Survivors - Series 2 - Complete [DVD]

I first watched Survivors in the 1970s as a young man in my twenties and found it riveting. I have never forgotten being absolutely enthralled by the concepts it portrayed. Almost thirty years later, I was delighted to find it available on DVD. I am still fascinated and watched the whole 12 episodes of series two almost back-to-back (ditto series one). Great drama, arguably with slightly wooden production compared with modern television drama (but great acting). Ground-breaking in it's day and highly recommended. If you saw the film "28 Days Later", the initial theme is similar but Survivors makes much more credible viewing despite the lack of hi-tech effects. Buy it or rent it, you'll love it.

First off, it does a wonderful job of highlighting all the problems and pitfalls of farming in the post-disaster world - especially when those having to do it are mostly totally ignorant of the subject. As widely noted, this series is in many ways derivative from George R Stewart's "Earth Abides", and highlights vividly (one of the few points where it improves on the book) just why Ish's Tribe finish up as hunters rather than as farmers. Between their lack of expertise, the vagaries of weather etc, and the danger from marauders of one sort or another, a farming community post-plague would have a very precarious existence.

It also touches more directly than the novel on the question of whether all the survivors (and particularly the women) would be eager to start repopulating the world. Childbirth has suddenly become an order of magnitude more hazardous than before, and many women, especially the middle-class ones who play leading roles in "Survivors", were always accustomed to having "lives of their own", and may not be eager to just settle down to being wives and mothers, especially in a world without labour-saving devices. And given how shocked and depressed many of them will be, there are likely to be major misgivings about the rightness of bringing children into the kind of world they now have. I also found the reluctance of Melanie and others to accept that civilisation was really gone, and their insistence that "There must be something somewhere" entirely credible. Hope springs eternal.

There were some interesting angles on the possible role of religion. Its role in "The Chosen" was unattractive, but may well have been helping them to survive. And "By Bread Alone" was beautiful in its portrayal of how Lewis, seemingly one of the most useless men in the place, almost in spite of himself did more to boost morale than the more practical Greg and Charles had ever been able to do. He was nicely counterpointed by Mark Carter in "New Arrivals", far more of an asset in practical terms, but who succeeded only in reducing the community to a state of near-terminal depression. I was really sad when they killed Lewis off two episodes later. Whether dictated by casting problems or reflecting some "discomfort" with religious questions on the part of the producers, either way it was a great shame to lose the character.

This brings me to by far my biggest gripe - a sense of "disjointedness", and lack of follow-on from episode to episode. Thus, in "Lights Of London" and "The Chosen" , they meet two communities far larger than their own, but neither figures in any later episode, even as a trading partner. And in "Over The Hills" Sally ends her pregnancy by distinctly hazardous methods, but we hear nothing about how well she recovered. Incidentally, does anyone else feel that episode "cheated" just a little, focusing so exclusively on "right to choose" issues that it ignored the purely practical question of whether, absent proper medical facilities, it might be more dangerous to abort a baby than to have it?

Ditto with "The Face Of The Tiger". This opens with the local communities in conference about the need for a mutual defence pact. It goes on to feature the serial sniper as a clear proof of the need for one. But after that - nothing. Once she has been shot, the whole question seems to disappear.

Similarly with "New World". When this Norwegian balloonist turns up out of the blue, discussion of what action to take is entirely unilateral. No suggestion of talking to Garland or anyone else. Indeed, the neighbours we know about all seem to have disappeared. Has Agnes met the Chosen, or that London community and if so what do they think? Nobody bothers to ask. For all the previous talk about the need for co-operation, everything is discussed as if Whitecross were the whole of Britain. This is all the more surprising given their recent experiences. It is only a few months since Ruth was abducted by another community who thought they needed her more than Whitecross did, and only rescued with difficulty. Yet Agnes' invitation to "come into my parlour" is accepted quite trustingly, though she has tried to lay down the law to them - "Abandon this place - Slaughter your sheep - Send that cattle man to Hereford" - in ways which recall Manny, Kershaw, and Mark Carter. Didn't anybody feel they had been here before? Given recent history, would they really be so willing to take Agnes at face value? It's as if the previous episodes simply didn't happen.

Also, I get the feeling that they were starting to run out of original plots, and trying to wrap things up by bringing "civilisation" back on an improbably short timescale. I never saw the Third Series, so I don't know, but this hydroelectric business smells of a move in that direction, which would be a move away from reality. Hope I'm wrong.

But enough grumbling. Despite all the above (and finding "The Witch" a bit unlikely), it was still a good set of stories, and I'm not at all sorry that I bought it. If you liked Series One, you will like Series Two.

The "Death" has claimed over 99.9% of the population and those that are left must now struggle and fight to continue, gone are the mass producing factories, gone is the centralising Governments. Now just a collection of small communes to re learn all that the past generations have forgotten about living of the land, life with out dentists, hospitals and state run schools.

The Second Series survives major culls, both of characters and locations , but excellent scripts, excellent Direction and outstanding acting carry on where they left off. These programmes were made in the days when the BBC made the best quality television in the world, their drama really was second to none.

This is further highlighted by each individual episode, which cover such topics as rising fascist states, a person's willingness to risk their life for their friends. Changing values (the way a society so ravaged may have to move on from traditional views of love, marriage and the family home and just produce children - the next generation) and ultimately the need for co-operation and cohesion in order to rebuild a brave new world.

If you enjoyed the first series then this is an absolute must, roll on series three.