Watch the Skies....If Your Dare...

Tonight many places will have clear skies and good views of the annual Perseid meteor showers.  In the north-east of the sky from 10pm tonight till sunrise tomorrow we should be getting a dazzling display as particles from the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

I might watch, if I'm not to frightened.

You see as an 8 year old I was scared witless by the BBC adaption of The Day of the Triffids.  Oh forget about the 60's sanitised Howard Keel film version.  No the BBC did a far grittier adaption truer to John Wyndham's novel. It petrified me and was the highlight of my viewing week, and along with The Martian Chronicles is one of the TV experiences I remember most vividly and with excitement.

BBC4 have just repeated the series and I watched it again.  Okay so the Triffids may be a little clunky but the overall premise still gave me the heeby-jeebies! I mean just look at the opening credits:

I'll just get back up from behind the sofa. If you aren't familiar with the storyline to condense it in the crudest fashion - a new breed of plant is found and spreads across the world. It can move, blinds people with its stinger, kills and devours them. The plants are contained eventually, producing an important oil.

Our hero Bill is confined to hospital after a Triffid attack at the Triffid research lab where he works.  Whilst his eyes are bandaged the vast majority of people enjoy a spectacular meteor display but it leaves them blind. With the nation ground to a standstill with its population blind and in panic, the farmed Triffids escape and multiply prolifically with a yummy batch of disabled humans to munch on.  The rest is how society survives, or not as the case may be and I won't say anymore, read the book or watch the BBC dvd for some of the best sci-fi ever!

Here's a clip of the lead character Bill recounting his first meeting with a triffid:

So do we watch the meteor showers tonight and risk being a dahlia's lunch tomorrow?

meteor, meteors, meteor+shower, Swift-Tuttle+Comet, comet, comets, Triffids, Day+of+the+Triffids, John+Wyndham, Perseid

Comments

[Stegbeetle]

I was stood out in the garden at about 1 in the morning and for long enough that the dogs started to get anxious about what I was doing.
Did I see a single, solitary meteor? I did not. Maybe they were busy somewhere else.

[Pete]

OI so unfair, my blog today was going to be about Wyndham!!

[Beki]

Woohoo I saw at least 16 before losing count, some really good ones too.

Plus I'm not blind and haven't been devoured by a daffodil!

[Kit]

Thanks for reminding me of John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos is one of my favourite books. I read Chocky a few months ago for the first time - a bit weird but a little gem.