Chocky

[stuartdg]

Just discovering this on dvd for the first time and its a rather endearing tale;surprisingly well acted,cleverly written(as expected by Wyndham),with a fine mixture of location/studio work,minimal effects that havent aged too badly and a couple of sequels to follow-not bad at all for 8quid.

Anyone else seen it-thoughts,opinions?

[Paul Clement]

I wacthed it with a friend a few months back. It was quite enjoyable, but it lacked a lot of the details that made the book excellent. As it was made into a childrens tv programme, it didn't have the unnerving aspects the novel had.

[Pamela]

I have to say, I love this programme. I don't know wether it's pure nostalgia or not, but I just really enjoy it. A bit of Chocky and Children of the Stones and I'm in heaven.

[Wayne]

I really like 'Children of the Stones', but when i watched 'Chocky' for the first time in March of last year, i was a bit underwhelmed.
I've pasted my thoughts from my old EZboard thread:

"It was actually quite well done. Good acting, & some nices scenes here & there. But i dunno....... Maybe because it doesn't have the nostalgia factor, it just didn't really do it for me overall. The last episode was good, where Chocky talk's to Matthew's Dad, but i found much of the preceding 5 episodes a bit dull & draggy, even though as i say, it was very well done, performance wise.
I suppose i was expecting something more eerie & atmospheric, & as good as 'Children of the Stones', but to be honest, it's not a patch on it, & i'm not really inspired to watch the two follow ups: 'Chocky's Children' & 'Chocky's Challenge', so i'm afraid it's eBay for this box set."

[stuartdg]

After the sequels,Children Of The Stones is next up

[stuartdg]

Chocky's Children
The second tale is a mixed bag;it suffers largely from the absence of Matthew's parents-the other adults being somewhat second rate.Similairly the inclusion of Albertine is a nice idea let down by wretched acting.

Jeremy Bulloch's character feels tagged on just to give the story an end and Luke(the spy/gardener) just vanishes.

On the plus side Matthew is great,the ideas behind the script are good even if it does borrow from The Tomorrow People(kids with special powers) thanks to Chocky and again boasts great location work and atmosphere.

One more to go...

[Andy Frankham]

Well, Stu, it's not like 'The Tomorrow People' was a wholly original concept. Kids with special powers is, by no means, something can be claimed to be borrowed from 'The Tomorrow Peopple'. It a staple ingredient in scifi from way way back.

[stuartdg]

And when was the Tomorrow People considered sci-fi?

I was referring specifically to Albertine/Matthew's ability to open locks as did Mike Bell from the Tomorrow People

[Andy Frankham]

Fair enough, but do you honestly think that The Tomorrow People was the first scifi show/book, etc, to do such a thing? Come now...

[stuartdg]

I don't recall ever stating that The Tomorrow People was

[Andy Frankham]

No, but you did accuse Chocky's Children stealing stuff from TP, as if TP itself never 'stole' any ideas.

Mind you, this is pretty indicative of the current times of critical opinion (especially online). I noticed it, in particular, with the constant *****ing about Torchwood stealing this idea and that idea, and so on. Like it's a new thing. Just because one show uses an idea that's been seen before, doesn't mean it's stealing. If that were the case, then every single Earth invasion story is a big steal from 'War of the Worlds'... D'ya see?

[stuartdg]

Regardless of whether The Tomorrow People stole ideas this is a thread about Chocky and its sequels not The Tomorrow People,Torchwood or any other show-I might as well have stated Chocky was influenced by Emmerdale Farm because there's cows in the opening tales first episode

Anyway I've nearly finished Chocky's Challenge and shall post my thoughts later

[stuartdg]

Chocky's Challenge

The final tale of the Chocky Trilogy gets off to a promising start with the apparant discovery of Chocky's homeworld;however things snowball as Chocky teaches Albertine to build new technology for storing "cosmic" energy and brings yet more of her children to the fore.

Now the initial premise is good,but the addition of new children is a mistake as the acting particularly of the characters of Paul and Mike is at best variable and at worst abominable.It doesn't help that Albertine is the main focus of the story and not Matthew who is merely a bit part player.

On the plus side the threat posed by the adults is the most convincing of the three serials,again the location work is excellent,and the final episode is a strong entry giving the trilogy the closure it deserves.

So nice ideas let down by the dodgy child actors;and as a side note Chocky has one of the most suitably haunting theme tunes ive heard