Greg Bakun continues his in-depth look back at the 1981 BBC series The Day of the Triffids.
Not to sound like I
don’t have an open-mind but I don’t plan on ever watching the
2009 version of The Day of the Triffids. Actually upon closer
examination, I really do not have an open-mind. Let’s see, have I
watched the 2005 version of The Quatermass Experiment? No, I
have the DVD of it but something stops me from watching it. How about
the 2006 A For Andromeda? Nope! Not interested in seeing it at
all. I prefer the originals. I know I sound like a fogey. There were
probably casual viewers in 1981 who weren’t interested in watching
the BBC adaptation of The Day of the Triffids. They probably
thought it was boring compared to the 1963 film starring Howard Keel.
For me, after watching Parts 3 & 4, I am just enjoying the series
very much and it is now moving at a quicker pace. It is very good but
does have a couple of small cracks in its story telling.
Part Three TX:
24/09/81
Last time, as we were
coming to the end of Part Two, a group of blind people had
basically stopped Bill and Jo from going any further on the road.
Remember, the blind group was led by Morris Barry….well maybe not
led. Anyway, Bill and Jo have to sneak their way out of the car. The
blind people are scared and angry. It is easy to see them as a threat
but they don’t know where their next meal is coming from or who
will protect them from the people who can see and that are cruel?
Bill & Jo do get
some Triffid fighting gear and they end up commandeering an apartment
in a high rise. Over dinner, they discuss what they are going to do
with themselves. Throughout the conversation we hear people screaming
and gun shots from the streets below them. It’s eerie. It’s
clearly a horrible situation and it really has an effect on Jo. Not
all is lost. They see a light emanating from the University of
London. Not so much a light but more of a beacon and they decide when
it is daylight, they will go over there. That night when they go to
bed, the screams and crying still continue. Jo and Bill hold each
other tight through the night.
The next day at the
University of London, Bill and Jo arrive but find a group of blind
people outside the gates lead by a man named Coker. Inside the gates
are military soldiers and other official looking people. Coker is not
blind and he is trying to convince the guards that the blind people
need to be looked after. They need to be allowed to join the group.
The commanding officer on the scene does tell Coker that he would be
allowed in as he can see but not the blind people. After Coker tries
to break his way in past the gates, the soldiers begin to fire in the
air to scare off the blind people. Soon after that, Bill and Jo are
allowed into the University.
Inside they meet the
man who is in charge. His name is Beadley. The first thing Bill and
Jo do is go out with a truck and get a ton of supplies. The idea
would be that they would go with whatever group Beadley was leading.
When Bill and Jo return from getting supplies, Beadley comments about
the anti-Triffid weapons he sees Bill went out of his way to get. He
doesn’t think the Triffids are a threat. In fact, he may have a
valid point. There had been no sightings of Triffids in this episode
apart from one scene where an older blind man named Tom is roped to
his wife as he tries to make his way out to his garden to get some
food during the night. A Triffid attacks and kills him. Another
victim of the Triffid but the scene is a little out of place as these
characters have nothing to do with the action with the main
characters.
That night, Beadley
lays out the plan for those who want to go with his community.
Basically, they need to leave London. As Bill said earlier in the
episode, all sorts of disease will circulate through London due to
the sewers and corpses all over the place. London will very soon be
uninhabitable. Beadley had formed a group with Major Anderson and Dr.
Vorless. They have it all figured out up to the point of how to
repopulate the Earth. This includes men taking on many wives. They
seem to have it all figured out considering it is really only day two
of the disaster. I have not read the book but it seems to me that
Beadley was probably friends to Major Anderson in the military and
they were able to get something set up pretty quick. The idea of a
group of civilians deciding on what is good for every one by forming
their own government fascinates me. It is a concept that is seen in a
lot of places not to mention Doomwatch and Survivors.
As society breaks down, there are always people who pop up out of
nowhere who always wanted to be a “leader” and take their chance
while everyone else is recovering from the shock. Whether what they
do is right is hard to know for sure. In Survivors, the
militia that was set up was a crooked group of bullies. They didn’t
want a government that would help people, they wanted to rule. They
wanted the power. At least the leadership of Beadley/Anderson/Vorless
was upfront with the rules. If people didn’t like it, they didn’t
need to join. Basically, Jo and Bill were OK with the rules as long
as Jo got to pick Bill’s other wives. There was love forming
between the two of them.
During that night, a
fire broke out in the University of London and Bill runs down the
stairs to help but trips on the stairs. Next thing he knows when he
wakes up is that he is bound and gagged.
Part Four TX:
01/10/81
Part Four is
perhaps one of the harshest and most chilling episodes of the series.
It left me angry at, and sad for, the people who were blinded. It
showed me a character that I would dislike for what he was doing yet
what he was trying to do was helping the blind people. Remember back
in Part Two, the man named John was angling that Bill should
stay with him, his wife and daughter. They needed someone to help and
protect them. This is exactly what was going to happen but on a
grander and more horrific scale.
There was no fire at
the University of London. The fire was basically just smoke that
filtered through the halls and when people went down the stairs, such
as Bill, they would fall over a tripwire. This was all Coker’s
idea. Bill’s new life is basically being handcuffed either to a
bar or two blind people (one on each arm) all the time. Bill is
responsible for the well-being of 10 to 15 blind people to find food
and supplies. Their job is to go out daily and find what they need.
They end up taking over a hotel where all of them stay. Bill is given
an area to work in. Just about at all times he is handcuffed on one
side by a nicer guy named Alf but on the other side a bully named
Ted. The major downside to this is Bill is now separated from Jo.
The life Bill has seems
horrible. He has very little freedom. He tries to protect the blind
people that have been thrusted into his care. He can’t really do
any of the work himself but spends a great deal of time giving
detailed orders to the blind people doing the work. This includes
directions on how they should walk and carry supplies at the same
time to just put a box into a van. One day as he is leading a group
on the streets, a man who can see watches them walk by. He grabs his
pistol and starts firing at them. A couple of them die instantly
including Alf. Bill tries to get the key from Ted to release them
both from Alf’s body. As he does so, Bill wants to be released from
Ted too which Ted refuses. This gunman is on the lose shooting blind
people point blank so Bill attacks Ted, knocks him out and releases
himself. It is a very tense moment of the series as it seems unfair
to attack a blind man like that yet Ted was a cruel bully and was
horrible to Bill most of the time. Bill had enough and for him to
survive, he had to be released from Ted.
With Bill escaping and
being free, it shows what kind of man he is as he still stays with
the blind group. He is now free to help them get their supplies
although they are almost killed by Triffids once. Triffids aren’t
the small community’s biggest worry. The worry is that many of the
people of the group is getting sick and dying. One night Bill is
packing his stuff and a young teenage blind girl who is part of the
group comes to his room. She tells him that the rest of the group is
sensing that he is going to leave them. He admits he was thinking
about it mainly since everyone is dying. She begs Bill not to leave
and she even offers herself to him sexually if he would stay. It was
not her idea but the group forced her to do this. Bill is repulsed by
this but tells her that he is going nowhere and he will stay. He
promises her that. The next morning all the people are gone except
the girl. The girl contracted the illness. She is dying and Bill
gives her sleeping pills to basically euthanize her. This episode is
excellent but this is where I saw a big problem. Why would the blind
people leave in the middle of the night if Bill was going to stay or
leave? How could Bill sleep through a group of blind people leaving
the house with all of their stuff in the middle of the night? He must
have been a sound sleeper! Why would blind people leave the comfort
of the house; how could they find another one? Although these scenes
are dramatically excellent, it’s puzzling to me.
Bill is out trying to
find Jo. He is looking at the area he was told she was controlling.
She is not there. Bill goes back to the University of London where
someone is waiting for him….
The Triffids themselves
are very fascinating. When we get to the start of this program, the
Triffids are an accepted form of plant-life on Earth. As discussed in
the last article, if it wasn’t a necessary ingredient in the oil
industry, they would have been wiped out by humans because of the way
the Triffids likes to sting people on the face which usually kills
them instantly. In the 1963 film, the Triffids are portrayed as
aliens from space who were transported to Earth via comets. This was
for the film whereas the original book stated in Chapter 2 (from Bill
Masen):
"In the books there is quite a lot of loose speculation on the sudden occurrence of the triffids. Most of it is nonsense. Certainly they were not spontaneously generated, as many simple souls believed. Nor did most people endorse the theory that they were a kind of sample visitation-harbingers of worse to come if the world did not mend its ways and behave its troublesome self. Nor did their seeds float to us through space as specimens of the horrid forms life might assume upon other, less favoured worlds-at least I am satisfied that they did not."
The film version
physically differs from the book description. In the film, they had
tentacles that would draw their victims closer to them. They would
sting victims from a projectile vs. a coiled tendril. The Triffids
also dissolve in sea water. This was only in the film version. I have
not seen the film version but at least in the more true sense of the
story, it would have been interesting if the Triffids were from space
because it might have been a reason why the comet showed up blinding
most of the civilization giving the Triffids free-range. Perhaps the
Triffids made it happen. The problem with that theory is that
although the Triffid has some intelligence, it isn’t great
intelligence. The Triffid, like any other weed, wants to survive. Its
instinct is to survive. It doesn’t kill because it is homicidal, it
wants to live and feed.
The 1981 BBC version
(from the story we are currently watching) is much closer to the
original idea Wyndham had for his story. It looks almost like a
flower. It is my favourite version of the Triffid. They were designed
by Steve Drewett. From the Wikipedia entry for Triffids: “The
Triffids were operated by a man crouched inside, cooled by a fan
installed in its neck; the 'clackers' were radio controlled. The
gnarled bole, based on the ginseng root, was made of latex with a
covering of sawdust and string while the neck was fibreglass and
continued down to the floor, where it joined with the operator's
seat. The plants were surmounted by a flexible rubber head, coated
with clear gunge.” It is also intimated that Director Ken Hannam
may not have been a big fan of the design because he did a lot of
close up shots of the various parts of the Triffids more often than
full on shots. Often the shots were close ups of the “head” of
the plant or the bottom rattling stumps. Also, so far I can think of
very few shots where the Triffid appears in studio. Most of the time
we see them on the exteriors shot on film. I think the fact that they
are scenes few and far between makes them creepier.
As for
the 2009 BBC version, the Triffids looks “differs from the
descriptions given in the original novel; rather than walking on
three blunt stumps, the triffids drag themselves with prehensile
roots which are also used to constrict prey. Their stalk is
surrounded by large agave-like
leaves, and they secrete their oil (green rather than pale pink) from
their surfaces. Their stingers, which in previous film adaptations
could not penetrate glass, are powerful enough to shatter windows,
true to the original triffids of the novel. Instead of a cup they
have a pink flower-like head, resembling a cross between a lily and a
sweet pea, that enlarges before releasing the sting.”
There
is real plant-life that is called Triffids. In the Durban area of
South Africa, the Chromolaena
odorata is also known as the
Triffid. This Triffid does not move nor does it kill, it is actually
used for medicine.
Some information used
in this article comes from Paul Thompson who is a massive fan of all
things Triffid and his website can be found at:
http://triffids.wuthering-heights.co.uk/index.htm
Other information came from the DVD Viewing Notes booklet written by
Andrew Pixley from 2005.
Next time: The final two parts of The Day of the Triffids. Is there a happy ending? I also look at the DVD presentation itself. Is this a good release?
Greg Bakun is a seasoned connoisseur and
reviewer of British television. You can read more of his articles and
reviews on his site From the Archive: A British Television Blog or listen to him drink wine on the Doctor Who podcast The Others. Oh, you can follow him on Twitter too.
