''Powers'' is a British television series first broadcast in 2004 on BBC One. The series was created by

Jim Eldridge Jim Eldridge (born November 1944) is an English radio, film and television screenwriter with hundreds of radio and TV scripts broadcast in the United Kingdom and across the world in a career spanning over 30 years. Eldridge is the creator and ...

. It was promoted as a children's version of '' The X-Files'',Action TV Online - Powers episode guide
/ref> although many regarded it as a successor to '' The Tomorrow People''.The UK Sci-Fi Book Guide - Time Riders
''Powers'' ran for one 13-episode season, and was also broadcast in Australia. It has never been commercially released.

Overview

The series follows the adventures of The Powers Project, a group of researchers led by Professor Henry Powers (portrayed by Rupert Holliday-Evans), who investigate mysteries concerned with the paranormal. The other members of the project are Mark Roberts (

Adam Jessop Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Book of Genesis, Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a coll ...

) and Song-Li Harris ( Amy Yamazaki) (who joins the project at the end of episode 1), two teenagers with psychic abilities, and Dr Mary Holland ( Mandana Jones), who used to have special powers but no longer does. Mark and Song-Li's powers are different: Mark is telepathic and can move objects with his mind; Song-Li can sense emotions and memories in objects.

Production and broadcast

''Powers'' spent six years in development. During this time it was reported that Disney were interested in a possible co-production deal, but the show was instead produced only by the BBC. The series was produced by Chris Le Grys, and episodes were directed by Emma Bodger and Brian Farnham; the three had previously worked on the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

series Night and Day. Special effects and

computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...

were created by Darkside Animation using LightWave 3D software.NewTek Europe - Community: Lightwave 3D - Simon Percy Interview
This consisted of 170 shots which were filmed between June and November 2003. Notable amongst these were the title sequence and end credits, and a UFO in episode 4, "We Are Not Alone". The series was originally due to be broadcast by the BBC in autumn 2004, but was moved forward to begin on 7 January 2004. It was also shown on ABC in Australia.Powers - ABC Kids TV guide
/ref>

Episodes

Critical response and legacy

''Powers'' did receive some positive responses from viewers, although there was considerable variation between episodes. According to Simon Percy, the co-founder of Darkside Animation, the show's ratings were described as "excellent" by the BBC. For unknown reasons a second series was not produced, nor has the series been commercially released. The series was repeated a number of times on the digital

CBBC Channel CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

, but these repeats have now stopped.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Powers (Tv Series) BBC children's television shows British science fiction television shows 2000s British children's television series 2004 British television series debuts 2004 British television series endings 2000s British science fiction television series