''Children of the Dog Star'' is a science fiction television program for children produced in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1984. It consists of six episodes of 24-minutes each. It was written by

Ken Catran Ken Catran (born 16 May 1944) is a children's novelist and television screenwriter from New Zealand. Career Catran is the author of many teen novels, including ''Taken at the Flood'', ''Voyage with Jason'', ''Doomfire on Venus'', ''Space Wolf'', ...

and directed by Chris Bailey, with the novelisation written by Marie Stuttard.

Plot synopsis

On holiday at her uncle's farm in

, Gretchen befriends Ronny, a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

boy with a troubled city past, and Bevis, the birdwatching son of a loathed developer. Tension is already high as the developer wants to buy and drain a local swamp for a housing estate, but Ronny's uncle is the guardian of a traditional

tapu (

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

/curse) upon the swamp. The swamp must not be touched—something sleeps there that must not be awakened. Something unnatural. In the story, twelve-year-old Gretchen has a passion for science and a talent for all things mechanical, which is why the strange old brass "

weathervane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

" (referred to as the "daisy rod") on her uncle's farm fascinates her. But the brass daisy rod has a complex and terrifying significance, and Gretchen and her new friend Ronny discover its links with the far distant

Sirius Sirius is the list of brightest stars, brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek language, Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinisation ...

, the Dog Star. Gradually, the children discover the pieces of an ancient alien space probe named ''Kolob''. During the series they assemble the missing parts and strange things start to happen. The probe was one of three sent to earth to educate the human race in science. In the end a communication link is set up with the star

Sirius B Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated Alpha CMa ...

, from where the probe came, and the aliens tell them they (the aliens) should not have interfered.

Episodes

* The Brass Daisy * Power Stop * Swamp Light * Alien Summons * Kolob * Alien Contact

Availability

For a long time, ''Children of the Dog Star'' remained unavailable due to complex copyright issues. But

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...

released the series on DVD (as of 3 July 2009), and syndicated the show to certain North American

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

stations. The series was also broadcast in Czechoslovakia, Malaysia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia, Poland, Canada, Greece and the United Kingdom during the mid and late 1980s. Dubbings were made in Czech and Slovak. Since 2011 the series has been available on YouTube.

Influences

The main idea for the plot, that of space probes sent out from Sirius to educate primitive people, is lifted from the 1976 book ''

The Sirius Mystery ''The Sirius Mystery'' is a book written by Robert K. G. Temple (born Robert Kyle Grenville Temple in 1945) supporting the pseudoscientific ancient astronauts hypothesis that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited the Earth and made cont ...

'' by Robert K. G. Temple. The name

Kolob Kolob is a star or planet described in the Book of Abraham, a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Several Latter Day Saint denominations hold the Book of Abraham to have been translated from an Ancient Egypt, Egyptian Joseph Smith Pap ...

appears to be taken from

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...

, and may mean "dog".

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

's ''

The Tommyknockers ''The Tommyknockers'' is a 1987 science fiction novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the i ...

'', which was released three years later, has similarities to the story.

Awards

It won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1984, as well as the New Zealand Feltex 1984 best drama award.Ken Catran
profile on the New Zealand Book Council site

Adaptations

Book

novelisation A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

, written by Marie Stuttard, was released in 1985 ().

Trivia

The closing credits of each episode incorrectly shows MCMLXXIV in the copyright notice which translates to 1974. The videogame Ronny and Gretchen play in the grocery store is

The Pit The Pit may refer to: Places * The Pit, a commonly used name for a mosh pit * The Pit (arena), the main indoor arena at the University of New Mexico * The Pit (memorial), "Яма" the Holocaust memorial in Minsk, Belarus * Elder 'The Pit' Stadiu ...

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0271902, Children of the Dog Star 1984 New Zealand television series debuts 1980s science fiction television series New Zealand science fiction television series New Zealand children's television series 1980s New Zealand television series TVNZ original programming 1984 New Zealand television series endings