The Tomorrow People and Dodgy Special Effects
Occasionally you come across TV series which are of highly variable quality. Take the classic 1970s British series The Tomorrow People, about a group of youngsters who have developed such psychic powers as telepathy, telekinesis and teleportation (Though sadly not precognition, otherwise they could regularly save themselves a lot of hassle).
I thought I was safe, you see. I'd already seen A Man For Emily, which has to be the most insanely bad episode of any science fiction series ever, and the first two stories of season 6 were actually quite good, but then...
The Thargon Menace started out innocently enough, with some fugitives on the run in a spaceship. Admittedly the spaceship wasn't that good, but I was willing to let that go, special effects beign what they were back then. However the pair decided to consult their on-board computer, named "Thing".
Thing looks like this:
A red and silver puppet with some sort of aerial stuck to its back, and what could possibly be a piece of vacuum cleaner suspended above its head. When it talks (in a voice somewhat like Eric Idle on crack) the thing on its head wobbles commedically. At times you can see the hand operating it, apparently.
At one point, the two fugitives ask it if the air is breathable, and the thing on its head rises about 3 inches and wobbles about.
Needless to say, when the Tomorrow People first encounter it, their reaction is along the likes of "WTF?!"
Laugh? I almost died!
And there's two of them! A second green "Thing" on another of the spaceships!
Hooray for cheesy British TV!
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