So, Brendan remembers The Tomorrow People (on which UK amazon has a fantastic sale (the whole thing for 30 quid, here
My parents were too liberal to prohibit us from watching the other side as kids, but my mother adopted the entirely successful and rather admirable strategy of mocking us mercilessly if we did, for being willing to waste our time watching people selling us things. This raised the quality bar; if it was on the other side it had to be that much better than a BBC offering for us to be willing to bear the cost of the ridicule. My strategy is less liberal; my kids watch only what we permit, and only when we permit it.
But there is some overlap, as I’ve mentioned before. Brendan will be glad to know that among straight dramas, my daughter (now 9) says The Tomorrow People is the best.
I braved my mother’s sarcasm to watch it, and remember it being brilliant, if hokey, fun. The TP are “homo superior”, the next stage of human evolution, capable of telekinesis, teleportation and telepathy; but incapable of deliberately inflicting permanent harm on their enemies. Some of the virtues, though, never struck me. It displays a thoroughgoing optimism about science and the human condition. There aren’t many girls (and the first, Carol, was played by an actress who couldn’t act), but the few there are are equals to the boys in every way (not just the screaming and whimpering characteristic of Doctor Who’s female companions prior to Ace). It was also the first children’s series to feature black characters in leading roles, throughout the series (and, later, also an Asian lead). Elizabeth Adare’s character is even recommended to John, before he meets her, as “gorgeous”; but plays an authoritative role thereafter. There’s a curious mix of radicalism (part of the establishment is characterized as basically fascist) and conservatism (the Prime Minister is a Harold Macmillan-like decent chap, on the side of the TPs). Apparently it has become a cult gay classic (the TP’s “break out”, which is painful, and through which they need care and assitance from others — its not much of a stretch to see the parallel with coming out) largely because of the preponderance of uncovered young male flesh — again, this never struck me at the time, but I am very aware of it watching it with a 9 year old girl. Highly recommended.
{ 18 comments }
Gideon 07.09.06 at 6:45 pm
Another great series is Children of the Stones. Which I watched as The Third Eye. But Tomorrow People was great.
Steve 07.09.06 at 9:17 pm
It showed on Nickelodeon in the U.S. — one of the first television shows I can remember really, really liking.
DonBoy 07.09.06 at 9:44 pm
At age 15, I do not remember caring in the least wheter Sammie Winmill, who played Carol, could act. A quick Google does not turn up any aupporting imagery, but I have my golden memories.
Sasha Volokh 07.09.06 at 10:05 pm
I, too, loved The Tomorrow People (original 1970s series) when I watched it on Nickelodeon in the mid-1980s. I recall once seeing an episode of the “new generation” (1990s) series and not being impressed.
Brett 07.09.06 at 10:52 pm
For donboy.
Robin 07.09.06 at 11:34 pm
Serious nerdom but re “not just the screaming and whimpering characteristic of Doctor Who’s female companions prior to Ace” ….
Leela? Romana?
DonBoy 07.09.06 at 11:51 pm
Nice pictures, thanks. I did find several shots of her in the present, showing her to have remained quite lovely.
Terry 07.10.06 at 12:12 am
“My strategy is less liberal; my kids watch only what we permit, and only when we permit it.”
Good for you, it’s so easy for parents to think that TV is just harmless fun.
TV’s Effect on Education
“No matter what your intelligence or social background, watching a lot of television during childhood means you are a lot less likely to have a degree by your mid-twenties, according
to new University of Otago research.”
http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/2005/05-07-05_press_release.html
“Third graders with a bedroom television scored significantly lower on the Stanford Achievement Test than those without…”
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Parenting/tb/1303
The difference between TV and every other activity is that during every other activity the brain is producting Beta (and even Gamma) brainwaves. While watching TV, on the other hand, the brain very quickly goes into Alpha brainwave mode.
http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/usr/h99c/h9951826/television.PDF
It is natural for the brain to produce Alpha brainwaves while daydreaming, but it is not natural (or healthy) for the brain to be in Alpha brainwave mode for hours per day, every day. This is espcially true for young children as their brains are still developing.
The invention of the printing press brought about the Age of Reason. The invention of TV has brought us the Age of Entertainment.
And there are more studies linking childhood TV viewing with low achievement. See:
http://www.tvsmarter.com
http://www.trashyourtv.com/node
http://www.whitedot.org
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com
Ronald Brak 07.10.06 at 1:39 am
My mother wouldn’t let me watch it until I was old enough not to be impressed by it. I think it may have been the fetus in the opening credits that put her off. Which is kind of understandable. She had put up with three fetuses growing inside her by that point and was probably sick to death of them. If only the opening credits had been campy and spacey I would have been allowed to watch it. My mother would always say, “You can watch the Tomorrow People tomorrow,” which never impressed me.
Scott Martens 07.10.06 at 1:54 am
I used to watch it on Nickelodeon. My brother bought me the DVDs last year. I have fond memories of Carol too. I was a little shocked years later to find out she’s roughly my mother’s age.
Watching it as an adult, it seemed very strange to see the effects that I thought were cool and spooky and seem very cheesy now.
dearieme 07.10.06 at 8:13 am
The pictures were better on the wireless. “Charles Chilton’s Journey into Space”. Yikes.
harry b 07.10.06 at 3:54 pm
sasha — I, too, watched some of the new early 90s series from Australia, and was underwhelmed. I thought that might have reflected on the whole concept, till I saw the originals again.
robin — ok, on Romana One. But Romana 2 didn’t do much more than stand around looking pretty (not much screaming, I admit). Leela was a savage, so, again, fair comment, but she was hardly complex. Actually, Liz (from Jon Pertwee’s first season) is probably a better counterxample to my general dismissal than either Leela or Romana (that may not be true — nut saying it makes my seem nerdier than thou).
terry — thanks for the links, which I’ll follow up. I wrote soemthing more elaboatre about this a couple of years ago, and will try to find the link.
Terry 07.10.06 at 10:07 pm
Harry
“thanks for the links, which I’ll follow
up. I wrote soemthing more elaboatre
about this a couple of years ago, and
will try to find the link.”
That would be great. And thank you for
being interested. It seems like so many
people feel that there are so many more
important issues at hand, and don’t realize
the link between the TV and the mess we’re in.
rjudel 07.11.06 at 10:39 am
Tomorrow People was crap. Sapphire & Steel rules- a kind of noir version of Dr. Who. Weird and a little scary at times.
Gary Farber 07.11.06 at 9:32 pm
“My parents were too liberal to prohibit us from watching the other side […] if it was on the other side….”
This seems to be a British idiom I’m unfamiliar with; the “other side” of what?
Sam Dodsworth 07.12.06 at 5:54 am
This seems to be a British idiom I’m unfamiliar with; the “other side†of what?
In this case, ITV (the commercial channel, of which there was only one when The Tomorrow People was on) as opposed to the BBC, but it’s not specific: “This is rubbish. Turn over and see what’s on the other side”.
A quick poll of my co-workers suggests that it’s not still current. It presumably dates back to the 50s/60s when there were only two channels.
Oh, and I should add that it’s probably ‘the other side’ as in ‘the other side of the dial’ and not ‘the other team’, if that makes sense.
HK 07.12.06 at 7:28 am
“Leela was a savage, so, again, fair comment, but she was hardly complex.”
A mistake some of the writers made subsequent to her introduction, but in the very first episode she appears in she is the only one of her tribe of savages who question the mystical pronouncements of the holy man and is willing to do something about it. She does not have the benefit of being brought up in an advanced society, but she is clearly inquisitive and quick to adapt to the ideas she encountered in the wider universe and gains much from her travels with the Doctor. Only the worse writers made the mistake of characterising her as a simple savage.
Matt McIrvin 07.12.06 at 8:45 am
My wife has fond memories of watching Tomorrow People reruns on Nickelodeon (the original series, not the revival). When they started coming out on DVD, she showed me some of them.
It’s an odd, interesting show. I have some of the queasy reaction to it that I always do when somebody uses the Odd John/Slan formula, which seems to be a mainstay of science fiction for kids: the invitation to fantasize that you’re secretly a member of the new master race, and that’s why you don’t fit in. At least in this case their intentions toward others are explicitly and necessarily benign, though as with Asimov’s robots, you can always come up with interesting questions about what constitutes doing harm; but the casually insulting way they’d talk about the “saps” sometimes gave me pause.
The show frequently had a surprisingly grim tone, set by the ominous opening theme music and surrealistic credits sequence; I know that if I’d watched it as a kid, I’d have thought I was being offered entry to something highly sophisticated and adult.
Comments on this entry are closed.