The three-legged rulers
The three-legged rulers (English original title: The Tripods ) is the television adaptation of the science fiction book series The Three-Legged Monsters , which was written by John Christopher , pseudonym of the British author Christopher Samuel Youd , in the late 1960s. In 1984 and 1985 it was made into a film by directors Graham Theakston and Christopher Barry for the British broadcaster BBC based on scripts by Alick Rowe .
action
The story of the three-legged rulers takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in the year 2089, in which most of the people are wiped out and the largest cities are now devastated ruins. The people living on a pre-industrial level are ruled by an extraterrestrial civilization that they only refer to as the three-legged , of which mostly only the gigantic, three-legged machines can be seen with which they control the entire planet. These machines are strikingly reminiscent of those already described by HG Wells in his story War of the Worlds . The few surviving people who live on earth receive a metallic cap implanted in the scalp of those rulers at the age of 14 , which takes away all inspiration, creativity and thus also the possibility of revolution and violence.
Both in the novels (first book, second chapter) and in the BBC series (second season, first episode), in addition to the view that the tripods are extraterrestrial invaders, the theory that the tripods could emerge from a man-made developed artificial intelligence. At some point this intelligence was dissatisfied with the "illogical behavior and violence of its human creators" and therefore took control of people. It was only in the second season of the BBC series and in the second book that the encounter with the three-legged rulers revealed that this theory was wrong. The later submitted fourth volume When the Tripods Came then also explicitly describes the landing of the aliens.
The story is about the English boy Will Parker and his cousin Henry, who want to evade the three-legged consecration through the cap and secretly pack their things one morning and leave their home village. Their goal is the white mountains in the south (meaning the Alps ), which are difficult to control for the three-legged friends due to the geographical conditions. Rumor has it that “free people” still live there. As soon as they crossed the English Channel, they met the young French Beanpole (actually Jean-Paul), who was also not yet consecrated. As a little inventor and curious explorer, the young Frenchman doesn't want to know anything about the cap - except how to dismantle it for technical analysis. Beanpole joins the two young Britons and turns out to be of great help on the trip through France, and not just linguistically. In the further course, the three boys experience many exciting and dangerous situations, which they often only narrowly escape until they reach the mountains exhausted via the destroyed Paris and southern France with lots of three-legged machines on their necks, in order to reach the long-awaited destination again To fall into captivity.
After sharp interrogations of the - as it turned out later - free people who want to avoid infiltration by human spies of the tripods at all costs and pretend to be organs of the tripods, the three travelers are finally taken in and learn of a planned counterattack on the very well protected city of tripods . For this, trained free people are to be chosen via sports games - equipped with implanted but functionless caps - in the city of the three-legged friends, collect information about their organizations and weak points, and bring them back from the city to the resistance. Will is chosen to be the personal servant of a three-legged alien master , which gives him the opportunity to gather information and enjoy deep insights into the lives of the invaders. After again many experiences, which are in no way inferior to the previous trip in terms of the tight outcome and the usual tension and which result, among other things, in the death of a master, Will manages to escape from the city through the main sewer under urban alarm conditions. Together with Beanpole, who has been waiting for him in front of the city, Will sets off back to the white mountains to prepare the attack on the city with the other free people. On the way, they are picked up by a circus troupe that accompanies them to their destination and hides them from their pursuers. The film season ends when the free people arrive, whose buildings, to the horror of Beanpole and Will, are in ruins.
In the unfilmed third book in the series, mankind's struggle for the planet and free will begins.
Television series
In the 1980s, the books were adapted as a television series by the BBC . In Germany it was broadcast under the title The three-legged rulers . The first season of the series (episodes 1-13) corresponds in scope to the first book of the series ( The White Mountains , 1967, German three-legged monsters on earth course ), and the second season (episodes 14-25) corresponds to the second book ( The City of Gold and Lead , 1967, German The secret of the three-legged monsters ). The project was canceled before the realization of the third season. The series had turned out to be too expensive.
In Germany, the first twelve episodes of the series were first broadcast on April 6, 1986 by ZDF . In 1988 ZDF broadcast the entire series: episodes 1–19 from January 7th to May 19th and episodes 20–25 from August 30th to October 4th. Obviously as a result of unresolved broadcasting rights, the series has not been shown on television since then, for over three decades, which has given it a certain cult status. The last German-language broadcast of the series took place in 2016–2017 on the Internet broadcaster Blizz .
Book template
The trilogy is about an extraterrestrial race that has taken control of the earth and thrown humanity back into a pre-industrial era. It consists of the following volumes:
- Three Legged Monsters on Earth Course ( The White Mountains , 1967)
- The secret of the three-legged monster ( The City of Gold and Lead , 1967)
- The Fall of the Three Legged Monsters ( The Pool of Fire , 1968)
In the first part of the trilogy, the tripods represent a surveillance state (see Brave New World ) that prevents revolutions by means of mind control. In the second part, however, they symbolize the people who live in their cities (isolated from the outside world) and have almost no personal ties such as friendship between one another. They rarely visit each other.
In 1988 Christopher published a fourth volume, When The Tripods Came , which precedes the trilogy and describes the conquest of the earth and the enslavement of mankind, about which there are only hints in the other volumes. The book was written after the television series was shot - supposedly because science fiction writer Brian Aldiss asked how the masters were able to overcome 20th century technology. This book did not initially appear in German. An unofficial fan translation is circulating on the Internet (on websites and on file-sharing networks) as an e-book entitled When the Three-Legged Rulers Came Out. In July 2006 an official German translation was finally published under the title Tripods. The arrival of the three-legged monsters .
There is also a large number of comic books in English-speaking countries under the title The Tripods .
DVD release
The first season was released in 2001 as an English-language original version in stores.
On March 23, 2009, the complete English-language first and second season was released for the first time in a box set. According to the manufacturer, this has a lot of previously unpublished bonus material.
Koch Media GmbH has acquired the rights to publish a DVD in Germany. The release date of the first season was October 23, 2009. The second season was released on May 28, 2010.
On March 25, 2011 the DVD box The Three Legged Rulers - The Complete Saga was released. It contains the first and second season in the German version on six DVDs and the third part as an audio book on four CDs.
Audio book
In June 2006 the first two volumes Tripods I - Three-legged monsters on earth course ISBN 3-491-24132-4 and Tripods II - The secret of the three-legged monsters ISBN 3-491-24133-2 appeared in an abbreviated audio book version . Part III followed in spring 2007. Book 0 appeared in stores in June 2012. The audio books are spoken by Torsten Michaelis . As a bonus, the audio books feature the original BBC score by Ken Freemann.
Web links
- The Tripods in the Internet Movie Database (English)