The Day After Tomorrow (TV special)

Did You Know?

• A novelisation by Douglas R. Mason was cancelled after the planned TV series failed to appear; a new novelisation by Gregory L. Norris was published in 2017.
• In early 2024, Anderson Entertainment released a remastered version on Blu-ray using AI upscaling with colour correction, as the original film elements are lost.
• The special has been rated 'U' by the British Board of Film Classification since 1997.

Plot

In a future where pollution and resource depletion threaten Earth, a narrator introduces the science vessel Altares, the first spacecraft to harness photon power for light-speed travel. The ship departs Space Station Delta for Alpha Centauri with five crew members: Captain Harry Masters and his daughter Jane, and Doctors Tom and Anna Bowen with their son David. Jane leaves her dog Spring with station commander Jim Forbes. As Altares leaves the Solar System, Jane and David observe Pluto turning blue then red due to the Doppler effect. After reaching Alpha Centauri and launching satellites, the crew agrees to push deeper into space. Anna explains Einstein's theories to Jane. A meteor shower damages the ship and reactivates the photon drive, sending it hurtling at incredible speed. A fail-safe stops the ship near a red giant about to go supernova. Captain Masters repairs the photon drive by hand, and Anna and Jane pilot the ship away before the star explodes.

Production

After filming the first series of Space: 1999 ended in spring 1975, NBC executive George Heinemann approached Gerry Anderson with an idea for an educational science fiction series of seven one-hour episodes. Heinemann commissioned a pilot about Einstein's theory of special relativity. Facing possible cancellation of Space: 1999, Anderson and story editor Johnny Byrne conceived the episode as a pilot for a new series provisionally titled The Day After Tomorrow. Anderson could not secure funding for further episodes, leaving it a one-off special. Anderson researched Einstein's work but later said he did not understand the theories. Byrne's script instructed that the equation 1=E = mc2 appear on screen at intervals. Anderson described the writing as extremely difficult because of the challenge of explaining time changes in language young people could understand.

Broadcast

The Day After Tomorrow debuted in the US on 9 December 1975 as part of NBC's Special Treat series. It reached UK screens on 11 December 1976 via BBC1. To avoid confusing viewers, the BBC removed the series title from the opening, listing the programme as Into Infinity in Radio Times and other outlets. A repeat aired on BBC1 on 6 December 1977. In 1997, the BBC erased the master tape but preserved an edited version. That same year, clips from the special appeared in a Channel 4 Equinox documentary. On 9 November 2014, BBC Four broadcast it as The Day after Tomorrow: Into Infinity, with an introduction from physicist Brian Cox, who called it scientifically accurate and recalled being a childhood fan.

Reception

Critical responses have been mixed. Some critics compared the premise to Lost in Space or Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. In a 2002 TV Zone review, Andrew Pixley praised the acting, music and direction but said the premise falls flat, making physics feel like a scantily-illustrated textbook. Science journalist Elizabeth Howell found the special remarkable for depicting space exploration in a colonisation sense rather than conquest, and called its themes strangely timeless. Chris Bentley, author of The Complete Gerry Anderson, drew parallels with the Fireball XL5 episode 'Faster Than Light'.