The Tomorrow People 2:1 - The Blue And The Green

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The Tomorrow People 2:1 - The Blue And The Green

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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