Review of THE TOMORROW PEOPLE

THE TOMORROW PEOPLE - episodes 1 to 4

Released 2013

  

STEVEN JAMESON is a high school student with a problem. He wakes up in the middle of the night in strange places, including a neighbor's bed. He's been diagnosed as a sleepwalker, but medications don't help. Then a voice in his head, CARA COBURN, tells him he has a mutation enabling him to teleport himself and also to hear other people's thoughts by telepathy. That explains a lot. Also, the mutation enables telekinesis. These three powers, the three Ts, make the mutation carriers, the TOMORROW PEOPLE, into a new species, Homo superior.

Ah, but life is not easy for these people. JEDEKIAH PRICE, Steven's uncle, sees the Tomorrow People (TPs) as a threat to normal humans, and so has coopted a group of mutants, the ALPHAS, to hunt them down and either recruit them to the alphas, take away their powers, or kill them. His actual goal is to kill all the TPs but he doesn't tell that to many people, and not to any alpha TPs. To evade the alphas and also to keep their existence secret from normal humans, the TPs hide out in an abandoned subway station under the leadership of JOHN YOUNG, a former alpha agent who rebelled. TIM, a pleasant and presumably non-murderous HAL type computer, helps them in various ways.

Steven's father plays an unclear but important role in all this. The father, a man with considerable mutant powers, had abandoned the family when Steven was small to protect his family, but probably for other reasons as well. Steven must find him, and Jedekiah likely has information. So Steven becomes a double agent, working for the alphas, but giving information back to the TPs...

Why any mutant would work for Jedekiah is never explained. After all, they have telepathic powers, so they should realize he wants to kill all of them.

As with many series, the first episode, which explains the theme, is the best, but the next few episodes throw in enough new complications to keep it interesting. Also, the characters raise the question of just what it means to be human, though the matter isn't discussed with a lot of sophistication. Still, there's a lot of excitement. I rate it at ++++. It will often get your pulse up to a run.