/ITI and The Disney Channel, developed with the assistance of Film Queensland, developed and produced with the assistance of Film Victoria, made with the participation of The Australian Film Finance Corporation Pty. Ltd. 1992/1993 (Ocean Girl I), 1994/1995 (Ocean Girl II & III), 1996/1997 (Ocean Girl IV). Most of the outside/insland shots were taken on locations 'round Port Douglas and as 'Neri's Island', High Island, which is part of the Frankland national park islands of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Ocean Girl is a serial drama television series with an unfolding narrative that utilizes at least mild cliffhangers to end each episode. It takes place in the near future 'round the early 21st centure, and is an example of deep ecology science fiction.
Neri - the title character - is a young girl with an affinity for water, super-human strength, the ability to swim long distances, and super-human lung capacity. Neri has grown up on an deserted island of Australia's Great Barrier Reef together with her father who died when she was little. Neri can swim and dive at extraordinary speeds and deeps and is able to communicate with a humpback whale she calls Charley. As she was a child, she fell from a high cliff into the ocean but the giant whale suddenly emerged from the deep to save her. Since this time, Neri is able to communicate telephatically with the whale, and so she and Charley became friends forever.
Early in the first season, Neri befriends two Australian boys: Jason and Brett Bates. This friendship is at first a highly-guarded secret due to Neri's fear of other humans. The Bates brothers live in an elaborate underwater research and environmental protection facility called ORCA, located near Port Douglas, Queensland. At the beginning of the series, they moved to ORCA in order for their mother, Dr. Dianne Bates, to study whale songs. A significant portion of the series takes place on ORCA itself, and it looks at the activities of its inhabitants, many of whom are school-aged children, just as Jason and Brett. Everyone who meets her either loves her and becomes completely obsessed with her to the point of unhealthiness. She is kind, gentle, and full of love for everyone. She loves the world, and all creation, and would never want to harm them. Throughout the series, she does her best to preserve nature, and to keep everything wonderful and clean, and she succeeds in doing this. She comes from a place called the 'Planet of the Oceans'. Her people are excellent swimmers, as well as herself.
Later in the series, Neri's curiosity leads her to explore ORCA, while Dr. Bates's study of Charley's whale song helps her identify Neri as the intended recipient of that sond. Eventually, Dr. Bates and her assistant, Dr. Winston Seth, become envolved in Jason and Brett's effort to keep Neri a secret, while also performing numerous tests on Neri to understand how she's able to communicate with whales. At the same time that the Bates learn about Neri, a rival research organization, the UBRI Corporation, are introduced. Headed by Dr. Hellegren, UBRI has learned that a spacecraft landed somewhere in the vicinity of ORCA, and begin their own search for any personnel that may have survived. Simultaneously, they work on other projects which threaten the natural ecology of the ocean around ORCA. Eventually, they put in play an effort to build the so-called "ORCA City", an elaborate underwater construction that will likely distroy much of the natural life on the sea floor.
Neri turns out that she's not from Earth but from a world called the 'Planet of Oceans', and about her father's mission that was to warn the Earth people not to spoil and exploit their planet like his people have done before with their own world. His mission was also to prepare the Earth for the big arrival, but Neri wasn't aware of all this initially. Neri's father called it 'A mission of peace and wisdom to the 'Opal Planet' but because of the unplaned crash of the spacecraft that brought them to Earth and his early death, he was never able to finish his mission. Neri has sworn to continue her father's work and she has a strong will to so justice to the promise she gave him.
As Neri gradually discovers more of her island and ORCA, she also begins to understand her greater purpose. This self-awakening is particularly enhanced but encounters with other of her kind. In the second season, she discovers her sister, Mera, and the two are given the opportunity to return to their home planet 'Planet of the Oceans'. Mera decides that she wants to go , but Neri decides to stay, feeling that she must discover what her father was trying to do on Earth. Neri's new found friends and family from ORCA are always trying to prevent her discovery by the outside (science) world and with the help of them, Neri continues the mission her father could never finish. One of thie major opponents is an organisation called 'UBRI', leaded by Dr. Hellegren, who wants to capture Neri and the whale to make the powerful technology of Neri's people work for his own interests.
Dr. Bates's mission changes over the course of the series from cetologist to environmental protectionist. This role becomes more prominent beginning with the third season, when UBRI representatives establish themselves onboard ORCA. Neri gains entry into the downed spacecraft that originally brought her to Earth. There, she finds another of her people in suspended animation. The new character, Kal, proves to be the son of the pilot of the vessel, and helps her tap into the ship's memory core. She finds the ships log, which explains that her father was trying to find a substance that would revitalize Earth's oceans. She then dedicates her life to her father's cause, giving her a genuine sense of purpose that she had perhaps lacked earlier in the series. As Neri begins her father's mission, she is drawn further and further away from her island. Beginning in the middle of the third season, some episodes are primarily based on the island. Neri even prevented the total destruction of Earth and the 'Ocean Planet' by reactivation of the 'Synchronium', a powerful device Neri's people sent to Earth a long time ago.
By the fourth season, some episodes are set in Egypt, and her father's quest eventually leads her back to the "Ocean World", her home planet. Most of the plots involving the secondary kids on ORCA are reduced in the final season, in order to allow for greater exploration of Neri's homeworld. Several new characters of Neri's species are introduced. Likewise, the threat of UBRI fades, to be replaced by a new organization, PRAXIS (Preventative Response And Extraterritorial Intelligence Service). This group is dedicated to protecting against any threats posed by extraterrestrial life, and its agents comes to believe Neri and her people are a problem for Earth. They chased Neri and the Bates boy around the world. When a doorway - in the shape of a mysterious underwater pyramid - is discovered to the Ocean World, Mera is happily reunited with Neri. But PRAXIS sees this pyramid as a way to pre-empt any further incursion by Ocean Worlders. Much of the final season is thus concerned with PRAXIS' plan to engage in a nuclear war with the Ocean World, as well as a attempt to introduced a so-called "Red Virus" into the oceans of Neri's homeworld.
The rare abilities she possesses, Neri has inherited from her mother - the late Queen Shalamorn - who was a ruler on 'The Planet Of Oceans' and as it seems, it is Neri's fate to become her successor one day. But before she can assume her rightful place in this universe, Neri has to battle the evil Shersheba and her mentor Malakat, refectors from her home world, the Ocean Planet. At long last, Neri finds out who caused the crash of their spacecraft on Earth, about her royal descent and her task to lead the migration of the Ocean People to Earth. We've come full circle as Neri's destiny comes to pass and she's finally crowned to the future leader of her people to guide both Earth and Ocean People into a peaceful, better tomorrowl. Neri always trys to believe in the good things in the hearts of people and offers her help not only to her friends and family, which she loves more than anything else, but to everybody.
Eventually, in the series final, Jason, Brett and Neri are able to repulse PRAXIS's efforts, Earth's oceans are saved and Neri enters into a new life as Queen of the Ocean World.
