The Tomorrow People 2:1 - The Blue And The Green
01/10/2002 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Pub: Revelation PAR 50129. 125 minutes - 5 episodes. Price: £ 8.99-£10.99 (shop around for the best price). Starring Elizabeth Adair, Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn-Clarke, Chris Chittel and Philip Gilbert. Freemantle are keeping up with their
promise of a Tomorrow People video or DVD every three months and we're
now at the start of Season Two.
Out go Carol and Kenny to represent Earth at the Galactic Council.
Ginge's brother, Chris, arrives whom we later hear punched his brother's
lights out and hospitalised him as part of the main plot and never
to be seen again.
 The
number of Tomorrow People are down until student teacher, Elizabeth
M'Bondo, breaks out with her powers when traumatised seeing John
and Stephen jaunting/teleporting.
Those are the surface details to the main plot. Students across
the globe are presenting pictures of exotic alien landscapes during
their art lessons that change the mood of the class whenever they
change colour.
The mood is heightened further when the same student hands out
badges of green or blue - you get to choose the colour - to decide
which side you're on. [I wonder if Joe Straczynski remembered this
series when he had a similar set-up in Babylon 5's second season
with the Drazi twenty years later?]
The Tomorrow People investigate and discover that alien life-forms
spawned on Earth can't change to their true form and leave unless
they're propelled by the energy of human aggression. Without it
they will die. With it, the majority of humanity will die. The dilemma
the Tomorrow People have to solve to prevent any life loss on either
side.
Although the answer is straight forward enough, for 1974 it was
reasonably put together and shows a definite SF moment of thought.
Saying that, I'd have been concerned about any airline pilots or
other people doing critical jobs at the time. Although the box cover
points out an error in episode two, it fails to explain how the
picture in Stephen's school gets destroyed when Tim the organic
computer investigates it back at their headquarters and an identical
picture is there again the next morning in the next episode.
For those who follow actors' careers, Chris Chittel is the same
chap, albeit younger and with more hair, who plays Eric Pollard
in ITV's soap 'Emmerdale'. If you pay attention to the classroom,
there is also a brief non-speaking part for Pauline Quirke. It's
becoming rather fun seeing actors before they became famous on this
show.
If you're into the 70s look, old-fashioned children's SF TV (who
knows it might encourage them to do 'Sky' or re-issue 'Timeslip'
again) or seeing how schools were depicted back then, you'll love
this.
Considering how the violence was toned down - it was on children's
hour after all - there isn't much difference to today's school violence.
GF Willmetts
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