Doomwatch
| Doomwatch | |
|---|---|
| Created by |
Kit Pedler Gerry Davis |
| Starring |
John Paul Simon Oates Robert Powell |
| Composer(s) | Max Harris |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 38 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Original release | 9 February 1970 – 14 August 1972 |
Doomwatch was a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist (played by John Paul), responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers.
The series was followed by a film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV film was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999.
The programme was created by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler, who had previously collaborated on scripts for Doctor Who, a programme on which Davis had been the story editor and Pedler the unofficial scientific adviser during the 1960s. Their interest in the problems of science changing and endangering human life had led them to create the popular alien race the Cybermen for that programme, and it was similar interests that led them to create Doomwatch, which explored all kinds of new and unusual threats to the human race, many bred out of the fear of real scientific concepts, with a "this could happen to us" fear by the public.
In the story, the actual name of the organisation was "Department for the Observation and Measurement of Scientific Work". Officially Doomwatch was an agency dedicated to preserving the world from dangers of unprincipled scientific research—"We were set up to investigate any scientific research, Public or Private, which could possibly be harmful to Man"—but the real intention was to form a body with little power meant to stifle protests and secure green votes. However, the incorruptible Dr Spencer Quist and companions soon gave the agency some real power and people had to listen.
Quist had worked on the development of the atomic bomb and seen his wife die of radiation poisoning; Ridge was the secret agent type and Wren a conscientious researcher. Together they took science into people's living rooms, explaining about embryo research, subliminal messages, wonder drugs, dumping of toxic waste, noise pollution, nuclear weaponry, animal exploitation, etc.
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