Spellbinder
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Spellbinder is a sci-fi television series, produced by Film Australia, aimed for children, which screened on Australian television from 1995 to 1997. It features a group of children, led by Paul Reynolds, who, in exploring the Blue Mountains, discover a way to move between their universe and a parallel universe, inhabited by a more hierachic but technologically different society, ruled by a group of people known as Spellbinders. Paul meets a girl, Riana, and they become friends across their two universes.
The Spellbinders have discovered the power to create and manipulate static electricity, and fly in gigantic copper-colored machines that utilize gigantic rotating orange crystals, presumably using some form of magnetic levitation. As with all societies, the Spellbinders often use their power for good, but some abuse this power and use their discoveries for malevolence. One such malevolent Spellbinder is Ashka. She often gets away without her nature being discovered. Common people are often "banished" for their misdeeds, and sometimes spellbinders are banished also if they are proven to have done wrong.
The series draws its tension from the children's forays into the land of the Spellbinders, and their escapes and interactions between malevolent Spellbinders, and occasional crosses of Spellbinders into our universe, who are often scared of the technology that exists here.
An interesting note is that many of the people from Riana's world speak in an almost Russian accent, with their names sounding similar to Russian. This is because many of the scenes from the alternate universe were in fact filmed in Poland and featured Polish actors.
A second series Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord was made a year or so later. This was filmed in China and involved Chinese actors.