The BEST episodes of Doomwatch

#1 - The Devil's Sweets

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/23/1970

Four strangely dressed young ladies wearing a checker board patterned miniskirt and silver tights ambush two City Gents with a tray of sweets which they eagerly sample...

#2 - Project Sahara

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/9/1970

The time is fast approaching when a person's entire history - educational, medical, criminal, even financial - may end up as a foot of computer tape in some impenetrable central file. Worse still, a man's future career may depend upon the computer's evaluation. This week the Doomwatch team fall under the baleful eye of a newly established security section.

#3 - Re-Entry Forbidden

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/16/1970

A new, nuclear-powered rocket is being tested, with the first British astronaut aboard. The smallest error could turn it into a flying nuclear bomb spreading radioactive fallout over a wide area of Europe. And an error does occur.

#4 - Tomorrow, the Rat

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/2/1970

Genetic engineering? Tampering with nature in a quest to make Superman? The experimentation is still only being carried out on rats, but with dangerous, and deadly results...

#5 - The Plastic Eaters

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/9/1970

What if a man-made virus with the power to melt all plastic became as infectious as the common cold? When a plane crashes in South America, in quite extrodinary circumstances, it's up to Dr Quist's team to avert further disaster.

#6 - The Human Time Bomb

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/22/1971

By the year 2000 there'll be over eighty million people living in this country. They'll want cars and places to park them. They'll want clothing and feeding and educating and work to do...to say nothing of housing...

#7 - Public Enemy

Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/22/1971

A street alongside a tall factory and a young teenager, Jimmy Brookes, is kicking his football along the road when an exceptionally high kick sees it land on the roof of the factory! Borrowing Mr Tom Walsh's ladder, Jimmy climbs onto the roof, and Walsh gets on with his window cleaning. Then he notices the boy is in distress, staggering along the roof, choking, gasping for air. Walsh quickly climbs up the ladder and brings the lad down to the road. ...

#8 - The Logicians

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/15/1971

A plan of a building, its security, the location of a safe, a ventilator grille, a security alarm... and a group of three young teenagers are planning a raid. 'tomorrow's the big day!'

#9 - The Inquest

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/1/1971

Geoff Hardcastle is visiting a laboratory talking to Doctor Henry Fane, who is surprised Doomwatch are taking the allegations seriously. There is an organised vendetta against his work, and him personally. There is a woman in the village called Miss Lincoln, a crank, thinks Fane. He blames her for the slashed tyres, broken windows, and water being put into the fuel for the boilers. She has turned everybody against them, it drives away his assistants. The problem is she is a dog lover. She found out that they had a license to experiment with animals and that was it. 'God knows what she is going to do next.' The shot that rings out, smashing a window seems to be his answer. Furious, Fane goes to phone the police– but then sees Geoff Hardcastle lying on the floor, clutching his arm, very still...

#10 - In the Dark

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/15/1971

A swimmer, just off shore from the jagged Scottish coastline, swims, unaware, into a mustard coloured substance floating on the sea... It's effect upon him is swift. His skin feels like it is on fire, and he gasps for air as he lungs seize up....

#11 - The Web of Fear

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/8/1971

In a sauna, the sweaty body of the Minister of Health, is dictating to the equally sweaty Richard Duncan a set of instructions for a commission to investigate flooding in the Thames Valley but has no intention of setting a date just yet. That won't satisfy Doctor Quist, comments Duncan. 'Blast Doctor Quist! I'm on holiday!' Fed up with being in this sweat box, the Minister tries talking to a third person in the sauna but the man has a fit, and starts convulsing on the floor. Together, Duncan and the Minister try to get the man on to a bed...

#12 - The Iron Doctor

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/25/1971

A geriatric hospital ward at Parkway and a very elderly patient, George Mason, connected to a drip feed, is delighted with a letter he has received telling him that his great-grandson is to be named after him. His fellow patient in the next bed, Mr Faber is pleased for him. Watching George on a small monitor screen are Doctors Carson, Eric Godfrey and the Duty Nurse who are all pleased for him. Godfrey thinks it is all thanks to the monitoring equipment which dominates the room in the form of huge units. 'The computer?' sneers Carson. 'It did not give him his great grand-son.' 'Kept him alive to see him,' points out Godfrey. They can hear voices from the monitor as the boss of the hospital is giving a conducted tour to VIPs of their impressive outfit. 'Whitaker's sunshine tours!' says Carson.

#13 - By the Pricking of My Thumbs...

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/18/1971

A school chemistry lab and some unsupervised senior students, MacPherson and Jenkins are preparing a prank on one of their own... However, a friend of theirs, a very tall boy called Stephen Franklin is worried if they have calculated the amount that the others are pouring into a test tube... Paignton, a rather obnoxious Billy Bunter type victim of the prank gets a face full of test tube fragments and scalding liquid as it explodes in his face. The boys watch in horror as Paignton screams and screams and screams....

#14 - Flight into Yesterday

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/1/1971

Ten Downing Street, and the Minister is anxiously waiting the arrival of Doctor Quist who is late for an important meeting with the Prime Minister. Duncan blames the traffic, Quist is being driven by car from the airport. The Prime Minister's secretary is also alarmed. Quist suddenly bursts in, he is unsteady on his feet, confused, slurring his speech and looks exhausted. He blames the driver for getting lost. He asks to be briefed on the meeting and is taken into the meeting leaving the Minister in no doubt what is wrong with the man. 'He's drunk! Doctor Quist is drunk...'

#15 - No Room for Error

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/11/1971

We see a distressed young girl being made comfortable in an isolation ward. The Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Ian Phelps is told by the hospital's Senior House Officer that the young girl, Doreen Taylor, who has typhoid, is not responding to any of the other antibiotics. It is a totally resistant strain. There are four other suspect cases, all from Doreen's school and they have visited a lot of areas. 'So it's bad, we could be on the verge of an epidemic,' says Phelps. 'Yes. And absolutely no effective drug to fight it with.'...

#16 - The Islanders

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/4/1971

ISLANDERS FLEE The 200 inhabitants of the tiny Pacific Island of St Simon are to be evacuated. The British Government believes that this mini protectorate is in grave danger following recent earth tremors. A Royal Navy frigate is now steaming towards the island to bring people home to the country their forefathers left two centuries ago.

#17 - Invasion

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 12/21/1970

DOOMWATCH MAN HELD DR JOHN RIDGE, 38, a member of the controversial Doomwatch team was held for 24 hours today by a 'mystery' Army unit in a remote Yorkshire village.....

#18 - You Killed Toby Wren

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 12/14/1970

... Ninety seconds to go, says Quist from the end of the pier as Toby Wren on the other side is cutting wires leading inside a ticking nuclear bomb, wedged amongst the struts of the pier support. As two suited men arrive to take over, Toby, full of relief, thinks he has succeeded in disarming the explosive. But to his horror, he discovers one more wire, and he has dropped the clippers into the sea. As he tries to manually undo the wire from its terminal, the trip motor activates....

#19 - Say Knife Fat Man

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 6/19/1972

#20 - Waiting for a Knighthood

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/26/1972

The episode begins with a vicar, the Reverend Frank Simpson giving a sermon to a half full congregation, one of whom is Dr. Anne Tarrant who begins to notice how the man is starting to ramble, and become incoherent. He looks drunk. He comes from the pulpit and starts to wander around... By the time he collapses, a party of school children are being escorted out by their teacher. Anne asks for an ambulance, watched by the vicar's concerned wife...

#21 - Without the Bomb

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/3/1972

#22 - Hair Trigger

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/10/1972

'Man isn't born free. For him...the dreadful has already happened. He has to live with the nightmare, or rise above it. And natural evolution is too slow. The episode begins with an establishing shot of the outside of Weatheroak Hall Maximum Security Medical Research Unit (Owned by The Department of Health and Social Security). The building is surrounded by a large wall covered in barbed wire and pointed glass shards....

#23 - Deadly Dangerous Tomorrow

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 7/17/1972

#24 - Enquiry

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 7/24/1972

#25 - Flood

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 7/31/1972