Tie-in editions of all three Tripods books, released to tie in with Season 1 of the BBC television series.
Script Writers
1 Alick Rowe
2 Christopher Penfold
Television Details1 Alick Rowe
2 Christopher Penfold
The Tripods: Season 1 1
15/09/84 — 08/12/84 / 13 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
The Tripods: Season 2 2
07/09/85 — 23/11/85 / 12 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
Archive Details / DVD Releases
A box set containing both seasons of The Tripods was released on Region 2 DVD in the UK in March 2009 (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / HMV.com).
The Tripods: The White Mountains
Publisher Puffin Books Format Paperback Publication Date August 1984 ISBN 0140316841 Original Price UNKNOWN Country UK
The Tripods: The City of Gold and Lead
Publisher Puffin Books Format Paperback Publication Date August 1984 ISBN 014031685X Original Price UNKNOWN Country UK
The Tripods: The Pool of Fire
Publisher Puffin Books Format Paperback Publication Date August 1984 ISBN 0140316868 Original Price UNKNOWN Country UK
The Tripods Trilogy
Publisher Puffin Books Format Paperback Publication Date October 1984 ISBN 0140317228 Original Price UNKNOWN Country UK
Edition Notes
- Unsurprisingly, this is an omnibus of the three seperate novels in the original Tripods trilogy.
General Notes
- John Christopher is one a number of pseudonyms used by writer Samuel Youd. The Tripods Trilogy were first published in the 1960s, with The White Mountains and The City of Gold and Lead being released in 1967, and the final book book in the trilogy, The Pool of Fire, being released the following year. A prequel to the original trilogy, When the Tripods Came, was published in 1988.
- The Tripods was supposed to be one of the BBC's major serials of the day, adapting all three of John Christopher's Tripods novels over the space of three years. Sadly, as events would transpire, the poor reception the series received meant that the concluding book, The Pool of Fire, was never to be produced. The man to blame? Michael Grade, who put Doctor Who back on the straight and narrow a year later by sacking the leading man, halving the number of episodes and generally presiding over a complete slump in quality. What a guy...
That said, the series did have major flaws. In Season 1, cousins Will and Henry travelled to the White Mountains in Switzerland to escape the massive three-legged Tripods, who control the population by means of a 'capping' ceremony which takes place at the age of sixteen and involves a control device being placed on the skull. Along the way they meet up with Frenchman Jean-Paul (aka Beanpole) and continue on their way in the hope of reaching the mythical Free Men at their journey's end.
Overall, Season 1 was seven episodes too long, boring as hell, and generally only enlivened when a Tripod appeared. By a complete coincidence, the lack of Tripods on the covers of the tie-in editions is an excellent representation of what the viewers faced...
Season 2 saw Will, Beanpole and the German Fritz travelling to the annual Games in an attempt to infiltrate one of the Tripod cities and gain valuable information about the alien invaders. Will and Fritz get selected to serve the Tripods, with Will eventually escaping from the Tripod city to meet up with Henry and Beanpole and travel back to the White Mountains with the information he has gathered.
Of the two seasons, it is the second which is better regarded, with the season cliffhanger seeing Will, Henry and Beanpole returning to the Free Men in the White Mountains and discovering that their base had been destroyed. At which dramatic point the BBC cancelled the series...
