- First run
- April 30, 1973 to February 19, 1979
- Creator
- Roger Price
- Original studio
- Thames Television for ITV
- Nickelodeon version
- 1992 to March 8, 1995, three series
- American remake
- The CW, 2013
- Music
- Dudley Simpson
- Format
- Children's science fiction, psionic heroes
Watch Order
0 / 3 watchedThe 1973 original first, then the 1992 Nickelodeon remake, then the 2013 American version. Each version is self contained.
About The Tomorrow People
The Tomorrow People is a British children's science fiction series created by Roger Price and produced by Thames Television for ITV, and it ran from April 30, 1973 to February 19, 1979 with Dudley Simpson's theme music. The idea is that the next stage of human evolution, known as Homo novis, can appear in ordinary children who then break out and develop psionic powers such as telepathy, telekinesis and teleportation, and who keep their distance from everyone else for fear of what normal people would do to them.
The original run went through seven series, with the first three running 13 episodes each and later ones shorter, and it changed shape as it went. The early stories are espionage and invasion tales with a comic streak, and the later series lean further into comedy and space opera. Roger Price tried to kill off the leads at the end of series 3 and was talked out of it, and the show was only ever cancelled because Price was tired of it rather than because it failed.
In 1992 Nickelodeon asked Price and Thames to make a new version, filmed at Nickelodeon Studios Florida, which ran until March 8, 1995 as three series of 25 episodes. A 2013 American remake followed on The CW.
Good to know
Watch the original 1973 run first if you only watch one. It is the version the others are built on, and the later ones are interesting mostly as comparisons.
The 1992 Nickelodeon version keeps the premise and changes the cast, the tone and the production, and it is the one most people under 40 will have seen. It is a reimagining rather than a continuation, so it does not pick up where the 1970s run stopped.
The 2013 American remake is a single season and has almost no connection to either British version beyond the idea, so treat it as an optional extra.
There is also a series of audio dramas using the original characters and many of the original cast, produced by Big Finish between 2001 and 2007. They are not on this list because they are audio, but they continue the story where the television run stops.
Within the original run the series are worth watching in order, since the characters and the tone carry across, but the episodes themselves are self contained enough to sample.
