The Changes (1975) User Reviews

Unusual, if a bit uneven, 70's sci-fi series

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 29 August 2017]

I can't honestly say I remember or had even heard of this 70's children's television series. So going into it I really didn't know what to expect. It seems to have sustained a good reputation from British kids who remember seeing it back in the day and I guess I can understand why, as it is a distinctive bit of television. Despite being aimed at children, it does have some slightly dark and serious themes running through it which suggests to me that maybe 70's children were treated with less kid gloves than they are nowadays. The story revolves around a mysterious event which creates a psychosis in the British population which manifests itself in an intense hatred of machinery. The cities are emptied as people flee to the country or overseas. A teenage girl gets separated from her parents in the chaos and is forced to go it alone.

Having watched this ten parter, my feelings are overall a bit mixed if I am totally honest. While on the one hand, I do have to give the programme credit for introducing a somewhat unusual and ambiguous story to children with interesting themes such as racism, misogyny and ecological concerns, on the other hand it was a bit clunky in actual execution quite a lot of the time. The original set-up was somewhat hurried, with the girl being separated from her parents in a poorly thought out manner with the father figure deciding it would be easier to go to France and then travel back to find his daughter who was clearly still in the general vicinity! While at the other extremity, the ending involving Merlin's stone was, to put it mildly, a bit underwhelming, with the totally unnecessary daftness of an aeroplane being heard in the sky overheard no more than five minute after the stone decides to reverse its malevolent force because the heroine asked it to be more reasonable. In between it still has leaden sections too, with some under par acting not helping massively. But it is a TV production aimed at kids so you do need to cut it some slack and it was pretty progressive to have a group of Sikh characters enter the narrative in a major way, as even today ethnic groups aren't always very well represented on television. I also really enjoyed the witch-hunter story thread which I thought was handled well, with some good suspense levels. And overall, the sheer enigmatic quality to much of it was a welcome thing, even if the mystery was, as I said earlier, not exactly resolved terribly well. Overall, this is still a definite interesting curiosity and something worth seeking out for those with an interest in TV science fiction in particular.

The Changes - 1973

[geezer-mw · 8/10 · 22 December 2014]

I clearly remember this programme, as though it were yesterday; I was thirteen at the time of first broadcast. Despite the fact that the programme was the usual dystopic(god, why does this website not understand the word dystopic - IT IS A VALID WORD!!!) Sci- Fi of the time, and seemed to be highly derivative of a film from the previous year, called No Blade of Grass, right down to the presence of Asian characters (generalised Asian characters in No Blade of Grass, Seikhs in The Changes) and a catastrophe situation (dying plants in No Blade of Grass, hatred of technology in The Changes), I liked the programme, largely because at thirteen, I fancied about half the women on TV (don't we all at that age?) and Vicky Williams was one of them, along with Gillian Blake (Follyfoot), Hilary Dwyer (Hadleigh), and Helga Anders ( The White Horses) which brings me to the main point of writing this. Does any body, apart from me, remember that The Changes was first show in 1973, when I was thirteen and all these other programmes were on the TV? The programme ran, at the very least, in th BBC Midland region; I remember discussing the programme with school friends, and since I changed schools at the end of 1973, and therefore subsequently had new friends, I CLEARLY remember the event of the time, and know that I am right in this. Final Point. If I find it this difficult to put a review on IMDb again, I will deal with the production company direct - IMDb are NOT the definitive authority; this is obvious from my review.

Very powerful and scary

[steve-1526 · 20 March 2005]

I remember this from the 70's. I only saw the middle episodes but still had vivid memories of it years later. UK Gold recently screened the whole series and I finally learned what had happened. They don't make children's drama like this anymore, pity. One other thing I noticed, when a threat was dealt with, it was over. These days unless you see the bad guy die you just know he will be back to plague the hero's due to a lack of imagination by the scriptwriters. This series however fell into three subplots which followed on from each other as we followed Nicky through the often Violen and very menacing Changes caused by the Stone.

They should re-make this

[glennwalsh44 · 10/10 · 10 July 2003]

I remember this from my childhood and like the first reviewer I was totally captivated. It dealt with some terrific ideas, but I always remember the opening credits where the girl's father smashed the TV with one of those ashtrays-on-a-stand. To me, a 10-year-old telly addict, that was horrifying! I read the book it was based on, 'The Weathermonger' and it was much better, with a developed story and a more plausible ending. WEE SPOILER... In the book, the supernatural force was revealed to be Merlin the wizard, no less. A re-make of this with a bigger budget (maybe even a feature) could be very successful today as we are even more techno-dependent than we were in 1975. Any producers reading this...

Series had a lasting impact!

[moragfraser · 9/10 · 2 July 2018]

I first watched this when I was 8 and I blame it for my tinfoil hat mentality today; I still won't have an electric cooker or kettle or a TV in the house! I bought the DVD and, if you are able to suspend disbelief in certain scenes, you will enjoy watching it again. Very much in the 'Survivors' mode, it would likely scare the pants off children today.

The Changes - brief synopsis.

[Karenjfarrow · 9/10 · 29 August 2006]

I remember watching this as a child during the 1970;s and it scared the livings daylights out of me!

It was very ahead of its time when it was made and was completely different to anything else around at that time. I can remember the lead actress walking down the street and everyone has gone crazy and they were bashing their cars, and then wandering around like nomads. can't remember the middle episodes much, just the lead character trying to find her parents I think. I vaguely remember her meeting up with other people. I remember the end episode where everything appears to go back to normal again, and the girl, Nicky I think her name was, emerging from some sort of cave or hiding place and there was a shot of a train running over head which indicated everything had returned to normal. It didn't really explain why everyone rebelled against all things electric etc and why it turned everyone crazy. It would be great if the series could be repeated again, and to see if it still held the power to scare children today. Its a pity that another series was not made at the time as I feel there was scope for another series, to see if the madness returned. What a great children's TV classic!

Could you live in a world without machines?

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 6 September 2008]

1975 was a vintage year for British sci-fi television drama; I.T.V. had ( and squandered ) the first season of Gerry Anderson's 'Space: 1999', while over on the B.B.C. Tom Baker was well into his first season as 'Dr.Who', Terry Nation gave us 'Survivors', and then there was 'The Changes'.

Based on a trilogy of books by Peter Dickinson, this ten part children's series tells how a mysterious force causes everyone in the British Isles to suddenly go berserk, and destroy all machinery. Everything from phones, cars, television sets, cookers, even clocks gets wrecked by angry mobs. As panic grows, people flee the cities and take to the countryside. Schoolgirl Nicky Gore ( Vicky Williams ) becomes accidentally cut off from her parents - they were planning on going to France - and throws in her lot with a travelling pack of Sikhs.

After overcoming a gang of racist youths, they settle in a small community run by Mr.Barnard ( David King ), who has taken advantage of the crisis by setting himself up as some sort of overlord. He wants to have nothing to do with the Sikhs, whom he brands 'the devil's children'. When they attempt to barter with him by setting up a blacksmiths and repairing broken tools, he callously breaks a newly-repaired fork and tells them to keep away.

But then a gang of robbers ride into the village and suddenly Bernard finds his authority threatened...

Shot on film in the West Country, 'The Changes' was a gripping, well-written and thought-provoking series, unusually adult in tone. The decision to use all three books as story material for the series was undoubtedly a contributory factor in its success. What a pity that the B.B.C. did not do the same when they made 'The Tripods' nearly a decade later.

Anna Home both produced and adapted it ( she made Nicky the main character throughout. In reality she only appears in the first book ). Vicky Williams, who plays Nicky, was seventeen at the time. She certainly does not look it! Her performance is both natural and effortlessly charming.

I was lucky enough to see 'The Changes' when it first went out. The opening episode carried a warning beforehand about the content 'being unsuitable for very young children'. And how right they were. In the space of a mere twenty-five minutes, the country is ripped apart by the forces of anarchy. We see mobs smashing cars, blowing up power stations, and generally turning against the modern world. When Nicky travels through the countryside, she is freaked out by the sight of electricity pylons. The explanation for the changes of course comes in the final episodes. A mystic 'stone' dating back to the time of Merlin has been reactivated by an archaeologist, and it immediately restored the world as it was in medieval times.

Special mention must go to Paddy Kingsland's distinctive music score.

'The Changes' was repeated on U.K. Gold on Sky in 1994, but has not been seen anywhere since. It is a pity because it has stood the test of time. A remake would certainly be worthwhile. With people more reliant on technology now than ever before, a world where machines are suddenly perceived to be 'wicked' throws up all kinds of dramatic possibilities.

And if nothing else, this series shatters the myth ( trotted out ad nauseaum on lazily researched retro programmes ) that British children's T.V. was boring before 'Grange Hill' came along!

I just watched this, and I quite enjoyed it

[tknmncr · 9/10 · 11 September 2006]

I was poking around on the internet, and found this for download, just billed as "1970s sci-fi, very good". I had never heard of it before, but much of what comes out of the BBC in that era was quite good, and this one did not disappoint. As with most British shows, it did not scream "I WAS MADE IN THE SEVENTIES!", like most American shows do. Certainly you can tell, but it was made well enough that it can stand the test of time.

As some have commented on the ending being Merlin, that was true. Nicky explained it as Merlin had found the force and had become one with it, so it was Merlin, and more; it was sort of a focal point for nature's "mind" (my language, not the show's).

I am now going to track down copies of the three Peter Dickinson novels that the series was taken from.

If you can find yourself a copy of this floating around the internet, it's well worth the download. Hopefully they will release it in a proper form some day.

I find it interesting, though, in the cast list here, that they do not list Nicky; the main character in the cast list. Even curiouser is that if you search for Vicky Williams, it is listed in her credits. A bug?

seriously scary

[simonferdinand · 5/10 · 20 October 2006]

I remember watching this series when I was 6 years old, and I found it absolutely terrifying. After the first episode, as soon as the title page appeared I begged my mum to change channel because I really thought the TV was going to explode, or everyone outside in the street was really going to freak out and smash up everything while it was showing. At that age I just couldn't take this sort of programme. I had nightmares about "the noise" and school lock-outs, power blackouts and people rioting in the streets for years after. Actually it was almost an omen for late 70's Britain in many ways.

I couldn't remember the name of the series, until one day just idly surfing the net I happened to search for: "disturbing BBC1 children's series 1970s" to see if a well-known search engine could help me find it, and here it was.

I don't know what made BBC programmers think this apocalyptic stuff was suitable viewing for kids: young teens maybe, after Top Of The Pops or something similar, but I was still at the Paddington Bear level.

But I must admit I'd quite like to see it again now that I'm 38!

Tea-time horror from the 70's

[andyfennessy · 27 January 2003]

CONTAINS SPOILERS (not that you'll ever get to see it!)

This was a children's TV series consisting of ten twenty-five minute episodes first broadcast in 1975 on BBC1, and repeated a year later. I have very vivid memories of it, because it scared me half-stupid (and considering I have grown up believing, for instance, The Exorcist to be a comedy, that's saying something!)

Young Nicky Gore wakes up one morning to discover that everybody - her parents included - has gone mad. They are out on the streets smashing up cars, destroying televisions - any mechanical / electrical device you could care to mention, in fact. Deserted by her parents (who decide to flee to France) she is befriended by a group of Sikhs who, like her, appear to be immune from the cause of the madness - the "Noise", disturbing waves of sound which emanate from electricity pylons (or so I remember).

Various adventures in rural England ensue before Nicky - accompanied by various companions along the way (and at one point tried as a witch) - finds the source of the noise in a recently excavated cave system... This is the last episode and things get SERIOUSLY weird! She finds a large glowing red monolith which is crying out in a strange faraway voice "Muni targit! Muni targit!" (Latin for "I stop the World" I believe).

Apparently, it is a very confused supernatural force which has been reawakened by the excavation work, and sensed (I'm guessing here - it is twenty-seven years since I saw it and I was eight at the time!) that the natural order of the planet has been perverted (and indeed, polluted) by the inventions of man since the Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, and is attempting to revert the world to a time when people were more at one with their environment.

The denouement is something of a cop-out. Nicky prostrates herself before the ancient force, pleading with it to reverse the harm it has caused. And, um, it does so.

The world is free again to poison the land and seas, for superpowers to threaten each other with nuclear weapons, for s/he-who-dies-with-the-most-toys-wins mentalities... Civilisation, it may be concluded, is amoral, but once innocence is lost, it can never be regained. Will wisdom grow in parallel with progress, or are we merely rushing headlong into self-destruction? Thoughts to chew on, certainly.

Note: Much of the location work was shot in Bristol and the West Country.

People against technology? sounds intriguing, and this programme uses the theme as a storyline. One girl's quest to discover the cause.

[alan-tuson · 9/10 · 6 June 2006]

Almost 30 years ago, I watched the series but missed the last episode. I finally got around to watching the series again (from scratch) and wasn't disappointed. If you look through the basic "cheeseyness", and accept the fact that the programme was recorded all those years ago, you can be quickly drawn into the storyline. Basically as madness descends,people are rebelling against technology and destroy TV's cars toasters kettles etc. Schoolgirl Nicky Gore and her family leave home for safer shores but they are separated, and Nicky finds herself on a quest which will ultimately lead her to the source of the problems. If you are an eco-warrior you will find the message behind this series interesting, but you only get this message towards the end. Well worth the wait, I can recommend this, especially to anyone that is looking for something slightly different from the norm.

memory link

[hodges331 · 11 July 2006]

Hello, i was only 8 years old when i watched the changes, it invokes powerful memories as images of series remind me of Berkeley power station where my father worked most of his life. More recently i have been playing computer game called half life 2, and only just realised some of the in game environments have a similar feel and atmosphere to images that i remember from the changes episodes.

No wonder i like the game so much, desolate landscapes filled with electricity pylons making that buzzing noise. I hope the series will be released, it will be amazing to watch it again after all these years.

I would be very grateful for any feedback related to the comments i have posted.

Freaked me, too

[petertuziak · 12 March 2004]

I saw this show in the late 70s on the ABC, I was only about 8 or 9 at the time. I remember vividly the scene where everyone goes wild and smashed up everything (notably cars), the comparative kindness of the Indian family compared with the stupid rednecks who seemed to dot the countryside and the big rock at the end. The Changes was very much a product of the environmental push that took place in the 70s. I would be curious to see how the show would be presented today. This show was one of many fine British television dramas for children from the 70s.

Memorable Children's Drama That Has The Power To Disappont 30 Years Later

[Theo Robertson · 26 September 2010]

THE CHANGES is one of these shows you watch as a child and you can remember elements all the way in to adulthood . I saw the first episode in January 1976 knowing nothing about and was disturbed as the characters quickly set about destroying any appliance that could vaguely be described as a machine . It quickly had me tuning in to every episode for ten weeks and the only show that had an effect on me at the time was DOCTOR WHO . I In short it's a show you don't forget in a hurry and one that in a world of videotape and VHS video you want to track down . Unfortunately once you do see it 30 years after its broadcast you might be rather disappointed

The first episode " The Noise " was just as I remember and is somewhat chilling as buildings collapse and psychotic crowds take to the streets to destroy machinery . The effect is somewhat diluted somewhat when you realise much of the footage is taken from the 1967 Hammer version of QUATERMASS AND THE PIT . Simiraly the impact is lessened when the psychotic crowds seem to be very liberal in working out what qualifies as " modern man made machinery " . You can understand someone smashing up televisions but is a bike getting beaten to death by a lynch mob is possibly a bit silly but writer Anna Home and director John Prowse rightly just concentrate on informing the audience a terrible event is occurring without going in to detail

Unfortunately both the writer and director throw a massive spanner in the works where Mrs Gore states that they" Must escape to France where I've heard things are still normal " Since the televisions and radios have been destroyed in a mass cull , and telephones too probably how would she know this ? The audience are also left scratching their heads a few minutes later when the Gores embark on their journey to France only to have the noise happen again leading to more machine mashing . Mr and Mrs Gore notice that Nicky has disappeared only to have Mr Gore state that he'll take his wife to France then he'll come back to England to find his daughter ! Nicky can't be more than a few hundred yards away but her parents will go to France then Mr Gore will go back to find her . T. I know this is a plot turn to set up Nicky being separated from her parents but when you're making a plot turn it's imperative to structure it so that it doesn't seem illogical . In fact throughout the whole episode the time frame and story structure hold together rather badly , so much so you'll swear that this fondly remembered piece of television from childhood has been heavily edited such is the disjointed nature

That said the story does pick up somewhat in the second episode though be it the story does seem somewhat slow in places . Nicky is given sanctuary in the second episode by a group of Sikhs . Halfway through the series Nicky and the Sikhs part ways as the protagonist goes and searches for her Aunt in the countryside and it as Nicky is accused of being a witch by a contemporary Matthew Hopkins who insists that Nicky be stoned to death . This is a very effective subplot and shows that you don't have to be graphic in order to chill an audience . Both the writing and performances tell the story without the need of cruelty .If you think it's somewhat lame in 2010 please remember it's a children's show from the mid 1970s

Despite the effectiveness of this segment where THE CHANGES falls down is in the denouncement which is every bit as clumsy and confusing as the opening episode . Nicky and Jonathon ( Who saved her from the Witch Finder ) go in to a cave and meet the cause of the noise that brought about the changes - a megalith . Apparently Mr Megalith has been annoyed at humanity so has tried to destroy civilization in Britain . He's able to read Nicky's mind and seeing what she has seen he decides he's been unjust so effectively destroys himself as Nicky and Jonathon make good their escape . It's confusing too since the two protagonists hear an airliner passing over head as they exit the cave . If a plane is flying over the sky does this mean that the changes never happened in the first place ? If not it's contradicted by Nicky mentioning her parents are still in France

In all honesty watching THE CHANGES again with an interval of over 30 years I was slightly disappointed . The main narrative is involving enough though the story is let down by both the opening and concluding episode . Someone like Russell T Davies can get away with writing a poor DOCTOR WHO episode by concentrating on an opening hook and emotional ending where as Anna Home's 10 episode saga seems to be the antithesis of this type of writing . That said if it compelled you to tune in every week as a child then that can only be viewed as a success and if you can remember it more than 30 years later then that's an even bigger success . It's also a children's show that would never be produced nowadays . Instead we'd get " soap opera lite " for teenagers so perhaps we should praise THE CHANGES flaws and all

A spooky drama

[michael-stead · 9 January 2006]

I remember seeing this as a child, and I believe it may even have been repeated soon afterwards. It was quite hard-hitting bleak stuff for the children's slot, and very welcome because of that. David Garfield as a hard-bitten leader in the post-industrial dystopia gave a memorable performance. In fact in the years since it was last shown (an before IMDb or other internet sites made it easy to dig up these old shows) the only thing I had to convince myself that the show really existed (in the face of blank stares from my contemporaries) was David's performance. The title of the show was certainly unmemorable.

I imagine that at the time this was seen as a junior version of Terry Nation's 'Survivors', and was in the same mould as 'Ace of Wands', as a slightly unsettling half an hour of entertainment. This was in an age when every schoolchild grew up believing that at any minute the Russians and Americans would set off nuclear Armageddon, and so in some ways it was also rather like one of the Public Information Films of the time. I think that in these days of shouty Blue Peter presenters and the thunderingly moronic "Dic 'n Dom" it would be utterly out of place on CBBC.

As we 'know' everyone was bewilderingly racist in the 1970s . . . except that millions of children were introduced to Sikhism through 'The Changes'. The only people unaffected by the destruction of society were the rather noble band of Sikhs.

I suppose what was rather alarming about 'The Changes' would have been the juxtaposition with 'The Wombles'. In the latter a broken television set was the prompt for Tobermory to turn it into a new camera or automatic hot water bottle for Great Uncle Bulgaria. In the former it would be left discarded at the side of a wind-swept wasteland as the rest of society crumbled around it.

The end of the series was rather haunting, as the children who were the heroes found their way to a cave deep under a mountain in wales, where a huge pulsing white rocky crystal was sending out the waves of hate which had perverted the world.

So far BBC worldwide seem not to have considered this for release as a DVD. Perhaps the special effects would seem a bit dated today, but I am sure that as a piece of quality drama it would have lasted quite well.