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From: mae@aplvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: re: The Tomorrow People
Message-ID: <543@aplvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Mar-84 08:44:21 EST
Article-I.D.: aplvax.543
Posted: Fri Mar 30 08:44:21 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Mar-84 07:58:06 EST
Organization: JHU/Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD
Lines: 36

Alan R. Katz <KATZ@USC-ISIF.ARPA> asks for information on the British
show "The Tomorrow People".  I've watched the whole thing on Nickelodeon
and liked most of it, it gets rather silly toward the end.  Each story is
a serial of from 2 to 5 parts.  It is by Thames Television (not BBC).

Alan:	"The heroes are kids who have special powers of some sort."
The "tomorrow people" feel they are the next step in human evolution.
Their special powers (telepathy, short range teleportation- "jaunting",
telekenesis, depending on the person) "break out" during adolescence,
an effect similar to threshold sickness in the Darkover books.  The main
character, John, is the first tomorrow person known to have survived this
without subconsciously rejecting the powers and not being able to use them
fully.  He was contacted by a federation of telepathic alien races who will
one day invite humans to join them and who, since a telepathic race is
developing on earth, watch over it and protect this development from the
interference of violent, nontelepathic races.  An effect of the telepathic
development is the inability to commit any violent acts.  They are dedicated
to finding other developing tomorrow people and in keeping their existence
secret from all governments and military organizations, for fear of being
exploited.

Alan:	"They can teleport (sometimes they need some kind of gadget, 
	sometimes they don't)."
Short "jaunts" don't need power/computer assistance.  For longer distances
the computer can coordinate and trace their teleportation.

Alan:	"They have some sort of self aware computer (or something,
	its not clear its really a computer)."
The computer, named Tim, was build by John using technology from the aliens.

The serials get shorter and sillier as the show progresses.  For Doctor Who
fans out there - the very worst serial has Peter Davison's TV debut, it is
so bad it's embarrassing to watch.

				Mary Anne Espenshade
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