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The Tomorrow People 3:3 and 3.4: A Man For Emily and The Revenge Of Jedikah
01/01/2004 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: DVD: Fremantle/Revelation PAR 61143. 150 minutes. Price: £15.99) stars: Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn Clarke, Elizabeth Adare, Dean Lawrence and Philip Gilbert with Peter Davison, Brian Stanion and Ann Curthoys. check out website: www.revfilms.com
If you were hoping to collect all 'The Tomorrow People' stories on video, I think you're going to be disappointed. I had a nice chat with the people at Revelation and because video sales have been minute, further releases are going to be strictly DVD.
Mind you, considering how the space on the High Street shelves is being dominated by DVD these days, other than copying to video, I'd be surprised if any pre-recorded videos will be available in a couple years time.
This DVD contains two three episode stories. 'A Man For Emily' is considered one of the worst in the series and 'The Revenge Of Jedikah' is thought to be one of its finest and certainly brings the majority of the elements from the earlier episodes to play in what was considered, at the time, to be the end of the series.
As actor Nicholas Young commentated in the audio commentary, 1500 letters persuaded Thames to keep the series going. 'A Man For Emily' was really played out for its comedic elements and as the aforementioned Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn Clarke and Peter Davison (his first TV acting performance) comment in their audio track was exactly the way they were told to play it.
A spaceship arrives in Earth orbit and Elmer (actor Davison) convinced by The Momma and The Emily from receiving video broadcasts, is sent down dressed as a cowboy to bring back supplies.
Of course, he has all the etiquette of a cowboy with no idea he has to pay for food or drink and from a pub, has a shoot-out with the police. Ultimately, Elmer is arrested and the Tomorrow People, unable to teleport him, have to spring him from jail and back to the doozlum pin to return to the spaceship.
Things don't go to plan and one by one, each of them meet The Momma and Emily gets the hots for John. Although the story doesn't fit in with the overall seriousness of the series, I have to confess to find it irritatingly funny to watch now.
The audio commentary gives it a further blast, especially Nicholas Young's obsession with Tim's balls and Elmer playing with them!! 'The Revenge Of Jedikah' should give away the plot really. The Khultan in the past find the marooned and memory damaged shape-shifter robot Jedikah on Mercury.
They repair him and arrange for him to replace one of their rebelling pharaohs. When his time is done, Jedikah allows himself to appear mummified to hibernate back to the present day when his tomb is opened and he escapes. Following a series of shape-shifting impersonations, Jedikah is determined to neutralise the Tomorrow People and enslave the Earth.
There are elements of this story that share similarities to the later John Carpenter film 'The Thing' as although the viewer is let on who Jedikah is by the odd breath, no one else knows who he is or have any positive way of proving he can't be imitating him. On reflection, I would have thought jaunting would at least establish the Tomorrow People's own credentials but hey, this series is 29 years old now.
Apart from the audio commentaries, there's the usual selection of other material including stills, lead character and actor biographies. I would have thought a précis of each episode as somewhat redundant and might suggest showing a few stills of the actors as they were when they recorded their bits recently.
If you're nostalgic for your childhood or want to show your own children what you used to watch then you should be out buying this one if for no other reason it might encourage Fremantle to release other shows from this period on DVD (hands up for 'Timeslip').
As this DVD can also be bought as part of a Season 3 set, you have multiple ways of getting your own copies.
GF Willmetts
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