Children of the Dog Star

I saw this show back in 87 at the tender age of 11 and was hooked from the beginning to the end. Okay so the effects are laughable by todays standard but this liitle low budget show had the one thing that almost all since have lacked, a good story and if you have that all else is forgivable.

The score was amazing and the plot gripped like a vice. Its a shame that there have been no repeats of this show for at least ten years, I would love to sit and watch it again. I won't give too much of the story away for the people who never got to see the last episode(s) but needless to say it was very, very cool!

It is truly, absolutely fascinating to read the other comments for this series, for they say the same, and I can do neither. I have had a weak but clear memory of this show since I saw when I was 9, but no one else has recognized it when I've told about it and I didn't remember the name of the series. Frustation! Until yesterday when I put out a question at a community and a guy answered and told me it was this series. It feels wonderful to know that my weak memory of this wasn't just in my head! I was also completely absorbed by this show. But the only thing I can remember is that mysterious lamp on roof and it scared the hell out of me. :) Anyway, I think my fascination for sci-fi and astronomy started with this show too. It's great to read that other have experienced the same. Aah, that youth... :)

This children's show was broadcast in the mid 80s when I was about six or seven years old. I swore it was made in the UK but it turns out that it is a New Zealand production and was just broadcast here in the UK.

The 80s produced a slew of children's dramas which were incredibly sinister and creepy,. Not in a bad way you understand, but they had a definite air of tension and foreboding. Other shows like Chocky, Moondial, and The Gemini Factor all had a very hard edged dramatic feel to them and an air of something not being quite right.

Children of The Dog Star is part of that slew, and it is one of the better ones to boot. The show is utterly captivating and mysterious with its sci-fi overtones and atmosphere that something bigger is around.

Children's adventures were popular in the 80s, with big name people like Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante making adventure and sci-fi films which featured kids as the stars. Children of the Dog Star and its contemporary chums is very much in that vein, except for some reason the TV shows just felt that little bit darker.

Fear is a natural part of growing up, and these shows let kids experience fear in a safe and fun way. It's part of what fired my imagination when I was a child, and today's kids shows don't really have that air of sinisterness to them which is a shame.

Children of The Dog Star is a classic, and there is much enjoyment here for children as well as adult sci-fi fans.

I remember every Monday morning the class would be bursting with energy as everyone, guys and girls alike, came rushing back to school after the weekend to discuss the most recent episode of this show. I can still hear the opening music in my head after all these years. What I would do for a copy of this series on DVD. This series started my interest in the space program and even today after so long the star Sirius, blazing away in the night sky, is still one of my all time favourites. Thanks COTDS for starting my passion for the stars and planets. Thanks NASA for the Terrestrial Planet Finder that will take it into the next decade. Currently I am chasing around trying to find copies of this series. If anyone has any copies please let me know as I would like to ad them to my collection. Despite the low ranking. (Why I don't know) this is a great series. Like I said, the entire class was addicted to it and considering the low quality of shows that came out at that time I think the producers did great. No wonder they won a golden globe for it.)

Children of The Dog Star was broadcast in the mid 1980s when I would have been around 10. It was one of a number of dark, quite superior children's shows that were being made at time - Chooky, Dark Season, Moondail, Aliens In The Family, The Lion, The Witch...etc.

I think it appealed to me because aside from being a sci-fi nut as a kid, during those long summer breaks, with a lot more fields to explore, and with a different perspective on the world (when it was not raining!), I could identify with the main character and her sense of curiousity and restlessness.

But of course this vacation will be different for this young adventurer and her friends. Something is buried in these swamps near her uncle's farm - sacred Maori lands earmarked for destruction by the greedy and unscrupulous; much like today's open spaces- something that is ancient and not made of wood or stone...and not of this Earth.

CODS is dark, mysterious and multi layered and is a must if you can remember those school holidays that are gone forever, when the world seemed new...and at some indeterminate point was somehow never quite the same again.