The Tomorrow People

If like me, you were in your early teens when this first aired, you were probably a fan too of this low-tech but engaging children's sci-fi series. Replacing another favourite in the ITV schedules of the time, "Ace Of Wands", "The Tomorrow People" aimed even more at its target school-age audience by employing child actors in the lead roles of teenage "homo- superiors" with the ability to telepath and "jaunt" through time and space.

Unfortunately this was its biggest weakness, as the young actors in the starring parts are almost universally wooden, every take looking like they're repeating a line learned a minute before. The sets and special effects are similarly dodgy, all cardboard and flashing lights, yet watching the episodes today some forty years on, with its excellent theme tune and arresting title sequence, it still takes me back to my childhood, when I would settle in after school and watch it faithfully.

That nostalgic glow makes it easy to forgive its rather obvious shortcomings and to be fair the stories I've re-watched are okay too, sort of junior Dr Who. The good news is that all the original episodes are currently available to watch somewhere in hyper-space, unlike the late lamented "Ace Of Wands" so enjoy them while you can.

I would like by saying that if you are American (as per the only other review), you may indeed find this series hard going. Not because of the story lines, generally, but because of the woeful effects. By US standard, even at the time, TV and film was way ahead of the game and an effects budget of just £12,000 a series was never going to cut any mustard. However, look through this and let yourself get involved with the plots and story lines and you will find yourself being almost hypnotically drawn into it. For a kids show at this time, it was way ahead of the game and many of us older viewers who remember it did indeed rush home from school to see it. Perhaps because it made a distinction between Saps (Homo Sapiens) and The Tomorrow People (Homo Superior), thus any kid left out of the cruel grim schoolyard politics of the depressive early 70's felt that they were catered for by Tim, Stephen et al. Granted it is exceptionally British middle class, and the characters good and bad are perhaps a little unidentifiable to anyone from, say Pismo Beach CA, but its worth the journey and heres why. The ingredients are all here, dark, strong and at times brooding stories; good well rounded 'good guys', fantastically over the top 'bad guys', bad and laughable effects but again all part of the fun; editing and lighting errors and gaffs (that are still in by the way), a haunting, industrial theme tune and great credits. The Tomorrow People episodes have influenced many contemporary scifi TV pro grammes and the series has been resurrected twice (latest this year).

So I urge you to try the original UK series. Laugh if you must, and you probably will, but I would wager the experience will stay with you for quite a while after. You may even love it as I do, even though you might not know exactly why. The Tomorrow People then. A classic BECAUSE of the flaws.

This was the 3rd British SciFi series from the 70's/80's that we decided to introduce our daughter to during the Covid lockdowns via BritBox; although at the moment they only have the first 4 series rather than all 8.

This one is aimed more at the younger audiences than the other 2 (Blake's 7 and Sapphire & Steel) - and although I wasn't so keen on the 1st Series, it certainly seemed to find its feet after that, even although some of the plots do have the odd hole in them.

Despite being aimed at the younger audience we all enjoyed watching it - and I thought it was better than the attempted 2013 relaunch.

Due to a timeslot conflict back in the days before even VCRs I never saw this back in the day so I am taking advantage of social distancing to binge it online to see what I am missing. I have been told that this was Thames TV's pale imitation of Doctor Who which is both factually correct but misses the point. First of all it had a fair run for any series. Dr Who is almost unique for it's long run so it's a bit unfair to use that yardstick. The effects and sets are cheaper than Dr Who but not as cheap as late Blakes 7. If I had seen it as a kid I am sure I would have loved it just as much as other stuff I was watching then. As an adult I am smirking a bit but definitely a fan. There is a tendency for villains to give up a bit easily (perhaps in fear of Whitehouse?) but there are some very sophisticated ideas being thrown about and (mostly) the science is real rather than technobabble with a credited science adviser. The worst thing about it is that either it was hurriedly rehearsed or they were too pressed to re shoot as flubbed lines are a bit too common and last night I lost it laughing at the boom mike popping in and out of shot but that's minor.

The Tomorrow People debuted in March 1973 and was mean't to be an answer to the BBC's Doctor Who but curiously was shown on a Monday instead of Doctor Who's Saturday. It followed the adventures of several teenagers who were the first to gain telepathic powers in the next stages of human evolution. Nicholas Young was cast as John and remained with the series until it ended in 1979. Peter Vaughan Clarke was also one of the first to join the series as well as their computer Tim, voiced by the late Philip Gilbert. Elizabeth Adare joined in Season 2 and she was certainly one of the finest characters in the series alongside John. The show became very popular and ran for 6 years with eight series being produced and shown on ITV. The series certainly has it's classics and the writing by Roger Price (also the series creator) was alway's very good. Strong episodes include 'The Blue and the Green' and 'Vanishing Earth' but to me the ultimate classic is the 1978 two parter 'The Living Skins' (also Nicholas Young's favourite) featuring the Bulboids. To me this story had everything. Good humour, excellent (if funny) aliens, but more importantly despite this it was still very menacing something which I felt earlier stories never maintained. Later 'Tomorrow People' include, Andrew Forbes, Mike (played by Flintlock Drummer Mike Holoway) and Hsui Tai (she tried bless her!) and the series went out on a high in 1979 with 'War of the Empires'. The Tomorrow People remains a science fiction classic which came number 8 of the top ten sci-fi programme on Channel4 in 2001. The series really disappeared apart from some video releases in 1991 until 2001 when DVD releases of the series began to be produced by Revelation films. The commentaries are truly excellent with the wonderfully cynical Nicholas Young providing a lot of laughs. Big Finish productions are now also making new 'Tomorrow People' audio dramas. In conclusion, although 'The Tomorrow People' was sometimes quite shallow and certainly not a patch on Doctor Who it did provide science fiction thirsty children with some excellent stories and perhaps more importantly a good laugh! The show was packed full of humour throughout it's six year run. Certainly a good series, and one among the science fiction greats.