There is a lot of pre-judging that goes on in the geek "community" towards shows on the CW Network. True, there's a lot of crap on the network, but it is television and there's a lot of crap everywhere. However, the existence of crap doesn't mean that everything is crap. I've never quite understood the feelings of vocal segments of the geek "community" towards the network, particularly when most of them claim to not even watch the programming. That is something that I really don't understand. I suspect that a lot of these feelings come from CW's programming targeting a younger demographic, other than these "communities."
Regardless of the sour grapes, I have been excited because a favorite show from my childhood is getting a revamp from the network: The Tomorrow People. I have been excited about this show since I heard about it during the summer. I hoped that it would honor the original program, while at the same time making it into something contemporary and relevant to audiences today. Like I said on someone's Facebook feed last night, who really wants to see a show about pacifistic space hippies nowadays? The original UK version of The Tomorrow People was a wonderful show that inspired my childhood (and a long time love of psionics in role-playing games as well), however I don't want my nostalgia for the past to get in the way of something new and wonderful in its own way. Nostalgia can be as much of a curse with fandoms, causing people to be conservative and want the exact same thing out of new revamps that they got out of the originals. I'm not the same kid who watched reruns of the show on Nickelodeon back in the early 80s, and I don't want the exact same show. I want an homage, yes, but I want something new and spectacular as well.
Guess what? I got that last night as I watched the pilot of the new version of The Tomorrow People. I loved the show. This is the best revamp of an SF show since Christopher Eccleston pulled on a leather jacket to become the Ninth Doctor.
We still have the basics of the original show: a conflict between Homo Superior and Homo Sapiens, the Tomorrow People being unable to kill, and a talking computer named Tim. To be honest, I didn't even expect all of these things out of the episode. I certainly didn't expect that Tim would be in the new show. That bit made me particularly happy.
Yes, the violence is a bit more than in the original series. While unable to kill, the Tomorrow People can still get into fights and beat the crap out of other people. To be honest, the fact that they can do that is a bit less dickish of a plot element than the "kids" keeping around some "saps" to do a bit of the old ultraviolence on their behalf.
I really want to talk about Mark Pellegrino's and speculate about what I hope that the character will be, but that is too much of a spoiler...so I will wait. I will likely talk about that character and my hopes on our next Geeky Voices Carry podcast regardless. By then I'll also have a few episodes of the show under my belt to discuss, so if you want to hear more of my opinions in a more spoiler-laden environment, you'll have to wait until then.
Overall, I liked the show. The pilot turned out to be much better than I expected it to be, and I will keep watching. The CW has delivered a show that is an homage to the original, while creating its own thing at the same time. It is new and fresh, with new spins on the ideas, while still be reverent to the source. I recommend watching this show, and I really think that the people who won't watch CW just because it is CW need to get over themselves because they are missing a great new show.