The series, starring Beth Allen as Amber, Michelle Ang as Tai-San and Meryl Cassie as the undefeatable Ebony, is now showing in Australia on ABC3 for the second winter running. ABC3 is the Kids channel from Australian Broadcasting Corporation which was launched at the end of 2009.
The Tribe is a TV series making a comeback near the home turf where it was created. First produced and filmed in Wellington, New Zealand by ex-BBC writer-producer Raymond Thompson, it was commissioned for the opening of UK’s Channel Five in 1999. Like many series conceived for a young audience, it weathers well and has become highly popular on the TV screens of over 40 countries. It also sells on DVD.
Mall Rats and Locos struggle
The dramatic premise of the series is that a virus has wiped out everybody aged over 21, leaving teenagers to run the planet. How will they cope? The tribes are set up as pseudo-families that veer between New Age believers and street gangs, and it’s the ones that formed first that are followed by the plot as they learn to exist by scavenging in the abandoned city. The Mall Rats and the Locos are overpowered by a pseudo-religious leader in series two.
The Guardian and the Chosen
Leading the tribes into the Age of Zoot, in series three ‘The Guardian’ of the Chosen, played by Damon Andrews, holds half of his followers in thrall and the other half in slavery, a situation that gets everybody plotting. Defiance means starvation, compliance means walking on a knife-edge of uncertainty. The Guardian holds Trudy’s 'chosen' baby hostage when he casts her out after she smuggles food to the starving slaves from her old tribe.
The charismatic male characters opposing the Guardian include Bray played by Dwayne Cameron, bad boy Lex played by Caleb Ross, and Pride played by Nick Miller. Pride is a follower of Eagle, leader of the country based Eco Tribe, who turns out to be none other than the long lost former Mall Rats leader, Amber.
Tai San's coronation causes mayhem
The Guardian’s manipulations continue in this third series, but the end of his rule must surely be near, mustn’t it? It certainly will be if Lex has anything to do with it after the Guardian chose his wife, Tai San, to be the new Supreme Mother. Lex is on the run with a loaded crossbow and no-one can stop him from taking aim at the Guardian during the coronation ceremony. Believing that Tai San doesn't love him any more, he's desperate to take down his rival for sheer revenge.
The Tribe is being rerun two half-hour episodes at a time on the ABC3 TV channel on Saturday evenings between 8 and 9, with an extra episode to be squeezed in for the impending tragedy which seems certain to result from Lex’s jealousy on July 30.
Dubbed as Mad Max meets Neighbours by its producers as they developed the scripts, The Tribe was deemed suitable for an audience aged 8 to 80, but most of its new fans reaching out to each other on the internet are teens, since ABC3’s target audience is aged between 6 and 15.
Sources
Cast and character details at Tribeworld
Australian Broadcasting Commission ABC3 website
The Tribe the complete series three episodes 1-52 on DVD, Revelation Films Limited
Valerie Williamson - Dr. Val Williamson is a freelance journalist and academic specialising in historical and popular culture topics.
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