| The Heart of Sogguth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Episode Information | |
| Series | Original Series |
| Season # | 5 |
| Episode # | 3 |
| Number of Parts | 2 |
| Original Airdate(s) | 28 March 1977 - 4 April 1977 |
| Writer(s) | Roger Price |
| Director | Vic Hughes |
| Previous | "A Much Needed Holiday" |
| Next | "The Lost Gods" |
"The Heart of Sogguth" is the third and final episode of season five of The Tomorrow People Original Series.
Mike and his band The Fresh Hearts get a new manager, who turns out to be a worshipper of an evil god named Sogguth.
Plot Summary[]
Part One: Beat the Drum (28th March 1977)
Mike and his band, The Fresh Hearts, are playing in a disco. A man calling himself Jake introduces himself to Elizabeth, claiming to be a manager and asks her if Mike's band has representation. She tells him that they probably won't be interested, but he meets the band anyway and becomes their manager.
Alone in a temple inscribed with mystical symbols, Jake starts up a metronome and spins around over a hexagram on the floor. Later, he takes the metronome to Mike and his band at the disco, telling Mike to play his drums in time with the metronome. As Mike plays, a woman wiping off the bar temporarily goes berzerk. Back in the Lab, Mike informs John and Elizabeth that he and his band will be playing on live television.
In the temple, Jake and a group of people are dressed in robes of black and red. They chant the name Sogguth in front of an old African drum. Jake intones that the time is at hand when Sogguth shall reign again.
The following evening, Jake goes to the disco and gives the drum to Mike, who says that it's out of tune. Mike telepathically contacts Elizabeth, who advises him on how to retune the drum.
During the band's performance, Elizabeth is sitting with Jake when a young woman comes up and calls him "Professor". When Jake goes to speak with the band, Elizabeth talks to the woman, who says that she recognized him as Professor Marston, a teacher of Ethnic Studies at her university. The woman also mentions Professor's religious group, called the Hearts of Sogguth.
Back in the Lab, TIM reports that the Jake's real name is James, and that the Hearts of Sogguth claim to be the first religion, some 7000 years old. Elizabeth asks John to join the Hearts of Sogguth in order to find out more about them. He does so, and undergoes a strange initiation ritual in their temple. Later, John reports that they seem to be nothing more than harmless cranks.
John and Elizabeth go to the disco, where Jake introduces Mike's band as the Hearts of Sogguth. Mike starts playing the ancient drum to the beat of the metronome, whereupon people begin chanting Sogguth and seem to fall into a trance. John is also affected and warns Elizabeth to jaunt. She does so, but only to the stage where she stops Mike from playing. Everyone snaps out of the trance, and seem to have no memory of what happened.
Elizabeth returns alone to the Lab, where she tells TIM that she fears that Mike and John have been somehow taken over.
Part Two: Devil in Disguise (4th April 1977)
Jake exerts mind control over John, giving him a ceremonial knife and telling him to deal with Elizabeth. In the Lab, John tries to stab her, but his natural instinct against killing allows him to resist the will of Sogguth.
In the temple, Jake and the others watch as Mike places the drum back into its sacred place. The voice of Sogguth warns of danger; the group pins Mike down, allowing Sogguth to fully control his will. When John and Elizabeth contact him, Mike says he is at home resting up for his band's live television performance the following day.
In an ancient book borrowed from the British Museum, Elizabeth reads a passage about Sogguth: "Sogguth, the master of evil, a lord of the universe, made war upon the creators of Heaven and Earth, and tried to destroy what they had built. Sogguth was defeated, and imprisoned for all eternity amidst the fires of the center of the Earth. Sogguth will reamin in his prison until a thousand thousand hear the beat of his heart and weep for him. Then he will rise up from the fires of the earth and destroy the lords of the heavens."
Elizabeth realizes that if Mike plays the drum in front of the television audience, Sogguth will appear. She and John jaunt to the temple, intending to destroy the drum. John can't bring himself to do it, but as Elizabeth is about to puncture the drum skin, Jake appears and seizes control of John, who knocks out Elizabeth. Jake is about to kill her when she regains consciousness and jaunts away.
At the television studio, Mike and his band are preparing for the broadcast. Elizabeth appears in the rafters above the stage, armed with a laser gun. As she is about to blast the drum, John (under the influence of Sogguth) appears and fires a stun gun at her. She dodges, and engages him in a stun gun fight while the broadcast starts. As Mike plays, everyone in the studio falls into the Sogguth trance, then Sogguth himself begins to manifest. Elizabeth finally manages to zap the drum; the spell is broken and Sogguth is defeated. Jake, however, is reduced to a skeleton.
Back in the Lab, TIM speculates that as Sogguth retreated to his place of imprisonment, he took Jake's soul with him. TIM further speculates that the reason Elizabeth was unaffected was because she was protected by the force of good. When Mike jokes that they should go to church occasionally, John grimly agrees.
Guest Cast[]
- Roddy Maude-Roxby as Jake
- James Smilie as Mike Harding
- Derek Pascoe as Derek
- Bill Rice as Bill
- Flintlock's Jamie Stone & John Summerton as The Fresh Hearts
Notes[]
According to the audio commentary on the DVD release of "War of the Empires", this was Mike Holloway's favourite story.
The concept (and name) of Sogguth is reminiscent of H.P Lovecraft's short stories of ancient aliens whom early civilisations identified as gods. The idea of an ancient book that contains key information is also often used by Lovecraft. However, the story also draws a parallel with the traditional religious concept of an evil sentient force which is opposed by a good one.