Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Theta Sigma]

When it came about in the 1970s The Tomorrow People was billed as ITV's answer to the BBC's Doctor Who.

Ironically in the season 3 serial A Man For Emily it provided the acting debut of one Peter Davison.
Also in A Man For Emily playing the title character was Sandra Dickinson (who later did a Who in the 1996 radio story Ghosts of N-Space).

Peter and Sandra met each other for the first time when they did A Man For Emily playing siblings. Bizarrely they later married in real-life.

So far I have only seen the first episode Fastest Gun:
Upon first seeing Peter in the story I was thinking "Oh dear" given how he first appears to the audience and was surprised to hear him with an American accent. This sort of starts a full circle since the Fifth Doctor's last companion Peri was an American.
It looks like this is going to be silly but harmless fun.

Peter Davison is on the DVD commentary (which is perhaps not surprising since the commentaries are from Big Finish Productions and moderated by Nick Briggs). From what I heard on the commentary so far, upon seeing how he first appears Peter feigns embarassment and pretends to leave only for Nicholas Young (John) (jokingly) telling him to come back.

Nicholas Young himself did a Who when he appeared in the Big Finish story Colditz which provided the Doctor Who (not acting) debut of one David Tennant.

Does this mean that who Nicholas appears with will give an indication of who the next Doctor is going to be.

Incidentally just as I am currently watching A Man For Emily, Peter and Sandra's daughter Georgia Moffett will soon be seen in Doctor Who in The Doctor's Daughter.

Good timing.

[g,uest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U31ziLPT2iA

[g,uest]

[Theta Sigma]

g,uest, I will come to your thread when I get to that story.

[Theta Sigma]

Episode 2: Here We Go Round The Doozlum:
This features a very funny rescue.
This is a lots of silly fun and quite a funny line at the end for the cliffhanger.

The episode here briefly mentioned the Prime Minister who knows about the existence of the Tomorrow People.

In the commentary Nick Briggs speculated whether the Prime Minister told his successor about The Tomorrow People by saying "When the Prime Minister got voted out". While a Prime Minister can be forced out of office by the voters or members of his or her own party, the Prime Minister however cannot be forced to stay in office. I mean it could be possible that the Prime Minister who was seen in The Tomorrow People retired of his own volition since he was of an advanced age. However for a Prime Minister to retired of his own free will, he is technically voting himself out of office.

[g,uest]

Theta Sigma,

have you noticed that 'The Tomorrow People' - Theme
Is very close to the CALLAN-Theme. [Currently on UkTv]

(For the fact that there both on Thames-Tv)...
You see with there 'Old tv-shows, every now & again you get
that Static-type Box in the corner of the Picture!!,

Anyhow,
Here is a clip of '2-Who people' that appeared in the same Callan-EP
` that may be of interest :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bINDCbAxCOE

[Theta Sigma]

To be honest I have not noticed the similiarity with the theme.

Episode 3: Shotgun Wedding:
Although there are still funny moments in this episode I find A Man For Emily as a whole to be like Donald Cotton's Doctor Who stories The Myth Makers & The Gunfighters that is it starts off silly before becoming much more serious in the final episode.
The resolution to the family of The Momma, Emily and Elmer I find to be the reverse of The Family of Blood in that they had a happier resolution since they are not evil like the aformentioned family seen in Doctor Who.

Overall an enjoyable story.

The commentary during the end credits of Shotgun Wedding had Nicholas Young asking Peter whether he (Nick) would have made a good Doctor Who and Peter saying that Nick should have been one.

The commentary ends with Nick asking whether Peter's appearance on A Man For Emily jeaopardised Peter's chances of becoming the Doctor. Peter replied that A Man For Emily was simply forgotten about.

At the same time I was watching A Man For Emily I have been watching one of Peter's Doctor Who stories Time-Flight on DVD. Which one of the two do I prefer? I would have to say A Man For Emily slightly ahead of Time-Flight.

Another thing like A Man For Emily, Peter does the commentary on Time-Flight. This is the first time that I am hearing the same person on two different commentaries simultaneously.

Also after A Man For Emily, Peter and Sandra would appear together again for the TV version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[Theta Sigma]

In the sypnosis of the story on the DVD it says that Peter Davison said that stories like A Man For Emily was why The Tomorrow People was never able to be a serious threat to Doctor Who.

So ironically not only did The Tomorrow People provided Peter's television debut that would eventually see him become the Doctor but A Man For Emily which he appeared in was cited as a reason why The Tomorrow People could not have been as big as Doctor Who was then and now is today.

[g,uest]