Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Red-Barracuda I can't honestly say I remember or had even heard of this 70's children's television series. So going into it I really didn't know what to expect. It seems to have sustained a good reputation from British kids who remember seeing it back in the day and I guess I can understand why, as it is a distinctive bit of television. Despite being aimed at children, it does have some slightly dark and serious themes running through it which suggests to me that maybe 70's children were treated with less kid gloves than they are nowadays. The story revolves around a mysterious event which creates a psychosis in the British population which manifests itself in an intense hatred of machinery. The cities are emptied as people flee to the country or overseas. A teenage girl gets separated from her parents in the chaos and is forced to go it alone.Having watched this ten parter, my feelings are overall a bit mixed if I am totally honest. While on the one hand, I do have to give the programme credit for introducing a somewhat unusual and ambiguous story to children with interesting themes such as racism, misogyny and ecological concerns, on the other hand it was a bit clunky in actual execution quite a lot of the time. The original set-up was somewhat hurried, with the girl being separated from her parents in a poorly thought out manner with the father figure deciding it would be easier to go to France and then travel back to find his daughter who was clearly still in the general vicinity! While at the other extremity, the ending involving Merlin's stone was, to put it mildly, a bit underwhelming, with the totally unnecessary daftness of an aeroplane being heard in the sky overheard no more than five minute after the stone decides to reverse its malevolent force because the heroine asked it to be more reasonable. In between it still has leaden sections too, with some under par acting not helping massively. But it is a TV production aimed at kids so you do need to cut it some slack and it was pretty progressive to have a group of Sikh characters enter the narrative in a major way, as even today ethnic groups aren't always very well represented on television. I also really enjoyed the witch-hunter story thread which I thought was handled well, with some good suspense levels. And overall, the sheer enigmatic quality to much of it was a welcome thing, even if the mystery was, as I said earlier, not exactly resolved terribly well. Overall, this is still a definite interesting curiosity and something worth seeking out for those with an interest in TV science fiction in particular.

ShadeGrenade 1975 was a vintage year for British sci-fi television drama; I.T.V. had ( and squandered ) the first season of Gerry Anderson's 'Space: 1999', while over on the B.B.C. Tom Baker was well into his first season as 'Dr.Who', Terry Nation gave us 'Survivors', and then there was 'The Changes'.Based on a trilogy of books by Peter Dickinson, this ten part children's series tells how a mysterious force causes everyone in the British Isles to suddenly go berserk, and destroy all machinery. Everything from phones, cars, television sets, cookers, even clocks gets wrecked by angry mobs. As panic grows, people flee the cities and take to the countryside. Schoolgirl Nicky Gore ( Vicky Williams ) becomes accidentally cut off from her parents - they were planning on going to France - and throws in her lot with a travelling pack of Sikhs.After overcoming a gang of racist youths, they settle in a small community run by Mr.Barnard ( David King ), who has taken advantage of the crisis by setting himself up as some sort of overlord. He wants to have nothing to do with the Sikhs, whom he brands 'the devil's children'. When they attempt to barter with him by setting up a blacksmiths and repairing broken tools, he callously breaks a newly-repaired fork and tells them to keep away.But then a gang of robbers ride into the village and suddenly Bernard finds his authority threatened...Shot on film in the West Country, 'The Changes' was a gripping, well-written and thought-provoking series, unusually adult in tone. The decision to use all three books as story material for the series was undoubtedly a contributory factor in its success. What a pity that the B.B.C. did not do the same when they made 'The Tripods' nearly a decade later. Anna Home both produced and adapted it ( she made Nicky the main character throughout. In reality she only appears in the first book ). Vicky Williams, who plays Nicky, was seventeen at the time. She certainly does not look it! Her performance is both natural and effortlessly charming.I was lucky enough to see 'The Changes' when it first went out. The opening episode carried a warning beforehand about the content 'being unsuitable for very young children'. And how right they were. In the space of a mere twenty-five minutes, the country is ripped apart by the forces of anarchy. We see mobs smashing cars, blowing up power stations, and generally turning against the modern world. When Nicky travels through the countryside, she is freaked out by the sight of electricity pylons. The explanation for the changes of course comes in the final episodes. A mystic 'stone' dating back to the time of Merlin has been reactivated by an archaeologist, and it immediately restored the world as it was in medieval times. Special mention must go to Paddy Kingsland's distinctive music score.'The Changes' was repeated on U.K. Gold on Sky in 1994, but has not been seen anywhere since. It is a pity because it has stood the test of time. A remake would certainly be worthwhile. With people more reliant on technology now than ever before, a world where machines are suddenly perceived to be 'wicked' throws up all kinds of dramatic possibilities.And if nothing else, this series shatters the myth ( trotted out ad nauseaum on lazily researched retro programmes ) that British children's T.V. was boring before 'Grange Hill' came along!

Steve I remember this from the 70's. I only saw the middle episodes but still had vivid memories of it years later. UK Gold recently screened the whole series and I finally learned what had happened. They don't make children's drama like this anymore, pity. One other thing I noticed, when a threat was dealt with, it was over. These days unless you see the bad guy die you just know he will be back to plague the hero's due to a lack of imagination by the scriptwriters. This series however fell into three subplots which followed on from each other as we followed Nicky through the often Violen and very menacing Changes caused by the Stone.

Glenn Walsh I remember this from my childhood and like the first reviewer I was totally captivated. It dealt with some terrific ideas, but I always remember the opening credits where the girl's father smashed the TV with one of those ashtrays-on-a-stand. To me, a 10-year-old telly addict, that was horrifying! I read the book it was based on, 'The Weathermonger' and it was much better, with a developed story and a more plausible ending. WEE SPOILER... In the book, the supernatural force was revealed to be Merlin the wizard, no less. A re-make of this with a bigger budget (maybe even a feature) could be very successful today as we are even more techno-dependent than we were in 1975. Any producers reading this...