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Post by michael on Jul 6, 2010 12:38:58 GMT -5
Spectre at the Feast At the exclusive Hotel Jayson’s diner’s are eyeing up Lobsters in a giant fishtank before entering the restaurant. Quist is attending an Anti-Pollution Conference in London and sits with four men; Benjamin Fielding (Chairman of Newington Chemicals Ltd), Dr. Robert Whitehead (Chief Scientific Advisor to Newington Chemicals), Professor Miklos Egri (Hungarian Biologist) and Dr. Heiz Bau (German Ecologists). A waiter hands out cigars whilst another serves Brandy. The Headwaiter checks that Mr Fielding is happy, which he is as he requests that Kenri knows his soufflé was superb! Quist refuses a Cigar and Fielding jumps on this exclaiming that he knew he would be a non-smoker and probably thinks it is pollution as well. Quist diplomatically agrees. Mr Fielding continues to bait Quist making a joke about his alarmist nature to which the other men laugh. Quist as ever gives a brilliant repost “ You choking yourself to death’s not relevant to the conference and it doesn’t alarm me in the least. What does concern me is you choking everybody else by spewing peroxides into the air and pumping organic silicones into the rivers”. Fielding reminds him that he is at the conference to provide evidence. Whitehead notices Cockroaches in the bowl of fruit in front of him and creates a stir. Egri helps him gather up the tablecloth. The Headwaiter appears and refutes Whitehead’s claims. When the cloth is opened there are no cockroaches in sight just a mess of broken glasses, china and fruit. At Doomwatch, Quist, Bradley, Ridge and Egri are in Quist’s office examining evidence of five hundred and thirty cases of Hallucinations, deafness and loss of balance across the country. Bradley’s is obviously trying to feed the information into the Doomwatch computer but it is playing up and he asks to be excused. Dr. Ridge suggests that it’s substance misuse or alcohol abuse. Quist would agree if most cases were teenagers but Whitehead is in his mid fifties. Egri admits he saw something too even though he doesn’t drink before Whitehead’s outburst but he didn’t let on. Regarding the conference Dr. Quist quips “Is there any doubt we’re up to the dandruff in dung?” Quist interrogates Egri but draws a blank. Bradley comes back into the office with the news that there were five other cases at the hotel. Dr. Ridge suggests the conference is being sabotaged. Quist asks Bradley to check with B.M.A for information on the hallucinations. Quist tells Dr. Ridge that sabotaging the conference is the last thing that Fielding would want to do as he’d only be putting off the inevitable. Quist thinks he actually wants to discredit it. He wants to answer the pollution accusations then justify them whilst delaying any political action. At Jayson’s Fielding is dictating to his Sue, his secretary whilst drinking coffee in the luxurious penthouse suite. Whitehead enters and pours himself a coffee. Fielding continues his dictation touching upon the fact that antipollution measures have to be considered with the needs of the National Economy. When he finishes his dictation he asks Sue to distribute it to Sir George Robson and Lord Holland. Sue then leaves the two men. Fielding asks Whitehead if he is feeling better noting that he think’s that Whitehead drinks to much and asks him to restrain himself whilst at the conference. Whitehead retorts with “Power is an appetite I don’t indulge” Fielding tells him that he doesn’t know what he is missing and no cirrhosis of the liver to go with it”. Fielding laughs when Whitehead says “No, merely paranoia” Fielding asks him if Whitehead actually enjoys anything. Cambridge is his answer. Fielding wonders what bothers Quist. Whitehead tells him that he helped to make the atom bomb and radiation killed his wife. Fielding feels he has the measure of Quist as he says “Ah! That’s better. Revenge! The blindest passion of them all” Whitehead thinks that Quist isn’t the real concern as five more cases of hallucinations have been reported with Jonkheere the Dutchman confined to his bed. Fielding is concerned that he will be blamed for this and wants to know what is going on. White head makes a joke about Cesare Borgia being renowned for his hospitality. Fielding is amused by this. At Doomwatch Quist introduces Egri to Toby and Egri tells him that he is delighted to neet him. Quist tells him that he’s a renegade physicist working in biology. Egri is impressed. Pat enters the room and Egri asks Doomwatch’s secretary Pat, for a dinner and he won’t take no for an answer. He had met her at the airport and was impressed by her kindness. Ridge and Wren are also quite impressed with his charming technique! A 'ravishing Pat' is taken to Jayston's where she is 'enjoying her pudding...' There is something wrong with Egri, his eyes are bothering him but he disguises it as Pat asks him about the issue of pollution, and that it's already too late to do anything about it. Egri disagrees, not if their governments listen to them. A little mild flirtation ensues, Pat isn't bothered that Egri is old enough to be her father but is quite happy to talk 'shop.' After all, that is what Quist would do if he was here! During all this banter, we see from Egri's point of view his hallucination. The image of Pat 'has been deteriorating and transmogrifying into a frightening grotesquerie... something quite hideous.... to which Pat's image returns intermittently.' Egri is trying to explain that regarding pollution, Spencer's biggest fight will be with ordinary men and women who will have to pay more... The industrialists can't be expected to pay for it all. He begins to falter – he sees Pat now as a repulsive mouthing crone – a gorgon! He suddenly collapses over the table. Pat stands up horrified, and the waiter comes to his aid. Quist and Wren have been working late and so are there to talk to Pat about what had happened. Egri was not alone to have seen 'things' that night. A woman saw ballet dancers, coming out of the wall. Egri has been taken to the Seymour Clinic who 'phone through and tell Quist that Egri had a mild heart attack, and there have been five more cases – three of them delegates to his conference – Manelli, Cooper and Frankheimer. Quist is going to try and get the conference extended. He looks for a note from a man called Rogers from the British Medical Association. 'All these similar cases since last September.' He reads the note: '...acute pyscho-organic syndrome... difficulty in hearing, maintaining balance... inability to dismiss irrelevant sensory experience and visual illusion. Could be caused by any number of exotoxins.' Wren remembers the way slimming pills reacted with something else. Quist asks Pat what did he eat and she said the lobsters. Quist dismisses it, beyond reproach. They are kept fresh and alive in tanks in the dining room. They go through the rest of his menu. Vinaigrette raises concern as that, according to Wren, covers a multitude of sins, gastronomically speaking. Quist asks Pat to find out what the others had to ear. 'Flaunt your considerable sexual assets.' Fielding is brought up to date about the food poisoning effect on the delegates by Whitehead. There's now a total of nine sick cases. Four of them were delegates 'in my pocket...' Whitehead feels the conference ought to be abandoned. 'What is it, with you, Whitey? Conscience? Or don't you feel up to it? ... I've over-estimated you. You're screwed up into a ball about something. Is it just self loathing or are you afraid of the opposition?' Whitehead says he takes a lot from Fielding. 'Fifteen thousand a year,' comes the reply. ' Quist is wanting to see Fielding, and is invited up to the penthouse suite. Quist and Pat are speaking to Royston, the hotel manager who is prepared to co-operate with Miss Hunnisett, and asks a uniformed page to take Quist up to the suite. Royston has a list of the food eaten by the victims which he had prepared for the Medical Officer of Health who has given the Hotel a clean bill. 'No food poisoning. At least,not from food consumed here.' Quist tells Fielding that there can be no proper debate or vote without the nine delegates. He asks for an extension for as long as necessary. Two days should be enough. It appears to be a short lived malady. He asks if Whitehead is quite recovered. 'Whitehead never recovers from anything.' Fielding also suggests a joint statement at the end of the conference, which surprises Quist. Fielding says: 'What surprises me is that you assume we're on different sides because we take different views.' Quist calmly replies: 'I never make assumptions. While you profit by pollution we're on different sides; it's as simple as that.' Who doesn't profit from pollution? Quist says that we all indirectly profit from it but that we are going to have to accept the fact that we must give up something and pay a bit more for others. What Newingtons spends on research is peanuts compared to what the oil concerns are paying to develop non-pollutant petrol. 'And what happens,' asks Fielding, 'when they succeed? We have to redesign the internal combustion engine. Who pays for that? D' you think the man in the street's going to pay more for his car because it doesn't spit lead and carbon monoxide?' Quist says he will have to if he wants to stay alive. 'Quist... you're the most dangerous man I've ever met.' You don't solve the problem of pollution by crippling the economy. Their argument rages on. Whitehead even adds: 'Man's very adaptable. We might even adapt to breathe sulphur dioxide.' Quist asks him to say that at the conference. It would look very good as a newspaper headline. Quist returns to the office to learn that two more delegates are down with the same symptoms but the others could be fit by tomorrow. Wren declares that Pat's list is quite useless since they don't know what they are looking for and the permutations are endless. Wren had tried to follow up a cumulative effect of the food but Royston through him out. 'I might have been a Russian spy!' Lobsters seem to be a common factor but others have been eaten without ill effects. Quist remembers that Egri had eaten the lobster on two consecutive nights. Wren had tried to take one but didn't have the authority. Ridge claims they need his kind of authority. 'You're on your own,' declares Quist. 'So you always remind me.' He needs camouflage, by which he means she's expensive and Quist tells him to submit the bill! Another phone call tells him of cases in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and even one in Clapham – a car accident. And it is a waiter from Jaystons – Bonenti. Wren finds Mrs Bonenti at the hotel, helping to clear away after a function. She panics for a moment fearing the worst but Wren reassures her and asks about what happened. He was kicking at things she couldn't see. She claims he had eaten nothing from the hotel. He likes Italian cooking. Ridge's camouflage is Laura Lindsay 'an exquisitely beautiful Negress' to quote the script and during the dinner with Ridge and is not aware of what he has in mind – other than a bit of the usual... Ridge orders the lobster and she asks for some raw red meat... The head waiter, ignoring their flirty behaviour, recommends an underdone Chateaubriand... The delegate Doctor Bau is taking drinks with Whitehead and Fielding. Bau has recovered from his sickness and found it so baffling that he liked to have an opportunity to track it down. Fielding wanted to ask him about his statement at the preliminary session of the conference. Fielding wants to be the first man in Europe to clear up the mess of pollution he makes, as he makes it, by fighting it with the only weapon that has a chance – hard cash. He wants the best brains in Europe to help clean up his mess, as he makes it. He offers Bau a retainer, a substantial one. Bau is hesitant. Fielding says 'This is Conservation Year, and no one can blame you for holding out for the best offer.' He sees it in terms of Britain's entry in the Common Market, and Newington's expansion into Europe... Bau is obviously interested. Bau goes to the dining room and joins Egri and others as Ridge discusses with Laura his need for a live lobster. Egri suspects Fielding is 'vote catching' and Bau begins to feel ill. Laura suggests going back to her place unless Ridge fancies a dance here. Ridge asks her to create a distraction, preferably an erotic dance. Laura isn't keen but Bau suddenly screams and jumps up from his table, Egri and others trying to calm him before he faints. Ridge looks in the direction of the disturbance and thanks him as he, with some difficulty, snatches a Lobster from its tank and quickly leaves the scene. Quist is appalled to learn of Bau's collapse. Something has to be done about this. Ridge has dropped off the lobster at the lab and given it to Bradley who tells Quist that Ridge is taking his camouflage home...
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Post by michael on Jul 6, 2010 12:39:48 GMT -5
Laura's sitting room is decorated with African masks. After a little kiss, Ridge asks who needs oysters? He remembered how once gin and oysters used to be a staple diet. Now the cost of living has gone up. Laura goes to take a shower, ladies' first. Ridge starts to get a headache and asks her when she keeps the aspirin. As he fixes her a drink, he begins to have difficulty with his ears, and his eyes, focussing on the walls. A voodoo mask appears to menace him, and another and another... He starts to hear a sacrificial dance rhythm in his ears.. His hallucination begins – In a mirror, Ridge sees a Negro warrior carrying a spear fighting another Ridge, a weakened Ridge. He shouts 'Stop it!' Ridge runs to help his invisible self. The fight climaxes on the sofa as the warrior drives a spear into his stomach. Laura runs downstairs, wrapped in a towel and finds Ridge.
Quist enters the Doomwatch office and doesn't hear Pat as she asks after Ridge. Inside the lab, a lobster is being dissected by Wren and Bradley. Various parts are in flasks or test tubes, being tested and analysed. Surgical gloves are being worn. Quist tells Wren that John has the same symptoms – deafness, giddiness, hallucinations. He ate the lobster. There is nothing wrong with this fish, it's a dead end. Bradley agrees, although he doesn't fancy it himself. But what if it was a catalyst. With Pat they run through the ingredients that made up the dish. 'With all that muck no wonder strong men are laid low.' Pat tells Wren that Mrs Bonenti is here – her husband had died this morning from his crash injuries.
Pat is helping to comfort the bereaved widow as Wren questions her. It appears she had been lying to protect her husband's job. He had stolen some lobster. He passes this information over to Quist who wants more lobster. 'Beg, borrow or steal but I want more where this came from.' Wren asks Bradley what would Ridge do?
The Hotel Manager orders a new supply of lobsters from Saunders. Half a dozen should be enough. Bradley is the one who asked him, and assures him they are not for eating. Royston is happy to co-operate. It is in his interests.
Quist is at his desk and gets Wren to shut the door; the stinks appalling. That is because the lab has been turned into a vast kitchen presided over by Pat. There are pots and pans on gas rings and a small oven. There are bottles of wine, spices, herbs and vegetables and cheeses. Bradley quite likes the smell of the cooking, Pat warns him to keep his mind on his task and finish cleaning a raw lobster. Wren still wishes they knew what they were looking for. Pat asks where they were fished, which alerts Wren to a new source of inquiry. Bradley has a list, mostly from Cornwall but some from Yorkshire. It's an old wives tale that Lobsters out of season are poisonous but dangerous because of chemical changes during the mating and breeding season. 'Changes difficult to detect because they're not consistent...' The Yorkshire Lobsters come from Whittledale fisheries... The Whittle is a river Bradley has fished in. Wren asks Pat if she could find out where the lobsters came from in all those other cases around the country. He suggests to Brad to look for something specific like phenyl siloxanes... As Brad begins, Wren goes to tell Quist who bursts into the lab. He gets Pat to order a taxi immediately, thrusts a lot of money into Colin Bradley's hands and tells him to go down to Billingsgate (the famous London fish market) and get as many lobsters as he can from Lovell and Fletcher. And to make sure they are from Whittledale Fisheries. 'And make it the fastest journey you've ever made in your life!' He looks at his watch: with luck, they may get that conference vote yet...
The conference is about to begin. Fifteen middle aged men including Fielding, Whitehead, Egri and Bau are standing about in groups talking. Fielding is saying to two of them that they must get the priorities right, what action is taken it will have to be taken higher up... there just isn't that much money... Quist arrives and the members sit at a large table as Quist gets his papers organised. This is the last day of the conference and a vote is to be taken to arrive at their recommendations. But first he turns to the hallucinations that many here have suffered from and indirectly caused the death of Mr Bonenti. The poisoned fish have been traced to a firm in Yorkshire which specialises in transporting live fish – Whittledale Fisheries. Egri understands that this is why it has been difficult to trace. No one would suspect fresh fish. Fielding asks if this is strictly relevant? The lobsters from this source contained considerable concentrations of phenyl siloxane. Plastic effluent is spewed into the Whittle and has infected the life in it. 'Effluent,' says Fielding, 'is allowed at a permitted level.' Whitehead backs up his boss. There's no record of toxicity from their plant there. 'It isn't the first time in our history that individual ignorance has become collective guilt.' Their plant traps the effluent with the most sophisticated traps in Europe. 'Mr. Fielding, no one's suggesting you're either a villain or a fool....' To Whitehead he says, 'You're just sheltered from the facts of life. It sometimes happens when people are too... broad-minded.' Quist, like a detective in a room full of suspects, runs through the course of the river Whittle. 'Upstream from your plant is Fenns Chemicals. They void nitric acid... I know... we've measured it... Just above your place the PH of the water is 6.2...' Bau catches on: 'Hydrolysis!' Whitehead protests that the yield would be negligible. They move downstream. Oil refineries, producing naphthalene waste – muck, as Quist puts it. Smith and Gregory produce starch residue. Whittledale Electric Power Storage makes batteries voiding inorganic salts of lead. They run through a list of other polluters but nothing that would produce the reaction needed. They have exhausted their list of polluters but Quist points out to one opposite Newingtons – the power station. Their waste is warm water. 'all the ingredients for the reaction... a high yield reaction, that is, are in the river.' Opposite Newington's effluent traps the temperature of the water is thirty four degrees – nearly blood heat. Egri is agreeing with this thesis. 'The animated form... acid hydrolysis... transfer of an amino-group.' Bau also sees: 'And the formation of a molecule closely resembling LSD 25. Concentrated in those Lobsters.' Hence the hallucinations.
Quist sums up: 'Gentlemen, we have a lot to thank Mr Fielding for. He is pioneering in silicostyrenes. Soon there will be no more cast iron car engines. Just cheap plastic cylinder blocks – and it won't just be one factory releasing effluent at the permitted level. Today he poisons the rich man's lobster, tomorrow it'll be the poor man's fish and chips. He's produced a cheaper engine. Do we want it at the price?' Fielding protests that this should have come out at the planning stage. Quist agrees. Whitehead is guilty of omission. 'There are times when men of science find it either convenient... or profitable... to justify a process of omission and Dr Whitehead will know what I mean.' Fielding asks for the right to examine the evidence and Quist adjourn the session until four o' clock to prove the evidence. Fielding abruptly leaves the room, knowing he has lost. Only Whitehead remains seated, offering Quist further help. 'I can't afford your kind of money,' comes the reply. Quist leaves with Egri and Bau.
Ridge returns to the Doomwatch offices, ignoring Pat, Bradley and Wren asking him 'Better?' He enters Quists office. Quist asks him how is he? 'Better.' He shows Quist the bill. 'After the feast comes the reckoning.' Quist is astonished – he doesn't eat that much in six months! 'Ah, but you haven't my strength to keep up. I mean look at me. Underpaid thief, agent provacatuer, guinea pig and food taster.' Quist grins in acceptance. Before leaving he says that it was a dead lucky coincidence, wasn't it? Quist disagrees. 'Not lucky nor a coincidence. Nemesis, John.' Ridge questions this. We end on a close up of Quist...
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Post by michael on Jul 6, 2010 15:59:33 GMT -5
THE RED SKY
A land rover pulls up underneath a light house high up on a cliff overlooking the English channel. Bernard Colley and his daughter Dana sees their friend Captain Tommy Gort coming out of the building to greet them – they think. But instead he is lurching, a haunted expression on his face towards the edge of the cliff. The Colleys are horrified. 'Why the hell isn't Quist here?' says Bernard. They run after him but they are too late. Gort stops at the edge of the cliff, clutching his head in pain. Inevitably, he topples over and plunges to his death.
TITLES
In the Doomwatch labs, a complicated chemistry set up is being prepared by Quist and Wren. Watched by Ridge, Pat comes in to deliver a telegram and Quist is snappy when she leans on the table. Quist begins the test but his behaviour is a concern for the others. He is more irritable than usual. Trying to pour in a jar of a red liquid, his hand trembles and he glares at Ridge who offers to help. Then a passing aeroplane makes him spill it. Frustrated, he grabs some papers and storms back into his office. Wren wonders what's got into him. 'He's got ulcers – in the head.' Bradley tries to downplay it but Ridge is not so sure.
A policeman leaves the lighthouse watched by Dana. She goes back inside to join her father, Bernard, a man in his sixties who is going through his friend's papers and logs. A phrase catches his eye: 'The flames of hell.' He wants Quist to see this.
Ridge discusses Quist's behaviour with the others and says that one man has noticed – Duncan – the Minister's hatchet man who has spent a lot of time snooping. Bradley tries to defend Quist but Ridge has it down to over work and too much hate. 'We're all bloody dedicated, that man's obsessed. There's nothing worse than a paranoiac leader; he wants to know everything, he won't listen, he's got no confidence in anybody - ' Quist emerges and calls it a splendid analysis. 'Food for my paranoia. Come on, I don't deny you free speech.' He wants it to his face this time. He heard the diagnosis. What treatment would Doctor Ridge suggest? A holiday comes the simple answer. 'Have you no conception of the workload here?' Ridge does. 'Colin here gets the odd Sunday in three with his family, Toby hasn't been to his home in the north since he came here and if I take a woman out for dinner I fall asleep over the coffee!' 'Now we're getting to the real reason,' snarls Quist. 'We're wrecking your love life.' Ridge groans: as far as Quist is concerned he would rather do the whole job on his own. Ridge walks out, leaving Quist to ask Bradley what he feels and won't take any masterful evasions. 'Alright then: aye, you do need a break and badly!' Wren agrees. 'You go, work stops. We've had it, that's all.' Quist considers for a moment, he has a telegram in his hand, gets Ridge back in and declares that he shall be away for a few days. He thinks that the organisation is getting a little top heavy and that they should all learn to be a bit more self-reliant. He's going to visit an old friend of his, Bernard Colley, the well known conservationist down in Kent. And with that he leaves. 'Oh, he's a clever bastard,' says Ridge.
Quist arrives at the Colley cottage where he is greeted by Dana, trying to clean the fire place. She is divorced, and has had enough of younger men, something that delights Quist. He wants to know what all this is about but Dana would rather her father explain but she gives him some particulars about the suicide of Tommy Gort, Dad's oldest friend. They were both conservationists, used to have battles with the local authorities to give up the former army land. He nearly got arrested a few weeks ago, trying to prove an ancient right of way on land owned by a consortium, the Palgon Air Corporation. They have a testing station on the airfield, something Quist can hear in the background and as it is Sunday, so not too bad. Her father is up at the lighthouse. He has an idea that Tommy's death was not really suicide...
Working on some notes, Bernard is distracted by a new sound, a vibration. It gets louder and louder and he clutches his head in pain. He spins round and his eyes widen in fear...
Quist has finished off a nice tea, and feels that he is finally going to relax. This makes Dana feel a little guilty. Suddenly they spot Bernard, hanging onto the door frame, muttering about fire, fire everywhere!
A little later, Dr O'Brien comes down the stairs where he has been treating Colley. Quist finds his cheery diagnosis hard to accept, but O'Brien says Colley is only a little anxious and a bit deaf, but Quist thought he wasn't rational. 'Well, he is now.' O'Brien leaves. Quist is not convinced and would like a second opinion. But Bernard comes downstairs, displaying signs of deafness, and has a sore head. He asks for some medicinal brandy from his daughter, not caring what that quack said. He settles for tea and then he'll go back to bed. Quist talks to Bernard, what has he been up to. 'I'll tell you, but you won't believe a word. You won't be able to right an equation about this.' Bernard explains about Tommy, before he died he saw something, he had a vision. The flames of hell. 'He saw them, and he heard a noise, a terrible noise. It seemed to come from the earth.' And the reason why Bernard thinks is, is because he saw them for himself...
Quist is woken in the morning by Dana with breakfast, and the hideous racket from the air ground makes itself clear to Quist. He is sure that they are breaking the noise limits and may well pay them a visit. Bernard is back at the lighthouse!
Later that morning, Quist is walking towards the Palgan test fields. He can see wrecked planes and buildings. His attention is drawn to an engine sound coming from some low buildings...
It is just gone half past two in the afternoon. Quist has joined Bernard in the cottage and is listening to his complaints about the noise. Why couldn't they conduct their tests in the Outer Hebrides or somewhere? Too expensive, says Quist. Colley has done everything he could to protest, short of sabotage. 'Sometimes it seems that the individual is a peripheral irritant.' They need evidence in order to get a court injunction. Quist thinks that there are things that Palgon can do – sound barriers around the test beds. Quist is amazed to find an example of thunder shake. Thunder will create a resonance that will shatter glass. A brandy glass is perfectly cut in two! It's always in the same pattern. But was it thunder?
Quist goes for another walk along the cliff top. As he relaxes, he hears a distant rumble. He heads back to the cottage at quarter past three, pleased about the cleanest air he has breathed in months. Colley is sitting quietly in a chair, his back to Quist. But it is obvious something is wrong. Colley is leaning on the desk, hyper ventilating. His glasses are shattered.
Bradley puts a phoned message in front of Ridge. 'I don't believe it! Now we're supposed to drop everything and belt off to Kent!' It's all laid on, says Brad. He wants specific sound measuring equipment too. 'He's gone completely round the twist this time. Now we're supposed to take on the whole of the Palgon Air Corporation!'
Quist meets Reynolds, in charge of the operations here and he assures Quist that his wife has more issues about the noise than anyone else! They have thought long and hard over this issue, they will never make a jet engine that is completely silent, of course. Quist thought that what he heard was a high velocity liquid fuel motor. Reynolds put that down as a mistake but Quist is quite certain he heard a rocket motor. Since Quist has received a complaint, he is duty bound by his Cabinet brief to look into it. He explains about Colley's condition. He has a cerebral haemorrhage. He thinks there is a link between him and his tests. Colley is well known to Reynolds, who is careful not dismiss him as a crank. 'If we took notice of everybody like him, our work would grind to a halt.' 'I'm not sure that Colley would agree that chopping an hour of a transatlantic crossing is progress.' And there are thousands of people all over the world who are being subjected to the dangers of excessive sound level. Sound can be dangerous. 'Do you remember the Germans sound cannon in world war two?' Reynolds wants some concrete evidence. Quist thinks he has a case to answer, and two of his colleagues are coming down this afternoon. He warns Reynolds that if permission is refused, he is in a position to get more authority.
Ridge and Wren have arrived at the cottage. Dana is on the phone to the hospital. Ridge feels he might enjoy this trip, a pleasant stroll down to the boozer... He cancels that last remark when Quist arrives. Dana comes in: Bernard has died, he never recovered consciousness. Quist, too, is shaken. He remembered how Bernard helped him when his wife died. He quickly gets to work and tells Ridge and Wren to go over to Palgon and the tests to do. Quist will go over to Gort's cottage where two men have died. Quist goes up to see Dana... Ridge warns Wren that they are going to have to play this one carefully. Ridge is aware of old men getting brain damage and believing in hallucinations. But what worries him most is Quist. 'He's got the hardest, most elegant analytical mind if I have ever come across and yet here he is totally and completely supporting the wanderings of a crank!'
Reynolds confesses he finds Quist's attitude high handed to say the least ans that their chairman, Sir Henry Bantok is promising to take this up with the Minister at once, but he appreciates Ridge and Wren's position and asks his chief engineer Mr Holt to take them down to the test bed area to do their tests. After they leave, he tells Holt that the Doomwatch team might be a little too busy to see the T9...
As Ridge and Wren are escorted in the test beds by Holt, Quist is setting up equipment in Gort's cottage. An oscilloscope registers sound waves. So far the line is flat. The clock chimes three. A low hum begins to build up in the background. Quist tries to identify the source of this, suddenly it rumbles through his head and increases in intensity. He opens the door to the lighthouse where the noise is a shriek. It deafens Quist. He staggers back into the living room and puts his hand on a table – his hand is wobbling! His vision is distorted and blurred, blue concentric circles, To his horror, as he looks out of the window, he sees the sea rocking, and then suddenly red flames!
Ridge gets off the phone at the Colley house. Apparently the Minister is spitting blood, demanding to know why Doomwatch is investigating the ravings of an elderly nut case! After Beeston the Minister wants them out and Quist has handed him a chopper on a plate! Dana comes down, intrigued and offended by what passes for loyalty in their department. Ridge defends himself that their work is needed and needed badly. 'It's more than just one man.' He apologises for the nut case remarks. She tells them that Quist is in bed upstairs, he had some form of attack. Like her father's.... They meet Dr O'Brien who says Quist is fine, 'Bit of an old bull, isn't he?' He gave him a jab to quieten him down. Apparently he said one or two things about doctors... Then he started jabbering away about fire in the sky. He's a bit deaf and there is some narrowing of the blood vessels. Ridge is thinking of other matters. He asks O'Brien if there is a rest home they can send him to for a few days, somewhere private? O'Brien does – a place where all the rich boozers hang out to dry. O'Brien goes to arrange it leaving Wren demanding to know what Ridge is playing at. 'The only thing we can to get him off the hook and us out of trouble. We'll tell everybody he's collapsed due to over work and he'll get a fait accompli.' He's on a loser with this war with Palgon Air. But what if they had seen something? Ridge says you need evidence, otherwise basing evidence on hearsay stories, you may as well start investigating ESP or water-divining. Ridge agrees to interview the cleaner at Gort's place, a possible witness, if that will satisfy Wren.
Wren goes to see Quist who is resting, but talking in his sleep. He talks of the lighthouse, the tower, a closed column of air, a standing wave, pressure,
In the morning before they go to the funeral, Ridge and Wren speak with Mrs Knott who doesn't like nor understand their questions about Gort. It's as if they're trying to start stories. She has no problem about visiting the lighthouse cottage and would be there now if it wasn't for the funeral. 'How does that grab your apples?'
That afternoon, still in her funeral togs, Mrs Knott begins cleaning Captain Gort's cottage.
Ridge leaves his address with Dana, and tells her that the ambulance is coming for Quist. Wren is packing up but remembers they left the scope back at the cottage. Wren goes to fetch it.
As Wren makes his way back to the cottage, he spots the vapour trails of a high flying air craft, remembering Quist's words and then as he approaches the lighthouse can hear a noise receding. It is at its highest level in the tower, He suddenly spots Mrs Knott collapsed on the floor.
Dr O'Brien comes running down the stairs, his attempts to jab Quist result in abuse! He needs help from Ridge and Dana. Quist slowly makes his way downstairs and slowly makes for Ridge. But before he can it out with him, clutches his head and collapses. Wren comes in and says save the ambulance for Mrs Knott. 'She's just had a non-existent vision. Like your father and doctor Quist...' He sends Doctor O'Brien to the cottage and tells him to stop the ambulance for they won't be needing it. Ridge demands to know what is going on. Wren ignores him and tells Quist that he thinks he has worked it out. 'It's nothing to do with the noise from the test bed at all. It's something far more extraordinary.'
A little later, the three of them are discussing the theory. Ridge thinks it's a feasible hypothesis but Quist decides that they need a crucial experiment. Still groggy, Quist tells Wren to get Brad to sort out all data concerning hyper sonic air craft, flight programmes. John will get to Reynolds in the morning and ensure that he is at Gort's lighthouse at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, at whatever cost. And Dana will be here to welcome Duncan when he arrives. That surprises the others. 'John is about to ring and invite him down... Just say that you're worried about my health, think I'm off my head... He'll be down in a flash.'
Early next morning, Colin has finished assembling the data Toby needs. He has spent all night doing it. 'If you're going to tackle Reynolds,' says Wren to Ridge, 'you're going to need some ammunition. The name of the rocket plane project: T9.'
Driving up to the offices through the air field, ridge suddenly notices a building that they didn't get to see, and could hear a rumbling...
Reynolds is not convinced by the theories and needs crucial evidence but declines to come down to Gort's cottage. Ridge mentions the building they didn't see – the one where they're testing the T9 rocket engine. 'How on earth did you find out about that?' Ridge suggests it would be in his interests to come, and that the Minister's assistant Richard Duncan will be there.
Duncan, a thirty something is getting some rather sarcastic comments from Ridge as they wait for Reynolds and Quist to arrive. Reynolds arrives, and is a little sceptical. 'Believe me, I've been through attacks like this before from all sorts of quarters.' But Duncan says that this probe might be a little harder to refute. 'Dr Quist rarely acts without sound reason.' Quist makes his entrance. He starts of by saying that Captain Gort, Colley and himself had all experienced a similar hallucination or a vision. The circumstances were all identical and they searched for a common explanation. The phenomenon was created by energetic waveforms. Shock waves. From a high flying aircraft: probably in the hyper-sonic speed. It achieves its velocity over the Belgium coast and then passes over here. The specific shape of the lighthouse tower amplified the shock waves, amplified enough to cause damage to human tissue. Duncan is not as dismissive as Reynolds. The retina in the eye can be stimulated by physical disturbance as well as light. 'Our eyes were literally shaken into action.' The barrel of the lighthouse acted as a large wind instrument hence the booming noise. Reynolds ask what type of air craft. Quist says the T9 - which he tried to cover up. But Reynolds, backed up by Duncan, explains that the T9 is under the closest possible security black out. A cabinet directive, in fact. If the T9 is rocket propelled rather than by turbines, it could cause shock waves of this kind. And assuming the test path and test times are the same, it is due for one soon – three pm. Twenty minutes to go.
Wren is outside, with what looks like a film camera on a tripod with a sound monitor, pointing up at the sky.
Quist explains that the equipment is to monitor the shock waves of the T9 but Reynolds is not satisfied with the standard of the equipment! He would only accept proof such as damage to human tissue. Quist is left with no alternative but to suggest the tests are suspended on the T9 until he has time to conduct further tests here with monkeys – and to get a Home Office license for that will take time. Two months at least. Duncan confirms this. Quist is about to leave, having no desire to experience the effects again. Reynolds decides to stay. He will take full responsibility for his actions. Duncan and Ridge also want to stay. Ridge has a soft spot for fireworks. 'Mind you get out before you get a rocket in your eye. ' He leaves, leaving Reynolds muttering about how insufferable he is. Ridge agrees. 'Unfortunately, he's usually right.'
Quist joins Toby: Reynolds had reacted according to plan. John is staying with them to witness results. 'Nice day for it,' remarks Wren.
Reynolds is listening out for the plane – it is just audible if you know what to listen for. A hovercraft in the bay, and then three o'clock. Reynolds is a about to leave when Ridge calls them over, and they begin to hear it, the oscilloscope reacts. Very quickly, the noise affects all three of them, Duncan the worst. Ridge experiences the sound in the light house tower. Duncan sees the flames.
'That must have been Mach 4!' says Wren as the plane passes over. Duncan has ran out of the cottage and nearly ends up the same way like Gort – over the cliff - until Wren stops him and he recovers... Quist and Ridge find a stunned Reynolds recovering inside. 'You were right, oh my god, two men dead.'
Sometime later, Quist returns from an inquiry, and starts to take off his tie. He tells them that Reynolds supported him – an act of great courage. It could damage his career irreparably. But... 'Why are so called leaders can't face the truth I don't know. They lie, they push, they sell the future down the river. Immediate advantage and to hell with the long term consequences.' Ridge says that a spot of shock therapy hasn't done him any harm. The result is that Gort's cottage is to be compulsory purchased and pulled down, and another stretch of coast fenced off. The flying will be suspended for a month. 'Can't let an isolated death stand in the way of progress, can we?' Bradley asks what will happen when this thing starts flying all over the country? 'We don't know, and as usual we won't know. Until it happens.' Quist goes into his office.
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Post by michael on Jul 8, 2010 11:56:16 GMT -5
THE PLASTIC EATERS
A routine flight to San Pedro is in trouble. The flight was reaching its end when the pilot noticed one of his dials was not working, he gives it a tap to see if it would register but nothing. The Flight Engineer pulls out a panel and notices inside that a cable is melting... As the air hostess make sure their passengers are safely belted, the situation worsens in the cock pit. Anything plastic is softening and melting. The Captain orders a mayday alert and initiates an emergency descent drill. Controls begin to spark. On the ground, emergency airport response teams drive out from their hangers. The Captain and his crew have lost control of the plane, his joystick or yoke breaks up in his hands as a sticky mess. The plane crashes in the scrub land and is destroyed.
TITLES
The Doomwatch office: the secretary Pat Hunnisett shows in Toby Wren and sees if Doctor Quist can see him now. Before she goes into the next room, she glares at Doctor John Ridge who is having a cup of coffee with his feet on his desk. Ridge introduces himself to Wren and says that Pat would have introduced them but he pinched her bum just before lunch. 'Hunger, nothing more.' Wren doesn't look too impressed. Since Wren has been let in, this means he's joined Doomwatch. 'Gawd help yer,' says Ridge.
Doctor Quist is on the phone and tells Pat Wren will have to wait. He resumes talking to Colin Bradley about the San Pedro air disaster. Something affected the wires or the insulation and Quists wonders if that is why it was sent to them. It almost looks like solvent action. 'You better find out and quickly. What's up with overgrown adding machine of yours?'
In the room between the outer office and Quist's, Ridge is showing Wren around the lab. Their pride and joy is a computer nicknamed Doomwatch. 'It's an analogue digital hybrid, y'know.' Quist emerges and tells Ridge to investigate plastic solvents old or new, from the data retrieval service, if there is a Governmental project it will be under wraps otherwise they would have a file. Ridge suggests talking to the Ministers PPS, Barker. Wren follows Quist about trying to get his attention and fails. Everyone is focused on their work. Quist goes back into his office and Wren has had enough and turns to leave. Quist calls, 'Where do you think you're going?' 'Out,' replies Wren. Apparently so; he is catching a plane in three hours to investigate a plane crash! Wren protests that he is not a crash specialist, he came here for an interview for a job, but Quist knows his background and says he has joined and this is his first effort. Pat gives him some reading material for the flight...
Wren studies the photos from the crash next to a rather bemused passenger...
Ridge reports to Quist. There's plenty on solvents but nothing that could account for that wiring. Barker just gave him the usual departmental codswallop. Why does Quist think the government knows something about this? The source could be anywhere in the world. 'But we're one of the most congested. Our problems with getting rid of plastic waste are liable to be somewhat more acute.' And the Minister would like to be remembered as the man who had the foresight to tackle the problem. Pat has the Minister on the phone. Quist talks to him about the San Pedro air disaster.
Colin Bradley, meanwhile is trying to get the computer to work.
Quist is pressing the Minister hard on any new development of plastic solvents that he is aware of. Despite Barker's assurances, Quist doesn't believe that they are being properly informed. 'We cannot function without a full and frank exchange of information on every new project.' The Minister disagrees. When Quist asks about the Beeston Laboratories the Minister becomes alarmed and shortens the call by saying that there is nothing in Beeston that need concern them. The Minister reflects for a minute and then dictates a memo onto a Dictaphone about Dr. Quist and Doomwatch: 'Far too much license has already been given to the director. He and his department must be made to conform to Ministry policy. If not...'
Bradley enters Quist's office and tells them that the computer is working again, it only took four and a half hours. But Quist doesn't see the point since they have no information to feed it. 'We were set up to investigate any scientific research public or private that could possibly be harmful to man. In fact, the government was practically re-elected on this very issue. Now we're a dustbin for every routine job that could be shoved on to us. If we do get anything, the essential information is withheld.' He had considered resigning but the Minister would be too eager to accept and replace him with a robot civil servant. A telegram tells Quist that Wren has arrived in San Pedro and is on his way to the scene of the crash. Ridge coolly suggests breaking into the Minister's office! Bradley is appalled and Quist doesn't want to be forced into becoming some quasi-MI5 in order to get basic information. Ridge goads him on, asks him why he took on this job. Pew in the house of Lords or an attack of conscience? He points to the three pictures of a nuclear blast on Quist's wall. 'I just wondered how much your maths helped to make that possible.' Quist is lost for words and Bradley tries to get Ridge out of his office. Quist stops him, Ridge is waiting for a confrontation but instead is told to do it. Quist is left alone and stares at the pictures.
Ridge is shown to the Minister's office by a helpful commissioner and Ridge pretends that Miss Wills, the Minister's secretary is already there. Alone in the office, Ridge makes a warning signal to be alerted to any visitors and runs through drawers and filing cabinets before entering the Minister's office. He is alerted to someone entering the office and is nearly caught in the act by Miss Wills as he is trying to close a stuck drawer. With a diversion from a painting and a spot of flirting he pretends he is returning some files for the Minister. Ridge smashes a vase behind her back and pretends he is a clumsy man, offering to help the annoyed, but secretly amused Miss Wills to clear up the mess. She tells him to wait in the outer office. With the file he needs replacing the fake one he brought into the office, Ridge takes some miniature pictures of the appropriate document.
Quist studies the document in the office later on. There is work going on down at Beeston on plastic solvents, but it seems to be a biological mechanism rather than a chemical one because that is what Beeston does, it is a purely microbiological research station. They call it Variant 14. But what the devil could it be?
Wren meanwhile is inside the remains of the crashed fuselage of the San Pedro flight. He finds more examples of wiring stripped of its insulation and places it in a plastic bag inside a metal container.
They can't confront the Minister with their information without revealing how they got it, Ridge agrees, and not very seriously suggests breaking into Beeston. This time Quist likes the idea, but Ridge doesn't agree! 'That's a germ warfare establishment!' 'With your training Beeston should be a push over.' They need a sample of the variant 14. And if Ridge is found, Doomwatch will disclaim any responsibility! He's had his revenge now...
With appropriate equipment and a rather unwise all black outfit, Ridge breaks through the wire fencing of Beeston with ease, even though it's broad daylight!
Inside a well equipped lab, Jim Bennett is supervising a test. A protected assistant is trying to remove a sample from an inspection hatch and nearly drops it. Bennett comes over to help her and isn't impressed. Ridge enters the lab and quickly dons a white coat. Ridge has done his research. He goes over to Jim Bennett and pretends to know him from school, and that the Minister has sent him down. 'In connection with the Dungeness test?' But Bennett is suspicious and asks for his D14. Ridge bluffs that Hal Symonds, the director, obviously hasn't written it yet. Bennett goes off to check, leaving Ridge enough time, and unnoticed by the other lab assistants to acquire a test tube of something and put it in his top pocket.
Quist is in the computer lab, determined to find a link between Beeston and the air craft crash. As Bradley goes over the list of names of passenger and crew, the name of a stewardess Wills alerts Quist to a connection with Miss Wills, the Minister's secretary!
Symonds is brought into the lab and does not recognise Ridge who pretends he is from the Sunday Gazette. A lab coated man, Jones, takes Ridge, none too gently outside. Symonds wonders who he really is. He phones the main gate and asks them to photograph Ridge and do a thorough security check on him.
The results lead Symonds to the Minister's office who disclaims any authorisation from him over Ridge's breaking and entering. He tells Symonds about Quist. 'He heads a special investigation department, he's somewhat unorthodox.' The Minister did not make the appointment either. He tells Symonds of the exaggerated publicity over Quist's appointment. You can't remove a man like that. The Minister wants the sample of Variant 14 returned his way. He won't allow there to be any interference on the Dungeness test.
Ridge is worried, they have had time to trace him. Pat Hunnisett offers to send his effects to Pentoville! Quist is studying the results of their tests of four trails on Variant 14 with Bradley. Quist has worked on the assumption of how the variant would react in an ordinary environment. It would spread like a plague, from plastic to plastic like food, growing exponentially. 'It would go through a city like a bush fire,' Quist tells Pat. It could go through London in twelve hours! Quist and Brad explain that it has been developed to rid the country of plastic waste. Quist knows that they must be planning a field test which leads to Ridge remembering what Bennett told him about Dungeness. 'Have they got all this data? Do they know a way of limiting its growth?' Pat thought that surely they would wouldn't do a test without knowing it's safe. 'Put a scientist under political pressure, and he'll do anything he'll like, he'll even justify it, believe me I know!' He's not ready to face the Minister, who according to Pat, is hopping mad. They need more data to prove it brought down the first plane. A cable has arrived from Wren: he is on Flight 272 from San Pedro with a sample of the crashed air craft on-board in his brief case. If that plane returns back to the airport and if the virus is out, it could infect the whole world... To divert the plane to a West country RAF field, they first need to convince the Minister.
Wren is making notes on board, opens the metal box and takes out his plastic wrapped sample. He holds a coffee tray with a hand whilst a stewardess pours in coffee.
The Minister summons Quist and tells him to bring Ridge. Quist feels this would be useful: whilst he works on the Minister, Ridge can work on Miss Wills. 'He'll do that alright,' says Pat as she leaves. 'It's our last card. If appeals fail, we may have to use it.'
Unnoticed, Wren's plastic bag is melting, dripping down inside his brief case.
Quist is introduced to Symonds by a cold Minister. Ridge is introduced and sent to wait in the outer office. Quist begins. He has evidence of a disaster that could have been averted had proper care been exercised.
Ridge congratulates Miss Wills on her perfect self composure.... She is puzzled by him, he has been sitting on a desk staring at her in a very penetrating manner. 'I think, that if I were in your shoes, I would feel the slightest twinge of compunction... If I were responsible for the deaths of some thirty five people ... including my own cousin.' This gets through to Miss Wills. Janet Wills, the air hostess on British Latino airlines. He shows her pictures of the crash but she can't bear to look at it, he tells her about the melted insulation, that she had been to Beeston Monday, and the plane crashed on Tuesday. Confused and upset, she refuses to help. Ridge tells her that as a direct result of her action there is another plane in danger. Miss Wills finally co-operates, pressurised by Ridge into remembering when she last saw her cousin, owed her money, wrote her a cheque, with a pen, her pen. Ridge forces her to remember where the pen is.
An air hostess is surprised to see a plastic cup has melted, and its contents all over a tray. As she clears up, placing a contaminated hand on a table, a telegram has arrived for Toby Wren. He is appalled by its contents and looks at his briefcase in horror.
Both the Minister and Symonds finds Quist's evidence inconclusive. 'Purely circumstantial.' Variant 14 could be the cause but Symonds won't admit to it, making Quist angry. Quist has some new data from one of his own tests.
Miss Wills find the pen she used at Beeston – and at the airport where she met her doomed cousin – in her handbag. Taking the metal lid of it, she finds the plastic tube has softened... Ridge re-enters the room and tells her not to move and not to touch anything.
Toby Wren shows the Captain in the flight deck the telegram. 'What are we supposed to do about it?' The Captain needs more evidence.
He soon gets it: a plastic handle bag between two passengers has melted and one of the women adjusts the air conditioning thinking it must be at fault...
Quist tells the Minister that another plane is in danger over the Atlantic. The Minister is pleased that Symonds dismisses it as rubbish. The Minister will allow Quist to examine the plane after it has landed. That's his final word. Suddenly Ridge enters holding a metal tray containing the melted plastic of the pen. 'Exhibit A. The missing link between Beeston, and the crash and your staff.' Symonds cannot deny that this isn't Variant 14. Miss Simms is being taken care of according to Ridge. Symonds cannot understand. Their isolation procedures are 100% effective. 'But exceptions are apt to be lethal,' says Quist. Now does he have permission to isolate the airport? 'In different circumstances I would regard this as blackmail...' The Minister is also annoyed that the Doomwatch offices have phoned him on his private line to talk to Quist! It is Bradley. The virus has got out on board the San Pedro flight... Quist asks Symonds to get down to Cornwall, where Brad was earlier dispatched to, with as many of his Beeston staff ready for the plane. The Minister quietly agrees and asks Quist to stay behind. There is a great deal to discuss. Quist wants to know about the Dungeness test...
The Captain broadcasts to his passengers for them to stay in their seats. But the PA packs up. The plastic bag is now almost totally dissolved, ugly orange liquid has spread down the gang way. The Captain had been trying to tell the passengers that they would be landing in the RAF Station St Morgan in Cornwall. There's a fault in the main power pack as well. The automatic pilot has also gone... Wren watches from a corner.
The Minister assures Quist that any news will be relayed to them. Quist knows: he's arranged it. Infuriated by his taking over, the Minister decides to launch an exhaustive inquiry into the activities of Quist and his staff and that as director, he is suspended!
By now, the plane is being escorted by an RAF jet but they cannot hear him. They must have been sent to take them down which is good because the Captain has no idea where they are.
The Minister tells Quist that Miss Wills can't be responsible for spreading the virus. She went to Beeston with the Minister because she did not enter the biological laboratory.
An elderly passenger is beginning to lose his nerve as another PA announcement on a different route is made. He wants to see the Captain... He had been sitting opposite Toby Wren. They both watch as melting plastic oozes from the ceiling and the cabin wall...
The pilot and second pilot are struggling to control the plane. 'It's going to be a bumpy landing...' jokes Wren but it is not appreciated.
This time, a window blind has melted. A plastic rain coat in the passenger rack is dissolving. The elderly passenger panics and forces his way onto the flight deck but Wren pushes him out, and stops the flight engineer from touching the door. They watch as it starts to ooze... Unnoticed by the second pilot, complaining about the murk.
An oxygen mask descends, dripping wet all over a passenger.
The Captain needs all his concentration now they are close to Cornwall and tells Wren to shut up.
Quist watches the Minister finishing a memo on his Dictaphone. This gives Quist an idea. He asks to speak to Miss Wills. The Minister sees his drift as Quist questions her about the cassettes used... Is there one labelled Beeston? The Minister nods and Miss Wills confirms this. She goes to fetch it, as the Minister, trying to cover up his feelings of nerves, tries to explain that they are strictly confidential and his responsibility. He refuses to open the metal container. Quist picks up the case and notices a smell. Inside is a congealed mess of tape which Quist holds up with a metal spike. 'You took this to Beeston,' he tells the numb Minister. 'It was concealed, wasn't it?'
The co-pilot spots Newquay and the pilot prepares to bring them down.
At the RAF station, ambulances and the fire brigade rushes out to prepare for the landing.
As the plane begins a 360 degree manoeuvre to reduce height, a section of the plastic overhead units collapses onto the passengers. Passengers use their coats to try and block the hole.
Wren is told to go back into the cabin and tell the passengers that they are going straight in. The Captain is having to be directed visually by his co-pilot. Wren is reluctant and as he pulls open the curtain, sees the depressed and anxious passengers, terrified of their ordeal – and the virtual plastic rain around him.
The three flight crew with their remaining working instruments prepare for their emergency landing. The Captain notices the reception committee of ambulances and fire engines racing to meet them as they touch down and bring the plane to a juddering halt. They have made it. Now they sit tight.
There is a fire on the run way, which the fire brigade using foam quickly extinguishes. The plane is covered in the stuff. Two suited men climb up a ladder to get into the plane.
The safe landing is relayed to the Minister who tells Quist. All alive. The Minister regrets this terrible tragedy, he couldn't have been properly briefed. Quist has checked and he was. And they can expect the same thing again at Dungeness? 'The people aren't ready for this test. The proof is there. And you were the carrier.' Quist knows it would be grossly unfair to blame the Minister directly but he doesn't think the press or the opposition would think so... 'The facts are there. People have died. The mud will stick.' The test will be deferred. And Doomwatch? There will be no need for another Beeston affair if Quist's department is kept properly informed... Quist gets up and leaves. 'Good day, Minister.'
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Post by michael on Jul 8, 2010 18:01:50 GMT -5
TOMORROW, THE RAT
A young child pushed in his buggy by his mother spots what he thinks is a pussy cat. It is, in fact, a rat. And it attacks him.
TITLES
In the Doomwatch lab a rat inside a cage is the centre of attention. Pat isn't terribly keen on the animals, which doesn't surprise Quist. There have been several attacks on Londoners recently, and the one thing they all had in common was being vulnerable... Elderly men and women, one bed ridden, even a cat and now a child. According to Brad, the area in question had been rat free for eighteenth months before that it had been the worst area in London. So they sent for the ministry. Ridge can't believe rats are carnivorous even though they're omnivorous. 'Rats are the greediest animal on earth apart from your emotionally disturbed human being that is.' Brad tells him 'Don't look at me,' leaving Quist to make a pap diagnosis. Ridge continues with his view that rats aren't dangerous. They don't attack unless threatened. Wren wonders if it was an escaped marsupial, a Tasmanian devil, a flesh eater. Several attack cases are reported. One on them involving a dog. Their rat specimen is fed and prefers nuts. This rat comes from the sewer near where the first attack happened. Quist wants another one – the one that eats flesh.
Wren and Pat Hunnisett visit the Chambers, where their boy, Alan, had been attacked by a rat and is now in hospital. She shows them the kitchen where it happened. The other lady apparently said they must have come from behind the cooker. Wren asks 'what other lady?'
Dr Mary Bryant is explaining to Preston, her employer, why she went to visit the Chambers. Preston is annoyed that she identified herself on this visit. What concerns him is Quist. 'At best a professional busy body, at worst the head of a science Gestapo... Doomwatch.' Bryant has heard of them and he is on his way. Bryant wonders if she should be told that she has developed a strain of flesh eating rats but he says no, there's no proof, despite all these attacks happening in the same area. 'Cannibal rats is your experiment, it's the Ministry's responsibility.' But it won't be the Minister who will carry the can. 'But he agreed to the experiment... I was there. He laughed at his own joke. “The final solution to the rat problem,” and he creased himself.' A Minister only exists on recommendations. If the experiment succeeded the minister takes the credit, if it fails their heads roll. She understands now why she was encouraged to work at home: to cover his tracks. 'You were asked to work at home to keep down costs.' But officially she did the work here as she has no license. 'It's unscientific to indulge in a cosy sense of guilt.' Bryant calms down and agrees to keep quiet if and when the press get hold of the story. Bryant leaves just as Quist enters. He stops for a moment, as if remembering a connection but then drops it. Quist does indeed want to talk about rats: one died this morning trying to take on a navvy. Ratus Nonvegicus indeed. He talks about is it usual for a de infested area to repopulate so quickly? Preston runs through the techniques they use in killing the rats and some of the problems from the cruel poisons to animals act to an experiment in sterilising them.
Dr Bryant is drowning her sorrows in a pub and uses a well rehearsed put down line on an elderly gentleman she feels is about to offer her a drink...
Wren and Pat report back to Quist who asks Bradley to find out all he can about a Dr Mary Bryant. She works for the rodent disposal part of the Ministry. Bradley has been investigating the dead rat. It has abnormally high density of brain cells. Suddenly, Quist remembers Bryant: she's a geneticist. He even remembers the name of one of her scientific papers: immunology with a biochemical bias. He feels this is a job for Ridge, who is on the phone trying to arrange a date. He suggests he cancels it and chat up Mary Bryant. He also suggests another scientific paper of hers to read. Mary Bryant works for Preston and Quist knows him well enough to know he is concealing something. 'She's a nice bit of homework.'
That night, Bradley and Wren set up baited traps in the Chamber's kitchen. He asks the husband and wife to leave them to it, as they unblock the hole in the kitchen the rats came through. Then they sit on the stairs and wait, Wren lights up a cigarette and Bradley writes some notes. Almost immediately they hear the noises of rats in the kitchen and the spring of a trap. Bradley stops Toby from going in too quickly, before the rats go. The traps are empty – propped open by spoons and forks! They can't believe it. Wren remembers the report on the rats. Intelligent rats. 'We have got a reasoning carnivorous animal – ratus sapiens.' Suddenly the rats attack, going for their legs. The Chambers enter to help but the wife faints. Wren goes berserk and kills one on the table, repeatedly banging its head. Bradley swipes his attackers away with a saucepan. Wren is in a state of chock and needs a stiff drink. The rats escaped, and took away its fallen comrade. 'And it won't be to bury it either.'
Ridge finds Bryant still propping up the bar and rebuffs her usual chat up thwarting line, by congratulating her on her paper. This rather surprises Bryant who, after a spot of verbal banter, allows John to buy her another drink.
After Wren and Bradley have left, Mr Chambers is trying to comfort his distraught wife. The rats are still in the kitchen and show themselves after they switch off the light.
Ridge and Bryant settle down for some post coital chat on the sofa. She has a suspicion that he is a professional snooper, he is interested in rats. Ridge explains that is hardly surprising since they are mentioned in her paper enough times. Her guilt complex begins to show and she is uneasy, resisting any chances of another roll in the hay with Ridge. He wonders if she gets more excitement out of her rats, a comment she doesn't think is worthy of him, his technique. But then she agrees. She does. And explains her philosophy. 'We roll in the hay, I'm less than careful, you have a chromosotic idiosyncrasy, and I give birth to an abnormal child. In my view, the height of human irresponsibility. The work I do on rats will be extended to human beings. By adding and subtracting from the genetic structure you can eliminate the abnormal.' Ridge would argue that some people would feel that she would be interfering with nature or their god's law. 'I feel that god sends abnormal children to be born are irrational.' But where would her work stop? She doesn't deny that she isn't interested in making super men. Hitler endowed people like her. 'you blinkered Neanderthal man, groping around in the dark.' 'now you're talking,' and pounces on her.
Early next morning, a stable girl discovers a partially eaten horse.
It is Ridge later that morning who answers the phone for Mary Bryant. It is Preston, startled to hear a man's voice. When Mary gets on to the phone, Ridge gets the newspapers. More rat attacks – and the Minister has started leaning. Ridge holds out a front page. She immediately thinks he's a journalist but he tells her he is a snooper, a civil servant, a watchdog. She realises: Quist.
She meets with Preston. Her job is as a rat killer but her indirect work is her genetic engineering. 'Tampering with nature? Yes. I'm being sacked.' No. He wants her to get this department off the hook, by resigning, which is not accepted, and is offered a job in the agricultural division where her work in genetics is transferred to cereals. Business as usual. The reason for resigning is that she released a strain of cannibal rats prematurely (not true!) from her home (true, for the sake of convenience). With Quist and the press she is to co-operate.
Her story is on the front page of the newspaper being read by the Chambers. They recognise her as Mary Bryant, and that she lived just around the corner. She has released 500 of the cannibal rats! The paper quotes her saying that due to the cruel poisons act of 1962 was only possible in a country that loved animals more than children. 'She's blaming it on us,' says Mr Chambers. 'She must be out of her Chinese little mind!' 'And she seemed such a nice person too,' says the wife.
Bryant goes to talk to Doctor Quist, offering to help as she knows the animal. She is bothered by the anomalies. Her rats were conditioned against human flesh and she explains how. A negligible failure rate. But they've certainly had a go at hunting it, says Quist. Ridge still isn't convinced. They had a go at Toby because he trapped them and they had a greater awareness of being threatened. .Her rats were also sterile, there couldn't be 500 of them, 250 at most. In eighteenth months the strain will die out. Quist wants one of them.
Bryant shows Quist and Ridge her laboratory in her home. The human flesh she uses comes from a hospital. She has an observation room next door, the rats live in a bunker at the other end. She has a make shift apparatus which measures when a rat feeds from a trough platform.
Meanwhile, the young boy Alan Chambers is returned home in an ambulance. A rat watches from beside a bin and climbs inside... The ambulance man shuts the doors on it without realising and the creature goes berserk.
Toby and Bradley are studying the rat in the Doomwatch lab. Wren thinks it is listening to what they are saying. This is the rat from the ambulance. It won't take food. 'I know it's suspicious,' says Wren. Quist, Ridge and Bryant return having been told of the capture. Wren had put it through its paces in a series of tests which it solved without hesitation. It didn't take the food, just trying to find a way out, and now it's watching and waiting. 'And listening,' says Bradley. Bryant says this isn't one of her rats. It's too young from the released batch of 500 and has no skin graft. Wren feeds it some more but when he cuts himself on the cage, the rat reacts to his blood! 'Like a shark!' says Quist.
That evening, Ridge is investigating the observation room. Despite her protests, Ridge declares that unsterilised rats have escaped. He is looking for weaknesses in the concrete and steel walls and anomalies. Most of which Bryant can counter. The back wall is wooden, treated with aversion treated wood. At the bottom of the wall are a series of pressure sensored plates, where food is left, through heavy zinc plates that lift. And behind one is a gnawed hole. They are also taking the human flesh without it registering on the machine outside. That's because they have wedged it firm. Ridge discovers how to get that back plate out if you are a rat – a rudimentary lever...
Now that it is known that unsterilised rats have escaped, Quist goes to confront Preston who maintains that the experiment has been vindicated. Dr Bryant says you have to take risks, otherwise you'd still be in the primeval slime. Quist decides to go and investigate the sewer and wants Bryant to go with him. Preston would rather they leave the investigation to his department. Quist is not here to contribute to his happiness.
As Quist goes down into the sewer, he is intercepted by some journalists but doesn't give them any answers. He has never been down a sewer before, he says, apart from Fleet Street.
Inside the sewer, they discover the rats' nest behind some lose bricks in the wall. It appears to be organised, workers, soldiers, a queen. And there are mouse droppings. Perhaps they herd mice like we heard cattle, wonders Bryant. 'Embryonic Nazis on four legs,' muses Quist.
Meanwhile, the rats are getting bolder. One in a car causes a driver to crash; another can be seen in a kitchen cupboard, or coming out from a toilet, and hordes chasing children across a playground.
The rats have killed three children in Brentford. Including the Chambers boy. Quist demands to see the Minister straight away.
The Chambers are in a state of shock...
Quist explains to the Minister that these rats are mutants, they have never been exposed to the conditioning of the first generation. Preston agrees. A formidable alliance, considers the Minister. Quist reminds the Minister of how fast rats breed: fertile in three months, six litters in a year. Ten young to a litter. A pair of rats could create a colony of a hundred million in a year! 'Three children have died, over-sentimentalising pressure groups must go over the board.' They use war metaphors with confusing effect. To hell with the cruel poisons act! says Quist. The casualty rate will be high with farm and domestic animals, says Preston. With emergency measures, Preston will be able to mobilise in three days. The Minister suggests they anticipate the cabinet decision and do it.
Amidst huge banner headlines about rats, pest controllers and local authorities begin to flood the sewers with rat poisons, some of which have been banned for years. Soon, evidence of their effectiveness is apparent by the number of rat corpses in the sewers and by river banks.
A depressed Mary Bryant, feeling guilty over the deaths, is phoned by Ridge who tells her they are winning – they are getting results. He offers her his company, but she doesn't want any company. Ridge won't take no for an answer. He will be around at 7:30 looking fantastic! The door bell goes and Mary answers it. It is Mrs Chambers, looking venomously at the woman who indirectly killed her son. She spits at her and then swings a huge knife! Mrs Chambers breaks down but when Mary Bryant tries to comfort her, Chambers just looks at her, as if she were vermin and runs away. Bryant only then notices her arm has been slashed. She runs into the next door room to clean up.
Preston is receiving reports on the success of the enterprise. Quist is pleased, but feels that they may need a rat day every month...
Dressed in a tuxedo, Ridge arrives at Mary's house and finds the front door open and the place in darkness... He calls for Mary and goes looking for her. The laboratory too is in darkness. He goes into the Observation Room and switches on the light. There, lying face down is her body, her arm where it has been cut, has been eaten into. Ridge falls onto his knees in grief.
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Post by michael on Jul 10, 2010 15:50:47 GMT -5
PROJECT SAHARA
National Security Section: department XJ7. Admission strictly by N.S.S. Pass. Somewhere in Whitehall, two men are watching on a large screen computer narrated read outs on Doomwatch personnel. Barker, the Minister's PPS isn't interested in the basic details, he wants specific conclusions. Commander Keeping calls out to the computer operator a file name and they watch as the computer recommends various actions to be taken on Doctor Quist, Doctor Ridge. Barker explains to Keeping that this work is necessary. It could mean disbanding the current Doomwatch team because of their investigations in Project Sahara. They then turn their attentions to Toby Wren...
TITLES
The Doomwatch offices and lab are filled with trays of vegetation and pot plants. An experiment has been set up by Bradley and Toby is pleased. 'All we need is the queen bee and we can go ahead.' Ridge isn't happy that his desk is being covered with triffids and moves a tray over to Pat's desk, which, when she arrives and notices isn't too pleased about. 'There's work being done here, you know, apart from running around after Doctor Robson.' Bradley grumbles, 'Two females in one office, it never did work out.' Ridge isn't complaining. The real live doll, as he puts it enters, and she is a very attractive 30 something. She is in charge of the experiment and seems to have the staff at her beck and call. Even Quist is impressed with her. Stella Robson gets Brad chasing up figures and Ridge to phone up Kew Gardens. She respectfully invites Quist to watch their experiment. After Stella hustles Colin, Quist asks Wren if they should keep her. 'You'll have mass resignations if you don't.' Wren sprays the contents of a sealed container with an aerosol upon some shrubs. Quist is called away to an urgent call from the Minister, as the the results appal the entire team. Within moments, the shrubs are dead, wilting and brown. It's living up to its name – Sahara. 'It would be interesting to see what would happen to England's green and pleasant land A couple of gallons of Sahara sprayed from a high flying plane.' Wren realises it would spread across the country in a matter of hours. 'This must never be used. We must ban it,' declares Robson seriously. But all they can do is recommend. It's the effect on the soil Robson is concerned with. It could take years to recover. Quist emerges from his office and calls in Stella and Toby. He won't brook delay.
Quist asks Dr Robson if her notes are clear and accessible to Bradley before telling her that she is suspended as of now. Orders from the Minister. Needless to say she is shocked and wonders what has she done. Toby is indignant and declares that he can't go on without Stella. 'You can't,'says Quist looking him in the eye. 'You are also suspended.'
Stella and Wren end up in a pub, where he hits the bottle and begins to get quite flirty with the calmer, sober Stella, asking her straight to bed. 'A straight, scientific proposition.' She declines. 'Who do you keep it for? We've all been wondering.' Offended, but a little understanding, Stella leaves him in the pub and goes home. Wren is momentarily upset but then orders another drink, as Commander Keeping enters the bar and joins him, trying to make small talk. Wren gets his new drink and proposes a toast. 'Here's to false hopes, false dreams, naïve idealism and pure fantasy.' He offers Keeping a drink, as the Commander fishes to find out what the problem is, detecting a sour tone to the man. Wren guesses he is a civil servant, and Wren sorts of admits he is, 'I was never very civil though.' Keeping asks what his boss is like. 'He is a great man, a very great man, and I think he believes, he really believes that he thinks he can do something.'
Stella is clearing her effects from the Doomwatch labs and is not keen on Dr Quist asking her where Toby is, feeling it could be quite important. He accuses her of self pity. That stuns her. She tells her Toby is drinking, and Quist was afraid of that. 'With Toby, when something seems intolerable, when he's faced with gross injustice or despair, he goes on the booze. Doesn't happen often, though.' Stella is alarmed, she shouldn't have left him.
Wren and Keeping are drinking some more. Poor Toby is not quite insensible but is getting that way. Keeping explains he works in records, his kind of work. 'Unlike you scientists...' Wren becomes immediately suspicious until Keeping points out the slide rule in his top pocket. 'Yes, now, you'll be very surprised what I use this for!' Keeping asks where does he work. 'Department of lost causes; too little, too often, too late.' Keeping gets the impression that the bar staff want them to leave, and Toby offers to take Keeping to the Pelican club around the corner. Keeping decides that he has taken the afternoon off...
Stella Robson tells Quist that she has enjoyed working for Doomwatch, she thought that what they were doing was worth while. Quist agrees, especially on their current work. He asks Stella if she would be interested in joining Doomwatch on a long term basis. Surprised, she agrees that if the suspension hasn't happened she would. She goes. Quist comes to a decision and calls in John Ridge, whose desk is still swamped in plants. He passes Stella, putting on her jacket silently and goes into Quist's office. 'Poor cow,' he remarks. 'Security is your speciality. See if you can find out who is behind these suspensions.' It won't be easy. Quist won't take excuses. He wants Toby and Stella working back at the offices by the end of the week.
Stella is lying on a bed being comforted by her lover, Jack, a married man. She is depressed about the whole unjustness of it all, She can't tell Jack anything, in the interests of security, and she can't even tell him what he has been going on. He goes to leave, he can't help her if she won't let him, besides he has to meet the wife and kids. Stella is upset. As he goes into the living room, he sees a big envelope on the table 'Project Sahara...' Stella takes it away from him alarmed. They part on more tender terms.
The next day Ridge tells Quist what he has found out. Department XJ7 has been set up by the Minister quite recently, and it is very sophisticated. The man in charge is a commander Keeping – who was at great pains to assure Ridge that it was not a sinister outfit. Quist is shocked. 'Don't tell me that you've been in direct touch with him!' 'Leave off, it's just that these boys are very clever. For example, after my very discreet enquiries, I got a telephone call from Commander Keeping, last night, at home!'
Wren has come in to the office to clear out his desk, and he is very hungover, as Pat noticed. Commander Keeping enters, he has an appointment with Quist. Wren looks horrified to see him. 'How are you feeling today?' Ridge comes in and tells Pat to show the Commander through, and tells Wren that that was the gent who gave him the push!
Quist welcomes the Commander but does not offer him a seat until asked... Keeping explains that he is a Detective Chief Superintendent, and Commander is an honorary title. He has been an ordinary copper in his time. They get down to business. Quist asks what is Department XJ7. Wren and Stella were blacklisted because of national security. 'A convenient blanket for witch hunting,' says Quist. 'Your team have access to classified defence information of the highest importance.' 'They also had the necessary security clearance until you stuck your nose in.' The Commander is offended and gets up to leave but Quists wants to know why. 'The possible danger to Project Sahara.' Now even Quist is surprised Keeping knows about this. 'Very little. Known I think as a form of environmental attack. Some sort of soil virus. Cheap to manufacture and delivered, I presume, by rocket. ... It rapidly produces a man made desert. The enemy can't feed himself, surrenders... and the soil recovers in two or three years.' That's the theory that hasn't been proven which is what Doomwatch is investigating and needed a biologist like Robson. Keeping won't explain precisely why Robson was suspended at such a vital time. 'Information revealed... confidential sources.' Quist regards this as the smear technique. Showing him out, Quist introduces Keeping to Wren and Robson. He is not embarrassed. 'I trust we will not be meeting here again.' After he leaves, Ridge could understand if it was him they suspended as he was a former member of MI6, and they don't trust people who leave. 'The whole thing is ludicrous. If I can't have faith in my own people...' Wren asks to talk to Quist alone. He tells Quist that he had a bit of drink last night, and met a bloke. It was Commander Keeping. 'Oh, so he acts the agent provacuteur...' muses Quist. Wren can't remember what they talked about. 'If you mentioned one word about Project Sahara, even the name, there's nothing I can do to help you.'
This time Wren is totally drunk in Stella's flat. He is upset that for all he knew he told Keeping everything he knows about Sahara. 'Oh god I'm so tired...' He goes and lies down on Stella's bed and passes out! Annoyed, Stella tries to wake him and the door bell rings and she invites who she think is Jack inside. It's Commander Keeping, come to ask some questions. He notices Wren is out cold on the bed but doesn't feel they need to disturb him. She wants him to go but he explains this is not a social visit, and she has everything to gain to co-operate. She agrees.
Bradley gives Quist a report on his experiments. The soil in the testing box is now a sandy like substance. Quist is determined to get Stella and Toby back. They need a biologist who knows their methods.
Stella is having to explain her background, Her father was Major Robson, an Englishman killed in Palestine by a Jewish terrorist gang although that was never proved. He was pro-Arab, as was her mother who died five years later. Although she was brought up a Christian, her uncle tried to marry her off to an Egyptian and she ran away back to England. He postulates that she still has ties with Syria, and if she could give them a new weapon to destroy the people who killed her father. 'I have no hate in me,' she declares grandly. Keeping agrees.
Over a cup of coffee, Ridge wonders if there is a way to attack Keeping's information. Keeping will have to go through Barker, says Quist, and he will tell him the source of information. Not with good grace or willingly, but he will.
Before leaving, Keeping asks Stella some more questions, this time about her personal life... He comes round to asking her about whether she has a lover? She is, after all, an attractive woman. She is outraged at this intrusion but he reminds her that they are dealing with national security – which stands or falls on whether she has a lover? He asks about Jack, the man she thought had entered the flat. She refuses to answer and he leaves. Toby is still asleep, thinking for a moment, Stella leaves the envelope marked Project Sahara on the side board. A few moments later Jack does turn up. He waited outside whilst the other man was here. She told him, but assured him he hadn't mentioned Jack... Jack is also annoyed to see Toby in the bedroom. She tells him who he is – and that he has no right to be jealous... Whilst she makes some coffee, Jack sees his chance and takes the envelope and makes his excuse to leave. She returns and sees the envelope has gone.
Barker, an unctuous and oily man refuses to divulge the source of Commander Keeping's information. He assures him of the veracity of the information but Quist is not satisfied and is deeply suspicious of his motives. 'My department is concerned with the long term effects of Project Sahara. It is possible that our recommendations could prove uncongenial in some quarters. Urgent research is necessary and you remove the two people in Doomwatch best qualified to deal with it...' Someone is trying to undermine the whole investigation. Barker dismisses this as sheer fantasy and refuses once again to tell him the source of the information. 'If you do not, I will close down the Doomwatch operation as of now. I propose to inform the Prime Minister immediately of the reasons for my resignation.' Barker agrees, he has no choice really.
Quist is shown the computer room, where the inhuman voice is detailing the personality problems of a man called Kingsley. It talks of his prolonged over-draught, his medical condition, a sexual offence, and that he is a security risk to blackmail.... and so on until Quist demands that shut that machine up. Barker asks the staff to leave. 'So Wren and Miss Robson have been tried and found guilty by a computer.' The information collected on people and stored on computers has now been centralised. It was bound to happen. This is a pilot scheme. 'Shortly the entire population will enjoy its benefits. The contents of every application form filled out in a life time neatly stored in that machine. Capable of being recalled in an instant' Barker agrees, a start had to be made somewhere and government seemed to be the logical place. Fresh information is fed in daily, the computer scans this and makes recommendations on its conclusions. It decides those who are criminally inclined. Criminal types in advance? Barker agrees, for sometime now it has been felt that criminal tendencies could be detected if enough information was available early. People can be removed from positions of temptation. 'Are you seriously suggesting that Wren and Dr. Robson are potential criminals?' From information from the police and security services, the computer decided that they are bad security risks. Quist is not impressed. Their lives are ruined because the computer can't be wrong. Barker has faith in it. He demands to see the information on them, threatening again to resign.
Commander Keeping makes a surprise visit on Dr Robson, telling her it will not take long. He asks her if she has anything to add from last night, warning her of the serious consequences of withholding information. She repeats that she has held back nothing, and satisfied, the Commander leaves leaving Stella worried.
Keeping goes to see Quist who has read the transcript from the computer on Wren and Robson. 'Wren has occasional drinking bouts during which his reliability cannot be guaranteed.' 'Stella Robson is considered unreliable because of her Arab background and her assumed antipathy to Israel.' Quist is well aware of this. 'Makes a change from finding communists under the bed.' Keeping gives his conclusions: Wren should have a holiday and Dr Robson returned to her university where she can be a danger to anyone. Quist rejects the recommendations, but Keeping counters that soon he will have a meeting at the ministry.
Meanwhile, in a darkened bric-a-brac shop, a little old man lets inside Jack Foster. It is quite clear that he is being blackmailed about his affair into getting the project sahara information to him. He wants out, this time. The old man has his assistant with him, a tall, silent and very strong man. Foster passes over the envelope and the old man is surprised that he hasn't opened it. He is not allowed to leave. The envelope is opened – blank pages and a note addressed to Mr foster. He is forced to read it out. It is from Stella... 'Jack, I hope you never read this. If you do so it will be impossible for us to meet again.' The old man looks hard and cold at Foster.
Barker and Quist argue it out once again in the office but Keeping thinks this is beside the point. Quist counters that it explains why he refuses to have two of his people persecuted by a machine. 'In memory and calculation the computer is my superior, but in judgement it is not.' But Keeping produces a letter from the Prime Minister. It reinforces the department's decision. Quist is beaten. Barker beams. 'I'm sure these unfortunate incidents will not prejudice our good relations.' 'What good relations?' There is a phone call from Keeping who stops Quist from leaving. Something has happened. Dr Robson will be needed as well.
At a mortuary, she identifies from behind a screen the dead body of Jack Foster, his face scarred and cut. At first she can't be sure. She examines his effects. Quist dislikes Keepings methods but in this case he had no option. He was deliberately dragged along the road. Murdered. Robson identified the signet ring. Keeping tells her that Foster was spying on her. He was being blackmailed by agents of a foreign power. 'But he knew nothing!' she exclaims, 'the name – that's all...' She will have to prove that. Because she didn't tell him about Jack Foster last night.
After this, even Quist has to agree that it is quite impossible for Dr. Robson to return to Doomwatch. Quist is quite chirpy. He asks Commander Keeping to read the information from the computer on Dr Robson. There was nothing in it about Jack Foster. This perplexes Barker and Keeping. 'Nevertheless the computer was entirely right of its assessment of Dr. Robson,' says Barker. 'For the wrong reasons.' Quist thinks that Keeping took his own individual line of investigation here. He uncovered the existence of Jack Foster. Quist questions him sharply. 'I felt she was lying... Her manner. I've seen women like her before. My trade, Doctor. Thirty years experience.' And Wren? Keeping doesn't answer. Even Barker sees where this is going. Quist conciliates. He won't stand in the way of Wren's withdrawal from Doomwatch on the condition that the final decision is not made by the computer but by Commander Keeping. His threat still stands. 'I have the utmost faith in the commander's decision.'
The next day Quist goes into his offices, ignoring Pat and Ridge and asks Bradley if the test is set up, and to let him know when Toby arrives.
A little later, Toby Wren turns up and is cheerful – he is back. He goes to see Quist in the lab and tells him that Keeping phoned him and told him that his security clearance had been renewed. He couldn't get a word out of Wren sober or drunk and even congratulated him. He has been advised to give up the booze, something Quist agrees with.
Ridge follows Quist into the office and ask what did he use on Keeping. Blackmail? 'Nothing so crude. In this instance, human nature reasserted itself over the machine. When it came to the crunch, Keeping used his own personal judgement.' Ridge knows computers are going to be used in this way, but, says Quist, as long as human judgement has the last word. And if it doesn't? 'God help us all.'
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Post by DR. QUIST on Jul 17, 2010 3:22:02 GMT -5
THE PLASTIC EATERS Reviewed by Alan Duncan
Remember Doomwatch? If you don't that's a shame as most of the issues it deals with are just as relevant today as when the show started in 1970.
It was made by the BBC and starred a solid ensemble of actors, lead by John Paul as Dr Spencer Quist. Quist headed up Government watchdog organisation Doomwatch, created to monitor any issues of scientific "progress" which could adversely affect mankind. Other main members of the original team were Robert Powell as Toby Wren, and Simon Oates as Dr John Ridge.
The Plastic Eaters is the premiere episode of the series and is very topical for the times it was made, with the increased predominance of plastic in society becoming cause for concern. Indeed, Dr Who's opening story that year, Spearhead From Space, dealt with the plastic issue as well, but from a different angle.
Quist is given a good introduction in this episode, being a well rounded, three-dimensional character from the word go. His dedication to Doomwatch and what it stands for are revealed to be spurred on by his guilt over his contribution to a nuclear bomb project. This guilt drives him to make his superiors accountable for their actions to the exclusion of all else. Thus memories of "yes minister" are conjured up as we witness bureaucratic incompetence, buck-passing, and cover-ups of the government project concerned, but with much more sinister undertones than the aforementioned sitcom.
The episode deals with a new formula for eating away at plastic molecules, created with the noble intention of waste destruction, thus preventing landfill. But, as demonstrated, such good intentions can so easily go awry when a simple thing like a visit to the lab by the minister and his secretary during testing of the formula is mishandled. The potency of the formula is revealed when a microcassette taken in by the minister for making notes is accidentally infected, which through a chain of events indirectly causes a planeload of passengers to be killed. Makes us think, no less today, of what is going on, out of our view, and just how well equipped those we elect on our behalf are to handle matters of such magnitude placed in their hands.
These messages are carried in a teleplay acted with such conviction by all concerned, that it makes a timeless piece of television. This is despite being made in classic BBC style with intermixed videotaped studio interiors, and filmed location work, and some very dodgy chromakey, particularly on the aeroplane cockpit scenes. Actually, these factors have a charm all their own and are usually the hallmarks of a quality piece of drama, in acting and script terms.
The fashions are also extremely grooovy, especially Ridges fab florals, and nifty neckerchiefs, and wouldn't look out of place in a night out at DIVA.
The script is by the creators of the series Dr Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, who incidentally created Dr Who's Cybermen. With these veterans at the helm, you are assured of a fine slice of drama, rooted, for the most part, in careful research and issues, which we since know to be fact, with fine character development. This is certainly the case with The Plastic Eaters. It is a shame that this was not to continue for the complete three-year run of Doomwatch.
Doomwatch.org would like to thank Spaced Out for this review. Spaced Out is Australia's first science fiction club for gays, lesbians and friends and is based in Melbourne, Australia.
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Post by john40dalek on Feb 9, 2011 17:30:53 GMT -5
Hi everybody, I never see any Doomwatch (BBC) series one to three, but been see film (1972) really good. Hope will released Region 2 this year or next year for all series one to three, but shame was some are missing episodes same as Doctor Who. Explain why was missing episodes?
John
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Post by paulg68 on Feb 25, 2011 6:59:07 GMT -5
Hi, just joined this forum. Ive been a great fan of british sci fi al my life(mainly a Who fan) and of Doomwatch, ive got a query.. Does anyone Know where i can obtain copies of season 1 and the remainin g eps of season 3? a friend kindly copied me the second series which im really enjoying at the moment but after reding the Doomwatch zine im really fasinated by the thought of watching the eps. I cant see the beeb releasing a box set at present which is so frustrating! I hope someone could help me, obviously i would cover all costs.
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Post by GuiPs on Aug 9, 2019 12:36:40 GMT -5
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Post by housekeeping services on Aug 11, 2019 1:15:49 GMT -5
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Post by syncmymn on Sept 2, 2019 13:19:39 GMT -5
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Post by ClaudeGrofe on May 15, 2020 11:37:46 GMT -5
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Post by ClaudeGrofe on May 28, 2020 22:43:42 GMT -5
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Post by Robertbense on Aug 11, 2020 10:22:49 GMT -5
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