User Reviews

Tom sees a kiss between Anne and Roy, Anne invites Tom to spend time away with her friend Karen. Karen explains the troubles she's having with her young son Colin, Colin's been sent home from school for causing damage, turns out he's under the influence of a Poltergeist.

It's an interesting episode, the format is really good, one that would be used several times in films later on. Some good elements to it, I find some of the dramas made around the time that feature young actors can be a little hit and miss, but young Max Harris, put in a very solid performance as Colin, he convincingly went from being a softly spoken, timid kid to being quite sinister towards the end.

I like how the relationship between Tom and Roy continues on a downward spiral, they both kept it going well, Tom has a definite deepening dislike and mistrust of Roy.

Some very dark elements in this episode, Colin turns out to be a bit of a monster, possibly one of Martindale's making. The ending is quite shocking.

For the story arc it's Omega that try to get hold of Colin.

Louise Jameson was incredibly beautiful, she wears some cracking clothes. There's a good chemistry between them.

Even though it was a Sci fi series I never felt they went massively over the top with the stories, that's the case here, they try to give a logical and reasoned explanation of the Poltergeist phenomena. 8/10

Other reviewers have mentioned the actual plot points of this episode. The part that really had me yelling at the TV was the completely outdated approach to how everyone treated the child, Colin.

He's well under 16, so under the age of consent for any medical procedure (which is the closest analogy to the experiments) and yet not even his supposed defender, Tom, ever says "He's a child. You can't do this." None of the other adult have ANY care for Colin, not even really Anne.

I'm old enough to remember this show when it was broadcast, though I didn't really remember much about it, so I'm familiar with the attitudes of the period but even so I was completely shocked by the treatment of this poor boy.

It's a fairly gripping bit of telly, though with some flaws (no one could have shouted "look out" at the end?) but a sad indictment of how children could be treated in the late 70s.