The Tripods - Series 1
I generally don’t take up your time in our DVD Reviews on titles with few bonus features, but there’s a bit of a story with this one.
The Tripods was a short-lived (two seasons of 13 episodes each) BBC series co-produced with a French broadcaster, and it aired in 1985-86 during the “doldrums months” during which, as far as we knew, Doctor Who was cancelled forever. Based on John Christopher’s Tripods novels (”The White Mountains”, “The City Of Gold And Lead”, “The Pool Of Fire”), the Tripods series is actually one of the best examples I’ve yet seen of a book-to-TV adaptation, spreading each book out over a 13-episode season at a leisurely pace. Well, at least that was the plan: the BBC dropped the show before the climactic third season could be made, and the show - like so many cult favorites in the history of British SFTV - ended on a permanent cliffhanger.
Second Sight Video saw fit to resurrect the series on DVD, putting the first season on two discs. With all of that content crammed onto a pair of dual-layer discs, we shouldn’t have expected any bonus features (and aside from the odd BBC promo, I’m not sure what there would have been to show anyway). The episodes are in excellent shape, shot entirely on crisp video, and I’m actually a bit surprised by how well the effects hold up. The producers of The Tripods seem to have learned the lesson of Ridley Scott’s Alien: even if it’s a good effect (which the towering mechanical Tripods are), you’ll get more mileage out of using them sparingly.
Now, to add insult to the injury of this already unfinished series, here’s the real tragedy: it’s starting to look like Second Sight cannot secure the rights to release season two on DVD. I’m not entirely sure what the snag is, but the promised set of two second season DVDs has gone from a late 2001 release to falling right off the schedule. Second Sight promises that negotiations are ongoing, but until then, all we’re left with is a tantalizing pre-release shot of the packaging. Here’s hoping I’ll be able to follow up on this review before too long.