The law of diminishing returns is all too applicable to Thames TV? 1970s kid? TV hit THE TOMORROW PEOPLE. What started off as an agreeable and interesting potential rival to the BBC? DOCTOR WHO degenerated fairly quickly into a silly, horribly underfunded pantomime, more irritating than entertaining. However, viewed with the benefit of hindsight (and the passing of the years) it wasn? all bacofoil spacesuits and puppet monsters in the latter years of the saga of the homo-superior. This seventh season, previously released in a limited edition MVC boxset and now out there on its own, is actually huge fun, a series finding its second wind and deciding to make the best of it as it coasted towards the obvlivion which awaited at the end of the next, four-part season.
Here we get three two-part stories and there? something to recommend in each of them. ?astle of Fear?is the most traditional story, introducing the newest member of the group, kilt-wearing Scots lad Andrew who uses his superhuman powers to conjure up images of ghosts to encourage visitors to his father? ailing hotel. The fun really starts in ?chilles Heel? an hilarious and frankly outrageous story where the two campest aliens in the Universe arrive on earth, book into Andrew? Dad? hotel and set about searching for the rare mineral Barlumin. This one? a hoot from start to finish and Hilary Minster and Christian Rodska are superb as the hopeless aliens Yagon and Cantor. Your jaw will drop as you watch their scenes in the hotel bedroom?n
The season concludes with the near-legendary ?iving Skins?where the Earth is invaded over two episodes by giant balloons. No, really. Bubbleskin jumpsuits are the new fashion craze but the alien intelligence behind the craze has a sinister scheme to destroy Mankind. Hilarious stuff and Mike Holoway? performance as Mike is an unintentional work of comic genius. He really should have worn baggier shorts in the scene where the jumpsuit is burnt off his body, though?n
140 minutes of extraordinary entertainment, so camp you could go on holiday in it, so retro it? almost the work of a civilisation which existed on earth before Mankind. Brilliant!
THE DISC: Transfer is decent enough for material of this age but, if you buy this disc, make time to listen to the commentaries. Not for nothing does the publicity material refer to them as ?he funniest commentaries available on DVD.?Extraordinarily candid and salacious, they?e even more fun than the episodes themselves. Other extras are text-based.
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