L5 is an episodic video production being released on the Internet.  The first episode looks very good. This appears to be “hard” science fiction – no violation of the laws of physics  – and the equipment looks very believable. Even the acting is well done. It’s especially impressive considering the episode was produced on a shoestring budget of $15,000.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/35040431 w=700]

The plot concerns a starship that is returning from an unsuccessful exploration mission to Barnard’s star. Something happened on the way back, causing the ship’s artificial intelligence to delay the ship’s return by 200 years. (The crew is in suspended animation.) When the crew returns to our solar system and awakens, they discover that the system appears to be empty. Attempts to communicate are met with nothing but radio silence. Instead of heading directly back to Earth, the crew begins to explore a huge O’Neill colony. Like Earth, the colony has been mysteriously abandoned.

This provides some rare glimpses of the space-settlement vision created by the late Princeton professor Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill. I assume we’ll see a lot more in future episodes.

You can download or stream the episode from Vodo. (Downloads are a bit slow right now, probably because it’s a new release.)