In the early 1970s ITV was looking for something to compete with Doctor Who. On the very same night Doctor Who premiered in 1963 the ITV introduced its family viewing science fiction series Emerald Soup. Unlike its competition, Emerald Soup (which followed children investigating secret government radiation experiments near their village) only ran for a single series. Gerry Anderson’s UFO had been successful but was aimed at older audiences. Worse, a series of problems delayed its second series (eventually leading to the creation of Space 1999 instead of additional episodes of UFO). In the midst of this bad luck ITV caught a break: Roger Price had been talking to David Bowie.
Price, the creator of Junior Points of View, a show featuring letters the BBC received from children, apparently met David Bowie in a studio cafeteria. According to Price the two hit it off and had a long discussion which included thoughts on the future evolution of man. This led Roger Price to solidify some ideas for a new TV show and possibly resulted in Bowie writing his 1971 song “Oh! You Pretty Things” (which includes the term homo superior, the focus of Price’s new show). Because the network was looking for something to compete with Doctor Who, which Price associated with an “old man,” the new show went with young people as the central characters. Instead of time traveling the show featured a group of young telepaths, the first few examples of the next step in human evolution. These new examples of humanity were called homo novus, or homo superior, but they referred to themselves as Tomorrow People.
The Tomorrow People develop fantastic mental powers, usually around puberty, such as telepathy, telekinesis and teleportation (they also provide the name of the series and when referring to the series Tomorrow People will be italicized). This is process of “breaking out” is extremely dangerous, though, because once their powers fully emerge they may inadvertently teleport into space or under water. The first indications of breaking out are telepathic flashes so tomorrow people are usually able to identify members of the homo superior before they break out. The psychic powers also bring a near pathological avoidance of violence and even the very idea of killing is almost inconceivable to Tomorrow People. Over the next generation or two, as homo superior become more prevalent a golden age of peace and progress would begin as it did on other worlds when their populations developed psychic powers… but until then the handful of homo superior must help others of their type develop while guarding the Earth from those looking to exploit a planet on the verge of entering the greater galactic community.
Much like the Doctor Who of the time, Tomorrow People stories were told over several half hour episodes. This gives Tomorrow People the movie serial-like feel of classic Doctor Who as most episodes feature a cliffhanger ending. They also featured a theme song (at the same time haunting and catchy) penned by long time Doctor Who composer Dudley Simpson. While the characters nominally spend their time searching for other human superiors about to break out, they often find themselves at odds with those, both human and alien, attempting to take advantage of either newly developing telepaths or the pre-telepathic Earth. The heroes see themselves as shepherds, not only for emerging telepaths, but for the entire planet as it moves towards the peaceful, prosperous future a telepathic humanity will bring. Again like Doctor Who, the special effects on Tomorrow People are often limited thanks to a combination of budget constraints and early 1970s technology. This means the Tomorrow People makes extensive use of actors superimposed over film footage and sometimes space helmets do not have glass in their visors. While some will see this as charming or nostalgic it may completely put off modern viewers used to 4k video and slick CGI.
Much like Star Trek, the creator of Tomorrow People had a strong belief the heroes of the show should be a diverse group, both men and women from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds. The show opened with three existing homo superiors and their sentient talking computer TIM. John and Carol (Nichols Young and Sammie Winmill), Caucasian young adults, and Kenny (Stephen Salmon) a boy of about ten who is of African descent work out of a base hidden in an abandoned London Underground station. In the first episode they discover Stephen (Peter Vaughan-Clarke), a Causcasian teenager about to break out causing the mysterious and sinister Jedikiah to target him. Later series would expand the diversity. Much like Gene Roddenberry, Roger Price wanted to present an optimistic future. In Tomorrow People the advanced civilizations of the universe are mainly telepathic and have formed a galactic society which Earth will be invited to join once homo superior is the norm.
All in all, Tomorrow People was entertaining, optimistic and thoughtful (if not overly intellectual) science fiction which proved popular. It lasted for eight series (sixty-eight episodes), had a long running feature in the TV series themed comic book Look-In and saw five novels published (The Visitor 1973, Three Into Three 1974, Four Into Three 1975, One Law 1976 and Lost Gods 1977) as well as an “annual” (which are combinations of series guides, behind the scenes stories, comics and/or fiction about a series popular in the UK). Unfortunately, none of these books are easily found today (at least in the US) and have not been released in an ebook format. A new book, Tomorrow People: Changes was released earlier this year to commemorate the series’ 50th anniversary (this can be found on Amazon in the US).
After the original run of Tomorrow People ended Roger Price found himself developing television programming in Canada. He created the sketch comedy show You Can’t Do That On Television which proved to be a hit both in Canada and in the US on the new children’s cable network Nickelodeon. The show’s trademark green slime (which dumped on anyone unfortunate to say “I don’t know”) remains a kind of mascot of the network to this day. He also created the globe-hopping Turkey Television, which also aired on Nickelodeon, and presented skits, music videos, action highlights and more from global television.
Thanks to Price’s ties to Nickelodeon, Tomorrow People began airing in the US in 1981, just a couple years after its final episode aired on ITV. Often shown daily, Tomorrow People would be a regular part of the Nickelodeon line up until 1984, sometimes in conjunction with psychic anthology series The Third Eye. For many Gen X science fiction fans (myself included) Tomorrow People was their introduction to British science fiction. To be honest there are several scenes burned into my mind which I would have sworn were from Doctor Who until I acquired the first couple series of Tomorrow People on DVD.
Unfortunately, the original Tomorrow People is not currently streaming in the United States although it can be found streaming illegally on YouTube. As far as I can determine the only US home video release of the original Tomorrow People came in 2005 when A&E released the series on DVD. It has been out of print for several years although the box sets can be found on eBay for about $15 to $35.
In the early 1990s Roger Price developed a rebooted Tomorrow People series for Tetra Films. With an international cast (to facilitate selling the series outside of England), the new series premiered in late 1992. A complete re-imagining of the original premise, the show lasted for three seasons. While the homo superior still “broke out” and retained similar powers to the original series, the main characters were completely different. Talking computer TIM was omitted and the group worked from a crashed spaceship instead of an abandoned London Underground station. Like the original, the new Tomorrow People aired in the US on Nickelodeon. Guest stars included Doctor Who alum Jean Marsh and horror legend/Star Wars villian Christopher Lee. I could not find this series streaming in the United States and appears to be unavailable on DVD.
In 2001 the original Tomorrow People returned in an audio series produced by Big Finish (the producers of Doctor Who audio and radio plays). Nicholas Young and Philip Gilbert reprised their roles (of John, the leader, and TIM, the sentient computer, respectively) along with new Tomorrow People. Five series of audio adventures were released, with other original cast members appearing, between 2001 and 2007 when Big Finish lost the rights to the show. The series is no longer available to purchase although used CDs can be found.
In 2013 Greg Berlanti (Everwood, Eli Stone, Arrow and Supergirl) and Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals), both fans of the original series, brought a new Tomorrow People to American broadcast television network The CW. Their series, the first television version of the show without Roger Price, portrayed a second generation of homo superior operating from a base underneath the streets of Manhattan and actively hunted by the anti-telepath group Ultra. Despite Berlanti’s strong connections with The CW the show was canceled after a single season. It is available to stream for free in the US on Tubitv.com.
After three television series seen internationally, not to mention five series of audio adventures and several books, the Tomorrow People is arguably the most successful original science fiction series of the 1970s, although Battlestar Galactica certainly has a claim to the title. Tomorrow People is perhaps the best science fiction series of the 1970s the average American science fiction fan missed. It is undoubtedly the most successful “children’s” science fiction series of its time. What I am really trying to say is even if you have no nostalgia for Tomorrow People, it is a series worth watching. The original series in particular will probably appeal to classic Doctor Who fans of all ages.