The Tribe (TV series)

Development

Discussion which led to the creation of the series began when Raymond Thompson, co-founder of the production company Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment Group and known for his work as a screenwriter on the soap Howards' Way, was approached by Nick Wilson of Channel 5 to "develop a soap for the millennium targeting a child/adolescent market". Raymond Thompson recalled an idea that he had as far back as the 1980s about a world without adults, run by tribes of children and teenagers. Having already worked with writer Harry Duffin on several occasions, Thompson contacted him in November 1997 to work with him on further developing of the new TV series for Cloud 9. They then commissioned and recruited a team of ten writers to adapt the storylines and by July 1998 the first four scripts of The Tribe were finished.

Pre-production for Series 1 started in June 1998 and filming began in August 1998. Principal photography was completed in March 1999 and the first episode premiered on Channel 5 on 24 April 1999.

Filming

The cast and crew mounted to between 400 and 500 people on each series of The Tribe. Filming of each series took about four to six months. This mainly took place in two studios at Cloud 9’s production centre in Wellington, New Zealand. The permanent set of the "Phoenix Shopping Mall" was located in Studio A. This huge structure took five weeks to build prior to the commencement of principal photography and was said to be the largest set built for a production in New Zealand at the time. All of the shops contained in the Mall were built to almost realistic shop size specifications and designed to last for a long time.

Studio B housed the sewers that the Mall Rats use to secretly escape the Mall, as well as temporary structures that were built for scenes outside the Mall or in other parts. The Mall set was repainted and dressed accordingly to use on another Cloud 9 production that was filmed at the same time, Atlantis High.

The Tribe was also shot on location in and around Wellington. For example, the Cloud 9 Studios car park was used as the exterior of the Mall and Alice and Ellie’s farmhouse was built in the rural area of Whitemans Valley in Upper Hutt. At times, the crew closed off Wellington streets during the weekends to shoot scenes that took place in the desolate streets of the City The Tribe was based in.

Casting

Most of the cast had agents prior to the casting in 1998, as they had already worked on productions that were filmed in New Zealand, such as Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys or Mirror, Mirror II.

Many of the actors had also worked with Raymond Thompson on other Cloud 9 productions before they auditioned for The Tribe. Jennyfer Jewell (Ellie) and Ryan Runciman (Ryan) had worked on The Enid Blyton Adventure Series in 1996 and Jewell had also starred in The Enid Blyton Secret Series in 1997 alongside Daniel James (Zoot). Beth Allen (Amber) and Michael Wesley-Smith (Jack) had been cast in The Legend of William Tell in 1998 and many cast members from series 1 had acted in William Shatner’s A Twist in the Tale in 1999.

The majority of the actors cast in series 1 were still in school and were tutored between scenes at Cloud 9's production centre. The underaged cast members stayed in the "Cast House" for the duration of the shoot and were accompanied by chaperones on set. Intra-cast dating was strictly forbidden and actors Jaimee Kaire-Gataulu (Cloe) and Dan Weekes-Hannah (Ved) were fired during series 4 for breaking this rule.

Cancellation

Pre-production for Series 6 started in September 2003 and a script for a Tribe movie was written and put on the market. However, Nick Wilson, of Channel 5, and Raymond Thompson eventually decided that although "the show was still performing well, [they] felt that the cast was getting too old [and that] it was beginning to stretch the core proposition." The cast and crew members went on to work on other productions. The scripts for the first two episodes of Series 6 were included on the Series 5 DVD box set released in 2006 (see 2006 in home video). The episodes told the story of the Mall Rats, who had to leave the City on a boat at the end of Series 5, as they arrived on an unknown island.

During pre-production for Series 6, Channel 5 and Cloud 9 created a sequel for The Tribe: The New Tomorrow. 26 episodes were produced and they aired in 2005 on the Seven Network in Australia and on Five. It was also filmed in Wellington, with 20 core cast and up to 100 crew, including a large number who had worked on Peter Jackson's King Kong. Many themes and story lines intended for The Tribe's Series 6 were used and adapted for the new show. It was aimed at a younger audience, 8 to 12-year olds, but followed the same theme of children creating a new world without the adults. It was set further in the future and followed the story of four Tribes: the Ants, the Barbs, the Privileged and the Discards. Raymond Thompson mentioned in October 2013 that a potential Tribe motion picture and a television sequel were in development but no other official sources have confirmed this information.

Plot

The Tribe was targeted primarily at an audience age of 11 to 18, though it has fans of all ages. Five series of The Tribe have been created, with 52 episodes per series, amounting to 260 episodes in the entire run.

The TV series starts about six to nine months after all the adults have been killed by an unknown virus. The story is about the survival of the children and teenagers who are left on their own in and around an unnamed city. The world has become a primitive hell of confusion, danger and fear. With no adults to guide, rule or protect them, the children of the world are on their own and need to build a new world they can live in.

The show mainly focuses on the tribe of the Mall Rats. Its members are confronted with problems of technology (how to get clean water and some form of power) and problems of morality. The children deal with teenage issues (loves, fears, betrayals, ambitions, friendships) as well as bigger issues that threaten peace in their new world (finding an antidote to the virus, bringing peace to the city, defeating the Locos, Chosen and Technos).

Series 1

Amber and Dal wander the streets when they stumble upon Cloe, Salene, Patsy and Paul. They are attacked by Lex, Ryan and Zandra and take refuge in a shopping mall where Jack has been living since his father died. Seeing the advantages the mall offers, they all decide to stay. Lex and Ryan agree to defend the newly formed tribe in exchange for shelter and food. They are soon joined by Bray and a heavily pregnant Trudy. Lex and the rest of the tribe members want Trudy gone, however Bray will not let them throw her out. Though the majority is against letting them stay, they change their mind once the baby is born. Everyone thinks that Bray is the father of Trudy's baby; however, Bray's brother, Zoot, is the father. Lex decides to call themselves the Mall Rats in a bonding ritual performed by the newly arrived, spiritual Tai-San.

Throughout Series 1, the Mall Rats struggle to survive in the new world. The tribe is confronted with water and food shortage. Jack and Dal work on a sand water filter that allows them to drink rain water. They also make a wind turbine that allows them to trade batteries for food. The members of the new tribe at first find it difficult to live with each other. They all have different opinions and tend to put their own interests first. Amber, Bray and Lex compete for leadership and barely agree to share the responsibilities. Amber takes care of day-to-day management, Bray supplies food and Lex is named Head of Security. The characters also have to deal with personal problems inside their tribe. Trudy suffers from postnatal depression and Patsy's twin brother, Paul, goes missing without a trace. Salene suffers from bulimia (which goes through to season 2), but finds comfort in Trudy and Ryan.

The Mall Rats also have to defend themselves against outside enemies. Jack invents an alarm system that tells them when there is an intruder. When Zoot is accidentally killed in a fight with Lex, the Locos start looking for him everywhere. The Mall Rats take part in a tribal gathering and unsuccessfully try to convince the other tribes to rebel against the Locos. After KC loses everything while gambling, the Tribe Circus invades the mall and leaves them for dead. They are saved just in time by an improbable alliance with the new leader of the Locos, Ebony.

When the second wave of the virus hits the city, the Mall Rats decide to go search inside government buildings, hoping to find a cure. Bray, Amber, Dal and Lex find an antidote on nearby Hope Island, and when Lex catches the virus, Ebony forces him to drink it to test its effects. Lex is fully cured and the Mall Rats, along with Ebony, leave the mall for Eagle Mountain, hoping to find further information on the antidote. Once there, they don't find any formula and the Mall Rats consider going their separate ways. Suddenly, there is a Spanish message to the space observation site Eagle Mountain: "Vaya con Dios" ("Go with God") and the Mall Rats are told they are the only hope for humanity.

Series 2

Series 2 begins on Eagle Mountain, just as a generator catches fire in the building. Amber and a pregnant Zandra die in the explosion that follows. The Mall Rats are distraught, but still end up deciding to stay together and find another antidote before they get wiped out.

After finding the formula, Tai-San becomes the only one who knows how to make the antidote. The Mall Rats take advantage of their new position of power and try to instate peace in the city. Danni joins them and tries to set up a Bill of Rights in an effort to unite all the tribes. Lex and Alice, Tai-San's new bodyguard, supervise the security of the trading market that is installed in the mall. Jack and Ellie work together on finding more information about the origins of the virus and create a newssheet for the city, called The Amulet. When the Mall Rats discover they don't need the antidote any more, they fear the city will descend into chaos again.

The Mall Rats are confronted by the mysterious tribe of the Chosen, led by The Guardian, that worships Zoot as a God. They kidnap Brady and Trudy to complete their Holy Trinity. Unknown to the others, when Trudy comes back a few months later, the Chosen have brainwashed her into secretly working on taking over the whole city with them. They abduct people and make sure the Mall Rats believe Ebony is behind the kidnappings. Alice and Ebony try to warn the Mall Rats, but the Chosen invade the city and take everyone prisoner in the mall.

Series 3

At the beginning of Series 3, the Guardian and the Supreme Mother, Trudy, have taken control over the mall. Ebony, Lex and Bray escaped and are now in the woods working on a plan to save all the Mall Rats, who must either join the Chosen or work as slaves. Jack is taken away when he tries to find an escape for his friends. Ebony and Lex meet Pride, who takes them back to his tribe the Ecos. Their leader is Eagle, later revealed to be Amber, whose death was faked by Ebony back on Eagle Mountain. Pride later rescues Bray and Dal from the Chosen. Although reluctant to join the fight against the Chosen at first, Amber changes her mind after the death of her best friend, Dal, who tried to escape from the Chosen. The rebels rescue Trudy from the mind-controlling Guardian and recruit numerous tribes to help them win the battle.

Inside the Mall, Patsy joins the Chosen as a spy and so does Cloe, but ends up getting sent away when they are discovered. Alice convinces Ellie to get closer to Luke, The Guardian's lieutenant, in order to overthrow the Chosen. Ryan refuses to let the Chosen control his life and gets taken away. Salene, afraid for the life of her unborn baby, agrees to follow their orders but suffers a miscarriage after falling down the stairs.

The Guardian decides it is Zoot's will that Tai-San should be the New True Supreme Mother, after Trudy is named an imposter when the rebels save her from execution; when Lex finds out he tries to kill The Guardian at her coronation. When Bray tries to pull him back, he accidentally shoots Tai-San and mistakenly believes she is dead. At the end of Series 3, the rebels storm the mall and defeat the Chosen. The Guardian is imprisoned, but the city leaders disagree over what must be done with him. Ebony is elected as city leader. When Bray and Amber (who is pregnant) refuse to let her execute The Guardian, she banishes them just as a mysterious plane approaches the city. Jack returns to find Luke and Ellie are together. After witnessing them kissing he chooses to leave, but soon returns.

Series 4

Series 4 begins just as the Technos are starting their invasion. They possess advanced technology and the mall rats are helpless against them. They raid the mall and take Alice, KC, Tai-San and May away to work in their labour camps. Cloe is the only one left in the mall after she hid from the Technos. She becomes distressed and finds comfort in Pride and later develops feelings for him, which he cannot return due to her age. While trying to overthrow the Technos, Jack is captured and taken away as well. Bray is taken while Amber is about to give birth. Trudy finds her and they rejoin the Eco tribe with their babies. Ellie and Jack rescue a former 'Mosquito' (a minor, all-girl Tribe) Dee from the Technos when she is zapped by their weapons.

Ebony tries to make a deal with the Technos' general, Jay, in order to hold a little power in the city. Ellie, blaming Ebony for Jack's capture, attempts to kill her and is sent away to a labour camp. The Technos seem to want to bring progress and order to the city. However, in secret, their leader, Ram, is experimenting a new virtual game on people with the help of Jay's brother, Ved. Ved starts a relationship with Mall Rat Cloe but when she tells him she is pregnant, he immediately dumps her. Amber becomes unwillingly addicted to the game and realises the Technos must be stopped. She asks an initially reluctant Cloe to get information from Ved, but Cloe later agrees, getting Ved drunk and taking advantage of him by receiving the password for his computer. Ebony reluctantly agrees to marry Ram, but ends up betraying him and escapes the city with Jay, who has come to realise what Ram's real plans are. Cloe becomes addicted to reality space and whilst playing the game, vanishes. Ved is distraught as he actually loved her. He fights Ram in reality space to get her back but loses and is later deleted. The Mall Rats succeed in defeating Ram by imprisoning him in virtual reality, with the help of Ram's lieutenant, Mega.

Series 5

In Series 5, Mega becomes the new leader of the Technos. He has plans to take over the city and is helped by Java, who manipulates Ebony's mind with virtual reality. Ebony, believing Zoot has come back, with her sisters, Java and Siva, create a new tribe, the Zootists, and take control of the outside of the city. The Mall Rats try to find out what happened to all of their friends who disappeared when the Technos invaded, and Amber is distraught to learn Bray was deleted. Lex, meanwhile, desperately searches for Tai-San.

Drifter Slade rescues Ram and brings him to the country town of Liberty. He hopes Ram will be able to help him defeat Mega. Jack is released and comes back to the Mall, where everyone is trying to adjust to Mega's new rules. Every citizen must take part in the work labour done for the city and be branded with a barcode in order to be identified. Jack and Ellie are reunited. New Mall Rat and stereotypical girl Gel loves Jack, but Jack wants to be with Ellie, and vice versa.

Amber and Jay start having doubts about Mega's intentions when he threatens her son, Bray Jr. They secretly conspire against him, with the help of Ellie and Jack, who volunteers to go work with Mega. Ebony realises Java is manipulating her and leaves the Zootists. She joins Slade in Liberty and helps with the rebellion. Jack steals information from Mega's computer and flees to Liberty where, with the help of Ram, he disables the city's security. The rebels attack the City and Mega is captured.

Ram takes control of Mega's computer and installs his own artificial program. However, the program becomes uncontrollable and threatens to release a new deadly virus on the city. Mega dies while trying to stop the program but is unsuccessful and the Mall Rats inform everyone they must evacuate the city. The Mall Rats escape on a boat while the virus spreads throughout the city.

The Tribes

In The Tribe most children belong to different tribes.

After a virus kills all of the adults, the world turns into chaos and the children left behind start to form tribes as a means to survival. Some tribes only seek to have power, while other tribes aim to create a new peaceful world. Each tribe has its own specific clothes or make-up which help them to differentiate themselves from other tribes. The series mainly focuses on the life of the Mall Rats.

Cast and characters

This is a list of the main characters. See List of The Tribe characters for a more thorough list.

Series 1:

Series 2:

Series 3:

Series 4:

Series 5:

Broadcast history

Series 1 of The Tribe premiered in the UK on 24 April 1999 on Five. (see 1999 in television) Five Series, totalling 260 episodes, were produced. The final two episodes of The Tribe were shown on 6 September 2003 on Five. (see 2003 in television) Five aired two episodes every week on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Tribe also aired in New Zealand and in the United States, among others. The series began airing in New Zealand on 31 August 1999 on TV4. It had a tremendous response from audiences due to the fact that it was filmed in the country and that the actors were mostly locals. In the US, Series 1 premiered on 1 December 1999 on Encore's WAM! Channel. WAM! stopped airing The Tribe after Series 4, but fans petitioned the channel and the final Series started airing on 6 September 2004.

In Australia, The Tribe premiered in 2005 on ABC2. It was then shifted to ABC3, the children's channel launched in 2009, and repeated the whole series run several times until 2012.

Other international markets which have aired the series include the following:

DVD releases

Series 1 was first released in 2003 by Sanctuary Entertainment. Two years later, Revelation Films purchased rights to the show and released all five Series throughout 2006 (see 2006 in home video). The ABC released Series 1 of The Tribe on DVD in Australia on 3 March 2011 after all 5 series concluded airing on ABC3 on 28 October 2010. In 2012 Shout! Factory announced the release of The Tribe Series 1 on DVD for release in Region 1.

Each of the five DVD box sets contains seven discs, with a total of 52 episodes.

Book releases

Several books based on the series were published in English and in German.

Books published in English:

CD releases

Abe Messiah

1. "Abe Messiah"
2. "Spinning"
3. "You Belong to Me"
4. "Abadeo"
5. "Banging the Drum"
6. "This Is the Place"
7. "I Can't Stop"
8. "Beep Beep"
9. "Everywhere You Go"
10. "The Dream Must Stay Alive"

Abe Messiah – Remix

1. "Banging the Drum" (Remix) – 3:50
2. "You Belong to Me" – 3:52
3. "This Is the Place" – 4:00
4. "Spinning" – 4:09
5. "Urban Guerrilla" (Instrumental) – 5:45
6. "Beep Beep" – 3:36
7. "I Can't Stop" – 2:59
8. "Everywhere You Go" – 3:24
9. "Abe Messiah" (Remix) – 4:24
10. "Abadeo" – 3:34
11. "Tribe Spirit" – 3:57
12. "Reflections" (Instrumental) – 2:12
13. "Day in the Urban Jungle" (Instrumental) – 6:41
14. "The Dream Must Stay Alive" – 3:33