Doomwatch The Movie (1972)

It was almost compulsory in the Seventies that a successful TV series had to be made into a film however ill-fitting that medium might be so you have such delights as On The Buses making it to the big screen. Doomwatch at least has more potential to make a transition but the trouble is that the series was very talky indeed. In order to spice up a movie the makers of this 1972 version turn it into a quasi-horror film; in the US it was titled `Island of the Ghouls`. Reasonably atmospheric direction toys knowingly with horror motifs on remote island Balfe where Doomwatch send Dr Shaw, a hitherto unseen operative, to take a few samples. Before long he finds himself mistrusted, followed, attacked by dogs and generally made to feel unwelcome. They don’t like strangers round these parts you see.

Doomwatch Project Sahara

What starts out as a slightly dull experiment into a soil virus turns into an interesting and perceptive examination of loyalty and truth. Using the language of the spy thriller, Kit Pedlar and Gerry Davis’ wordy but absorbing script centres around a computer that predicts potential criminal behaviour being tested by MI6 like a sort of employee tribunal. If the machine decides someone is a security risk they are suspended and this is what happens to both Toby Wren and temporary Doomwatch biologist Stella Robson. An incensed Dr Quist goes on the trail of the information but the episode really revolves around Commander Keeping, an insignificant looking civil servant complete with moustache and big coat who is far more than he seems.

Dr Quist had his own You Tube channel

Doomwatch Tomorrow the Rat

You have to worry about scientists during the 1970s. For the second week in a row something nasty escapes into the public domain. This time a plague of genetically engineered super rats rampages around London in Terence Dudley’s lively if a tad schlocky story that splices genetics and the art of seduction into one melodramatic package. After a series of rat attacks (rattacks?) is reported the Doomwatch team investigations uncover vermin that have been genetically altered to be thinking and responsive to the point where they can open cages and use basic tools. If this all seems a little silly then wait till you see the scenes where the production unwisely chooses to show them actually attacking. It’s a shame they do as otherwise the use of rather chilling sound effects and cleverly edited montages of our furry feinds is more than adequate to demonstrate the danger. Sticking a toy rat to someone’s knee and asking them to pretend to be in pain is probably not.

Robert liked to dance and sing in his kitchen when everyone was out.

Doomwatch The Plastic Eaters

Though Doomwatch is a well known marker in the road of much praised series it hasn’t had the same exposure as some others hence its reputation is more received wisdom than fact. With some episodes wiped and the remaining ones never released on DVD or shown anywhere in a long time this reputation has been fostered by a small band of loyal followers. Now over 45 years old the series is long overdue a re-assessment so that’s what this series of posts is doing. After all at the time it was a big enough deal to get a stunning Radio Times cover (below). Don’t ask where we got the episodes from, we’ll just obviously say John Ridge got them for us. Doomwatch then is an organisation whose remit is to investigate technological issues that could be a threat to mankind. Nowadays it would be called the green agenda but the series deals with all branches of science and beyond.