…starts off sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.

So, ANYONE that knows me knows that I absolutely love John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids, the tale of massive carnivorous plants taking over the world. There was an awful film made of the book in 1962 and then a really good, if flawed, version made in 1981 by the BBC and which I was shown at school and became my entrance in to the world of Post Apocalyptic fiction.

The BBC announced earlier in the year that they were remaking the show and it was broadcast over Christmas on the TV. I assume hot on the heels of the success of Survivors earlier in the year (and the second series returns imminently, I think!)

It was a British / Canadian effort by the BBC and Prodigy Pictures. Maybe this was the reason why Canadian actor Jason Priestley was involved. And going into it, he was the thing I was looking forward to the most. I’ve never seen 90210 or any of his other ‘teen’ stuff so I’ve not been tainted like most people, but the one thing I’ve seen him in was the absolutely amazing episode of Jeremiah where he played a clever, yet ultimately, psychotic killer in what was probably the best episode of the whole series. And in Day of the Triffids he was going to be playing my favourite character, Coker.

Firstly, the effects in the show were pretty good for a British show with a not too unbelievable airplane crashing into the heart of London within the first few minutes. That’s definitely one area where it excelled the original series.

I was wondering whether Mr. Izzard was ever going to speak after spending the first few minutes wondering around and looking awesomely mischevious. I love that one of the first things he did was a Barney Stintson style “Suit Up!” I was actually quite surprised with his acting in this. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t have to say too much really but it was good compared to the rest of the things I’ve seen him in. I think it was also the fact that he played it so over the top and, almost, pantomime villain-esque. Although I kinda liked that.

The show opened with (and KEPT flashing back to) Bill Masen’s mum getting stung and killed by a Triffid in Zaire. This explains why he constantly tells us that ‘with me it’s personal!” The flashbacks were almost as annoying as the amount of times the lead lady in Survivors kept going on about her son.

The lead characters Dougray and Joely had near on no chemistry, I remarked to Bex that this was probably because he’d not got a John Duttine-esque beard. But for some reason I just didn’t get them gelling together. In fact I would say that Josella had more of a relationship with Eddie Izzard and in all honesty I was willing him to make some move – which he did unsuccessfully. Darn!

Torrence’s role was hugely extrapolated, most likely, due to Izzard being in that role. And that sort of started the stem of where it wandered slowly away from (and on occasions returning to) the orignal story. While I liked Torrence’s role, it sort of relegated the prominence of the Coker character and meant that we never really got to see Coker’s transition from leading the gangs to realising it was a bad idea and setting up the Isle of Wight tearaways. Which I liked. We also never got to see the period where Bill and Jo were dumped in seperate parts of London and didn’t know if either were alive. But that was slightly replicated with the whole ‘Bill is dead, you stay with me’ bit I guess.

Things I liked with the show:

* Eddie Izzard filling the toilet up with life preservers and surviving the crash. Probably not realistic. But still, genius!

My irritations with the show:

* In a similar trend with the film “The Day The Earth Stood Still” we changed the main underlying theme to the fact that the Earth is going to die because of global warming.

* Considering that both Bill and Jo were so aware of the consequences of what a Triffid can do how many times did both of them venture out (and half the time in a DARK FORREST!) without eye/skin protection? Also, and this applies to other movies too… When you’re in a car, close the freaking window!

* The complete removal of the scene where Jo and Bill find a luxurious apartment to spend the night in, ‘liberate’ a nice bottle of wine, some nice clothes and spend the night chatting, getting to know each other and basically living. It was a nice break in the story, time to appreciate that whilst everything had gone to crap they still had company and also showed the relationship between the two. Because I, personally, just didn’t believe them getting all lovey-dovey with each other in the remake.

* The religious manor. Which I think was Tynsham in the original? In the original they were good people who were just way too misled. In this version they’d turned into sacrificing killers. Or at least the head Nun had. A pop at organised religion? Most likely. Necessary? Yes.

* The triffids… They were useless, cumbersome plants in the book. And there was a good reason, they didn’t really pose that much of a threat to the sighted as you could see them coming. But in this the triffids could pretty much kill everything as they moved with insane speed and had tentacles that could move up floors of buildings. They, obviously, thought that the originals weren’t menacing enough – I guess. But wasn’t that the point. They weren’t menacing, per se, just clever and knew how to get their food.. by disabling the human race’s sight.

* The ending… just no. Now they live amongst them? Oh, well, I guess it means it leaves no avenues open for further butchering of the story in further episodes. Yay?

Oh well.. I am probably on my own in not liking it.

I am Rapids Johnson
B