The Tomorrow People 3:2: Worlds Away
01/07/2003 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

DVD: Fremantle/ Revelation PAR 61141. 75 minutes. Price: £15.99) stars: Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn Clarke, Elizabeth Adare, Dean Lawrence and Philip Gilbert.

check out website: www.revfilms.com

Those nice people at Fremantle have sent me the DVD version of the next story in the 70s ‘Tomorrow People’ TV series.

Having spent all my time with videos of the series so far, I ended up paying as much attention to the extras as the series as the story. More on that in a while. It’ll keep you busy for a few days, providing you don’t want to try to absorb it all at once.

In many respects, this is very much an origin story. Ambassador Timus from the Galactic Federation visits Earth and shows John and Elizabeth how an alien species called the Khultan used to harvest psionic-powered humans to eat after using a device to dampen their abilities.

It was only recently that the device failed and the emergence of new psionics emerged with the recent Tomorrow People developing their powers.

Timus wants the Tomorrow People to go to the planet Pyrie to turn off a similar device there and free the Vesh - the name psionics have on that planet. As they still don’t rely on their powers as much as the other members of the Federation, they are thought to be better suited to the task.

On Pyrie, their task is multiplied when they also discover that humans there supply the Khultan with Vesh and that they themselves become potential targets. Then along comes Tikno, Timus’ clone brother, who assists them in their task to free the world.

In many respects, having the Tomorrow People without their powers must have eased off the budget somewhat and it was invested in yellow chroma-key to change the colour of the sky and very much an outside broadcast much of the time. Splitting the group up gave all of them some time in the spotlight. There’s even a young long-haired Keith Chegwin acting before he developed that silly voice he has today.

The extras on the DVD include voice-over conversations from Nicholas (John) Young and Peter (Stephen) Vaughan Clarke on all three episodes even if the menu only indicated two. Computer access and switching vocal files made that a cinch although whether those of you with standard DVD players can do the same I’ll leave in your capable remote control unit hands.

Their off-the-cuff irrelevant comments about the story had some appeal though and it’s almost worth twisting Fremantle’s arm to see if they’ll let me hear some of them on the earlier DVDs. It’s rather interesting that Young has little recall of this story compared to Vaughan Clarke, although did supply more of the technical background.

The photo section seemed to be from the episodes itself, plus a biographical section and story index. More than enough to probably keep you Tomorrow People fans with DVD players happy until the next story comes out.

With a series 28 years old now, extras must be hard to accumulate although it might have been interesting to include photos of the actors as they are today. For those who are still content with the video release, that should be any time soon.

An extra freebie with this DVD is a Big Finish audio story of ‘The Tomorrow People’ called ‘The New Gods’. As I don’t normally pick up on audio stories, you’ll have to excuse the rather fresh perspective.

Of the original characters, only John (Nicholas Young) and Tim (Philip Gilbert) are around with two other new characters, one of whom has just broken out. The adversaries sound awfully like slightly bastardised versions of Posh and Becks depending on how you look at them as celebrities.

The plot was rather too much like ‘The Blue And The Green’ from the original Series Two although the extra info within the stories indicates its scriptwriter did his/her homework for other references. With all audio books, you have to let your own imagination serve you with pictures of what was going on and I’m sure it’ll amuse many of you for 45 minutes.

GF Willmetts