YMMV / The Tomorrow People (1973)

• Accidental Innuendo: Of the visual variety. TIM's balls get tickled on one occasion.
• Archive Panic: 64 episodes of the original series, 25 episodes of the 90s series, 22 episodes of the audio series, 22 episodes of the CW series. Not as Archive-Panicky as other series/franchises, but that's not even going into the book series, the Look-In comics, the copious amounts of fan fiction...
• Audience-Alienating Ending: The final season comprised of a single serial, "War of Empires" and is widely considered to be a low point for the series to end on, due to its attempting to emulate Star Wars on a British television budget and failing miserably. The fact that it suffered from various behind-the-scenes problems didn't help and led to the series being cancelled.
• Awesome Music:
  • The theme for the first season of the 90s revival.
  • For that matter, the original 1973 theme by Dudley Simpson (of Doctor Who and Blake's 7 fame) has a simultaneously jazzy and mysterious feel to it.
• Bizarro Episode: "A Man For Emily", without a doubt. While the theme of female dominance had potential to produce an interesting and richly-textured episode, the episode was filled with camp Western movie pastiches, inexplicable settings, overexaggerated performances and a strange plot where John is recruited to become Emily's 'manboy'. These factors make "A Man For Emily" the most infamous serial in the series' output, especially comparing it to more serious fare such as "The Blue and the Green". The primary reason that this episode attracts so much attention is the fact that it guest stars a young Peter Davison in his first television role.
• Ethnic Scrappy: During season six, Japanese Tomorrow Person Hsui Tai filled in for Elizabeth due to Elizabeth Adare's pregnancy. While the attempt to add diversity to the cast was commendable (especially for the time), this backfired due Misako Koba having zero acting ability and an impenetrable accent that even her fellow actors couldn't understand.
• Fair for Its Day: As underused as Tyso was, he was a rare example of a Romani character to be portrayed in a heroic manner, especially at the time.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Doctor Who.
• Ho Yay: The original series is quite blatantly one of the most homoerotic shows ever. "The Doomsday Men" features a group of athletic teenagers being trained to become a fascist military unit in Scotland. There are scenes showing them in kilts, stripped to the waist, and being menacingly caressed with a whip by their commanding officer as part of their "discipline". "A Much-Needed Holiday" includes a gang of pretty young blond slave-boys being freed by the TPs. These lads are frequently seen in skimpy loin cloths and chains, and some fans of the show have re-titled this adventure "Planet Of The Buggery Boys".
• Questionable Casting: Christopher Lee as the immortal Pharaoh Rameses.
• Quirky Work: Oh yes. A fun thing to do is show an episode or two to someone who can't speak English and gauge their reaction. Odds are it will be confusion or absolute horror.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Peter Davison made a pre-fame guest appearance in "A Man for Emily" that involved being manacled half-naked to a wall. He appeared opposite his then-wife Sandra Dickinson.
  • A young Nicholas Lyndhurst plays a member of the Hitler Youth in "Hitler's Last Secret".
  • Naomie Harris appeared in the second and third seasons of the 90's series.
  • Yagon from "Achilles Heel" is played by Hilary Minster, who would later be best known for playing General von Klinkerhoffen in 'Allo 'Allo!.
  • Two students from "The Blue and the Green" are played by Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson who would later be best known for playing Sharon Theodopolopodous and Tracey Stubbs in Birds of a Feather.
  • A publican from "A Man for Emily" is played by Robin Parkinson, who would later be best known for playing the third LeClerc in 'Allo 'Allo!.
• The Scrappy: Kenny, largely due to the fact that Stephen Salmon was an absolutely hopeless actor. The producers realised this, sidelining him for most of the series before writing him out inbetween seasons.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character in two ways:
  • The titular Tomorrow People are supposed to be a new stage in human evolution, a completely different species. They have senses and abilities today's humans don't, such as clairvoyance and telekinesis. It's hard to see how they could not be very different mentally — if nothing else, being able to teleport would give them a very different perspective on distance! There are hints set up early on of this, most notably that T Ps can't kill, even in self-defense. In the 90s remake, Adam has scars from a shark attacking him, and says he had a knife but "just couldn't bring myself to use it." But beyond never technically violating this one rule, the whole idea of mental differences never really comes up again.
  • The main characters start out with different abilities. Kenny and Kevin are both sort of child prodigies. Carol has clairvoyance and precognition that the others never show. Tyso has extra-sharp senses. Andrew can create and manipulate hallucinations other people can clearly see. Megabyte has a lot of trouble even teleporting until his life is in danger. Yet in both versions of the series so far, their abilities are quickly homogenized, everyone able to do exactly the same things with exactly the same skill. As The Pop Arena put it, imagine if all the X-Men just had Jean Grey's powers.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The spaceship which the 90's Tomorrow People use as their base of operations and feel an unusual affinity towards, is never explored in-depth beyond the "Origin" episodes, and what's there is cryptic at best.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Most of the acting in the 90's version is stilted as all hell, but Christopher Lee is his usual self.
• Unintentional Period Piece: As the series was aimed at young people, it would often reflect popular fashions and fads of the time but usually with a suitable sinister twist:
  • "Hitler's Last Secret" in 1978 involved the TPs investigating a sudden craze for wearing Nazi uniforms amongst teenagers (reflecting the actions of the then contemporary punk rockers) but is a precursor to Hitler being revived from suspended animation by a group of Nazis.
  • "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 Blue and the Green" sees the whole of humanity divided by a craze to wear blue or green badges and for a children's show, the whole concept of classroom violence is handled maturely by Price and his production team.
  • 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 Chariots Of The Gods was an influence on 1975's "Worlds Away" when it is revealed that the evil Kulthan had controlled and assisted the ancient Egyptians.
• Values Dissonance: Both major black characters regularly get nothing to do for no stated reason, except for one time that one of them has to stay behind because she'd stand out among an all-white alien race. Yikes.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: The Spidron from "The Vanishing Earth" is dressed like a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Ginge even insults him for this. Jibes against the unattractive aspects of America have a long history in British television. This may have been one of them.

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