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Does Anyone Else Remember This Show?

I’ve recently rediscovered a show I once watched as a young lad something like 10 year ago. It’s actually available on Youtube of all things, the entire series.. see far below for links. I’ve also, er, acquired it, through other means. This site that lists several shows, classic kids tv gives some info, and a link to Shock which actually released the first series in it’s entirety very recently (before it and it’s sequel were chopped down to telemovie length). In any case, the show is Region 4, or Region 0 in Pal, depending on which bit you read, either way I can’t play it. If ever it’s released here, I’ll buy it.

The show was created in 1991 and starred a group of people that, if you were to find some commonality between them other than being alive and human, would probably be the desire never to leave Australia, as it seems none of them really appeared in anything readily available outside Australia again. Looking up some of the bio’s from people who were in this show, if they even have a bio online, indicates many of them were stage actors in australia, and have remained so since, or perhaps dropped out of spotlights altogether. Which is annoying, since the star of the show I thought was strikingly attractive. I had nearly forgotten about that since I first saw it, since I couldn’t remember the show too well, but I now remember that I thought the lead was quite stunning. Now, of course, I’ve aged 10 years and she hasn’t on the screen, so it’s weirder, but I think only 5 lashes is sufficient punishment. The show was created in two series, each with 12 episodes, and the 24 episodes in total follow pretty well a huge story arch, with perhaps a dip in the middle where the two series are separated, but still the story wasn’t effectively resolved at that point.

The main protagonist of the show, Alana from the future, was played by Katharine Cullen, and just like the other people in the show, it’s pretty well impossible to find anything about her, in fact, wikipedia and imdb don’t even have a birthdate, but I reckon that if her age on the show in 1990 was supposed to be 14, that it’s likely that she was. As I said, I always thought she was quite attractive, and now that I’ve rediscovered the series and have remembered that fact, I’ve been trying to work out why. I think it’s the eyes and the broad nose, and the cheeks. Anyway, she hasn’t been in much else. IMDB claims she was one of the many Gatherers in The Tribe that Stayed in Max Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Hell if I can spot her, but I wouldn’t even know what she would look like at 8 or 9 or however old she would be. She was also in a play that had a picture in a paper with her name on it, so google found it. She’s probably late 20s in that picture. Anyway, I was unable to wring anything more from the internet, my stalking skills must be on the decline.

So here is a synopsis of the introduction of the show. Alana, said Girl from Tomorrow (several tomorrows, into the year 3000 of them) sneaks in to the science dome where her historian-guardian Tulista embarks on a 28 day trip to the evil year 2500. She returns moments later with bad man Silver-Thorn who took control of their new Time Capshul (intentional, since they all pronounce it like that, it’s cute). The people in the future use the power of thier minds to fight him, so he decides to rule the past instead, grabs Alana and together they plummet into the year 1990. Alana is separated from the time capshul, and having received no training in history, she is pretty much screwed. But she does meet up with Jenny, a comperably aged girl (who helps her evade a raging grocer), her brother Petey, who’s young and annoying, and their newly divorced mother Irene. Together, with their powers combined, don’t beleive Alana is from the future. And so the show continues.

The show is interesting for a couple of reasons. One of which is that it takes place in Australia, so it’s all accents all the time, but other than that the show could have really taken place anywhere, if you remove all references to Vegemite. The sci-fi elements are low-key, sort of like Star Trek TOS, the technology is there, but we don’t really have to know how it works. This constrasts with all the Star Trek’s since, which try to explain it in their own fantasy terms, and really, reversing the polarity is something the enemy should just expect by now. The show is also low-budget, at least, I have to figure it is given what it was, a children’s sci-fi on australian television. But they managed to use it pretty effectively, the scenes of the future aren’t particularly corny, just a little sparse. The special effects are decent, as are the props, for the most part. Some of the effects from the transducer scream Post-Production, but altogether it’s not so low budget that you see the set shake or shadows on backdrops. The ‘electricity’ effects are particularly nasty, but what are you gunna do.

Another curious element is that the show’s protagonists are almost entirely female, and even minor players in high positions are women. Alana, the protagonist, is female, as is her friend Jenny. Petey is male, but just a wee lad so he doesn’t have dominatory effects. Jenny and Petey’s mother is single after a divorce. Later on a male protagonist in the form of a new beau of the divorcee comes along, but as the main protagonists are Alana and Jenny, it doesn’t undermine them much. The world council head (in the year 3000) is asian, and also a woman. In fact, they did a reasonable job for the year 3000 casting, since lots of nations are represented there. The inventor of the time capshul is an indian man, but the historian making the dangerous leap back to 2500 is female. Unfortunately there is a bad womanism here, which the world council head remarks to the historian now in ugly 2500-era garb that she wouldn’t have the courage to wear those clothes. ha ha ha. Well, whatever, Still better than her being recast to Nurse Chapel.

Interestingly, the antagonists are both male. Well, I’m talking about the really evil people, not the ones who merely get in Alana’s way in the 1990’s, which are also, I see, mostly male. But at least in this series, the two main evil characters, Silverthorn from 2500, and his bribed young henchman Eddie from 1990, are both male. That never seems to change actually, I think perhaps in the second series there was a woman hench..person, in 2500 (but the costuming makes it hard to tell) and there was a woman who did bad things under orders, but the main enemies were all male. Oh well, the point of this wasn’t that the antagonists were male, but that the protagonists were female, which is refreshing.

Time Travel has inhrerent problems in philosophy and physics, and in storytelling for that matter. For stories, basically, if you can travel at will back and forth in time, like Back to the Future, then you have to decide whether you can change history, or not. Changing history is interesting, leads to paradoxes, or rather, just deferred madness. Like, in Back to the Future Part 2 where they go back to 1985 and see it all dystopic, that is because history was changed and on travelling forwards, the timeline they are in is that altered one. That is all well and good, though the bit in the first movie about people fading away is just crap.

The other system you can use, which makes things a lot easier is to just say that the past is immutable, any changes you think you are making to the timeline are already in it, meaning you were destined to make those changes. This is like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, since they didn’t really “change” anything, it all occured as it did in the first “pass” of the timeline, they just didn’t realize the implications, but they were destined to do it, it was contractual.

The Girl From Tomorrow is weird in that it seems to think that the immutable past theory is true for the first series, then go, oh shit when they see it’s not true in the second series (which I will discuss in more detail later) go and employ the theory of a changed history, which story elements in THAT series show elements of the Harry Potter version, of a destiny and an immutable history. Say what? Oh well. I’m actually surprised that Alana, as a character in the first series, didn’t even consider the implications of changing the history, and going to security guards asking them if they’ve seen her Time Capshul. Still, kids show.

Also, a problem with time travel is the concept of space travel at the time. The Girl From Tomorrow claims to follow the rule that it doesn’t travel through space, and that fact is actively used as a plot element in the second series. But in the first series, it is totally violated in the last episode. Oh well. This is the same sort of system seen in Back to the Future, except I don’t see why movement relative to earth is special. On the very first experiment with the Delorian, that dog’s one minute leap into the future should have had it 1800 kilometers away, in space, perhaps in the earth itself, since the earth revolves around the sun at 30KM per second. And that’s just the earth’s movement, what about all other movement. It couldn’t be calculated since as far as I know there is no fixed point in space to which all otherwise relative movement can be measured, but in any case, the car wouldn’t be on the road. For safety’s sake people, the only time machines should be space ships, why won’t anyone listen!

The technology from the future is of the sort that’s indistinguishable from magic. The main future element Alana brings with her other than the capshul is the Transducer, a headband like thing with a cystal in the middle. It focusses the telepathic aspects of the pituitary gland apparently. It is the main tool from the year 3000, it can be used to levitate, heal, and if emotionally unstable, untrained or evil, can be used as a weapon to explode CG balls. The people in the future even have little dots tattoed on their faces representing the levels of mental control they have. Other bit of futuristic brikerbrack Alana has with her from the future is a large bracelet which is actually her PDA called P.J., which has the ability to break into government computers, synthesize voices, project holograms, and has absolutely no security regarding how it’s used or who uses it.

Here I’ll do a rundown of each of the shows, here be spoilers. I tend to focus on the more interesting or odd bits, these aren’t meant to be full reviews or synopsies. If I seem to be making fun of the show, that’s just my way, it’s still a good show in my opinion, but it may require having seen it when young.

Future Shock

In the year 3000, everything is pretty and green and people live behind yellow glowing bushes where presumably they go underground, so instead of spoiling the earth they just dig it out from under. But this was not always so, in the year 2500 there was a Great Disaster that effectively killed off the entire northern hemisphere. For some reason, despite having horseracing results from the 20th century (more on that later), the scientists don’t have a good accounting of history for what caused the Great Disaster, so they have built a time capshul and trained one of their number on life in 2500 and are going to send her back to do research. Tulista is also Alana’s guardian, Alana being the protagonist of the show. She tries to train Alana a bit on the use of the transducer and then yells at her for blowing up their training balls. Alana is upset about Tulista’s planned trip and lost emotional control. Tulista goes off to the science dome to begin the test, while Alana goes home instead of class. Alana, on finding a hologram pip under her pillow from Tulista about the true danger of her mission, races to the science dome and her computer band gives her shocking amounts of information about how to break in. She goes in a power conduit and is nearly killed by a racing bluescreen effect, and falls into what I call the freejack room under the capshul. She then ascends a hyper-ladder into the testing chamber. Now, couldn’t they have done something else with that ladder, I mean, it looks so out of place, normally you’d expect a vertical ladder or something if anything, but not some normal one on a slant, with some sort of light effect placed on it. That bit really shows off the low-budget quality of the show, but move along. Alana is just in time to see the capshul vanish, moments pass, and it comes back after a month sojourn in 2500. Tulista emerges, bound, kidnapped buy a Bad Guy who declares himself Silverthorn and tries to kill people, but the transducers are too much for him. Alana runs up to be taken hostage, is, and then Silverthorn reckons that he’ll rule the past instead, drags her into the capshul, and the head to 1990. There is a brief interlude introduce Jenny, Petey and Irene that really has nothing to do with the show other than to introduce other central characters. Then we cut back and find Alana having “crash-landed” in a dump at night. Silverthorn is for some reason unconscious, and she can’t get him to wake before the capshul rolls down a trash mound. She runs from guards and dogs who are inexplicably there, and is really quite dirty at this point. As is standard for people from the far past or future emerging in our time, she races into a busy street and that pretty much ends the episode.

A Primitive And Dangerous Time

We return and find Alana having slept on the streets, and incredibly dirty from the night before, inexplicably dirty. She tries to backtrack to the dump, and is nearly killed and arrested a couple of times. She then tries to take some fruit from a stand, and is attacked by the guy. She uses a vulcan arm pinch and escapes. She hides from him in a shed and is discovered by Petey, dressed up like a star wars. He pretends to be powerful with his voice-synth helmet and his ray gun, and Alana, not knowing any better, beleives him to be like Silverthorn, and he imprisons her in his decontamination cupboard. She is rescued by his older sister, Jenny. Jenny helps clean her up, and Alana tries to convince her that she’s from the future with some success. They take off to find the time capshul. They make it back to the dump and Alana is nearly killed again, this time by a bulldozer.

Sanctuary

Alana is pushed out of the way Jenny, which causes her to fall unconscious and bleed from the head. Jenny runs off to find help, and a cop stops by. I have to assume that the cops in Australia are less stupid than pictured here, since Jenny first tells of how she and Alana were in the dump and how she was injured and bleeding. And the cop takes the time to ask why they were in the dump at all.. gotta keep the priorities straight after all, heh. Anyway, they discover Alana missing and Jenny is carted home and let off with a warning. Mother is pissed about Jenny having closed their shop, and sends her to bed. Jenny plays the drums in her room for a while and records it, and then plays it back to keep everyone distracted. Now, will that really convince anyone? Oh well, Jenny sneaks out and finds Alana in the dump because she’s playing her farewell hologram from Tulista. Jenny is hurt and Alana shows her the power of the transducer as a healing implement. The effects look like the type of stuff I could pull off with 3D Studio, but this was 1990. Anyway, Alana and Jenny return home and hide in the treehouse, and they play with holograms which draws the attention of Petey and Irene (Mother). Petey beleives Alana is an alien and acts accordingly. Irene doesn’t really beleive anything yet, but is willing to take Alana in for the moment. Alana manages to explode a monkey mask in Jenny’s room while demoing the transducer, and Irene utters a quote that I swear was in a commercial for the show years ago, it just seems very familiar. “I don’t know what’s going on, but until I do, Alana, I just want you to behave like a normal teenage girl. You’re not to say a thing to anyone about holograms or the future or time travel or talking computers or anything.” Petey of course sees all this from the treehouse and resolves that Alana is indeed an alien.

Sweetness And Fright

This episode is mainly a “look how badly she adapts” kind of episode. Petey is pretty sharp this episode, as he is told that Alana is an exchange student, but she comes down wearing some of Jenny’s clothes. “Why hasn’t she got her own clothes?” “Oh.. lost her luggage”. Anyway, so Irene enrolls her in school with Jenny, and sparks the first meeting with Jenny’s teacher Mr. Rooney, who almost immediately begins to suspect something’s up with Alana, as she knows too much about some things and nothing about others. Alana sticks out terribly in her classes, apparently in the future you pick your speciality, and since she was training to be a healer, she has little interest in the Roman Empire. At lunch Jenny gets her to eat a chocolate eclaire. Now, to me, that’s just plain stupid, at least without knowing what they normally eat in the future, since maybe lots of highly refined sugar might throw her blood glucose to hell, which it does, and she went silly and threw up. Blowing a bit of her cover in the process by being too smart. They return home and find that the transducer was stolen, and track Petey down at a fort that looks like something out of Mad Max. Anyway, they get there just in time to watch him accidentally blow up the fort and Alana goes off in a huff about the children having mock wars in a 5th Elementish kind of way. She is accosted by Silverthorn in a limo which kidnaps her. HOW he knew she was there, I will never know. Probably just a way to end the show on a cliffhanger like all the other ones. Oh, and Petey finds out that she isn’t an alien but in fact from the future, oh, that’s much better.

Don’t Tell Mum

Alana is kidnapped by Silverthorn, Petey is running home to tell Irene, and Jenny is following the limo on her bike. Silverthorn is trying to warm up to Alana a bit. If this weren’t a kids show, I would worry that he might hurt her, since, he’s supposed to be like evil even in the context of the 2500 which itself is particularly evil. His limo’s car license plate is even NEW 666, which I think is overdoing it. Anyway, he claims the capshul was buried in the dump and he himself managed to escape (no thanks to her) and is now trying to get her to help him, and wants her transducer and training on how to use it. He also has a hell of a lot of money for some reason… I’ll give you a second to think how. She steals a bit of paper that is somehow important, and when Silverthorn takes a stop by a park to look at Sydney Opera House and explain how crappy 2500 is and his plans to reshape the future, Jenny on her bike comes along and knocks Silverthorn back, and luckly, for the many times that come later, fails to recognize her. Jenny and Alana race off and elude the limo. Meanwhile Mr. Rooney visits Irene in the deli trying to track down more info about Alana, and then they all return home, having headed Petey off who was conveniently detained, because they didn’t want to alarm Irene that people were after her. Anyway, Alana resolves to destroy the transducer and fails, and asks Jenny to do it, which she apparently does. Then they watch the news, and probably the worst possible collection of headlines are spoken “Civil war breaks out again in southeast asia, another huge oilspill devistates our coastline, and we take a searching look into the plight of the city’s homeless children” at which point Petey changes the channel to some war show. The family then fight and Alana is totally disillusioned. She goes off and has a cry with Irene and Jenny where it’s revealed that the transducer wasn’t smashed after all (well, at least that deception gave a couple minutes of anxiety, heh). The very mild cry she has during this sequence is followed by her saying she had never cried like that before. I guess in the future they have to keep their emotions under control to work the transducers. Presumably the next day, Jenny and Alana have a dance in the shop to the radio music, and this is where you know the show has a low budget since a) no one can dance, and b) the song is a mindless 80’s beatline rather than actual music. Alana insults a fat customer and takes her paper and compares it to the paper she stole from Silverthorn and sees they are the same, meaning he still has the time machine and got print-outs from future papers. Jenny realizes how he made his money, horse races, a la Back to the Future Part 2, but this predates it, but does that statement make sense when talking about time travel? Anyway, episode ends on a non-hanger, oh well.

Computer Games

Another day at school, using computers. Alana uses her wrist computer to ‘hack’ in to the license database to find out where Silverthorn is based out of, and Mr. Rooney spots them at it and suspects even further. Apparently the limo is registered to a company called Futures Inc. Lord, just as bad is Chronowerx from Voyager, I mean, can we not remain a little inconspicuous. Anyway, the girls head off to the office and pretend to be students and related to Silverthorn and get the secretary to show them around. Meanwhile the teacher tells Irene what he saw and they go off to drive around looking for the girls. The girls hide in a closet which the secretary locks at the end of the day. They manage to escape with the unlikely help of a vacuum cleaner. They explore the office further until Silverthorn comes back and captures Alana, while Jenny hides out of sight. Silverthorn and Alana have a confrontation and it is revealed that the time capshul will return to the future after a month regardless if anyone is in it, something I think he should have known earlier with his time with Tulista. Also, he had a brain tumour and when he buckles in pain the girls make their escape. Irene and Rooney come back with pizza and so the girls can’t update her on their progress. Jenny is also upset since her mother is getting together with her teacher, alas. They resolve to find the capshul themselves, and Petey eavesdroppes and blackmails them into letting him tag alone. Exeunt.

Stake-Out

This episode revolves around the trio’s attempts at tracking Silverthorn from work to home. A bike can’t keep up with a limo, so they pull the Peanut Butter Solution method (at least, that’s the first time I saw it used) where Jenny pretends to be hit by the limo, and while it’s stopped, Petey attaches a paint can to the back to leave a trail. Jenny finds the address and regroups with the others. The mansion has a gate so they plan how they are likely to get in. Meanwhile, Irene and James start going out under the guise of giving her driving lessons. Anyway, later on they climb the fence at Silverthorn’s mansion by using the patented lost Cricket Ball technique… okay, I guess remove that reference, the accents and the Vegemite, and it could have happened in Wales. Anyway, they sneak inside and poke around thinking Silverthorn is out, but he’s actually in, working on … something… something that involves the use of those cheapo satellite dishes that are just for arial reception, at least, that’s what they look like. Finally the limo returns and the girls don’t know as Petey, the lookout, manages to smash his walkie talkie, christ. Anyway, the Eddie and the limo bring someone from the government and promises him ultimate power when he’s Prime Minister… of Australia… now, that seems kinda funny to me. I mean, Australia isn’t really known as a powerhouse… don’t get me wrong, neither is Canada, being the leader of either one doesn’t imply the kind of power suggested, but I guess we can’t all be in countries that lie about things and then invade in order to steal natural resources. Anyway, they tell the minister or whoever he is that they have built a machine that merely predicts the future, reads off the next day’s headlines of a natural disaster, and then they leave, and Alana eventually finds the capshul in the bar behind.. a.. garage door, that is controlled by the most secure of devices, a garage door opener. Anyway, she tries to leave then and there, but the time capshul says it’s impossible to leave any earlier than the original 28 days, of which she has 13 days left to go. What kind of stupidness is that anyway.. I guess Sliders did something similar too, and that was a great… er. Anyway, the girls are nearly caught by Silverthorn and hide behind a door.

Newsprobe

I have to say, I hate this episode. Anyway, the girls are nearly caught, but Petey uses their earstwhile lost Cricket ball and smashes a window in another room to distract Silverthorn. In the stupidest move yet, Jenny leaves the Cricket bat behind, that has their address on it. Meanwhile, the girls try to explain everything that’s happened, despite Rooney being there about to take Irene out, and they tell him everything. They discuss thier next move, and somehow decide that going public is the best thing to do. Hello, hello in there McFly, does anyone care about the timeline, past or present people? Anyone? Anyway, they get on a show called Newsprobe through Rooney who knows the host, and tells him about Alana, and the tidal wave scheduled for the next day. He hangs up on him. The next day, predictably, the tidal wave happens, and the host goes to Rooney’s door. The girls watch the news unfold, and are sad they weren’t able to corrupt the timeline even more. Anyway, Newsprobe comes over to the Deli and films Alana, while Jenny is upset of all the attention a girl from the future is likely to receive. Silverthorn catches the show, and is pissed. It is also revealed that she was to be a healer, and Silverthorn perks up at that. He wants to do something, and acts on the address. The next day is planned to have a studio show with her where her transducer’s powers will be debunked. I smell setup. The show closes with Silverthorn sneaking into the bedroom, with a flashlight… rumagging around.. and not waking the two people therein.

Truth And Lies

Okay, I hate this episode too, since it’s just an embarassment fest, and a predictable one as well. Anyway, the Kelly’s are harassed by newspeople, which is surprising since I think it would take more than one show to get any real interest, but whatever. Alana can’t find PJ, but does find the transducer. They go off to the studio, and Alana is spruced up a bit, and they do the craziest crap to her hair, cause, like, in the future… we lose all sense of taste. Anyway, she’s put to the test in the studio with other people on the panel, and live, and discovers her transducer won’t work, and has been replaced by a fake. So Silverthorn wins again. In celebration he blows up a TV with the transducer. The next day, the child protection agency shows up after checking on the records provided to the school. In a very silly move on Alana’s part, she screws up the first question they ask her.. “Are you here of your own free will?” “No, I was kidnapped”. Do that at the US border and you’ll see how fast your trip is ruined. Alana is taken away to a home, and the Kelly’s try to get to her, but she is reunited with her father just seconds before they arrive. D’oh, Silverthorn again, and his money that forged all sorts of things. Anyway, as is becoming usual, a scream of “No” closes the episode.

Betrayed

The Kelly’s arrive seconds too late and find that Alana is now gone. Silverthorn takes Alana back to his mansion and locks her in a room filled with stuffed animals, which I think I would find disconcerting. He then demands that Alana use the transducer to heal his brain tumour, now that he is out of his medication and the locals can’t recreate the compounds. Alana is uncertain since, apparently, the brain is delicate. But eventually she strikes a deal, she heals him in exchange for going home when the capshul leaves. Over several sessions, she finally cures him, which is unfortunate, since he was near death and could have saved a lot of bother. Silverthorn renegs on the deal a bit, and it’s revealed that the time capshul will leave the next night. He arranges a new deal, which is getting worse all the time. Irene, Jenny and Rooney are at the door, and she is to lie to them, and claim she was making the whole story about being from the future. Despite everything they’ve seen, including levitation (which Silverthorn does himself as a magic trick as part of the lie, okay), but what about the exploding money head mask, the full body holigrams, the wrist computer and the voice synthesizer, and their knowledge of the tidal wave a day before it happens… what about all that? Anyway, somehow, they beleive the lie and go off. Well, Jenny isn’t convinced at least, but they leave. Alana later discovers what Silverthorn has been building the past couple of episodes, a forcefield that can somehow isolate the time capshul in this time, so keep it from escaping the next night. So he breaks that deal too, you’d think she’d learn, alas. She gets a message to Jenny who is wondering around outside the gates via PJ on an RC car, which is kinda neat. We hear that same 80’s attempt at music again, and again, and again. Anyway, so ends the episode.

Captain Zero Strikes Again

Incidentally, Captain Zero is Petey’s alter-ego, the same way Stupendous Man is Calvins. Anyway, they play back Alana’s hologram, and she even does the turn-around bit, just like Leia, bwah. Anyway, Jenny, Irene and Rooney go off to formulate a plan. They start preparing small explosives or something, those dangerous science teachers. At nightfall, they go off, Petey hiding in the car. The adults break into the house while Silverthorn and Eddie play Monopoly, and then the alarm goes off. They use Alana’s hologram to confuse them, and Eddie is finally chloroformed. The teacher uses his magnesium to blind the video cameras while Jenny rescues Alana from her dollhouse. Now, implementing the worst idea even, the teacher uses Petey’s voice-altering helmet to pretend to be a member of the Time Police, and use little explosives set off by Jenny to make it look like his Noises-n-Flashes plastic gun is a force to be reckoned with. Oh yeah, Irene was dressed as Eddie in this scene, which goes some way to explain why Eddie is less than dressed later, those poor henchmen. Anyway, they tie up Silverthorn, and with 3 hours to go, he sets off the alarm. The agency phones and without the code, they decide to leg it with the capshul and return to exactly where Silverthorn will expect, back home. Silverthorn and Eddie regroup, get rid of the police, and the credits roll.

Last Stand At Kelly Deli

“The Capshul will return to the year 3000 in 58 minutes and 7 seconds” so says the computer. What can go wrong in that amount of time? The capshul is in the shed, they think they’ve won, but then the doorbell rings, the adults go into the store to investigate. The girls and Petey remain in the shed with Eddie sounding like he’s trying to break in, and they fend him off with plastic robots, as Alana refuses to use the transducer directly on him. Silverthorn meanwhile is trying to bribe the adults through the shop window, fails, and blows out the telephone line. They regroup in the shed, and Rooney wants to run, since they are no match for Silverthorn’s laser pistol, but Eddie steals their car.. how inconvenient. With 22 minutes to go, they break in and take control, and start setting up the forcefield generator in the shed. The goodguys are tied up in a bedroom, guarded by Eddie and a wooden mallet of all things. The kids aren’t tied up strangely, and Petey managed to hide the whole time so he’s free. And in something straight out of Home Alone 2, he uses movie’s voice tracks to make it sound like some authority is just outside the door. Okay, well, Eddie is an idiot, so it works. The girls escape and find Silverthorn has the forcefield up again, and 4 minutes are left. Alana manages to get the transducer, but Silverthorn jumps within the boundary of the forcefield and turns it on. She tries to break through, but fails, then tries pumping more power into the forcefield, and the forcefield explodes. Everyone else arrives to find Jenny and Silverthorn unconscious. Jenny is badly hurt, in that her central nervous system is totally shot. Alana says Jenny has to come back with her, to be healed. Alana, Silverthorn and Jenny are put into the capshul with seconds to go. Finally, the hatch closes, and without any apparent source of power, the capshul spins and returns to the year 3000, in the science dome.. despite being moved from the dump. Oh well. Everyone is as they were as the capshul left in the first episode, and all is well. Except Jenny who is dying. But, so ends the series.

If anyone made it through all that, I commend you. Anyway, here are the URL’s to all the episodes on youtube for the curious. I haven’t directly linked for obvious reasons. Enjoy:

No longer enjoyable, they have been removed. Good to know that we are being protected from obscure TV series we wouldn’t be able to see any other way (unless you go PAL I suppose)

At some point I’ll do this again, for the second and final series, Tomorrow’s End.
Edit: Which I eventually did