The Tomorrow People (  TV Series 1973 - 1974 )



 

Plot

The Tomorrow People is a British children's science fiction television series, devised by Roger Price. Produced by Thames Television for the ITV Network, the series first ran between 1973 and 1979. The series was re-imagined in 1992, Roger Price acting as executive producer. A third incarnation, running between 2001 and 2007, returned to the original concept and characters, but this time produced as a series of audio plays by Nigel Fairs for Big Finish Productions.



 

The original series was produced by Thames Television for Britain's ITV network. The Tomorrow People operate out of a secret laboratory, The lab, built in an abandoned London Underground station. The lab was revamped at the beginning of series 6. The team watches for new Tomorrow People "breaking out" to help them through the process and sometimes deal with attention from extraterrestrial species. They also have connections with the "Galactic Federation" which oversees the welfare of telepathic species throughout the galaxy. In addition to their psychic powers, they also use advanced technology such as the biological (called in the series "biotronic") computer TIM, which is capable of original thought, telepathy, and can augment their psychic powers. TIM also helps the Tomorrow People to teleport long distances, although they must be wearing a device installed into a belt or bracelet for this to work. Teleportation, is referred to as jaunting in the program.



In the original series the Tomorrow People are also referred to by the term Homo superior. This term appears in David Bowie's song "Oh! You Pretty Things": "Let me make it plain. You gotta make way for the Homo Superior." This term came up as part of a conversation between Roger Price and David Bowie at a meeting at Granada studios in Manchester. Price was directing a programme in which Bowie was appearing. Price had been working on a script for his Tomorrow People project and during a conversation with Bowie, the term Homo superior came up. Bowie liked the term and soon afterwards wrote it into his song, pre-dating the series itself which was eventually produced by Thames TV in 1973. Price has sometimes been quoted as saying that the lyrics to this song were inspired by the series, not the other way around.

 

Alistair McGown of Screen Online cites The Mind in Chains by Dr Christopher Evans as a primary source. Evans also became a scientific advisor for the series.[2] McGown also suggests a similarity between The Tomorrow People and the children's fantasy fiction of Enid Blyton.

While they reveal their existence to some, the Tomorrow People generally operate in secrecy for fear that normal people (whom they term "Saps", a pejorative abbreviation for Homo sapiens) will either fear or victimise them because of their special powers or try to exploit them for military purposes. In order to defend themselves they must use non-lethal weaponry such as "stun guns" or martial arts due to their unwillingness to cause harm, referred to as the "prime barrier".



 

Price initially offered the format to Granada but was turned down so offered it to Lewis Rudd at Thames who commissioned a 13 episode series, having seen the potential of the format. Ruth Boswell was brought in as associate producer and script editor as she had experience of children's fantasy drama (Timeslip and Tightrope) while TV dramatist Brian Finch was hired to co write the scripts. Thames effectively poached Doctor Who director Paul Bernard to help set up and oversee the first season. He would be credited as director for two stories but was unofficially a third producer.



Casting was seen as very important in that the leads would have to be personable enough to attract a young audience while Price also wanted people who would be easy to work with over long periods. Nicholas Young was cast as the group's leader, John while Peter Vaughan-Clarke was offered the role of Stephen after Price saw him in a Manchester rendition of Peter Pan with Lulu. Ruth Boswell wanted Lynn Frederick (later the last wife of Peter Sellers) for Carol, the female lead, but following a meeting with her Bernard felt she was a bit too upper class for what he had in mind as he saw the character as being similar to Doctor Who's Jo Grant. They finally settled on Sammie Winmill who was relatively well known for playing Nurse Crumpton on Doctor at Large. The role of Kenny was given to Stephen Salmon after having been discovered in a drama workshop while theatre actor Phillip Gilbert was selected to provide the ever so paternal tones of biotronic computer TIM. Making up the team were two Sap friends, a couple of bikers called Ginge (Michael Standing) and Lefty (Derek Crewe) who encounter the Tomorrow People when acting as henchmen for the villainous shape shifter Jedekiah in the opening adventure.



 

Even for the time, the special effects of the original show were considered sub-par and camp, largely attributable to the show's small budget.

The success of the first season saw another thirteen episodes go into production quite rapidly, but with a number of changes. Off-screen, both Bernard and Finch left leaving Price to take more control as writer, director and producer while on-screen Kenny and Carol disappeared (handily sent to the Galactic Trig to work as ambassadors for Earth). In their place came student school teacher Elizabeth M'Bondo, portrayed by Elizabeth Adare. Adare initially thought her character was to be a teenage girl and made every effort at her audition to look and act like an adolescent. However Price was suitably impressed to change the Elizabeth character so that she breaks out at an older age due to a latent puberty. Elizabeth is uncovered by Stephen when working at his school. Filming began in late 1973 with Michael Standing returning as Ginge, but on the first day he fell off his motorbike and broke his leg, prompting a speedy re-write[citation needed] whereby Ginge's younger brother, Chris (Chris Chittell), was now seen as the new Sap regular. Chris was mentioned in the dialogue as already being known to the Tomorrow People, so litle in the way of changes had to be made to the script. Ginge's absence was explained on-screen by his having been admitted to hospital following a fall from his motorbike  reflecting Standing's real-life accident.



 

In 1975, the third series added Dean Lawrence as gypsy boy Tyso Boswell. Boswell is captured and held prisoner by the Secret Intelligence Service, who see the Tomorrow People as a potential weapon to be used in the Cold War. Chris disappears after only appearing in one episode while telepathic secret agent, Tricia Conway appears in 2 stories before fully breaking out in the final story which saw the young heroes menaced by old rival, Jedikiah. This season also saw the group visit an alien world for the first time when the Galactic Trig dispatches them to help the telepathic population of the planet Peerie. A comedy script was attempted in the much derided "A Man for Emily" as Price was keen to get more into humorous writing. The negative backlash to this experiment resulted in a planned sequel story being quietly dropped but such actions added to Price's increasing frustration with the show.

As the series wore on, Price became tired of his creation and attempted to end it by killing off the leads at the conclusion to season 3 (Ruth Boswell made him rewrite it so that they survived). However Thames Television considered TP a ratings winner and insisted he continue the programme, albeit in smaller series from now on. Price only ever allowed one attempt by another writer to work on it solo with Jon E. Watkins penning the story "Into the Unknown" in 1976. With fewer episodes to write, Price would have more time to work on his comedic productions that he enjoyed more than the demanding sci-fi drama[citation needed]. At the start of the fourth series he attempted to give a boost to the format with the introduction of teenage idol Mike Holoway as Mike Bell. Holoway was the drummer with pop band Flintlock and Price hoped that his young charge would be Britain's answer to Donny Osmond or David Cassidy[citation needed]. Mike is featured prominently in the later series of Tomorrow People, maturing into a juvenile hero. This meant the controversial[citation needed] decision to sack Vaughan-Clarke as Stephen, the programme's original male lead. With this change, it was noticeable[who?] that John and Elizabeth took on a more parental role as both actors entered their mid 20s. Tyso also vanished after the fourth year but his character had been pretty redundant for some time. Vic Hughes took over as producer with season 5, which was the only series not to introduce a new Tomorrow Person. Elizabeth was absent through most of season 6 as Elizabeth Adare was pregnant.[citation needed] In her place came an Oriental girl, Hsui Tai, played by Japanese actress Misako Koba whose poor grasp of English made her hard to understand and Nicholas Young later recalled that he and other actors found this difficult during production. A new Lab set was introduced with a slimmed-down but now mobile TIM and the jaunting belts were replaced by the cheap looking jaunting bands (worn on the wrists). The new Lab acted as both base and home for the TPs as they were now seen to be sleeping in their own cabins there. Season 7 in late 1978 introduced another Tomorrow Person in the form of Scottish lad, Andrew Forbes (Nigel Rhodes).

 

With inflation out of control in the late 1970s[citation needed], the budget was stretched to breaking point, a factor which was constantly on the mind of new producer Vic Hughes. And indeed it was a dispute over the allocation of studio days that brought down the axe in 1979 when Hughes attempted to gain an extra studio day for the planned ninth season (which fell victim to the ITV strike that summer) following numerous problems during the production of "War of the Empires" which had been given only four days in studio