Children of Earth
The trailer for Torchwood season three is out:
There’s even Harkness smooching.
Entries Tagged as 'Science Fiction'
Who?
What I suspected has now been offically released by the BBC. David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who at the end of the 2009 Specials. I’m guessing that this news is the reason that the Doctor Who Forum is experiencing major difficulties in delivering its content. I thought David made an excellent Doctor. His incredible level of energy and sense of fun made the show more entertaining than at time in its long history. His three years with the show allowed him to develop and evolve the 10th Doctor’s personality. Christopher Eccleston’s 9th Doctor didn’t quite get that chance. (Yes, I know it was Eccleston’s choice to leave the role.) Although, too much of the whole “immortal with eternal survivor’s guilt” thing would probably have gotten old very quickly. I find it interesting that the “serious” 9th Doctor had less serious stories than the “fun” 10th Doctor. Russell T. Davies may not be the greatest of writers, but I think this shows an understated genius in his running the show.
I imagine the news will disappoint a good number of fans who expected their favorite Doctor to have a run of Tom Baker endurance. While I certainly enjoyed Tennant’s run immensely, I find myself welcoming this news. Ever since William Hartnell was forced out bowed out of the role, it’s been designed to be handed down from actor to actor, allowing the show to evolve in a way that no other show can. When the original series was canceled in 1989, Sylvester McCoy was determined to hand the role over to his successor at some point. He had that opportunity to do so in the 1996 TV movie. Yes, the movie was sub-par, but at least he was able to do so. Now we’ll get to see it passed on again right at the time a new team takes over the production. I think we’ll see a fresh start and some great originality. (Hopefully part of that includes giving the Daleks a rest. They need to bow out for a few years at least.) A new Doctor is always a fun ride. My only hope is Stephen Moffett allows the show to keep its gay sensibility.
I will stay out of any speculation on who should/will inherit the role. It’s a British Institution and I’m not British. There will be plenty of others posting their ideas all over the internet until the successor is announced. Until then, there will be five more specials for us to appeciate Doctor Number 10.
A Long Time Ago On a Channel Far, Far Away
Way back when (in the early eighties) my family first got cable, the embryonic childrens’ channel Nickelodeon aired an anthology show they called “The Third Eye“. The nearly budgetless fledgling network bought old shows from our former mother country England. While many remember “The Tomorrow People” which ran before Nick ran commercials during their shows, fewer remember this show which recycled BBC and ITV childrens’ serials.
The show endlessly reran the episodes of four (a fifth was added just before the anthology was cancelled) serials most likely purchased on the cheap. The oldest of the shows, “Children of the Stones“, a mid seventies relic, ran alongside it’s early eighties cousins: “The Haunting of Cassie Palmer“, “Under the Mountain“, and my favorite, “Into the Labyrinth“.
“Children of the Stones” wasn’t the most entertaining of the series, but it was unique amongst its bretheren. Where the other shows followed the typical children run away, find some strangers and have some adventures, the father and son team of “Children” had an unusual, open and equal relationship. For what may be the first time on television aimed at children, a parent and his offspring treated each other with the level of intelligence and responsiblity they both knew each had. The somewhat outlandish claims made by the son weren’t immediately dismissed by Dad. He even took the time to investigate, and when necessary, defend them against the more closed minded opinions of the villiagers.
The production values of the show were typical of the low budget British drama with a mix of videotaped studio material and 16mm film location shots. Yes, it looks cheap, but the cast makes up for this by being at worst competent and at best, a pleasure to watch. A year after this, star Gareth Thomas would get his own ongoing series playing Roj Blake in Terry Nation’s attempt to make an adult Doctor Who called Blake’s 7.
The good news is that there is finally a Region One DVD release forthcoming in January. After nearly a quarter century absence from American television screens, we’ll be able to watch this gem again.
Bang the Drumhead Slowly
Despite its myriad flaws, there’s something irresistible about that anal retentive vision of the 24th century we know as Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sure, everyone is such a goody goody that even those with a perfectly working pancreas can lapse into a diabetic coma. The Frenchman talks with a received pronunciation accent. Patrick Stewart’s acting ability was light years ahead of the rest of the cast. The ship’s head shrinker has a Mediterranean accent when her mother’s is quite American (or maybe Canadian). The emotionless robot makes friends, misses people, etc…
The other aspect that seems to bother some is that most of the stories are thinly veiled morality plays meant to teach some kind of lesson, even more so than it’s 1960s parent. This was the reality of the Reagan/Bush America that spawned this series. There were the occasional episodes that were surprisingly delightful. One episode, written during the beginning of Desert Storm (February 6th, 1991 to be exact) and aired shortly after on April 29th, diverged from the morality play formula to present a political allegory. In light of military tribunals, court cases, detainee rights and a fear mongering administration, things said during “The Drumhead” need to be repeated.
The title of the episode refers to battlefield court-martials. Drumheads were used as improvised writing tables to record the proceedings.
The basic plot is fairly standard. A Klingon aboard the Enterprise is secretly transmitting Federation secrets to the enemy Romulan Empire. At the same time, an explosion in the warp core (engine) occurs. An uptight Admiral (Satie) is brought out of retirement to investigate the incidents. Naturally she thinks them related and begins to question the crew. She brings with her a pair of assistants: a pretty piece of eye candy and a Betazoid assistant. The Betazoid is telepathic/empathic and serves as a human lie detector during the interrogations.
While Uptight Satie and her living lie detector make the crew uncomfortable, two officers investigate the explosion. Lieutenant Data, the Enterprise’s android Pinocchio, and Lieutenant Geordi LaForge, who has the dual role of Data’s Jiminy Cricket and the nerd who can never get the girl and is therefore and unimpeachable source of the truth, discover that the explosion is actually an accident caused by an equipment fault. (The fault, like an impressively large amount of Star Trek dialog is unimportant technobabble.)
At the same time, Admiral Uptight questions a crewman who is a cross between a Vulcan and a Human (you can substitute Chinese-American here if you like.) As it is revealed that our crewman’s job required him to have contact with the Klingon spy, the living lie detector picks up that he is hiding something. LLD doesn’t have enough precision to pin down what it is, but it’s enough circumstantial evidence to link the two together in Admiral Uptight’s little mind.
Our favorite frenchman, Captain Picard, does some of his own investigating by questioning the crewman in a less confrontational manner. (Amazing what you get when you’re nice to people.) It turns out that the crewman lied on his application and he is not half Vulcan, but rather half Romulan. (Now you might as well substitute Japanese-American.) This revelation will end his career. However Uptight’s lack of proof that the explosion was anything but an accident doesn’t stop her from seeing conspiracies everywhere.
Robbed of her easy victory, Uptight takes the investigation up the command ladder and her quest culminates in the questioning (trial) of Captain Picard himself. It is here where Picard naturally turns Satie’s methods against her using her father’s words, a respected Federation judge (or something.)
Picard gets all the best lines in this episode and the naked, naive idealism is absolutely wonderful. It’s the in your face, bat you over the head, no subtlety here presentation of basic principles that need to be beaten into some people.
During the crewman’s investigation, Worf, the security officer sets up surveillance on the crewman. He and Picard have the following exchange:
Worf: He refused to answer the question.. about his Romulan grandfather.
Picard: That is not a crime, Worf. Nor can we infer his guilt because he did not respond.
Worf: If a man is not afraid of the truth, he would answer.
Picard: No. We must not let ourselves think that. The Seventh Guarantee is one of the most important rights granted by the Federation. We cannot use one of the fundamental principles of our constitution and turn it against a citizen.
Worf: Sir… the Federation does have enemies… we must seek them out…
Picard: Yes… that’s how it starts. But the road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is shorter than we might think. Something is wrong here, Worf… I don’t like what we’ve become.
You can easily transfer this to the current scandal on warrantless wiretapping and the like. It is a shame that the current administration doesn’t adhere to the nation’s principles like Picard does.
When the trial turns to Picard himself her makes the following statement:
I am deeply concerned by what is happening here. It began when we apprehended a spy, a man who admitted his guilt and who will answer for his crime. But the hunt didn’t stop there. Another man, Simon Tarses, was brought to trial — and it was a trial, no matter what others may call it.
Unfortunately, it was a trial based on insinuation and innuendo. Nothing substantive against Crewman Tarses was offered, much less proven.
This man has a Romulan grandfather. For that, his career stands in ruins. Have we become so fearful? Have we become so cowardly that we must extinguish a man because he carries the blood of a current enemy?
I remind you… we are not descended from cowardly people. We come from those who were willing to think the unthinkable, speak the unspeakable… … and to defend with passion ideas and causes which were, at the moment, unpopular.
Admiral, let us not condemn Simon Tarses or anyone else on the basis of half-truth. I implore you… do not continue with this proceeding. End it here.
This causes Admiral Uptight to question Picard’s loyalty and fitness for command. He responds:
There is a saying… which many of us have heard since we were school children… “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied — chains us all, irrevocably.”
Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie — as wisdom and warning. The very first time any man’s freedoms are trampled… we are all damaged. I fear… that today… on this starship… we are forging that chain.
This causes Admiral Uptight to break down.
Obviously, this is a great case against legislation like the USA PATRIOT act.
A final exchange between Picard and Worf summarizes the lesson learned:
Picard: We think we have come so far… the torture of heretics and the burning of witches is ancient history… and then… before you can blink an eye… it threatens to start all over again.
Worf: I believed her… I helped her…I didn’t see what she was.
Picard: Villains who wear black hats are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged.
Worf: I think… after yesterday… people will not be as ready to trust her.
Picard: Maybe. But it won’t stop her. She — someone like her — will always be with us… waiting for the right climate to flourish… spreading disease in the name of liberty. Vigilance, Worf. That is the price we must continually pay.
The lesson is simple and elegant and it is a shame that those in power have forgotten it. It falls to the citizen to enforce it.
This is a marvelous episode. It is as relevant today as it was over seventeen years ago. Watch it if you get the chance.
Is There a Doctor in the Library?
Actually there are two. THE Doctor meets Dr. Elizabeth Corday Greene, widow of Dr. Mark Greene, who’s previous experience with action was watching the emergency room at County General get shot up every other week. The weeks it wasn’t getting shot up, the doctors were either screwing each other (metaphorically and literally), improperly diagnosing most of their patients, or getting kidnapped. Of course, this isn’t actually the good Dr. Corday. Rather, the lovely Alex Kingston portrays Professor River Song, an archeologist. Not only does Professor Song lack the ten foot pole up her ass that plagues Dr. Daniel Goodman of Bones first season, but she appears more confident and is obviously enjoying herself at least a thousand times more than as Dr. Corday. Kudos to you Ms. Kingston. You go girl!
When viewed as a whole, this is a rather trippy and somewhat sinister episode. After all, this silent library seems to exist in the mind of a young girl. Not just any young girl, but one undergoing therapy. On top of all that her creepy therapist tells her that the nightmares are real and the real world is just a dream. Assuming team Davies/Moffett don’t come up with something lame in part two, this could be interesting. Did The Doctor land inside someone’s head, kind of like his landing inside an electronic device wasy back when during the Perwee adventure “Carnival of Monsters”? Is the little girl actually a sentient security camera? Why am I so sure the explanation will be much lamer than this?
There’s even an attempt at explaining everyone’s fear of the dark. And it’s that apparently microscopic pirannah like things inhabit the shadows ready to strip the flesh off your bones in a microsecond. A functional plot device, even if it poorly rips off the premise of the Jeffrey Combs tour de force “From Beyond”. It does keep everyone on their toes, although the animated corpse repeating the same phrase over and over again (”Hey, who turned out the lights?”) is an obvious recycling of the “Are you my mummy?” child from the first season’s “The Empty Child”. It does give David Tennant his usual chance to display his enormous… energy supply.
Many of the two parters have a great first episode and a fairly big letdown in the conclusion. I’m hoping this doesn’t happen here.
Like Father, Like Daughter
So, The Doctor met his daughter. It’s really just a cheat. Everyone was expecting some insight into The Doctor’s family. Except for a few glib references, the only evidence of family was Susan, the even more mysterious granddaughter. The companion exists as a proxy for the audience to ask all those questions we’d otherwise be shouting at the screen. Susan was made The Doctor’s granddaughter to alleviate any implications that the somewhat elderly William Hartnell was a dirty old man traveling the universe with a fifteen year old bit of crumpet. As it turns out, daughter Jenny is not Susan’s mother.
Enough about that. How was the episode? To be honest, it was average. The second half brought back memories of “The Invasion of Time” with the group running through endless corridors and even running into the previously kidnapped companion. The alien antagonists, the Hath, are one dimensional, mostly unexplained and not overly imaginative. I wonder if the human colonists are referred to as the Hath-Not. Even the colonists aren’t fleshed out except for the leader played fairly well by the uniquely voiced Nigel Terry. The accent was triggering a feeling of deja-vu. Then I realized, this is a much older King Arthur from the excellent “Excalibur“. While effectively acted, the character is the typical selfish bastard, jerk that colonists from about 1,000 years in the future in the Doctor Who universe are. There’s even a sly reference to "The Keeper of Traken" with the plot device of The Source.
Now Georgia Moffett, who really is The Doctor’s Daughter, puts on a spectacular performance and she’s obviously loving it. While the bright spot of this episode, she reveals the casting error done in the first two series by giving the role of Rose to the dreary Billie Piper instead of this dynamo. We could have been spared twenty-seven episodes of Tammy Faye makeup and inaudible diction. She worked incredibly well with David Tennant even with an overwrought death scene in the mix. Fortunately, it turns out, she has enough in common that she doesn’t really die. (Why she managed to revive herself instead of regenerating into someone else will hopefully be explained in a future episode.) She really does need to be seen again as Jenny.
Speaking of companions, Freema Agyeman returns for the third of five episodes this series as Martha Jones. While I absolutely love Martha, Freema seems to have lost some of her enthusiasm for playing her. Fortunately she gets kidnapped early on and we only she her half assed, phoning it in intermittently. This leads us to the current companion, Donna Noble, played with a certain panache by comedian Catherine Tate. When Donna first showed up in The Runaway Bride, she was brash, grating and all around annoying. I don’t believe I was the only one who was not thrilled at the news of her becoming a regular. The producers gained the wisdom to tone this down and give her a Jiminy Cricket role to someone who is so old, damaged and jaded he can’t really see the little things anymore. For someone who can point a gun at someone’s head and state “I would never,” The Doctor’s reactions to devastation he is directly responsible for can be disturbingly nonchalant. During their first meeting, Donna told him he needs someone to stop him. Donna has been fulfilling that role spectacularly. I am really enjoing a companion who isn’t mushy for the Doc and can act with some objectivity.
One last thing about the good ol’ Doc himself: The survivor’s guilt that plauged the Christopher Eccleston version of the character seems to be returning. He enters, with far too much enthusiasm, every situation that can lead to his demise. Any mention of a topic that can remind him of his past seems to send him into a combination of anger and depression. Has spending so much time around humans made him too much like us? Or has Tennant, while certainly brilliant in the role, lost the ability to cast the alien aura the Eccleston was able to so easily project? Or maybe the writers are at fault…
Spitzer isn’t the only John in the News…
A happy birthday to John Barrowman. The campy, yet talented and too cute for his own good star of Torchwood and Doctor Who and too many other things to name, turns 41 today!
Might as well Jump!
So, I went to see Jumper this weekend. OK, this movie isn’t the greatest film ever made, and it really isn’t even that good of a film. Overall, there was too way too much handheld camera work that made the action scenes too difficult to follow. The effects could have been better and if this was supposed to be a war that’s been going on for centuries, there should have been more than two "jumpers". Basically, some more backstory would have been helpful to present a well formed story. Especially considering the main character’s mother has been in the thick of it her entire life.
It pretty much boils down to The Tomorrow People on steroids. The British show had a group of kids that were the next stage of human evolution. Here, you have children that suffer from a "genetic anomaly". Both have the ability to teleport while the TP can also talk to each other mentally and move objects with their minds. The jumpers look much cooler when they "jump". The TP has a secret government group that sometimes seeks their aid and sometimes drugs and kidnaps them. Here there is a mysterious order that may, or may not, have government connections who go around killing the jumpers. No, it’s not exactly the same. The Tomorrow People’s story telling was much more intelligent, but both sets of characters show a contempt for normal humans. While the TP avoided any religious controversy I have to wonder what the motivations behind Roland’s actions as head of the Paladins trying to kill the Jumpers. He states several times that "only God should have the power to be in all places at all times" or something to that effect. The Griffin character also states that other historical events like The Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials were Jumper purges. The term Paladin was used as to describe a high official in the Catholic Church and a good portion of the action takes place practically next door to the Vatican. Given the generally unsympathetic nature of the Paladins, was Jumper an unexplored crack at religion?
Overall, it was interesting and certainly not terrible but, I doubt there will be sequel.
I gotta gets me some MEAT!
So far, the second season of Torchwood is a great improvement on the first. BBC America is showing the episodes on this side of the pond only a couple of weeks after they air in their homeland. So far it’s been a rockin’ good time, despite a few ill advised ideas.
Episode Four, "Meat" is a pretty standard story and maybe just slighly above mediocre plot about a lumpy looking space whale that gets trapped by some not too intelligent opportunists who cut chunks out of it and sell them to local markets. So, why have I chosen this out of the eight episodes that aired to date? In a word (well five of them): Kai Owen’s "Rhys Williams" character. Up to this episode Rhys has been Gwen’s bumbling, good hearted arm candy that she seems to love like Paris Hilton loves that dog she carries around in her purse. Rhys isn’t overly clever, doesn’t have a sculpted body and isn’t exactly ambitious but radiates a friendly charisma that’s had me enraptured since his first appearance in the premiere episode. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Kai has shown more skin than any other man or woman on the show. In the first season’s finale he came within a well placed coffee cup of a full frontal that was preceeded with some playful ass slapping. Mr. Owen’s six pack may come from a fridge rather than a gym, but I still wanna gets me some of that! (If you haven’t guessed, the title of this post IS a double entendre.)
Physical assets aside, Rhys comes into his own with this episode. After a season and a half of bad treatment by his bug-eyed, crinkle-faced girlfriend/fiance, he finally stands up to Gwen. He finds out about Torchwood through some fairly innovative and quick thinking investigation and calls out his manipulative GF. Apparently she underestimated him along with the rest of us. Heck, Rhys even stands up to Jack. I managed to predict the "This is so homoerotic" line a good ten seconds before Jack smarmily said it. As things progress, we manage to see him plan the infiltration of the meat mens’ warehouse, lead everyone there and even take a bullet for the undeserving love of his life.
In the end, when Jack wants Gwen to wipe out Rhys’ memory, the bitch/fiance stands by her man and refuses to do it. Finally, she shows that she loves Rhys more than something else in her life.
So, we have a new look at Rhys, who’s intelligent, quick thinking, brave, loving and selfless. Oh, and there’s the cute thing too! I hope this new look isn’t the last look.
Variety Show
Wow, four days without posting. I have a bit to make up for, so here a few things on my mind.
Torchwood - The Saturday debut was BBC America’s highest rated show ever. Good going. Next up is “Day One”. This will be Gwen’s first adventure with the Torchwood team and they square off against a creature lovingly named “The Sex Gas”. It’s an alien that feeds off the energy of male orgasms (straight or gay) and kills the “donor” in the process. This is what I meant about the more controversial aspects of the show. While there’s no outright graphic sex (simulated or otherwise) you see a good deal of bare butts. Now Rhys (Kai Owen), Gwen’s boyfriend may be more Average Joe than muscle god, but he’s got a cute ass and has no problem showing it! Back to the point, while BBC America didn’t significantly censor the first episode, now that we get more into the nitty gritty, I hope that remains the case.
Madeleine L’Engle - This great author inspired me to read some of her works again. I ordered nice new hardcover copies of “A Wrinkle In Time”, “A Wind In the Door” and “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” and they arrived yesterday. Afterward, I’ll listen to the same read by the author. I was also inspired to concoct a way to spread the works of Madame L’Engle and increase the readership and commenting here (hopefully) by bribing the audience with a contest. Look for it in early October. Right before that is the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. “A Wrinkle In Time” is consistently in the top 25 of banned and challenged books. Read it!
The News - Senator Toilet “I have a wide stance” Tryst has decided to try and have his guilty plea withdrawn. Something tells me he’ll be successful. Since it’s four days before the date he promises to resign, he may just stay on till the end of his term. My only disappointment is that he won’t be running for re-election. It certainly would have been the most entertaining contest of 2008. The attacks from his fellow republicans would have been both more vicious and more original than any the democrats could think up.
Now another prostitute has come forward to denounce Senator Vitter. Still, his fellow party members either ignore the incidents or spring to his defense. Here is a man of God who, unlike his counterpart from Idaho whose proof of a crime is tenuous at best, has admitted to breaking a secular law (it’s only legal to pay for sex in certain parts of Nevada after all) numerous times and breaking a commandment. Somehow he believes God has forgiven him. Is there a crash course to cure someone of adultery like there is to cure someone of homosexuality? And if so, who supervised him?
Former senator, crappy actor and presidential candidate running on the heels of the late Ronald Reagan, Fred Thompson first can’t remember the details of the Terry Schiavo affair. Then, after being reminded of the details, he says it should be left up to the locals to decide who lives or dies. If it takes him many hours to remember something that happened a mere two years ago and was significant enough for buffoon in chief George Bush to drag Congress back into session, maybe he has more in common with Reagan’s less desirable characteristics than he cares to admit. Maybe we should ask Oliver North.
Is it possible to get too close of a shot in a porn movie? Check out this article on high-definition porn. Apparently producers are having some issues with the high definition image revealing too much. Now all those “perfect” bodies have cellulite, wrinkles and razor burn. This should a be a boon to the California plastic surgery and fitness industries. It will probably push the envelope on software technology to cover up these imperfections because it’s unacceptable for a porn actor to look like a person. No wonder Barbie remains popular and Slutz Bratz are even more so.
Worldwide scam network, Exodus, is releasing a report today that reparative therapy for gays ain’t so bad. Of course, it’s being released by a publisher noted for its dedication to Christian ideology. Also, it’s unknown if the report was actually peer reviewed. If nothing else, it should be a funny read.
We’re still in Iraq with no end in sight. And buffoon in chief still believes this is going well and we should stay even though we can’t even successfully train a security force over four and a half years. Obviously this is the wait until it’s someone else’s problem strategy.
Keep reading. It can only get better.
“The 21st Century Is When It All Changes, and Ya Gotta Be Ready!”
This is probably the most quoted line from Captain Jack Harkness of Doctor Who spin off, Torchwood, which made its American debut Saturday on BBC America. This is the first official airing in the United States although, just about every Doctor Who fan found a way to see it before. I was worried that this show would never make it to this side of the pond. Torchwood is a post watershed show so it’s not exactly family friendly. That’s family in the Traditional Values Coalition sense, not the Stonewall sense. And without a broadcast outlet, there would probably be no DVD release.
Being around 50-minutes per episode I was wondering what would be cut when there are approximately six extra minutes. Having seen it in both forms, I have to say that all the important bits were left in and there were no noticeable cuts. Of course, this still needs to play out when the more “controversial” episodes are aired. BBC America did keep the show in its 16 by 9 aspect ratio which it doesn’t do for Doctor Who.
So how is the show itself? It’s unlike anything on American Television. That’s not always a compliment, but overall I’ve enjoyed the first season of the show. It can go over the top quite a bit. It’s can also have very big mood swings, going from humorous to very dark and depressing in a few minutes. Some of the concepts are really ridiculous. (Wait for the second episode to see this.) There are a number of continuity references to the parent series, but you can still follow the story without having seen them.
This first episode manages to introduce the cast without resorting to the Melrose Place running to each apartment and asking “So and so, have you seen such and such?”. Rather, we see the mysterious team as they co-opt a murder scene and resurrect the victim for two minutes. This catches the attention of the very Welsh police officer, Gwen Cooper. At this point you must realize that the show is recorded in Wales so unlike most British shows that find their way over here, you don’t have the received pronunciation accent. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, the show becomes easy to follow. Gwen manages to do some research, follow the team, and via a pizza delivery tricks her way into Torchwood headquarters. She gets a tour of the place, has her memory erased, but some clues she left for herself (and a clue someone else unwittingly left) manages to find her way back to Torchwood and sees one of the team members leaving. Suzie confronts Gwen and after politely telling her to hold on, pulls a gun out of her purse while Captain Jack emerges from the “invisible lift” and attempts to avert a catastrophe. Suzie shoots Jack, but he doesn’t stay dead. When she realizes this, she unexpectedly shoots herself dead. Don’t worry, we haven’t actually ween the last of here. She manages to return in a convoluted plot that shows she’s probably the smartest of the bunch. Jack now has a vacancy and offers it to Gwen, who, of course, accepts.
So begins the voyage that is Torchwood. We have characters in a Sci-Fi show that we haven’t seen in an American show. All the characters are at least bisexual, with Captain Jack described as omnisexual. The various team members are eventually shown to be selfish, deceptive and very flawed. The promise of a diverse crew that Gene Roddenberry made all those years ago has finally come to pass, on another show.
It’s on Saturdays at nine. Check it out!
Blast from the Past > The Seventies > The Tomorrow People
So I finally started to unpack the boxes that are piled in the dining room and have been mocking me for many months following my move. Among the several hundred DVDs I found was the complete series of 70s British science fiction “classic” The Tomorrow People. From 1973 to 1979 ITV broadcast this in their attempt to compete with the iconic Doctor Who. On this side of the pond, children’s channel Nickelodeon, in their pre-owned by MTV days, purchased the series in the early eighties and if I remember correctly, it was the last thing they broadcast before ending their broadcast day. I don’t think the show was seen anywhere in America and possibly the rest of the world after 1984.
Now, who are The Tomorrow People? They were a small group of teenagers who were examples of homo superior, the next step in human evolution. Apparently we are in line to inherit special powers. (That’s how they were always referred to on the show.) The teens could talk to each other with their minds, move things without touching them and their major power to teleport (called jaunting). They worked out of an abandoned underground station called “The Lab” and had a artificial intelligence computer called Tim that used biological fluids instead of tapes and spools. (Actually this was a truly visionary concept that is just now starting to be explored.) Occasionally there was a galactic federation involved (that was an obvious Star Trek ripoff) and once or twice there were the Time Guardians (shades of Doctor Who’s time lords).
Now that you know the concept of the show comes the question: What was The Tomorrow People? It was a weekly show initially broadcast in 13 episode seasons though that number would diminish as the years wore on. Through 22 story arcs over 68 episodes on an incredibly minimal budget (much like the show that inspired it, Doctor Who) we followed the adventures of John, Carol, Kenny, Stephen, Elizabeth, Mike, Tyso, Andrew and Hsui Tai. Shot on a combination of videotape and 16mm film that was typical of British television at the time with a cadre of bad (at worst) to mediocre (at best) actors we went on weekly journeys on spaceships (tin foil sets) to other planets (gravel pits).
Yes, the production values were bad, the acting was barely passable and even the editing was amateurish, usually holding for a few seconds too long diminishing the dramatic impact of the shot. Why on earth would I pay over $100 for the complete series so generously released by A&E? Thinking back to my early teens when I first saw these shows I think it had to do with the accessibility of the concept. Yes, there are lots of alien environments, but it was taking place in contemporary times and here was a group of otherwise normal young people who go through a process of breaking out and suddenly you can flit about the planet. Strip the more fantastic elements out of it and you still had people who had fantastic powers. It was all so reasonable. Who didn’t want to break out and start reading minds, pick up the telephone without touching it or go to California without the four hour flight.
That was when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. Now in my late thirties, watching the entire series over again, I was actually impressed at how well it held up over the intervening decades. True, I wanted to slap some actors in the earlier episode because they were absolutely horrible, and the overuse of yellow because funky glowing effects would be badly overlaid via chroma-key, but it remains very watchable.
Another aspect, I think, was the general snobbishness of the show. The Tomorrow People, while on a mission to protect and care for humanity, also looked down their noses at it. They were the next step who eventually replace homo sapiens. They even called the normal humans saps. It was as if they were watching over a planet full of billions of pets. Now what child wouldn’t want to be better than all their classmates. It would probably be second to being able to pop on home for lunch and avoid the cafeteria food. Oddly, the superior attitude mostly affected the original cast while those coming on during the course of the show seemed much more in tune with their more primitive cousins.
The show did mildly improve during the second and subsequent seasons. The characters of Carol and Kenny were written out. (The actors left to pursue bigger and better opportunities and were never heard from again.) More sympathetic characters were introduced and the effects all looked slightly better. The seasons would get shorter until the final season was a single story arc of four episodes. The whole concept was wearing thin by this time. Still, I fondly remember the all. Even the truly horrible stories.
In the early nineties, the show’s creator teamed with Nickelodeon to revive the series as a joint production to be released simultaneously in the US and UK. It was a remake rather than a continuation. Gone were the federation, the aliens and Tim. Instead, children breaking out were drawn to a crashed spaceship on an island in the south pacific that replaced The Lab. Shot on film and using more sophisticated special effects, the whole production had a slicker feel than its ancestor. Unfortunately the acting was as bad or worse in some cases. Despite managing a few notable guest stars such as Christopher Lee, the series only lasted for 25 episodes over three seasons. It’s been released on DVD only in the UK.
I think this is a love it or hate it series. An adult seeing it for the first time would probably not appreciate it. The show requires a child’s perspective and lack of attention to detail for full appreciation. If you did catch this when it first aired in the US and have some favorable memories of it, try watching it again for nostalgia’s sake if nothing else. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.