Post by DR. QUIST on Oct 31, 2009 5:30:49 GMT -5
Radio Times 5 February 1970
Elizabeth Cowley introduces Doomwatch – a fictional drama series frighteningly close to reality
The honeymoon of science is over - and married life is not so rosy
Doomwatch: Monday 9.40 BBC1 Colour
Fact: Nuclear powered space vehicles will be needed in order to reach the outer planets of the solar system. If one should crash, explode or leak during take-off, there could well be radioactive contamination on a vast scale.
Fact: In Asia there are seven rats to every Asian; in Europe the ratio is far less: one rat to every European. Rats are used in advanced experiments in genetics. An experiment which went wrong would produce a breed of killer rats.
Fact: One human being is born every second; mankind makes waste, waste pouring into our rivers at the rate of thirty gallons per person per day. In Britain, over five thousand miles of river are polluted. By the year 1990, we could be drastically short of clean water. Meanwhile on land, we are reducing green belts to deserts with our pesticides and agricultural policies.
Fact: Man is the most destructive species on Earth. And the irony is that it is often from his very genius for making a cleaner, fuller and faster life he destroys the balance of nature and perhaps will destroy himself!
Fact: Two thirds of this planet are covered by sea.An infinitely smaller fraction is arable land. Into the sea-on government authority - we are dumping chemical and atomic waste...in canisters which are known to corrode with time. On the land we are reducing green belts to deserts with our pesticides and defoliation techniques. Starvation on an unprecedented scale, has already begun.
These facts - and you have only top pick up a newspaper to find more - have been the private obsession for four years now of two men: Gerry Davis, the original script editor of Dr Who, and Dr Kit Pedler, Head of the Department of Anatomy at the Institute of Opthalmology in the University of London.
‘I started picking Kit’s brains for scientific advice during Dr Who’ said Davis, ‘and gradually v=began to find we thought alike about what was happening in the world. Without being aware of it, we were quietly cutting our own throats. We began to keep scrapbooks about each new, devastating hazard – we have literally thousands of examples now – and out of these scrapbooks, Doomwatch was born.
It’s the code-name of a government department set up to keep a private eye on the forms of research which can produce these types of hazard – and stop them from getting out of hand. ‘Our chief is an incorruptible scientist, Dr Quist (John Paul), who doesn’t give a damn for the inevitable political and big-business pressures put on him to make him soft-pedal his investigations. ‘While he and his team are observing the scientists in their work, MI6 are observing them. They’re a highly strung, highly independent team – and this doesn’t always go down well with the authorities. Quist is often in hot water – and he can be a bastard. But he has integrity – and he wins through. Usually.’
Said producer Terence Dudley: ‘In crude terms, Quist and his lot are the “goodies,” breaking their necks to save us from ourselves. But the “baddies” are not necessarily the scientists. Sometimes they’re the men who exploit science for their own ends. In an episode entitled ‘The Battery People,’ it’s a retired army officer who, though he is within his legal rights in rearing battery hens by ultra-efficient methods, quite knowingly allows the excreta of his hens – containing artificially added hormones – to be sold commercially as manure. The men who collect the manure absorb enough of a new hormone (Actimycin S) to make them impotent. Result: a staggering divorce rate in the local village! It’s frightening but scientifically plausible.’
‘Doomwatch isn’t set in the distant future,’ said Davis. ‘It’s next Tuesday if you like. In ‘Burial at Sea,’ we’ve got a famous pop group. They’re found flat out – drifting at sea in a luxury yacht. Of course the police pounce, looking for drugs. But what has actually crippled the kids is something far more sinister.’
The Doomwatch men weren’t keen to give away too many plots – and even less keen to talk about some of the extraordinary special effects the series demands. But what about this week, episode one ‘The Plastic Eaters’? ‘Well,’ said Davis, ‘what are you sitting on? A plastic-covered chair. What’s this ceiling lined with? Another type of plastic composition. And what are your squeezy soap containers and toothpaste tubes made of? Plastic. The world is awash with the stuff. ‘Now suppose science produced a plastic-eating agent to destroy plastic waste and stop it from clogging our rivers. And suppose some of the stuff was inadvertently carried onto an aircraft. And suppose it got loose…?’
As scientist behind the series, Dr Kit Pedler says, ‘I think the story closest to home is the one about heart transplants. ‘In that one we’ve moved into the field of producing animal hearts which cannot be rejected by human tissue. I know that may sound all right – but I can tell you there’s a horrifying twist in it.’
‘Look,’ said Davis, ‘the whole point about Doomwatch is simply this. The days when you and I marveled at the “miracles” of science – and writers made fortunes out of sci-fi – are over. We’ve grown up now – and we’re frightened. The findings of science are still marvelous, but now is the time to stop dreaming up science-fiction about them and write what we call “sci-fact.” The honeymoon of science is over That’s what Doomwatch is all about!’
Elizabeth Cowley introduces Doomwatch – a fictional drama series frighteningly close to reality
The honeymoon of science is over - and married life is not so rosy
Doomwatch: Monday 9.40 BBC1 Colour
Fact: Nuclear powered space vehicles will be needed in order to reach the outer planets of the solar system. If one should crash, explode or leak during take-off, there could well be radioactive contamination on a vast scale.
Fact: In Asia there are seven rats to every Asian; in Europe the ratio is far less: one rat to every European. Rats are used in advanced experiments in genetics. An experiment which went wrong would produce a breed of killer rats.
Fact: One human being is born every second; mankind makes waste, waste pouring into our rivers at the rate of thirty gallons per person per day. In Britain, over five thousand miles of river are polluted. By the year 1990, we could be drastically short of clean water. Meanwhile on land, we are reducing green belts to deserts with our pesticides and agricultural policies.
Fact: Man is the most destructive species on Earth. And the irony is that it is often from his very genius for making a cleaner, fuller and faster life he destroys the balance of nature and perhaps will destroy himself!
Fact: Two thirds of this planet are covered by sea.An infinitely smaller fraction is arable land. Into the sea-on government authority - we are dumping chemical and atomic waste...in canisters which are known to corrode with time. On the land we are reducing green belts to deserts with our pesticides and defoliation techniques. Starvation on an unprecedented scale, has already begun.
These facts - and you have only top pick up a newspaper to find more - have been the private obsession for four years now of two men: Gerry Davis, the original script editor of Dr Who, and Dr Kit Pedler, Head of the Department of Anatomy at the Institute of Opthalmology in the University of London.
‘I started picking Kit’s brains for scientific advice during Dr Who’ said Davis, ‘and gradually v=began to find we thought alike about what was happening in the world. Without being aware of it, we were quietly cutting our own throats. We began to keep scrapbooks about each new, devastating hazard – we have literally thousands of examples now – and out of these scrapbooks, Doomwatch was born.
It’s the code-name of a government department set up to keep a private eye on the forms of research which can produce these types of hazard – and stop them from getting out of hand. ‘Our chief is an incorruptible scientist, Dr Quist (John Paul), who doesn’t give a damn for the inevitable political and big-business pressures put on him to make him soft-pedal his investigations. ‘While he and his team are observing the scientists in their work, MI6 are observing them. They’re a highly strung, highly independent team – and this doesn’t always go down well with the authorities. Quist is often in hot water – and he can be a bastard. But he has integrity – and he wins through. Usually.’
Said producer Terence Dudley: ‘In crude terms, Quist and his lot are the “goodies,” breaking their necks to save us from ourselves. But the “baddies” are not necessarily the scientists. Sometimes they’re the men who exploit science for their own ends. In an episode entitled ‘The Battery People,’ it’s a retired army officer who, though he is within his legal rights in rearing battery hens by ultra-efficient methods, quite knowingly allows the excreta of his hens – containing artificially added hormones – to be sold commercially as manure. The men who collect the manure absorb enough of a new hormone (Actimycin S) to make them impotent. Result: a staggering divorce rate in the local village! It’s frightening but scientifically plausible.’
‘Doomwatch isn’t set in the distant future,’ said Davis. ‘It’s next Tuesday if you like. In ‘Burial at Sea,’ we’ve got a famous pop group. They’re found flat out – drifting at sea in a luxury yacht. Of course the police pounce, looking for drugs. But what has actually crippled the kids is something far more sinister.’
The Doomwatch men weren’t keen to give away too many plots – and even less keen to talk about some of the extraordinary special effects the series demands. But what about this week, episode one ‘The Plastic Eaters’? ‘Well,’ said Davis, ‘what are you sitting on? A plastic-covered chair. What’s this ceiling lined with? Another type of plastic composition. And what are your squeezy soap containers and toothpaste tubes made of? Plastic. The world is awash with the stuff. ‘Now suppose science produced a plastic-eating agent to destroy plastic waste and stop it from clogging our rivers. And suppose some of the stuff was inadvertently carried onto an aircraft. And suppose it got loose…?’
As scientist behind the series, Dr Kit Pedler says, ‘I think the story closest to home is the one about heart transplants. ‘In that one we’ve moved into the field of producing animal hearts which cannot be rejected by human tissue. I know that may sound all right – but I can tell you there’s a horrifying twist in it.’
‘Look,’ said Davis, ‘the whole point about Doomwatch is simply this. The days when you and I marveled at the “miracles” of science – and writers made fortunes out of sci-fi – are over. We’ve grown up now – and we’re frightened. The findings of science are still marvelous, but now is the time to stop dreaming up science-fiction about them and write what we call “sci-fact.” The honeymoon of science is over That’s what Doomwatch is all about!’