Under the Mountain
Encyclopedia
Under the Mountain was an eight-part television series based on the novel
of the same name written by Maurice Gee
and produced by Television New Zealand
and first transmitted in 1981. Many of the minor roles in this series were played by people who were at the time well known performers in New Zealand
.
, they were contacted by a man named Mr. Jones, who had met them briefly eight years earlier. This time, Mr. Jones revealed his true identity and mission. He was an alien, sent from another world in a battle against another race of aliens. These latter creatures were a family of slimy, slug-like beasts who could take on human form. Led by the evil Mr. Wilberforce, the slug monsters were now bent on destroying Earth and only the twins' emerging psychic
abilities could turn them back. The other major conflict presented by the series is that of Rachel and Theo's emerging abilities. Rachel accepted the truth of their abilities, while Theo was more of a cynic and often challenged Mr. Jones. The psychic abilities in the series increase in effectiveness as the individual grows in trust and acceptance of his or her abilities. In the final episode of the series, the twins are each required to throw a stone and focus their psychic energy into the stone to create a red and blue bridge-like construct that will defeat the Wilberforces. Because Theo's faith in his abilities and his belief in supernatural phenomena in general is lacking, his half of the bridge is insufficient to complete the construct. Mr. Jones uses the last of his life energy to complete the construct and defeat the Wilberforces, and can no longer be with Rachel and Theo as a result.
Filming for the farm & bush scenes in the first episode took place near Silverdale
, North of Auckland
, at Mt. Pleasant, a historic dairy farm & homestead in Pine Valley Road.
, Under the Mountain was shown on Nickelodeon as part of The Third Eye
. The other series included were Into the Labyrinth
, Children of the Stones
, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer
. In Dutch the title is Moddermonsters but also known as De Monsterplaneet.
For some reason the video format chosen for the DVD was NTSC, while the original production material would have been produced for PAL transmission as that is the standard in use throughout New Zealand and Australia. This makes the DVD unplayable for people with certain older TV sets unable to display NTSC.
Picture quality is described on the DVD cover as "subject to quality of dated production source."
Audio is mono, but is of an acceptable quality.
directed by Jonathan King
best known for Black Sheep
.
The cast :
Sam Neill
as Mr. Jones
Oliver Driver
as Mr. Wilberforce
Sophie McBride as Rachel Matheson
Tom Cameron as Theo Matheson
Matthew Chamberlain
Michaela Rooney.
Kirsty Wilkinson, who portrayed Rachel Matheson from the original "Under the Mountain" on television, made a cameo appearance in the film as Mrs. Wilkinson.
The film was shot in locations around Auckland
in 2008 and has the approval of author Maurice Gee
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
of the same name written by Maurice Gee
Maurice Gee
Maurice Gee is a New Zealand novelist.-Awards and honors:Gee was awarded the 1978 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Plumb...
and produced by Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services....
and first transmitted in 1981. Many of the minor roles in this series were played by people who were at the time well known performers in 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...
.
Plot and Location
The show focused on a pair of twins, Rachel and Theo Matheson. While on school summer holidays in AucklandAuckland
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...
, they were contacted by a man named Mr. Jones, who had met them briefly eight years earlier. This time, Mr. Jones revealed his true identity and mission. He was an alien, sent from another world in a battle against another race of aliens. These latter creatures were a family of slimy, slug-like beasts who could take on human form. Led by the evil Mr. Wilberforce, the slug monsters were now bent on destroying Earth and only the twins' emerging psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
abilities could turn them back. The other major conflict presented by the series is that of Rachel and Theo's emerging abilities. Rachel accepted the truth of their abilities, while Theo was more of a cynic and often challenged Mr. Jones. The psychic abilities in the series increase in effectiveness as the individual grows in trust and acceptance of his or her abilities. In the final episode of the series, the twins are each required to throw a stone and focus their psychic energy into the stone to create a red and blue bridge-like construct that will defeat the Wilberforces. Because Theo's faith in his abilities and his belief in supernatural phenomena in general is lacking, his half of the bridge is insufficient to complete the construct. Mr. Jones uses the last of his life energy to complete the construct and defeat the Wilberforces, and can no longer be with Rachel and Theo as a result.
Filming for the farm & bush scenes in the first episode took place near Silverdale
Silverdale, New Zealand
Silverdale is a suburb in south-eastern Hamilton in New Zealand.-History:It was named Silverdale after the original farm on the land, which itself was named after the shining silver poplar leaves.-Features of Silverdale:...
, North 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...
, at Mt. Pleasant, a historic dairy farm & homestead in Pine Valley Road.
Characters
Based on an original novel by Maurice Gee:- Rachel and Theo Matheson: Two seemingly ordinary fraternal twins who lived in a rural New Zealand town. One day when they were three years old, they had wandered away from their home. While a search party tried to find them, they were met by the enigmatic Mr. Jones who telekinetically kept them warm through the cold evening until they were found. Over the years to follow, they had found that they shared a telepathic link and could read each other's thoughts. Upon meeting Mr. Jones again, eight years later, he reveals the reason for his interest in the twins and their important role in his plan for saving the world from the Wilberforces.
- Mr. Jones: The last surviving member of a benevolent alien race. His true form is essentially a living flame: warm, brilliant, and without a definite shape. On Earth, however, he takes the form of a kindly old man. As he explains to Rachel and Theo, his race was known as "The People Who Understand" and had developed technology based on their powerful telepathic abilities. Mr. Jones has the ability to teleport, communicate telepathically and project powerful beams of light from his physical self. He had journeyed to Earth with another member of his race with the intention of finding and stopping the Wilberforces. The other member was older and had succumbed to old age before the Wilberforces could be found. Mr. Jones has since searched for twins whose minds are telepathically linked in order to complete the work which he and his older counterpart had started.
- The Wilberforces: A race of symbioticSymbiosisSymbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
organisms consisting of a slug-like brain (roughly twice the mass of an adult) and a large worm like body (about the size of a battleship). According to the account given to the twins by Mr. Jones, the Wilberforces originated millions of years ago on a world consisting of seas of mud which nourished the worm organisms. Threatened with extinction, the Wilberforces resolved themselves to conquering other worlds, using their technology to reform other planet's surfaces into mud in order to thrive and breed. When they had finished using a planet's resources, no life remained on that world. By the time Mr. Jones' world had been visited by them several thousand years ago, the Wilberforces had overtaken one complete spiral arm of the galaxy. Mr. Jones' race succeeded in permanently incapacitating every Wilberforce on every planet they could be found on, including Earth. However, the Wilberforces on Earth had learned to slowly counteract the telepathic weapons of The People Who Understand before being rendered dormant. By the time Rachel and Theo are discovered by Mr. Jones, the Wilberforces have nearly completely awakened.
Episode Guide
- Maar
- Volcano of the Bleeding Skies
- Red Force, Blue Force
- The Alien World Below
- Weapons of the Mind
- Any Shape, Any Form
- Assault
- The Gift of Oblivion
Cast
- Kirsty Wilkinson as Rachel Matheson
- Lance Warren as Theo Matheson
- Roy Leywood as Mr Jones
- Bill Johnson as Mr Wilberforce
- Bill Ewens as Ricky
Crew
- Directed by: Chris Bailey
- Produced by: Tom Finlayson
- Written by: Maurice GeeMaurice GeeMaurice Gee is a New Zealand novelist.-Awards and honors:Gee was awarded the 1978 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Plumb...
- Screenplay by: Ken CatranKen CatranKen Catran is a children's novelist and television screenwriter from New Zealand.Catran is the author of many teen novels, including Taken at the Flood, Voyage with Jason, Doomfire on Venus, Space Wolf, Jacko Moran:Sniper, Talking to Blue and its sequel Blue Murder...
- Music by: Bernie Allen
International Distribution
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Under the Mountain was shown on Nickelodeon as part of The Third Eye
The Third Eye (television series)
The Third Eye is a mini-series anthology that aired on Nickelodeon that consisted of a variety serials from the UK and New Zealand.When Nickelodeon premiered, The Third Eye was one of its first programs...
. The other series included were Into the Labyrinth
Into the Labyrinth (TV series)
Into the Labyrinth is a British children's television series produced by HTV for the ITV network between 1980 and 1982. Three series, each consisting of seven 25-minute episodes, were produced and directed by Peter Graham Scott...
, Children of the Stones
Children of the Stones
Children of the Stones is a television drama for children produced by HTV in 1976 and broadcast on the United Kingdom's ITV network in January and February 1977. A one-off serial, the story was depicted over seven episodes and produced by Peter Graham Scott, with Patrick Dromgoole as executive...
, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer
Haunting of Cassie Palmer
The Haunting of Cassie Palmer is a British television drama for children produced in 1981 by TVS and first broadcast on 26 February 1982. The series was based on a novel by Vivien Alcock...
. In Dutch the title is Moddermonsters but also known as De Monsterplaneet.
DVD
All eight episodes have been released on one dual-layer region-free (region 0) DVD in New Zealand .For some reason the video format chosen for the DVD was NTSC, while the original production material would have been produced for PAL transmission as that is the standard in use throughout New Zealand and Australia. This makes the DVD unplayable for people with certain older TV sets unable to display NTSC.
Picture quality is described on the DVD cover as "subject to quality of dated production source."
Audio is mono, but is of an acceptable quality.
2009 movie
'Under the Mountain' has been adapted into a New Zealand 2009 feature filmUnder The Mountain (2009 film)
Under The Mountain is a 2009 film based on the 1979 novel by New Zealand author Maurice Gee.-Plot:Teenage twins Rachel and Theo travel to Auckland to stay with relatives following the sudden death of their mother. Where there was once a psychic bond between them, now there is a rift as Theo,...
directed by Jonathan King
Jonathan King
Jonathan King is an English singer, songwriter, impresario and record producer. He is also the author of three novels, Bible Two and The Booker Prize Winner , and Beware the Monkey Man , and an autobiography, 65 My Life So Far .King first came to prominence as an...
best known for Black Sheep
Black Sheep (2007 film)
Black Sheep is a New Zealand made comedy horror film written and directed by Jonathan King. North American distribution rights were acquired by The Weinstein Company and IFC Films. The Weinstein Company released the film on DVD on 9 October 2007 under their Dimension Extreme brand through Genius...
.
The cast :
Sam Neill
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
as Mr. Jones
Oliver Driver
Oliver Driver
Oliver Driver is a New Zealand actor, director, broadcaster and television presenter.-Television:Driver was the host of Let's Be Frank, and the Creative Director of New Zealand's only alternative music television station, ALT TV, The channel is now no longer on air...
as Mr. Wilberforce
Sophie McBride as Rachel Matheson
Tom Cameron as Theo Matheson
Matthew Chamberlain
Matthew Chamberlain
Matthew Chamberlain is a New Zealand actor, who starred in the New Zealand film Black Sheep as Oliver Oldfield. Chamberlain previously co-starred in children's TV program Johnson and Friends as Diesel. Chamberlain is currently starring in the high profile role of Murray Cooper in the TVNZ Soap...
Michaela Rooney.
Kirsty Wilkinson, who portrayed Rachel Matheson from the original "Under the Mountain" on television, made a cameo appearance in the film as Mrs. Wilkinson.
The film was shot in locations around 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...
in 2008 and has the approval of author Maurice Gee
Maurice Gee
Maurice Gee is a New Zealand novelist.-Awards and honors:Gee was awarded the 1978 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Plumb...