The Tommyknockers (TV miniseries)
Encyclopedia
The Tommyknockers is a 1993 television miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 based on the novel The Tommyknockers
The Tommyknockers
The Tommyknockers is a 1987 horror novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.In his...

by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

. It was directed by John Power, and starred Marg Helgenberger
Marg Helgenberger
Mary Marg Helgenberger is an American film and television actress known for her roles as Catherine Willows in the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and as K.C...

 and Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing...

 in the two lead roles.

Part One

The plot of the miniseries departs in several important ways from King's novel. The focus of the miniseries are characters Bobbi Anderson (Helgenberger), a writer of Western fiction
Western fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century...

, and her lover, Jim "Gard" Gardner (Smits), a poet
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

. Anderson and Gardner live with their dog, Petey, on the outskirts of the fictional rural town of Haven, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

. Anderson suffers from writer's block, and Gardner is a recovering alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

 who has yet to begin writing again. One day, the two stumble (literally) over what appears to be a manmade stone object protruding from the forest ground. They begin excavating the object, and discover a series of connected cubic objects that look like stone but which they discover are really a kind of unknown metal.

The audience is also introduced to several of the town's inhabitants. Postal worker Joe Paulson (De Young) is cheating on his wife, Sherrif's Deputy Becka Paulson (Beasley), with a co-worker, Nancy Voss (Lords). Most people in town heartily dislike Voss for her adulterous ways, and only Paulson seems unaware of her husband's philandering. Bryant Brown (Carradine) and his wife, Marie Brown (Corley), run a local diner. Marie's father, Ev Hillman (Marshall), lives with them, and helps care for the couple's two young sons, 10-year-old Hillman (Woods) (also known as "Hilly") and seven-year-old Davey (McIver). Sheriff Ruth Merrill (Cassidy) watches over the sleepy hamlet, and is an inveterate collector of dolls (owning hundreds of them, which she displays in a room in the back of her office). State Trooper Butch Duggan (Ashton) is Merrill's liaison with state law enforcement from Derry
Derry (Stephen King)
Derry, Maine is a fictional town and a part of Stephen King's fictional Maine topography, and, like Castle Rock, it has served as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. It first appeared in the short story "The Bird and the Album" and was expanded on in both It and...

, and generally has little respect for the small-town sheriff.

As Anderson and Gardner unearth more of the object, the local townspeople begin to undergo subtle changes. Insomnia
Insomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...

 becomes common, and they begin to be able to read one another's minds. Some individuals also become eccentric inventors, using kitchen gadgets, batteries, small home appliances, and odds and ends to create wondrous new machines such as an automatic letter sorter, a typewriter that can telepathically read one's mind while asleep, and a device that can make a BLT sandwich from raw food products. These inventions often exhibit an energy source that emits an unearthly green glow when the device is active. Gardner is astonished when Anderson's "telepathic typewriter" is able to create a fantastically well-written novel about Buffalo Soldier
Buffalo Soldier
Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas....

s. Anderson also begins to compulsively dig around the artifact, revealing more and more of it. Gardner, however, experiences no creative or mental expansion, and is deeply worried about his lover's behavior. Gardner has a metal plate in his head due to a skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....

 accident some years before, and Anderson believes that might be inhibiting whatever is "improving" the others. Even children are affected: Hilly Brown, an aspiring magician
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...

, constructs a "magic machine" which he demonstrates to his parents, grandfather, brother, and neighbors on his birthday. The device makes several inanimate objects disappear and reappear. But when Hilly makes his brother Davey disappear, the boy cannot be made to reappear. Believing Davey somehow ran off, Sheriff Merrill leads the town in an extensive search for the missing child but he cannot be located. Trooper Duggan helps with the search for Davey. Marie, despondent over her child's disappearance, becomes increasingly hysterical due to her insomnia. But Bryant loses interest in his missing son, and begins working on his own invention (the sandwich maker).

One night after Joe Paulson storms out of his house in a faux temper trantrum (a ruse so that he can make love to Nancy Voss that night), Deputy Paulson is astonished to find that the host of her favorite television program, She-Devils, can speak to her through the screen. The program host tells her that Joe is having an affair, and the contestants on the show demand that she kill Joe. The next day, Becka Paulson builds a device with the help of instructions given to her through the television set. When Joe returns home and turns on the television, he is electrocuted. Becka goes insane, and is placed in a nearby psychiatric hospital (where she endlessly repeats the term "tommyknockers").

The first part of the two-part miniseries ends when Hilly attempts to recreate his "magic machine" and bring Davey back. Hilly repeats a nursery rhyme about "tommyknockers," but then suffers a seizure and is rushed to the nearby (fictional) town of Derry, Maine
Derry (Stephen King)
Derry, Maine is a fictional town and a part of Stephen King's fictional Maine topography, and, like Castle Rock, it has served as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. It first appeared in the short story "The Bird and the Album" and was expanded on in both It and...

, and its modern hospital. (The town of Derry features in many Stephen King stories.)

Part Two

The second part of the miniseries opens with the search for missing Davey Brown slowly slackening as the population of Haven becomes more and more obsessed with their inventions. In the hospital in Derry, Ev Hillman learns that Hilly has a massive brain tumor and has lost several of his permanent teeth. But back in Haven, Bryant and Marie Brown seem less and less concerned about both Davey and Hilly. More and more townspeople are creating fantastic devices, and every affected person seems drained of energy and life.

While searching for Davey Brown, Sheriff Merrill discovers Bobbi Anderson unearthing the huge object underneath the forest floor. Although worried, Merrill continues her search for the missing boy. Convinced that something in the town of Haven caused his grandson's brain tumor, Ev Hillman begins researching the history of the town. He uncovers newspaper articles going back more than two centuries documenting inexplicable mass murders, deadly hunting accidents, and even a deathbed confession from a Native American tribal chief claiming that the area is cursed. Hillman tries to convince Trooper Duggan to investigate, but Duggan dismisses his claims.

Back in Haven, Nancy Voss continues to invent even more futuristic devices, including a sort of "disintegrator ray" (contained in a lipstick) which emits a green light and can destroy anything. Most stores close and many town functions (such as postal deliveries) cease as the townspeople work on their devices. Sheriff Merrill comes to believe that Anderson had something to do with Davey Brown's disappearance, and almost arrests Anderson. But Merrill becomes suspicious that much more is going on, and returns to her office to call Duggan. Despite Anderson's warning that she must "join with us" or be "punished," Merrill contacts Duggan and asks him to help. The telephone line goes dead, and Merrill is assaulted by her dolls, which have mysteriously come to life. With Merrill missing and Haven cut off, Duggan and two other state troopers investigate. Duggan is shocked by the townspeople's aparthy and apparent illness (hair falling out, baggy eyes, pale skin, exhaustion, etc.). When he himself begins to feel nauseous (a sign that the forest object is beginning to affect him), he returns to Derry (and the illness vanishes). His two troopers are killed by Nancy Voss with her disintegrator ray.

Gardner becomes increasingly worried about Anderson. He returns home one evening to find her in hysterics, claiming her beloved dog Petey has died. Gardner tries to take her to the hospital in Derry, but she protests and he allows her to stay at home. The next day, she appears fine. He also discovers that the garage has been padlocked, and Anderson (who has the key) will not give him access. Gardner becomes worried when he learns Merrill is missing and the phone lines are dead. He spends that evening getting drunk with Bryant Brown, and on his way home staggers into the town park. While sitting in the shadows of the bandstand in the park, he sees Anderson and the other townspeople gather before the local church. He is horrified to realize that Anderson and the others are now possessed by some evil force, and are planning to complete their "becoming." He is discovered and attempts to flee the town, but his vehicle is disabled by an alien device and a green energy barrier prevents him from leaving on foot (as every time he comes into contact with one of the energy sources, the metal plate in his head causes him extreme pain).

Voss wants to kill Gardner, but Anderson puts him to work unearthing more of the object in the woods. It's now clear that some huge object lies beneath the earth. Meanwhile, Trooper Duggan returns to Haven to seek Merrill and his missing deputies, with Ev Hillman coming along for the ride. They find the town deserted. Duggan is killed when the soft drink
Soft drink
A soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...

 vending machine
Vending machine
A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

 he is using explodes (it had been rigged with an alien device). Hillman sees some townspeople heading to the excavation in the woods, and follows them. Bryant and Marie lure him to Anderson's garage on the pretext that he will be able to see Davey. Gardner, meanwhile, removes one of his teeth with pliers
Pliers
Pliers are a hand tool used to hold objects firmly, for bending, or physical compression. Generally, pliers consist of a pair of metal first-class levers joined at a fulcrum positioned closer to one end of the levers, creating short jaws on one side of the fulcrum, and longer handles on the other...

, and tells Anderson that he is beginning to feel new thoughts and have visions. Although Anderson (like all the others) cannot read Gardner's mind due to the metal plate in his head, she accepts his story because she loves him. After making love to Anderson, Gardner steals her keys and goes to the garage. Inside, he discovers a large amount of obviously alien technology. Petey the dog, Sheriff Merrill, and Ev Hillman have been encased in glowing green crystal and are being used or consumed in some way by the alien equipment. Hillman is still alive, however, and he whispers that Gardner must "find the boy." Hillman says Davey is "with the tommyknockers," which leads Gardner to believe the child is inside the buried alien object.

Anderson discovers Gardner in the garage, but Gardner convinces her that he must descend into the alien object in order to fully "become." Gardner and Anderson spend the night digging, and uncover a new, glowing octagon set deep into the earth. They activate it, and a portal opens beneath them which takes them hundreds of feet into what is obviously an alien starship. They exit into the ship's command room, where they see many mummified aliens. The aliens have fangs, extended skulls, milky eyes, and grey skin, and their legs are more like a dog's (with a backward-extending knee) than a human's. Many of the aliens appear locked in mortal combat. Anderson and Gardner go into another chamber, and discover a dead alien pilot strapped to a gigantic wheel-like device. They conclude the pilot controlled the ship telepathically, and once linked to the ship cannot be removed.

Gardner spots Davey Brown encased in crystal, his mind being drained by the ship. The ship is using Davey's mental energy as power, and Gardner realizes that it is also draining the life-force from Anderson and the others. After a brief scuffle, Gardner forces Anderson to realize that she has experimented on her beloved dog and is killing a young boy. The flood of emotion breaks the alien control over Anderson's mind. However, the presence of the two human beings has somehow resurrected one of the "dead" aliens, restoring its body to full health. Using one of the many sharp-edged weapons scattered about the ship, Gardner beheads the alien after a brief fight. Gardner and Anderson free Davey, and Anderson flees with the boy to the surface. Gardner removes the dead pilot from the control panel, and connects himself to the ship.

On the surface, the other townspeople realize the ship has become active and begin to stream into the woods to the excavation site. Anderson and Davey exit the ship and flee into the woods. Aboard the buried craft, Gardner destroys the controls which operate the external portal, preventing anyone from entering the ship. Bryant Brown tries to use a disintegrator ray rifle (invented by Voss) on the ship's hull, but the ship channels the energy back and his own weapon destroys him. Voss, enraged by his death, spots Anderson and Davey Brown and pursues them into the garage. Unable to use her disintegrator lipstick with the alien technology all around, she tries to kill them with an axe. Ev Hillman appears comatose in his crystal cage. But when Voss gets too close to him, he suddenly reaches out and chokes her to death. Hillman dies, but Anderson is able to save Petey. Below the ground, the alien vessel begins lifting off. Much of the alien technology on the surface explodes, forcing Anderson and Brown to flee the garage before they can save Sheriff Merrill. Gardner takes the ship high into the sky, where he causes it to explode.

Everyone in the town is freed from the alien influence and suffer no ill effects. The miniseries ends as Anderson and her dog sit in the forest, looking up at the night sky. A voiceover from Smits (in character as Gardner) recites some lines of Gardner's poetry.

Cast

  • Jimmy Smits
    Jimmy Smits
    Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing...

     as Jim "Gard" Gardner
  • Marg Helgenberger
    Marg Helgenberger
    Mary Marg Helgenberger is an American film and television actress known for her roles as Catherine Willows in the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and as K.C...

     as Roberta "Bobbi" Anderson
  • John Ashton
    John Ashton (actor)
    John David Ashton is an American actor born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and graduate of the University of Southern California School of Theatre.John Ashton attended Enfield High School in Enfield, Connecticut....

     as Trooper Butch Dugan
  • Allyce Beasley
    Allyce Beasley
    Allyce Beasley is an American actress. She is known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. For several years , she has been the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on The Disney Channel...

     as Deputy Becka Paulson
  • Robert Carradine
    Robert Carradine
    Robert Reed Carradine is an American actor. The youngest of the Carradine family of actors, he made his first appearances on television western series such as Bonanza and his older brother David's Kung Fu. Carradine's first film role was in the 1972 film The Cowboys opposite Roscoe Lee Browne and...

     as Bryant Brown
  • Joanna Cassidy
    Joanna Cassidy
    Joanna Cassidy is an American film and television actress. She is known for her role as the replicant Zhora in the Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner...

     as Sheriff Ruth Merrill
  • Annie Corley
    Annie Corley
    Annie Corley is an American actress who has appeared in a wide variety of films and television shows since 1990. Her most notable role to date was playing Meryl Streep's daughter in the film The Bridges of Madison County....

     as Marie Brown
  • Cliff DeYoung
    Cliff DeYoung
    Clifford Tobin DeYoung is an American actor and musician.DeYoung was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended California State University....

     as Joe Paulson
  • Traci Lords
    Traci Lords
    Traci Lords , also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords and Tracy Lords, is an American film actress, producer, film director, writer and singer...

     as Nancy Voss
  • E.G. Marshall as Ev Hillman
  • Chuck Henry
    Chuck Henry
    Chuck Henry is a Los Angeles television personality and a newscaster with over 35 years of news experience. Henry can be seen co-anchoring the 5, 6 and 11 PM newscasts on KNBC-TV...

     as Chaz Stewart
  • Leon Woods as Hilly Brown
  • Paul McIver
    Paul McIver
    Paul McIver is an actor and musician from New Zealand. His first film appearance was in the television series The Ray Bradbury Theater. He has appeared in the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys films and television show as Hercules' son, and the 1993 movie, The Tommyknockers.-Biography:Paul McIver...

     as Davey Brown
  • Yvonne Lawley as Mabel Noyes
  • Bill Johnson
    Bill Johnson
    Bill Johnson may refer to:Arts and Entertainment*Bill Johnson , American actor known for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2...

     as Elt Barker

Filming

Nearly all of the filming was shot on location in the town of Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

Differences between the novel and miniseries

Although generally true to the spirit of the Stephen King novel on which it is based, the miniseries was also very different. The differences include:
  • In the novel, the Constable's last name is McCausland, not Merrill.
  • The means by which the alien spacecraft begins to affect the townspeople is not an odorless gas (as in the novel), but rather a psychic emanation (which is not explained in detail in the television program). The novel depicts this gas as being radioactive, so that anyone entering the town at the end of the novel dies almost immediately from radiation poisoning. The gas also changes the people into aliens, rather than siphoning their energy to revitalize the aliens aboard the craft. The transformation also forces the "becoming" to stay within the limits of the gas' effect or die.
    • The physical effect of the transformation in the novel is to make everyone's teeth and hair fall out (as if they were suffering from radiation poisoning). Human beings affected by the gas also have their blood congeal and turn green, their skin turns translucent, and their sexual organs disappear. Only the loss of (a few) teeth is depicted in the miniseries.
  • In the novel, Becka Paulson is told of her husband's infidelity by a picture of Jesus Christ on top of her TV. In the miniseries, she is told by Chaz Stewart, a talk show host on TV.
  • In the novel, Becka Paulson dies while killing her husband. In the miniseries, she merely goes insane and disappears from the plot midway through the program. (No one actually realizes that she is repeating the word "tommyknockers," although the audience sees this.)
  • In the novel, Davey Brown plays no large role in the story. He is teleported to an alien planet by his brother Hilly (referred to as "Altair IV" by the townspeople, though its true name is unknown) and returns at the end, appearing mysteriously in Hilly's hospital room, safe and sound. In the miniseries, he is transported inside the alien spacecraft by the mechanisms of the craft itself, where he is somehow imprisoned within the glowing, growing crystal to be drained of his life energy.
  • Although Nancy Voss becomes psychotic while under alien control, no one else in the miniseries does. This differs widely from the novel, where psychotic violence gradually becomes the norm.
  • The novel portrays the ship as constantly emitting a signal which interferes with all telephone, radio, and electronic communication once its electronics are activated. In the miniseries, this effect occurs but why it begins and where it comes from is never explained. The ship also demonstrates the ability to generate force-fields and other offensive and defensive powers in the miniseries, which it does not in the novel. (This, too, is never explained in the television program.)
  • In the novel, Jim "Gard" Gardner has left-wing social and political views, and his discourses on such things as nuclear power, the threat of nuclear war, corruption in government, and the dehumanizing effects of technology inform much of the novel's allegorical aspects. In the miniseries, this aspect of Gardner's character is completely missing.
  • In the novel, local, state, and federal governments are shown as totalitarian and corrupt. In the miniseries, although some state and local officials have personality conflicts, have a dysfunctional relationship, and perhaps are too bureaucratic, government and authority is seen as largely benign. Sherriff Merrill is portrayed very sympathetically in the miniseries.
    • Note: Ruth Merrill was not the sheriff, but rather the town constable. She was not corrupt at all and was portrayed sympathetically in the novel; however her refusal to "become" saddened those in town. She used her new powers to rig a bomb in the clock tower, to try to bring attention from the outside to what was happening in the town. She was killed when it exploded. Her dolls were used to help fuse the bomb and indeed spoke to her instructing how to make the bomb.
  • In the novel, Bobbi Anderson begins unearthing the alien spacecraft because the aliens drive her to do it. Jim Gardener joins her because he is afraid for his life, and does not want to cause trouble. Also, he wants to figure out a way to stop it to save Bobbi. This motive is absent in the miniseries. Instead, they unearth the object out of curiosity and the subtle psychic encouragement of the ship itself.
  • Peter the dog is tortured and experimented on at length in the novel. However, the dog is shown as having suffered not a single ill effect in the miniseries (not even its fur is matted after it is freed from the glowing green crystal).
  • In the novel, Butch Duggan is brainwashed into killing himself after him and Ev Hillman go to Haven to investigate. In the miniseries, he is killed by an exploding soda machine.
  • One of the largest changes concerns the fate of the female lead: in the novel, the "becoming" transformation is irreversible, and Gardner mercy-kills Anderson when she proves unable to free herself from the alien control. This occurs in the kitchen of the home they share. In the minseries, Gardner is able to get through to her by appealing to her love for her dog and her sympathy for the boy, and she is not only able to free herself from alien control but also survives.
  • The alien spacecraft is depicted as a huge "flying saucer" in the novel, but in the miniseries it is shown to be a horseshoe-shaped craft with a bulbous middle and cubic projections over its entire surface.
  • During the alien ship's lift-off in the novel, it sets fires to the forest—killing nearly all the "become" townspeople. No such fire occurs in the miniseries, and none of the townspeople are depicted as dead or affected in any way (except for Hilly Brown, who remains comatose and suffering from a brain tumor). In addition, many of the transformed who survived the fire died shortly thereafter, since they could not survive without the alien gas emitted by the craft. In the miniseries, the townspeople immediately returned to normal.
    • The novel ends with several government agencies imprisoning the few "become" townspeople who have survived, confiscating the remaining alien technology, and killing the townspeople who have not completely "become" or whom they do not wish to imprison. Because the effects of the ship on the townspeople are reversed in the miniseries, none of these events occur.
  • The novel contains expository sections in which several characters reveal a great deal of backstory about the aliens, including their society, biology, emotional capacity, and how they use technology. Almost none of this backstory is included in the miniseries.
  • Gardner learns in the novel that lower-caste Tommyknockers are drained of their life-force, and this energy is used by the higher-caste aliens to power the spacecraft. In the miniseries, this is not revealed. However, the aliens are depicted as draining the life-force of nearby human beings to resurrect themselves and (in part) power the ship.
    • In addition, in the miniseries, the pilot of the craft is permanently connected to a ring-liked control system, while in the novel, the ship was piloted from a fairly ordinary control panel, giving Gardner's sacrifice more meaning since he could have chosen to escape once he removed the ship.
  • Anderson's domineering sister Anne briefly appears in the book (which shows more of Anderson's backstory and the early stages of her relationship with Gardner), and winds up as one of those connected into the power system in the shed. She does not appear at all in the miniseries.

External links

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