What The Fans Think: The Tomorrow People review of review 3: The Vanishing Earth

 

What The Fans Think: The Tomorrow People review of review 3: The Vanishing Earth

 

Ian McLachlan’s review of THE VANISHING EARTH is next up. I don’t have many complaints about Ian and he seems to be an actual fan of the show.

 

The one thing I do think is wrong is his claim that this is appropriate for today’s emphasis on climate change. Climate change which changed in term from fears of a new ice age to global warming due to man’s and big business actions to the current “climate change” is all up for debate. Is it man’s actions or is it a natural state? I’m not open to either side being right or wrong or am open for further debate but the article fails to realize that the reason for the change in climate in THE VANISHING EARTH isn’t man’s actions or pollution of the atmosphere but due to the unlikely cause of aliens (The Spidron and Zandor aka Joy) removing something called magma (I think the author got the spelling wrong but who knows? It seems to be something with the word magma in it) mite from the Earth’s crust.

 

The writer also fails to see the connection with a movie that was about eight years in the past, CRACK IN THE WORLD, which has a more inventive and scientific reason for the changes (scientists set of detonations to penetrate into the Earth). Whether this was the inspiration for THE VANISHING EARTH or not is probably never going to be found out, however, praising this serial for predicting climate change really is a stretch too far.

 

The other strange thing this writer brings up is that Joy’s costume is inappropriate for a tea time children’s show and he might be correct, however, I didn’t notice that at all (and that’s might be just me, a non-striaght male) but to me, regardless of gender, these two villains seemed almost a Doctor Who type villain (Spidron) and a Batman 1966-68 villain (Joy), dressed as such. Joy is, in particular, similar, to the sexually dressed Batman female villains (and in one episode BATGIRL on the beach reveals quite a bit of her bosom).

 

What’s also odd and that I noticed right away is that in one scene, Joy is smoking what looks like an opium device…a…

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah

 

The writer misses this inappropriate thing for a children show and mentions Joy’s outfit or outfits being inappropriate. I think drug paraphernalia is much more inappropriate or at the very least jarring even to show her smoking (and I don’t think she’s the only one to smoke in this story!).

 

Ian goes on to opinion that it is a shame Ginge and Lefty only appeared in the first season (Lefty didn’t appear in THE MEDUSA STRAIN as far as I can remember). Well, I am here to counter that: I was glad to see the back of both of them and thought it did the show a major service to be rid of both characters. They never seemed to fit in correctly and Chris was a much better fit and much more welcoming. Ginge felt forced and while he had some great lines in all three stories he was in, it still felt awkward and unneeded to include him. Someone else somewhere (John A Short probably) mentioned in an article about the LOOK IN comics that Ginge and Lefty were never included (Chris wasn’t either) and I never noticed that because I didn’t miss them. At all. The show is THE TOMORROW PEOPLE and that’s who I wanted in it.

 

I guess that perspective could be because my first glimpse of the TP was the every end of ep1 of THE DOOMSDAY MEN, followed by the rest of that story and then SECRET WEAPON, where Chris was prominent and well acted, fit into the stories well, and more. Then, as the repeats cycled (!) around back to Ginge and Lefty, well….they were not as impressive as what we once had. Let’s face it, everything from THE BLUE AND THE GREEN to say, ONE LAW or even past that to DIRTIEST BUSINESS or even HITLER’S LAST SECRET were the best of the Tp stories, with exceptions of course (A MAN FOR EMILY, I’m looking at you). Ginge and Lefty started out as henchmen, willing henchmen of Jedikiah! The pair of them were just…sorry, stupid. 

 

The writer also thinks it is a good thing Ginge’s “plight” brought the Tomorrow People into the problem. This is sort of a problem with the script as it a huge leap of coincidence that Ginge and Lefty just happen to be unknowingly at the area (Clacton On Sea) under which is the base of the two aliens who are causing the world wide disturbances the TP were looking into from the very start of the first episode. It just so happens to be the way they find Joy, The Spidron, the kidnapped workers, Smithers, and the Galactic Federation ally Steen.

 

On the other hand, the death of Smithers is adult stuff and that it is included is well done and makes the TP world a dangerous one. I say good riddance to him but Ian thinks it is unfair of Steen to be satisfied that The Spidron got away because of Smithers’ death!

 

The writer also claims the Spidron had “claws” …well, to me they looked like a plant or a fungus or leafy wood? Certainly not claws like an animal’s.

 

I also think Steen, the writer might forget, is a TP from another world, though I can see why he might forget as Steen is mostly portrayed and presented as a human and a human TP after the mystery of who he might be was over. I think as a TP Steen would likely think it was fair enough a trade off that he saved a whole planet while Spidron and Joy got away. I sensed that maybe the writers were thinking of a sequel or a return by these (and most of the other stories’ bad guys) villains. 

 

Ian has a point about Steen’s seemingly super powerful abilities to make Stephen forget what happened, while getting him back to the Lab, wiping TIM and Kenny’s memory of that, too. How did Steen even know where the Lab was? I suspect unheard of links between previous connections of the Federation and the Sophastrians (rarely talked about in the series) and knowledge of these aliens and the TP from their shared pasts.

 

I agree with Ian about a lot of this: the haunted house scenes, the location work, Stephen nearly drowning or drowning after being stunned and thrown into the water by Joy and Smithers, and Stephen later recklessly jumping into the matter transporter despite the possibility that Spidron might have booby trapped it with a deadly trap are all very well done and even well acted IMO.

 

 

That Stephen jumps into almost desperate action to save the kidnapped humans, defying the villains and possibly risking his own life in almost a panic driven heroic and dangerous act reminds me, a small bit of Steven from LAND OF THE GIANTS. When things are so tense and death is seconds away, Steven might take a giant bomb and fling it at a window or a giant or ride the bumper of a giant car to find out where a giant was taking Valerie or use a giant hot air balloon to help the escape of his entire ship’s complement and company.

 

I think he is also right in that this is very watchable, despite some shaky acting (I’m looking at Joy to be honest). This is also the last story Brian Finch worked on with Roger Price. The only other writer would be for INTO THE UNKNOWN. Price writes all the other serial from here on in.

 

All in all, a pretty good review.