Although an improvement over the books, women are poorly served with Will’s love interest Eloise and Madame Vichot being the most prominent. The phrase ‘boys own ‘adventure’ has often been applied to The Tripods, and it’s very apt as there are barely any female characters. The first series covers their journey through France to these fabled lands, avoiding dangers such as the Tripods, Black Guards, cannibal vagrants and erm, marriage along the way. Our three young heroes-Will Parker, Henry Parker and Jean-Paul (Beanpole)- are attempting to reach the free men in the White Mountains. The story is relatively straightforward-by 2089AD Earth has been invaded and enslaved by the Tripods plunging it back to a pre-industrial age, with humans being kept placid by ‘caps’ that remove any thoughts of rebellion. The series is based on three young adult novels by John Christopher in the 1960s The White, The City of Gold and Lead, and The Pool of Fire, with series one being based on the first novel. My knowledge of the series only began a year ago or so, which led to an inevitable Tripods marathon over the Christmas period. Although there were rumors of it being made into a Hollywood blockbuster a few years ago there has no talk of a television reboot and it hasn’t re-appeared on Big Finish either, where many similar titles have seen resurgence on audio. In the preceding years The Tripods has become a slightly ‘forgotten’ piece of BBC science fiction, except for in what one may call ‘geek circles’. It’s even got a Radio Times cover heralding it’s new, terrifying monsters, the titular Tripods themselves. A new science fiction show is about to air in its former slot, with a much larger budget that has created anger in the Doctor Who production offices. For the past two years Doctor Who has left it’s traditional Saturday teatime slot in favour of two episodes at the start of the week on Monday and Tuesday.

The tripods book