Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1984 and 1985, The Tripods was the show that the BBC used to fill its traditional Saturday teatime Doctor Who slot. Adapted from the first two books in John Christopher's "Tripods" trilogy, the show frustratingly failed to deliver the final story that winds everything up. This release collects the first series of 13 episodes, which covers the first book (The White Mountains). In 2089, the human race lives a peaceful, agrarian existence in post-technological communities under the rule of the Tripods, vast alien machines that look like the Martians from War of the Worlds. In a small English village, teenage cousins Will (John Shackley) and Henry (Will Baker) are troubled as they near the age at which they will be "capped", fitted by the local Tripod with a metallic hairnet which will turn them into docile, uncreative, happy servants of the invaders. A wily vagrant tells the boys that far to the south, a community of uncapped freemen resists the Tripods, and they set off on a 13-episode journey that takes them to the coast, across the English Channel and down through France, with stop-offs in the impressive ruins of Paris, at a medieval-style chateau and on a vineyard in the Jura. Along the way, the lads fall in with "Bean Pole" (Ceri Seel), a gangling, bespectacled French rebel who is fascinated with the lost arts of machine-making, but at each of their stopovers there are temptations, mostly in the forms of appealing French girls, to settle down and become happy conformists, but in the end they do join up with the rebels, ready for a mission to the city of the Tripods that comes in Series Two.
With production values significantly higher than Doctor Who at that time, the show conserves its effects and makes them count, with the Tripods only rarely intervening directly. Watched at a sitting, it seems padded and the three lead actors are variable, but taken in single-episode chunks it works quite well, with a subtly unsettling depiction of a backward world where everyone seems happy but actually isn't and actual villainy comes as a relief amidst the overwhelming niceness. The English and French locations are very well used, and the production design and costuming (lots of hats to cover the "caps") is imaginative without being panto-like. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
A good remake of the book but could have been better.......2007-04-10
"The Tripods" has been one of those stories that I have always read great symbolism into - the idea of a society where "the cap" takes away people's creativity and initiative at the coming of age. And although some of the acting isn't first class and the special effects are a little dated, this series was relatively faithful to the original book.
I guess the main disappointment is that for a majority of the series there isn't a sign of any tripods (or just the odd minor sighting) and when there are any encounters with them the lads seem to get away relatively easily and unscaithed. Having said that, the scene where they are trapped under a tripod and manage to trip it up and destroy it is good, and the number of ones then looking for them, including the first sightings of the red ones with guns, builds up some sense of excitement.
The Tripods - some things are better left untouched..........2007-01-22
I cannot emphasize just how glad I was when I realized "The Tripods" was out on DVD. I remembered it as one of those series I grew up with in the mid 80's.
However, I certainly can explain why I was so disappointed.
First of all, these WERE the mid 80's and what looked good back then looks pretty corny nowadays - the background mattes, for example, look utterly pathetic and flat.
Secondly, there are dozens of "dead minutes" where nothing ever happens and it is as if the plot is going nowhere.
The video transfer is dreadful. While the compression level is usually ok, there are numerous scenes which look grainy and out of focus. Sure, this has got to do with the quality of the source material, but still, it is very annoying. Even more annoying are the whites. They glow as if they were radioactive. It's strange, though, because the sun and the clouds look nice and white, while white clothes, white fabric and indoor whites bleed and glow immensely. To top it all, the aliasing of the tripods against the different backgrounds looks exceptionally lame.
The opening and closing titles of each episode (especially on the 1st disc, but also on the 2nd one) look as if they suffered a severe sand storm. They are filled with dust particles and scratches and look 50 years old rather than 15 years old.
The DD 2.0 soundtrack is not too good. Yes, the main theme is probably the most memorable thing in the entire series. It still sounds great. However, the dialog is muffled, occasionally, and the lack of any subtitles is REALLY annoying because there's a lot of French in the series.
The menus are still and silent.
The disc set contains nothing other than the 2 disks, not even an insert. Nothing. Come on! There must've been at least one documentary available or maybe a re-grouping of the cast. What a shame! To top it all, the package is very misleading, since it includes 5 pictures, 3 of which are from the 2nd series.
Bottom line - a classic series that got a very bad treatment by "Seconds Sight Television". It's amazing the BBC allowed them to ship this series in this disgraceful manner. Fans - rent this disc set. Anyone else - forget it. Sometimes nostalgia is better left untouched.
Decidely Average.......2006-12-19
Just finished watching this, I remember it being on BBC1 back in the eighties and not being terribly impressed, (it was pinching the slot Dr. Who held on a Saturday), but thought it was time to do a reappraisal. What can I say? The young actors are dreadful, there's no passion, emotion, they say the lines without any real conviction. The blurb on the back of the DVD cover says it was an expensive serial, where did the money go? Not on special effects at any rate, perhaps it went on food as there seems to be a banquet/dinner every episode. In it's favour the story does move along as the characters move from place and place and this keeps you watching to see what will happen next, just don't expect much Tripod action as they don't seem to feature much in this series.
Read the books.......2006-09-22
I read the books when I was a teenager and loved them. I am in the good old USA and never knew there was a series based on the books. I finally ordered them and watched the first two episodes. I really thought they captured the Tripods quite well. And the agarian culture is well depicted. Now I think I will reread the books again after watching the rest of the series.
where's series 2?.......2005-09-01
After recently watching war of the worlds and reading the fantastic HG Wells book, it occured to me that The Tripods was long over due in my viewing pleasure.
I was worried that it would look very dated and that my 14 year old school girl crush (Will, the hero of the piece) would never live up to my dwindling memory. How wrong. Yes the acting was a little dodgy and the sfx were nothing compared to today, but lets not forget that this was 1984 BBC1 and the controller of the channel wanted it gone, (the reason series 3 was never made).
The castle part and the vineyard part were slow and did hinder an otherwise great series, otherwise it would have been 5 stars.
This was great nostalgic viewing and i'm just hoping that the bbc will stop dicking about and get series 2 out soon.
Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1984 and 1985, The Tripods was the show that the BBC used to fill its traditional Saturday teatime Doctor Who slot. Adapted from the first two books in John Christopher's "Tripods" trilogy, the show frustratingly failed to deliver the final story that winds everything up. This release collects the first series of 13 episodes, which covers the first book (The White Mountains). In 2089, the human race lives a peaceful, agrarian existence in post-technological communities under the rule of the Tripods, vast alien machines that look like the Martians from War of the Worlds. In a small English village, teenage cousins Will (John Shackley) and Henry (Will Baker) are troubled as they near the age at which they will be "capped", fitted by the local Tripod with a metallic hairnet which will turn them into docile, uncreative, happy servants of the invaders. A wily vagrant tells the boys that far to the south, a community of uncapped freemen resists the Tripods, and they set off on a 13-episode journey that takes them to the coast, across the English Channel and down through France, with stop-offs in the impressive ruins of Paris, at a medieval-style chateau and on a vineyard in the Jura. Along the way, the lads fall in with "Bean Pole" (Ceri Seel), a gangling, bespectacled French rebel who is fascinated with the lost arts of machine-making, but at each of their stopovers there are temptations, mostly in the forms of appealing French girls, to settle down and become happy conformists, but in the end they do join up with the rebels, ready for a mission to the city of the Tripods that comes in Series Two.
With production values significantly higher than Doctor Who at that time, the show conserves its effects and makes them count, with the Tripods only rarely intervening directly. Watched at a sitting, it seems padded and the three lead actors are variable, but taken in single-episode chunks it works quite well, with a subtly unsettling depiction of a backward world where everyone seems happy but actually isn't and actual villainy comes as a relief amidst the overwhelming niceness. The English and French locations are very well used, and the production design and costuming (lots of hats to cover the "caps") is imaginative without being panto-like. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
A good remake of the book but could have been better.......2007-04-10
"The Tripods" has been one of those stories that I have always read great symbolism into - the idea of a society where "the cap" takes away people's creativity and initiative at the coming of age. And although some of the acting isn't first class and the special effects are a little dated, this series was relatively faithful to the original book.
I guess the main disappointment is that for a majority of the series there isn't a sign of any tripods (or just the odd minor sighting) and when there are any encounters with them the lads seem to get away relatively easily and unscaithed. Having said that, the scene where they are trapped under a tripod and manage to trip it up and destroy it is good, and the number of ones then looking for them, including the first sightings of the red ones with guns, builds up some sense of excitement.
The Tripods - some things are better left untouched..........2007-01-22
I cannot emphasize just how glad I was when I realized "The Tripods" was out on DVD. I remembered it as one of those series I grew up with in the mid 80's.
However, I certainly can explain why I was so disappointed.
First of all, these WERE the mid 80's and what looked good back then looks pretty corny nowadays - the background mattes, for example, look utterly pathetic and flat.
Secondly, there are dozens of "dead minutes" where nothing ever happens and it is as if the plot is going nowhere.
The video transfer is dreadful. While the compression level is usually ok, there are numerous scenes which look grainy and out of focus. Sure, this has got to do with the quality of the source material, but still, it is very annoying. Even more annoying are the whites. They glow as if they were radioactive. It's strange, though, because the sun and the clouds look nice and white, while white clothes, white fabric and indoor whites bleed and glow immensely. To top it all, the aliasing of the tripods against the different backgrounds looks exceptionally lame.
The opening and closing titles of each episode (especially on the 1st disc, but also on the 2nd one) look as if they suffered a severe sand storm. They are filled with dust particles and scratches and look 50 years old rather than 15 years old.
The DD 2.0 soundtrack is not too good. Yes, the main theme is probably the most memorable thing in the entire series. It still sounds great. However, the dialog is muffled, occasionally, and the lack of any subtitles is REALLY annoying because there's a lot of French in the series.
The menus are still and silent.
The disc set contains nothing other than the 2 disks, not even an insert. Nothing. Come on! There must've been at least one documentary available or maybe a re-grouping of the cast. What a shame! To top it all, the package is very misleading, since it includes 5 pictures, 3 of which are from the 2nd series.
Bottom line - a classic series that got a very bad treatment by "Seconds Sight Television". It's amazing the BBC allowed them to ship this series in this disgraceful manner. Fans - rent this disc set. Anyone else - forget it. Sometimes nostalgia is better left untouched.
Decidely Average.......2006-12-19
Just finished watching this, I remember it being on BBC1 back in the eighties and not being terribly impressed, (it was pinching the slot Dr. Who held on a Saturday), but thought it was time to do a reappraisal. What can I say? The young actors are dreadful, there's no passion, emotion, they say the lines without any real conviction. The blurb on the back of the DVD cover says it was an expensive serial, where did the money go? Not on special effects at any rate, perhaps it went on food as there seems to be a banquet/dinner every episode. In it's favour the story does move along as the characters move from place and place and this keeps you watching to see what will happen next, just don't expect much Tripod action as they don't seem to feature much in this series.
Read the books.......2006-09-22
I read the books when I was a teenager and loved them. I am in the good old USA and never knew there was a series based on the books. I finally ordered them and watched the first two episodes. I really thought they captured the Tripods quite well. And the agarian culture is well depicted. Now I think I will reread the books again after watching the rest of the series.
where's series 2?.......2005-09-01
After recently watching war of the worlds and reading the fantastic HG Wells book, it occured to me that The Tripods was long over due in my viewing pleasure.
I was worried that it would look very dated and that my 14 year old school girl crush (Will, the hero of the piece) would never live up to my dwindling memory. How wrong. Yes the acting was a little dodgy and the sfx were nothing compared to today, but lets not forget that this was 1984 BBC1 and the controller of the channel wanted it gone, (the reason series 3 was never made).
The castle part and the vineyard part were slow and did hinder an otherwise great series, otherwise it would have been 5 stars.
This was great nostalgic viewing and i'm just hoping that the bbc will stop dicking about and get series 2 out soon.
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