So, it turns out that flying saucers aren’t occupied by little green men from outer space after all, but by time travelling civil servants from the year 2130. At least, that is according to this television film from 1980 that was filmed as part of the acclaimed BBC’s Play for Today series.

2130, 131 years after the nuclear apocalypse of 1999; society has become very ordered. Out of necessity, people have learned to take orders, to follow rules. If one is told not to go outside because of the radioactivity, then one is likely to follow that order, and so, obedience has become something of a habit. Dominick Hide (Peter Firth), tired of his sanitised, empty life, craves more. When we first encounter him, he is returning from one of his missions (his duty is to monitor the 1980 London traffic system.) He is shown in close-up revealing his melancholy and disconsolate face. He has had enough of watching, he wants to interact.

His mischievous 116 year-old, sorry, make that 115 year-old (she has a tendency to exaggerate) great aunt Mavis (Sylvia Coleridge) gets the plot moving. She tells him of his great-great-grandfather, also called Dominick Hide, who may have been living in London in 1980, Port Beale she thinks (Portobello is the consensus view of three inebriated 1980 Londoners.) Dominick becomes determined, much to the chagrin of his wife, Ava (Pippa Guard), to do what is forbidden by his intimidating superior, Caleb Line (Patrick Magee), to land on the flipside (the time travelled to), and search for his great-great-grandfather. In 1980 he meets the stunningly beautiful Jane (Caroline Langrishe), who runs a shop on Portobello road; she and her friends are enlisted by him in his quest to find Dominick Hide.

As with most science-fiction, The Flipside of Dominick Hide, is as concerned with ideas as much as with anything else. The fantastic central conceit that I mentioned in the opening line, that of flying saucers housing time travellers, and flying saucer spottings being those of careless time travellers, is inspired. Also, ideas about the dangers of interaction by time travellers, although well worn from countless science-fictions, are painted here afresh with images (although be it, not actually physically shown) of buildings crumbling and people disappearing.

That’s not to say that this is a film just of ideas. Any film that has a world-weary, directionless main protagonist named Dominick Hide who sets off in search of someone called Dominick Hide, and ends up finding love (twice over) and a new lease of life, is always going to be about more than just ideas. The contrasts between Dominick’s 1980 life and his 2130 life are fascinating. Exciting and new in 1980, staid and lifeless in 2130. In 1980 Jane may have introduced him to passion and beauty, but she has also introduced him to fear and shame. Dominick in turn, for better and for worse, introduces these new emotions to those around him in 2130. 1980 begins to bleed into 2130. Dominick and Ava begin to relate. Dominick’s engineer comes out of the closet. The lifeless come to life.

The futuristic elements of the production are surprisingly credible. The fashions, are for once, not outlandish and silly. And technology has not lost sight of common sense and basic human needs. But, the most intelligent aspect of the film is the language used in 2130; one can easily believe that the English language, that like all language is an organic evolving thing, would have changed to the subtle level that is heard here.

Funny, thought-provoking, moving, visually arresting (surprisingly so for a television production, its use of dissolves are particularly interesting), well acted, and above all else, quite unlike anything else. How refreshing to find a piece of science fiction with neither violence, nor even the threat of violence. A lesser sequel followed in 1982.

Resource Box: Iain Stott is a 32 year old aesthete from the north west of England. http://iainstott.blogspot.com/