This is one of those seventies classics a bit like the Aztec chocolate bar..A series about the battle of good vs evil, that I remember rushing home from school to watch.I can only remember bits and pieces,but i'm now torn as to whether i should try and track down a copy if possible. Sadly if i do it'll probably be appalling, as i'm no longer 11 years of age.I wouldn't mind an Aztec bar though...............
10 Reviews
Still interesting, but a little too right-on
Hardylane16 March 2009
Having looked for this for ages, I was delighted to be able to see it through the magic of the Internet recently.
Like most people, I saw it when I was a child and it made a big impression.
On viewing it now, being much older, the experience was a little disappointing, as was to be expected.
The episodes had very little pace, and the programme makers took incredible liberties with the cliffhangers, often showing something at the start of the episode that wasn't there at the end of the previous one! Sky himself was still as eerie as I remembered, and the use of CSO on his eyes and hands was still effective.
It was a true Friends of the Earth parable, however, and, given that I'm not exactly a supporter of greenie, eco-friendly, anti-science bull, this grated on me.
Only one moment in the series sent a shiver up my spine... when Goodchild was going up the stairs, with the camera focused on his feet, and you saw his creepy cloak just kind of drop into shot, where it hadn't been before!... ooh! All in all, could have done with being 6 episode long instead of 7.
DVD release seems unlikely due to the fact that episodes 3 and 7 only exist in ropey off-air recordings from a domestic Philips 1500 VCR.
There's a definite reluctance to release material in low quality.
Catch it if you can, though, through other methods :)
Like most people, I saw it when I was a child and it made a big impression.
On viewing it now, being much older, the experience was a little disappointing, as was to be expected.
The episodes had very little pace, and the programme makers took incredible liberties with the cliffhangers, often showing something at the start of the episode that wasn't there at the end of the previous one! Sky himself was still as eerie as I remembered, and the use of CSO on his eyes and hands was still effective.
It was a true Friends of the Earth parable, however, and, given that I'm not exactly a supporter of greenie, eco-friendly, anti-science bull, this grated on me.
Only one moment in the series sent a shiver up my spine... when Goodchild was going up the stairs, with the camera focused on his feet, and you saw his creepy cloak just kind of drop into shot, where it hadn't been before!... ooh! All in all, could have done with being 6 episode long instead of 7.
DVD release seems unlikely due to the fact that episodes 3 and 7 only exist in ropey off-air recordings from a domestic Philips 1500 VCR.
There's a definite reluctance to release material in low quality.
Catch it if you can, though, through other methods :)
The one that got away
Gary-1618 August 2004
SKY is a flawed but fascinating children's television production of the late seventies. It's refusal to follow dramatic convention is commendable, if difficult. It's debut episode is abstract and bordering on avant-garde theatre. The rest are occasionally rushed, uneven dramatically, but the last ten minutes are truly jaw dropping. The risibility of this denouement may be a 'jump the shark' moment for some viewers, but it certainly gets full marks for originality.
Sky himself, vulnerable but not entirely benign, is a lead character unlike any I can recall in children's telly. The program is not 'cuddly'. Sky does not express gratitude to his helpers, or any degree of warmth. He is more arbiter than interferer, a fascinating performance from young actor Harrison.
With it's hippy cloaks, druids and Stonehenge, SKY could be seen as the last hurrah before the advent of punk, but it refuses to be pigeon holed as a pantheist diatribe against the 'experiment' of intelligence and the despoiling nature of man. A couple of hippies are given short thrift in one rather disturbing scene and slope off disillusioned. Let's say SKY is sympathetic to Ghia theory but remains open minded, if pessimistic, to other possibilities.
Why is it remembered, albeit dimly? Perhaps due to its striking images, many foreshadowing eighties pop video. Goodchild's appearance is memorably eerie. It also has a splendid character in Mr Crow with his creepy hand, reminiscent of Mr Stabs of 'Ace Of Wands' fame. I also cannot get out of my head Sky's rejuvenation of Arby's mother. The music is less successful, sometimes over-used and then dropped for later episodes.
SKY is a wonderfully balmy creation. It is unique, and may attract a considerable cult following if ever released to the public.
Sky himself, vulnerable but not entirely benign, is a lead character unlike any I can recall in children's telly. The program is not 'cuddly'. Sky does not express gratitude to his helpers, or any degree of warmth. He is more arbiter than interferer, a fascinating performance from young actor Harrison.
With it's hippy cloaks, druids and Stonehenge, SKY could be seen as the last hurrah before the advent of punk, but it refuses to be pigeon holed as a pantheist diatribe against the 'experiment' of intelligence and the despoiling nature of man. A couple of hippies are given short thrift in one rather disturbing scene and slope off disillusioned. Let's say SKY is sympathetic to Ghia theory but remains open minded, if pessimistic, to other possibilities.
Why is it remembered, albeit dimly? Perhaps due to its striking images, many foreshadowing eighties pop video. Goodchild's appearance is memorably eerie. It also has a splendid character in Mr Crow with his creepy hand, reminiscent of Mr Stabs of 'Ace Of Wands' fame. I also cannot get out of my head Sky's rejuvenation of Arby's mother. The music is less successful, sometimes over-used and then dropped for later episodes.
SKY is a wonderfully balmy creation. It is unique, and may attract a considerable cult following if ever released to the public.
The very best - an enigmatic precursor to the late 20th and 21st Century
michael-115129 January 2023
So let's be honest, there's a lot of dross on television at the moment. In a land of the crazy, the sane are mad - perhaps. But in the 1970's there were innovative programs - even on children's television. And this, Sky, was the best - hence my 10 out of 10 rating.
Marc Harrison, as the time traveller, was outstanding, with amazing blue eyes which the extremely new special effects emphatically delivered. The theme of the series - an alien presence disrupting nature, causing it to revolt, was an apt precursor to HIV and its effect on anti-bodies and Covid, which similarly caused serious problems, agitating defensive mechanisms within bodies, which subsequently led to severe illness and death.
I'm not sure the writers foresaw all of these things, but their excellent scenario of nature fighting an unnatural presence, was an amazing and precise precursor.
Marc Harrison in the lead role is superb, sensual, vulnerable, preoccupied with problems of his age and situation, Stuart Lock and Cherrald Butterfield as the teenagers who help him, are equally good.
I missed the last episode in 1975 and have only just viewed it, now the series is available on dvd. Sure, it's dated, but as an ambitious foretaste of things to come unless we change our ways, it is unsurpassed. True, Denis Potter wrote great plays, Out of the Unknown was a super 1969's/70's series and contemporary green background special effects make Sky look somewhat anachronistic, but the essence of the series, the conflict between an interloper and nature, the destruction of most of the human race during the chaos and search for the famous, inimitable Juganet (I asked about it in a pub last night) with its' ultimate discovery at Stonehenge is unique and awesome.
Sky is a unique, fabulous, prediction-laden series which Nostradamus may not have mentioned, but we should never forget.
Marc Harrison, as the time traveller, was outstanding, with amazing blue eyes which the extremely new special effects emphatically delivered. The theme of the series - an alien presence disrupting nature, causing it to revolt, was an apt precursor to HIV and its effect on anti-bodies and Covid, which similarly caused serious problems, agitating defensive mechanisms within bodies, which subsequently led to severe illness and death.
I'm not sure the writers foresaw all of these things, but their excellent scenario of nature fighting an unnatural presence, was an amazing and precise precursor.
Marc Harrison in the lead role is superb, sensual, vulnerable, preoccupied with problems of his age and situation, Stuart Lock and Cherrald Butterfield as the teenagers who help him, are equally good.
I missed the last episode in 1975 and have only just viewed it, now the series is available on dvd. Sure, it's dated, but as an ambitious foretaste of things to come unless we change our ways, it is unsurpassed. True, Denis Potter wrote great plays, Out of the Unknown was a super 1969's/70's series and contemporary green background special effects make Sky look somewhat anachronistic, but the essence of the series, the conflict between an interloper and nature, the destruction of most of the human race during the chaos and search for the famous, inimitable Juganet (I asked about it in a pub last night) with its' ultimate discovery at Stonehenge is unique and awesome.
Sky is a unique, fabulous, prediction-laden series which Nostradamus may not have mentioned, but we should never forget.
Space oddity
kmoh-111 March 2017
In the 1970s, HTV cornered the market in quirky and bizarre fantasy half hours, always memorable, not always good. This oddity is fair, and concerns a beautiful blue-eyed blond alien with decidedly earthbound teeth who arrives on Earth at the wrong time and has to find his way to the right time zone. The Earth invokes a sort of immune system which tries to reject him, and he is pursued by the sinister Goodchild, who is perhaps a little too like a geography teacher to be wholly convincing as an avenging agent of nature. Sky's powers, and gradual loss of power, create a lot of tension, and Meredith Edwards lends a touch of class as the simple-minded Tom. Perhaps just too silly to be scary, a little too earnest to be eccentric, and with an unconvincing and predictable conclusion (you do not have to be tuned into the forces of the cosmos to work out what the Juganet is) it is still worth seeing, and all told it is not very much like anything else, which is an achievement for writers Baker and Martin.
Original 70s kids' show
Adrian Sweeney17 July 2018
I thought this was great fun. I only heard of it recently and accidentally and am astonished it exists. The title character is a cosmic traveller gone astray; his look is a cross between David Bowie and Jesus Christ - his spiel too, albeit with a touch of steely ruthlessness, amoral survival instinct and the anger of Jesus with the moneylenders - and he's destined to become a god. But he doesn't belong in this time and place so he's attacked by Nature itself - vines and leaves and winds and a sinister human incarnation of it. It's inventive and intelligent and properly creepy and eerie at times. I don't want to spoiler the various neat touches and good developments, but to give you a taste one episode features an excellent sort of were-crow almost as a throwaway bit. It starts off quite good and gets better and wilder as it goes on. But if you can't get along with 70s special effects, forget it.
Weird and Wonderful
mimcarr17 August 2008
So glad I've found this on IMDb.Many's the time I've thought back to the strange, delicate,alien boy from my childhood viewing days. Sky had blue eyes - I mean all blue, no pupils, and was the stuff of my childish fantasies (I was 9, so he probably played Sindy's with me...) and when the Evil forces were coming to do unspeakable things to him, the wind would blow and the leaves would whoosh around in a sort of Force of Nature warning...Ooh I've come over all funny again. I absolutely loved it and would give anything to get my hands on an episode. I understand HTV only have 5 out of 7 left - come on guys, release them - I'm tired of watching my Trumpton DVD's...Did it have an unhappy ending - I seem to remember Sky disappearing - in anguish or triumph? Please let me know someone. I really need to watch this again so please contact me if you have any information as to Sky's whereabouts...
SKY soon to be released on DVD
rnt196816 May 2009
I really thought i'd imagined or dreamt of a programme from the 1970's called SKY about an alien boy rising from the leaves in a forest, with very, very bright blue eyes... but the last time I looked was probably a couple of years ago I could only find a couple of references which were really vague ... but as it was made by Wales' 'local' TV station HTV, I thought there was little hope of ever seeing it again. However... prompted by Facebook quizzes, I looked again today and just found out it's being released in June 09. It does look like they have the whole series albeit with 2 episodes from another source. How cool is that?!!
http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info.php?products_id=887
http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info.php?products_id=887
any videos??
hydrophonic7 July 2001
All i can seem to remember about this show is how Sky would fade away to nothing at the end of one of the series (being made of sky) accompanied by a synthesized wind type sound which i think was also the only theme music for it.
Regardless, this show has stuck in my head and i have only just found this site with a bit of info on it...At least i know it actually existed!
Anyone with info on how i might get copies of this series could you please email me.
Regardless, this show has stuck in my head and i have only just found this site with a bit of info on it...At least i know it actually existed!
Anyone with info on how i might get copies of this series could you please email me.
Sky, how do you do all those magical things?
23x.net9 October 2000
Well, all I remember about this series is the line "Sky, how do you do all those magical things?" spoken by some welsh kid and some bloke running round with pupil-less eyes. Bizarre 70s hippy stuff.
Sky was a super-powered alien who could, as far as I can remember, affect the weather and other stuff. Did he have blue eyes, or were they white?
Sky was a super-powered alien who could, as far as I can remember, affect the weather and other stuff. Did he have blue eyes, or were they white?
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