Guest from the Future (Russian: Гостья из будущего, Gostya iz budushchego) is a five-part Soviet children's science fiction television miniseries, made at Gorky Film Studio, first aired in 1985.
It is based on the 1978 novel One Hundred Years Ahead (Russian: Сто лет тому вперёд, Sto let tomu vperyod) by Kir Bulychov.
Two schoolboys, Young Pioneers Kolya Gerasyimov and Fima Korolyov, follow a mysterious strange lady to an abandoned house.
When they enter the house, they find no trace of the stranger, but in the empty basement Kolya discovers a secret door that leads to a room with a technical device in it.
Employees return from time travels to different periods and deliver artifacts that are inventoried by Werther, an android who holds a secret crush on the stranger whose name is Polina.
Kolya sneaks around the corridors but is eventually caught by Werther, who starts inventorying him, assuming that he was brought in by Polina.
Werther considers putting him in the museum, but then decides to send him back in time in order to cover up what he thinks to be Polina's mistake.
However, by joining a group of pupils who escort their project satellite to the launch, he manages to enter the transit area.
Back in the waiting hall, Kolya meets grandpa Pavel again (who turns out to be Polina's future father-in-law) and tells about what he just saw, but the old man dismisses it as child's fantasies.
The fake grandpa Pavel introduces the other shape-shifter, who is now turned into a short man in a colourful costume to Prof. Seleznyov as a fellow scientist from another planet.
The "scientist" shows conspicuous interest in a device called "myelophone", a mind-reading box.
However, with the help of a man and his talking goat named Napoleon, Kolya can recover the device and temporarily escapes from the pirates in an air chase.
Alisa is in hospital, recovering after the accident and faking amnesia in order to hide her origin.
In the night, Kolya and Fima enter the basement of the abandoned house but the entrance to the time machine is blocked.
Fima, triumphant that his predictions have come true so far, wonders whether Alisa will try to eliminate Kolya as witness if he gives her the myelophone.
Fima believes that the device is still at Kolya's place and runs there in order to pick it up before the pirates arrive.
The children approach the house and are noticed by the pirates who also realise that Alisa carries the myelophone.
While she enters the secret chamber and the door closes, we hear the song "The Beautiful Afar".
The song's popularity soon separated from the miniseries, and it became iconic in its own right; it was widely performed by various choirs and sung in everyday life.
It was one of the BCC's big 1980s hit songs, and was covered by the Soviet musical trio Meridian within months of the series finale at the request of its composer, this cover version in the style of the bard movement of the early 80s would also be a sensation, being featured in the 1985 Pesnya goda festival finals.
Many Soviet schoolboys fell in love with Alisa Selezneva played by Natalya Guseva, who had got a lot of letters from fans.