The Tripods
The Tripods adapts John Christopher's novel series. BBC and Seven Network in Australia co-produced it. Ken Freeman composed the music. The first series of The Tripods, broadcast in 1984, covers The White Mountains; the second series covers The City of Gold and Lead. Third series screenplay was written but never produced. First season on VHS and DVD. In March 2009, the BBC published Tripods - Series 1&2 on DVD. The series introduced some minor changes from the book, including the shape of the Masters and Tripods, which have tentacles in the book; the introduction of "cognoscs," spiritual life-forms vastly superior to the Masters; and more main characters, including love interests for Will and Beanpole. Original texts feature few women. John Christopher said that at the time he wrote the series, girls read books with boy main characters but not vice versa. He also thought adding a family of females was "over the top." The series included non-humanoid aliens, which was rare at the time.