415 – Doomwatch – The Red Sky

The Doomwatch team tackle sound pollution… or is it? Ben and Eugene pick up where they left off in 2013 and discuss Doomwatch, the 1970s BBC show with a pessimistic view of scientific accountability. Episode Synopsis: Environmentalist Bernard Colley and his daughter Dana pull up the lighthouse of Tommy Gort just in time to see him mindlessly walk over to the cliff and fall off. Meanwhile, at Doomwatch HQ, Quist is in a foul mood.  The government wants to shut him down and he’s working too much, taking on too much responsibility and it’s driving the staff to fits.  [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] After a showdown, Quist agrees to take a few days off.  He goes to Kent to visit Bernard Colley – an old friend of his who has also happened to call Quist and asked for his help with sound problems coming from a nearby research facility. Bernard’s investigation revealed that Gort was seeing the Fires of Hell.  Soon, Bernard sees them too when he is subjected to strange sound and visions.  At first Quist dismisses the problem, but later, when it happens again and Bernard has a fatal cerebral hemorrhage, he takes it very seriously, calling Wren and Ridge up from London to do some testing at the nearby base. While they’re at the base, Quist does tests at the lighthouse and he too is soon subjected to the strange sound and visions.  Ridge and Wren; however, turned up nothing, although it is clear that the secret T9, liquid rocket powered plane project is being kept secret from them. When they discover that Quist has been incapacitated and is going on about visions, Ridge decides to put him in a home in an effort to spin a story about overwork which will allow the Doomwatch office to continue functioning in his absence. Just before they leave, Wren must go to the lighthouse to recover some equipment left behind by Quist and when he arrives, it is just as another sonic episode is ending.  This time the housekeeper has been struck down. Wren has a theory.  Quist, feeling a bit better, has Ridge setup a meeting with the head of the research facility and the hatchet man from the Minister that Quist works for.  At the lighthouse, Quist maneuvers them into staying behind to prove that Wren’s hypothesis is wrong.  His theory: it’s not the testing of the engines on the ground, it is a daily overpass by the test plane traveling at mach speeds combined with the unique shape and position of the lighthouse that is causing a standing wave of sound, strong enough to break glass, induce the eye to produce visions, and cause brain damage. Wren was right and the day is saved! But not really because all this military stuff is too important to stop so… we’ll just tear down the light house and then continue. The End – or is it? [/expand]