I bought a DVD today. Ostensibly, it was “for the kids”. Well, it was two series — about twelve hours worth — of a series I think Youd remember.

That, by the way, was a clue.

The books were written by Samuel Youd between and were published between 1967 and 1968 as a trilogy, although a fourth prequel was published in 1988. It’s a sci-fi thing with aliens, it’s a post-apocalyptic kind of a thing, and the first series was aired in TV on 1984, based on the first of the books.

The final part of the trilogy was never filmed, but it was still very much worth watching even for the two series produced. You might know Samuel Youd better under his pen-name of John Christopher and the series better with the title
The Tripods.

Ah yes, the tripods. I had never encountered John Christopher prior to seeing the first series of the tripods on TV. However, long before I had finished watching the end of the first series in 1984, I had finished reading the trilogy. It was one of those things where the TV series sucked me into the book, which sucked me into the TV series even more.

Obviously, it’s 25 years old now, so I’m expecting it to look maybe a little dated, but I used to really enjoy watching the show, and I think my kids will too (even if they find the Tripods themselves a little scary!)

I was a little surprised that I’d not been aware that this DVD before since I’d been such a fan of the original series (and the books: it’s one of the “childrens” (young adult?) section books that remains on my bookshelf and is unlikely ever to be removed), but it appears that the DVD was only released in March, so I’ve not missed it for too long…

The tripods: you’ll not find anything to cap that.