Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!mike@rice.ARPA From: mike@rice.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: The Tomorrow People Message-ID: <326@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 27-Mar-84 17:15:00 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.326 Posted: Tue Mar 27 17:15:00 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 30-Mar-84 02:40:46 EST Lines: 31 From: Mike Caplinger Well, I have cable and can't help watching it sometimes, so I catch "The Tomorrow People" fairly often. The premise is basically this: The Galaxy is populated by hundreds of races; some are telepathic, some are not. The telepaths are always mutations from a non-telepathic base species. These are developing on Earth, where they are called (for no readily descernable reason) "Tomorrow People." The Galactic Federation goes around finding these people and contacting them; they become ambassadors for the planet, which is shielded from outside contact until the telepaths become dominant. It turns out that the telepaths are mentally incapable of violence, so they're safe to let out into Galactic society. The telepaths also have limited abilities for TK, remote viewing, and teleportation, called "jaunting" (cf Bester's STARS MY DESTINATION). Jaunting range is much enhanced (to interstellar distances, even) by machine amplification. The show itself follows the adventures of a group of teenagers/young adults who have been given a sentient biological computer by the Galactic Federation. They keep the Earth safe from invasion by hostile non-telepathic ETs, are on the run from Earth governments, who want to use their power for war, etc. Occasionally they go to other planets to help out pockets of Tomorrow People there. All in all, it's not a bad show. The special effects are mediocre video stuff, and the plots range from pretty intelligent to pretty bad. But there's a fair amount of thought in the background civilizations and the premise in general.