Like the similarly themed Survivors (1975-77) or Doomwatch (1970-72), this BBC children’s series offers a world where science and technology hold a threatening power over the ‘innocent masses’ and a return to the Dark Ages can’t come soon enough. Unlike those programmes, this show has the courage to demystify the ‘good old days’ and reveal the bigotry and racism that hides beneath such ultra-conservative thinking, whilst also maintaining an open-minded view of ecological themes that seemed trendy in the 1970s but are very pertinent today.

In 2009 we’re so hung up on technology – witness text messages, television or even this blog – that a rollback to the electricity-free days of yore seems so unthinkable that it becomes unpleasant. And while TV reports and middle-class journos debate our carbon footprints with a ludicrous banality – suggesting we can keep our PCs, plasma screens and two-cars-in-the-drive as long as we only take one flight abroad per year – the damage that’s being wrought on our finite and vulnerable planet goes unnoticed and, in some cases, denied because we are too frightened to accept that our greedy, consumerist society is to blame. (As an aside, perhaps this anxiety over the reality of our current situation was one of the reasons behind the artistic failure of the BBC’s remake of Survivors in 2008. That or the fact that it was a complete piece of shit that missed the point entirely.)

What really sets The Changes apart, besides its even-handed approach to the ecological crises we’re facing, is the role and portrayal of it’s central character, a fourteen year old girl named Nicky Gore, when compared with the treatment of similar teenagers in today’s modern media. The programme can be seen as a metaphor for Nicky’s development – the title is an obvious giveaway – from dependency on her parents, through to her growing responsibility and sexuality as a member of the community, toward her ultimate establishment of womanhood in the face of the show’s giant, phallic progenitor (cf. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975; dir. Peter Weir)).

Nicky’s progression is one children of both sexes can identify with, unlike the modern depictions of teenagers they’re faced with today. In programmes like M.I. High (2007-Present) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-Present), kids are shown not in a state of pubescent flux but as obedient planks of sexless wood infused with cliched personalities. Tellingly, in both those programmes – which, with their sci-fi overtones, can be seen as successors to the 1970s model to which The Changes belongs – the kids are festooned with a supposedly likable adult who bosses them around. Likewise, in programmes such as Skins (2007-Present), which is made by adults for adults, teenagers are so far removed from their real-world counterparts that, instead of the programme reflecting them, they feel the need to live up to the hype, sometimes with unfortunate or disastrous results.

Television and cinema can only speak to children on an emotional and social level when one of two factors is given ground to flourish. First, a sympathetic writer should be allowed to explore the complexities of youth, outside of the manipulative and dogmatic narrative structure usually imposed on mass audio-visual storytelling. Novelists with great success in this field, such as Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson or Philip Pullman, have often seen their works adapted into badly-interpreted or castrated forms: compare the insipid The Golden Compass (2007; dir. Chris Weitz) or the heavily-neutered The Story of Tracy Beaker (2002-2006) with their sources. The second option, and possibly the one with the overall significance, is that young people should be given access to the creative and critical processes that produce programmes aimed at their age group. In this way, situations and concerns that they themselves feel the need to express can be explored and debated through television and cinema – perhaps even utilising metaphorical forms in the manner of The Changes or others like Children of the Stones, Raven or King of the Castle (all 1977). Unfortunately both of these factors are almost impossible in a media-tyranny that feels unwilling to loosen its reins on the processes which imbue it with power, soullessness and mediocrity.

The Changes, therefore, can be seen as a testament to the power of television to explore important social and ecological themes whilst retaining a personal and extra-personal relevance to the viewer – a perfect starting point for critical debate. It remains a worthy and powerful viewing experience especially in light of current attitudes and developments.

The Changes at the IMDb