446 – Doomwatch – Flight into Yesterday

This week on Doomwatch – the dangers of jet lag!  I’m not making that up.  Simon and Eugene discuss. Episode Synopsis:  It is 1971, during the Golden Age of jet air travel, when luxurious planes plied the skies serving Victorian-era foods in aspic… and it is at the tail end of a series of rapid turnaround London to Los Angeles to London luxury flights that Dr. Quist finds himself disembarking his plane and being whisked immediately to a meeting at #10. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] Quist appears to be drunk and is sent home.  The Minister sees this as his chance to get rid of Quist, once and for all! Back at Doomwatch HQ, Barbara, who was also on the trip, isn’t at peak performance either.  The team hear about Quist’s drunken appearance at #10 and put two and two together – or more accurately, they put 11.25 hours and 11.25 hours together and realize that Quist and Barbara have been traveling almost an entire day back and forth across timelines and are showing signs of extreme jet lag.  Fey Chantry begins testing Barbara’s reaction times. Doomwatch informs the Minister that Quist was just jet lagged, but he is dismissive of the idea because he has Quist’s doom in his sights.  He orders Quist to take two weeks leave and contacts Ridge and orders him to go to America to give the presentation Quist had been sent to give. Quist had been suddenly called back to London because the Prime Minister got wind that Quist was going to blame all major threats to our environment on the doorstep of governments.  Ridge is instructed to not do that in his version of the presentation. Ridge; however, is a cunning bastard, and forces the Minister’s hand, making him travel to America to give the presentation, and then he will have to immediately return to the UK and have an important meeting.  Ridge anticipates that the Minister will be impaired, just as Quist was.  The Minister knows this is what Ridge is doing, but scoffs at the notion that he will have problems. Quist; however, gets wind of Ridge’s plot and puts a stop to it.  He demands that, if the Minister is impaired in America, he ask for a postponement on the presentation.  America is thinking of setting up their own Doomwatch and it is too important to let the Minister botch it up. On the flight, the Minister is entertained by Ainsley.  The gregarious Scotsman from America who had previously flown with Quist and showed him and Barbara a great time. Back in Britain, the pieces are starting to come together.  Ainsley is employed by a firm in America.  Their clients are a who’s who of US and UK companies that wouldn’t want the Doomwatch concept to spread to the United States and who would favor the UK version having less influence. Ainsley is using the fact that the effects of jet travel across timezones is very similar to the techniques used in brainwashing.  Ainsley uses the flights to sway his victim – in this case, the Minister.  He encourages him to eat, drink, smoke and not get any sleep, and even whisks him away from more food and activity while they layover in New York.  All the while, working on getting him to change the speech he’s preparing to give. Alerted to Ainsley’s mission, the Minister’s staff try to stop him, but Ainsley has it all sewed up.  A rush of reporters storm the Minister, hitting him with loaded questions.  Just as he’s about to say something seriously regrettable, he has a heart attack and falls to the floor. Ridge, who did all the right things to minimize jet lag on the flight, picks up the speech and heads into the conference to delivery Quist’s original presentation. Later, it appears the Minister isn’t dead, but Quist is angry at Ridge.  The Minister is the only person that can keep Doomwatch afloat – he must continue on. [/expand]