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Russell T. Davies was by the late '80s a producer in the Children's
Department at BBC Manchester. Keen to break into drama and inspired by his fan
devotion to 70s children's fantasy series such as The Tomorrow People (ITV,
1973-79), Davies submitted a script of episode one of The Adventuresome Three to
department head Anna Home in 1989. Quickly accepted to fill a gap when Tony
Robinson deferred on a third season of Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (BBC,
1989-93), the serial, eventually titled Dark Season, launched Davies' drama
career.
The two adventures that comprised the run both pitted three wise-cracking
schoolchildren against dormant computer-based technologies reactivated in the
name of fin-de-siécle destruction. The children encounter first a threat to take
over the world using sinister computers given free to every child in their
school, then a group of Neo-Nazis led by mad computer genius Miss Pendragon
attempting to revive Behemoth, an artificial intelligence buried beneath the
school site decades ago by the Ministry of Defence.
Davies aimed to create "a fast, lively romp with no strings attached, no
subtext." Indeed, Dark Season is a pacy adventure comic strip, no more, no less.
Davies felt he could only achieve the beginning-middle-end pace he craved by
structuring the six-parter as two three-part serials, which he did without
telling his bosses ("in case they said no"). He stumbled across the idea of
bringing back Eldritch, the shades-wearing villain of the first three-parter, as
a big reveal, creating a linked serial feel.
The witty, fast-moving and fun production has an impressive sense of scale at
times and Colin Cant achieved the comic strip feel by constantly shooting at
askew angles. The latter half only lets the side down with some terrible Aryan
blonde wigs and even vurse German accentz.
As well as marking Davies' drama debut, this was a major break for the
15-year-old Kate Winslet as Reet. Winslet is good but her character is outshone
by Marcie Hatter, a lively and searching central character whose eccentricity
betrayed Davies' desire to write for Doctor Who.
Plans for a sequel featuring a virtual reality gaming arcade and psychic
twins were abandoned when Maid Marian was reactivated but Dark Season's creative
team would before long be reunited for Century Falls (BBC,
1993).
Alistair McGown
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1. Behemoth awakes! (2:46)
