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Earlier this year when I watched Manhunt and Doomwatch, I planned to do this sort of primer for both (and for all my old things!), because I like doing them, they hopefully explain the obscure things I'm on about & they may even be useful. And then I did Manhunt, but was slow to screencap Doomwatch and then decided there was no point in posting things like that. Which is just silly, and, in short, here is my best stab at a guide to Doomwatch and why you might even want to watch it, if you don't mind beige TV!
(The fandom_manifesto tag below will take you to the others of these I've done so far, although I see that Photobucket ate the pics from the Enemy at the Door one.)
Anyway, welcome to the future. It probably wants to kill you...
Doomwatch
Doomwatch was a BBC drama series that ran from 1970 to 1972, created and script-edited by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler (who invented Doctor Who's Cybermen) and produced by Terence Dudley.
It focused on the Ministry of Security's Department of Observation and Measurement of Scientific Work, nicknamed 'Doomwatch' (which is what the team also name their computer) as they investigated possible dangerous side-effects of new scientific discoveries from plastic-easting viruses to killer rats to the dangers of DDT and lead in petrol, often having an eerily prophetic tendency to predict the headlines and sparking more than one debate in parliament. According to the Cult of Doomwatch, when Channel 5 tried to revive the series with a modern version, they got some scientists to give them cutting-edge ideas for storylines... and found that all of them had been covered by the original.
Doomwatch was headed up by Nobel prize-winning mathematician and phyisicist, Dr Spencer Quist, backed by Dr John Ridge (a chemist who had worked for MI6), Colin Bradley (the down-to-earth, Northern (TM) computer specialist and general dogbody), young chemist Tobias (Toby) Wren and the secretary, Pat Hunnisett.
So, Our Heroes vs Whitehall and unethical scientists + real issues & science and environmental crusading + an occasional edge of horror = the cult phenomenon that was Doomwatch.
( You've done the impossible; now don't try and do the intolerable )
(The fandom_manifesto tag below will take you to the others of these I've done so far, although I see that Photobucket ate the pics from the Enemy at the Door one.)
Anyway, welcome to the future. It probably wants to kill you...
Doomwatch was a BBC drama series that ran from 1970 to 1972, created and script-edited by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler (who invented Doctor Who's Cybermen) and produced by Terence Dudley.
It focused on the Ministry of Security's Department of Observation and Measurement of Scientific Work, nicknamed 'Doomwatch' (which is what the team also name their computer) as they investigated possible dangerous side-effects of new scientific discoveries from plastic-easting viruses to killer rats to the dangers of DDT and lead in petrol, often having an eerily prophetic tendency to predict the headlines and sparking more than one debate in parliament. According to the Cult of Doomwatch, when Channel 5 tried to revive the series with a modern version, they got some scientists to give them cutting-edge ideas for storylines... and found that all of them had been covered by the original.
Doomwatch was headed up by Nobel prize-winning mathematician and phyisicist, Dr Spencer Quist, backed by Dr John Ridge (a chemist who had worked for MI6), Colin Bradley (the down-to-earth, Northern (TM) computer specialist and general dogbody), young chemist Tobias (Toby) Wren and the secretary, Pat Hunnisett.
So, Our Heroes vs Whitehall and unethical scientists + real issues & science and environmental crusading + an occasional edge of horror = the cult phenomenon that was Doomwatch.
( You've done the impossible; now don't try and do the intolerable )
