The Tomorrow People
The Tomorrow People is a British children's science fiction television series created by Roger Price. Produced by Thames Television for the ITV Network, the series first ran from 30 April 1973 to 19 February 1979.
The theme music was composed by Australian music composer Dudley Simpson.
In 1992, after having much success with running episodes of the original series in the U.S., Nickelodeon requested Price and Thames Television for a new version to be piloted and filmed at Nickelodeon Studios Florida in April 1992, with Price acting as executive producer. This version used the same basic premise as the original series with some changes and ran until 8 March 1995. A series of audio plays using the original concept and characters was produced by Big Finish Productions between 2001 and 2007. In 2013, an American remake of the show premiered on The CW.
Premise
All incarnations of the show concerned the emergence of the next stage of human evolution known colloquially as Tomorrow People. Born to human parents, an apparently normal child might at some point between childhood and late adolescence experience a process called 'breaking out' and develop special paranormal abilities. These abilities include psionic powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation. Their psychological make-up prevents them from intentionally killing others.Original series (1970s)
The original series was produced by Thames Television for ITV. The Tomorrow People operate from a secret base, The Lab, built in an abandoned London Underground station. The team constantly watches for new Tomorrow People "breaking out" to help them through the process as the youngsters endure mental agonies as their minds suddenly change. They sometimes deal with attention from extraterrestrial species as well as facing more earthbound dangers with military forces across the globe keen to recruit or capture them for their own ends. One thing they lack is the capability to intentionally take another life. This pacifistic element of their make up is referred to as the "prime barrier" and any Tomorrow Person who causes the loss of a human life would be driven insane by the confusion in their brain. 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 use advanced technology such as the biological 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 programme. The team used jaunting belts up to the end of Series 5, after which they used much smaller wristbands.In the original series, the Tomorrow People are also referred to as both Homo novis and Homo superior. The term appeared in David Bowie's 1971 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 when 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. Price has sometimes been quoted as saying that the lyrics to this song were inspired by the series.
Alistair McGown of Screenonline cites the book The Mind in Chains by Christopher Evans as a primary source. Evans also became a scientific advisor for the series. He was credited as such on every single episode but most people working on the show seem to recall that he only had involvement in the first couple of series. 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 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; this is owing to their genetic unwillingness to kill, referred to as the "prime barrier". In early series they had the aid of "Sap" friends such as Ginge, Lefty and Chris who usually handled the rougher stuff that the pacifist TPs could not deal with. Also, in the second and third series, they became friendly with a psychic researcher named Professor Cawston who assisted them and vice versa.
Roger Price dreamed up the idea in 1970; he initially offered the format to Granada, where he was working, but was turned down so offered it to Southern Television, who expressed an interest but had concerns over the budgetary requirements. Finally, Lewis Rudd at Thames Television commissioned a 13-episode series, having seen the potential of the format and looking to replace Ace of Wands after its three-year run. At this time, ITV was keen to find its own answer to Doctor Who, although Price never really envisaged the show as such but more as an outlet for his own personal ideas and beliefs. Very early on, Ruth Boswell was brought in as associate producer and script editor as she had experience of children's fantasy drama while TV dramatist Brian Finch was hired to co-write the scripts as Price had little experience of writing drama. Finch disliked the experience as he was not engaged by the material and found a large part of his time was taken up in trying to rein in Price and his very ambitious ideas. Thames enlisted the services of Doctor Who director Paul Bernard to help set up and oversee the first series. He was credited as director for two stories but was unofficially a third producer. Bernard was very heavily involved in the creation of the memorable title sequence which involved a mixture of haunting images and facial shots of the main cast zooming towards the camera in monochrome, with an eerie theme tune from prolific Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 composer Dudley Simpson playing behind. He got inspiration from seeing billboards rushing towards him when driving. The sequence opened with a clenched fist opening out to signify a telepathic mind breaking out. Amongst the next shots were a human foetus, shadowy figures behind scaffolding and even the insides of a bell pepper.
Over its six-year run, the format proved flexible enough to encompass various types of stories including traditional alien invasions adventures as well as espionage thrillers, slapstick comedy, time travel, political satires, space opera and even on occasion more adult concepts than would be normally found in a teatime drama for children. As it was aimed at young people, it often reflected popular fashions and fads of the time, but usually with a suitable sinister twist. For example, "Hitler's Last Secret" in 1978 involved the TPs investigating a sudden craze for wearing Nazi uniforms amongst teenagers but was a precursor to Hitler being revived from suspended animation by a group of Nazis. The following season's "The Living Skins" saw aliens transforming themselves into fashionable plastic jump suits that would control and eventually kill the millions of people who wear them. The 1974 adventure "The Blue and the Green" saw the whole of humanity divided by a craze to wear blue or green badges for a children's show. In 1977 Mike joins a pop band, "The Heart of Sogguth", whose hell-raising music will bring back the Devil when millions of teenagers are watching them on television. The popularity of the book "Chariots of the Gods" was also an influence on 1975's "Worlds Away" when it is revealed that the evil Kulthan had controlled and assisted the ancient Egyptians.
Series One
Price saw the lead casting as very important, as he wanted talented and attractive actors who would appeal to the young audience, but also be personable and easy to work with during the long hours envisaged in studio or out on location. 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 Lynne Frederick for Carol, the female lead, but following a meeting with her, Paul Bernard felt she was a bit too upper-class and precious 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 the popular Doctor at Large situation comedy. The role of Kenny, the youngest TP, was given to Stephen Salmon after he had been discovered in a drama workshop while theatre actor Philip Gilbert was selected to provide the paternal tones of biotronic computer TIM. Making up the team were two Sap friends, a couple of bikers called Ginge and Lefty who encounter the Tomorrow People when acting as henchmen for the villainous shape-shifter Jedikiah in the opening adventure. Stephen would be very much the show's hero and focus for the audience while John was something of an authoritarian figure who took his responsibilities for the species' future and welfare very seriously. Young was the only TP to be in every single episode and the actor was able to have some say in the production of later seasons as he was considered as an unofficial producer. Kenny was given very little to do and was often left behind in the Lab while the others went off to have the actual adventures. Filming commenced in March 1973 with location work in Muswell Hill. Production of this first story, "The Slaves of Jedikiah" was much troubled, as the crew found they were unfamiliar with the technical demands of a science fiction drama. The first day in studio was disastrous, with virtually no usable material getting made and there was some tension between the cast and Paul Bernard, who was very authoritarian with them. Additionally Nicholas Young hit a wall while working on the darkened entrance to the Lab, which was being filmed inside the actual disused tube station at Wood Lane, which had closed in the 1940s. Young was fortunately not badly injured and able to carry on later that day after a recovery break.Early publicity included a photo session showing the cast with Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee to indicate a friendly rivalry between the two shows. Look-in provided a great deal of coverage of the series and by July launched its own comic strip version. TVTimes also promoted the new show with an article on its first week.
The production procedure was standard in the seventies with a limited amount of location work followed by a day in studio to record each episode on videotape. Even for the time, some of the special effects of the show were considered sub-par, largely attributable to its small budget. The first season was budgeted at approx £5000 per episode which was roughly half the cost of the BBC's budget for Doctor Who. Most directors on the show relied heavily on chroma key to get their desired effects, but, owing to the rushed time on studio days, the results varied greatly. To make it even more difficult, studio time was restricted as English law dictated that juvenile actors could only work a certain number of hours in a day.
Season one's recurring villain, Jedikiah, was originally devised to be a long-running foe like the Master from Doctor Who. After seeing the poorly-designed robot that was the shape-changer's true form, an unimpressed Price decided not to use the character again until the finale of series three, which was planned at that time as the series' finale.. Despite these limitations, the series proved popular with its young audience, who watched in large numbers, and even dented the figures for the popular BBC children's magazine programme Blue Peter.