The Day After Tomorrow (TV special)

rdf:langString The Day After Tomorrow (TV special)

rdf:langString In the upper half of the image, the words "The Day After Tomorrow" are superimposed in bold upper-case letters on a background of stars. In the lower half, "Into Infinity" is superimposed in bold upper-case letters on a close-up shot of the exterior of a futuristic space station.

rdf:langString Into Infinity

rdf:langString Opening titles, featuring "Into Infinity" subtitle

rdf:langString Frank Watts

rdf:langString Steve Coe

rdf:langString United Kingdom

rdf:langString English

rdf:langString NBC

rdf:langString The premise is a good one, offering scope for a potential series, although it lacks the originality of previous Anderson series and is perhaps too close to Lost in Space in that it features a family crew with a malfunctioning spaceship .

rdf:langString Gerry [Anderson] said to me "could I do a story for school kids?" and I said "no problem." I went into my office and wrote a little thing that took the principle of a ship travelling at the speed of light and put a family in it – so by not leaving them separated meant they wouldn't age at different rates because of the dilation effect. Gerry read it over the phone and we got the go-ahead straight away.

rdf:langString Despite the mostly cold and inexpressive characters, lack of dramatic conflict, or really, even much of a narrative, Into Infinity is still entertaining. The sets are convincing , the design of the Altares is fantastic, and the passage through the black hole is appropriately psychedelic.

rdf:langString I wanted young people to watch this film on television and find it exciting enough that, in the course of viewing the programme, they would be able to acquire an understanding of Einstein's theory of relativity. When the teacher wrote on the board, I wanted the young viewer to recall the programme and say, "Yeah, I saw a programme about that. I want to learn more about it," instead of, "It's just one more thing I have to memorise and what good is it gonna do me?"

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString — George Heinemann on the motivation for The Day After Tomorrow

rdf:langString — Scriptwriter Johnny Byrne on devising the premise

rdf:langString – Christopher Mills

rdf:langString – Vincent Law

rdf:langString The Day After Tomorrow (also known as Into Infinity in the United Kingdom) is a 1975 British science-fiction television special produced by Gerry Anderson between the two series of Space: 1999. Written by Johnny Byrne and directed by Charles Crichton, it stars Brian Blessed, Joanna Dunham, Nick Tate, Katharine Levy and Martin Lev, with narration by Ed Bishop. Set in a future where environmental damage on Earth threatens the survival of humanity, The Day After Tomorrow follows the interstellar mission of Altares, a science vessel that uses photon energy to travel at the speed of light. After leaving the Solar System and reaching Alpha Centauri, their primary destination, the crew of Altares push deeper into space; there, they encounter phenomena including a meteor shower, a red giant and, finally, a black hole, which pulls the ship into another universe. Originally commissioned to produce a child-friendly introduction to Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, Anderson and Byrne conceived The Day After Tomorrow as a pilot for a TV series, with the episode title "Into Infinity". Anderson was ultimately unable to raise funding for additional episodes, making the pilot a standalone special. With a cast and crew that included veterans of earlier Anderson productions, The Day After Tomorrow was filmed between July and September 1975; this comprised 10 days' principal photography and six weeks' special effects shooting. The visual style of Space: 1999 provided inspiration to both effects artist Martin Bower, who built the scale models, and production designer Reg Hill, who recycled sets from Space: 1999 to create the Altares interiors. The theme music was composed by newcomer Derek Wadsworth. The Day After Tomorrow was first broadcast in the United States in December 1975 as the third episode of NBC's after-school series Special Treat. In the UK, it was transmitted on BBC1 as a special, first in December 1976 and again in December 1977; a re-edited version aired on BBC Four in November 2014. Critical responses to The Day After Tomorrow have been mixed: while its model effects and music have been praised, it has divided opinion with its "psychedelic" images, which have been compared to the visual style of film director Stanley Kubrick. In addition, the story has been criticised for lacking suspense due to the fact that it was devised primarily to educate, rather than entertain. A novelisation by Douglas R. Mason was cancelled after the planned TV series failed to appear; a new novelisation by Gregory L. Norris was published in 2017.