The Day After Tomorrow (TV special)
The Day After Tomorrow (also known as Into Infinity in the United Kingdom) is a 1975 British science-fiction television drama produced by Gerry Anderson between the two series of Space: 1999. Written by Johnny Byrne and directed by Charles Crichton, it stars Brian Blessed, Joanna Dunham and Nick Tate, and is narrated by Ed Bishop. It first aired in the United States on NBC, as an episode of the children's science education series Special Treat, in December 1975. In the UK, BBC1 broadcast the programme as an independent special in December 1976, and again in December 1977. The plot of The Day After Tomorrow relates to the interstellar mission of Altares, a science vessel of the future that can travel at the speed of light. Departing from its original destination, Alpha Centauri, Altares moves deeper into space and her crew of three adults and two children encounter phenomena such as a meteor shower, a red giant star and, finally, a black hole, which pulls the ship into another universe.
Originally commissioned to produce a child-friendly introduction to Albert Einstein's special relativity theory in the form of an action-adventure, Anderson and Byrne conceived The Day After Tomorrow as the pilot episode of a TV series.This sounds like it was somewhat the British version of Lost in Space. To this end, writer and producer proposed the alternative title "Into Infinity", although their limited budget precluded the production of further episodes. With a cast and crew that included veterans of earlier Anderson productions, filming on The Day After Tomorrow ran from July to September 1975 and consisted of ten days of principal photography and six weeks of special effects shooting. The visuals of Space: 1999 influenced both special effects technician Martin Bower, the designer of the scale models that appear in the programme, and production designer Reg Hill, who re-used set elements from various episodes of Space: 1999 to construct the Altares interiors. Newcomer Derek Wadsworth collaborated with Steve Coe to compose the theme and incidental music.
Reception to The Day After Tomorrow remains mixed. Although the model effects and music have been praised, critics have offered both favourable and unfavourable comparisons of the programme's "psychedelic" images to the visual style used by film director Stanley Kubrick. While Byrne's script writing has been described as "lyrical", and it has been suggested that The Day After Tomorrow includes allusions to the 1960s TV series Lost in Space, the plot has been criticized for a lack of suspense, generally attributed to the fact that The Day After Tomorrow is primarily a children's science education programme. Further criticism has been directed at the acting, with Martin Lev's performance in particular being poorly received. Home video releases of The Day After Tomorrow are limited to one VHS and one DVD, both of which are available only to members of the official Gerry Anderson fan club, Fanderson. Author Douglas R. Mason's novelization of The Day After Tomorrow remains unpublished.
On a future Earth, pollution and environmental damage, combined with the depletion of the planet's natural resources, has resulted in an increased probability of human extinction.[1] Ed Bishop describes Space Station Delta as the "jump-off point for humanity's first momentous journey to the stars", and states that the photonic-powered Altares is Earth's first spaceship capable of reaching speed of light: "This could create the effects predicted by Einstein's Theory of Relativity, effects that could shrink the very fabric of space, distort time, and perhaps alter the structure of the universe as we understand it."
Altares prepares to depart from Space Station Delta on a mission of scientific discovery beyond the Solar System. Arriving in a United Nations shuttle, Doctors Tom (Brian Blessed) and Anna Bowen (Joanna Dunham) board the vessel with their son, David (Martin Lev). Jane Masters (Katharine Levy) relinquishes the care of her dog, Spring, to Commander Jim Forbes (Don Fellows). Her father, Captain Harry Masters (Nick Tate), initiates Altares's "Photon Drive" and the ship commences its 4.3-light-year[2] journey to the star Alpha Centauri, the first scheduled stop of the mission. As Altares nears the edge of the Solar System, Jane and David observe how Pluto appears to change colour from blue to red due to the shortening and lengthening of light waves caused by the Doppler Effect. Arriving at Alpha Centauri, the crew launch a series of satellites to transmit their scientific data to Earth. Their primary assignment complete, both the Masters and Bowen families agree to push deeper into space.
When Altares encounters a star cluster, Anna relates to Jane the accomplishments of physicist Albert Einstein in the areas of special relativity theory and unified field theory. However, the ship is subsequently bombarded by a meteor shower that results in multiple malfunctions and causes the Photon Drive to re-activate, hurling Altares through space at such velocity that the travellers are rendered unconscious. Some time later, a fail safe forces the Drive to a halt, but the ship is left without power in the gravity of an old red giant star that is on the point of supernova. Donning a heat suit, Captain Masters subjects himself to the extreme temperatures inside the reactor core in a bid to repair the Photon Drive. Avoiding fatal injuries, he finally succeeds, and Anna and Jane pilot Altares past the blast radius of the star before it explodes.
Detecting a signal from Space Station Delta, which has reached Altares more than a decade after emission due to the effects of time dilation, the travellers determine their location and Tom plots a return course to Earth. However, disaster strikes when the ship stumbles into the powerful gravitational field of a black hole that has formed from the remains of a collapsed star, unable to reach the faster-than-light speeds required to break free. Calculating the object's rotation, Anna suggests that the black hole could be the portal to another universe. Beyond the event horizon, the crew are traumatized by space-time distortions and Altares arrives in a parallel universe, from which escape is impossible. The Narrator concludes, "One thing is sure—this is not the final word. Not the end, but the beginning. A new universe, a new hope. Only time will tell."
| Original airing | United States: 9 December 1975 United Kingdom: 11 December 1976 |
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