452 – Doomwatch – In the Dark

Doomwatch tackles mustard gas… and also the implications of scientifically prolonging human life.  Simon and Eugene discuss In the Dark. Episode Synopsis:  A young man is improbably going for a swim in the waters off the Scottish coast.  He encounters a strange yellow substance floating in the water and dies.  He has been killed by mustard gas. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] John Ridge wants to investigate, but Quist is uninterested, but relents anklets Ridge proceed in his search for the source of the mustard gas which he suspects is the HMS Woodstock, which sunk with a cargo of mustard gas.  An old friend of Quist’s, and famous scientist, McArthur was commander of the ship, and Ridge proposes to start his investigation there. The mustard gas crisis plays little or no further part in this story. McArthur, despite having a regular BBC radio program hasn’t actually been seen in two years, and absolutely no one will give Ridge permission to see him.  The runaround lasts for weeks, until Quist’s deigns to write a letter to McArthur asking for Ridge to gain an audience.  That request, too, is reject and the runaround continues, but wheels have been set in motion. Privately, at McArthur’s him, McArthur’s daughter, Flora, wants to let Quist see her father, but her husband, Dr. Seaton, doesn’t want Quist to find out about the scientific advances they’ve made with McArthur.  Flora expresses her concern that her father isn’t really alive. The BBC confirms that McArthur does not show up to record his program, but instead supplies them, pre-recorded, months in advance.  Next, the newspaper reports that the stock of McArthur’s company is taking a beating upon rumors that McArthur is actually dead.  Ridge and Hardcastle plot get to the bottom of the mystery and plan a trip to Scotland to get in to see McArthur once and for all. No need, says Quist, McArthur is holding a press conference tomorrow in London. Ridge attends in the guise of a journalist.  McArthur explains that he has been very ill, but is now quite well, although he has turned over operation of the company to his son-in-law, Seaton.  Ridge manages to corner him about the Woodstock, but his answers are unusually vague.  He memory is not what it used to be. After reviewing the BBC tapes, Ridge – and Quist – are convinced the man at the press conference was an imposter.  Indeed, back at the McArthur home we (the audience) learn that the man at the press conference was McArthur’s look-a-like cousin, acting on Seaton’s instructions and coaching. Ridge and Fay head to Scotland to demand to see McArthur. Meanwhile, after consulting with her father, invites Quist to visit, but he does not receive the invitation until Fay and Ridge have already arrived.  When knocking on the front door fails, Fay creates a diversion and Ridge attempts to break in.  Both fail, and Seaton threatens prosecution, but when Ridge bites back that withholding information on the Woodstock which may kill again is tantamount to murder, Seaton relents and they await Quist’s arrival. When Quist arrives, we learn the truth, McArthur had a fatal illness that slowly creeps up through the body paralyzing and destroying, but McArthur, the brilliant scientist and Dr. Seaton, have replaced virtually everything except McArthur’s head with machinery.  He is alive, not in pain, lucid and 100% onboard what what has happened to him.  He has cheated death, he may even be immortal.  Soon even his head will become paralyzed but they have prepared for that contingency, too.  They are working on a method by which he can use his brainwaves to communicate with them via yes/no pulse and, with time, perhaps even morse code. Flora doesn’t really think her father is truly human anymore, but she cannot switch him off.  She loves him.  Seaton is too caught up in the work to be able to consider ending it.  Flora wants Quist to talk McArthur into ending it all. Quist and McArthur have discussions.  McArthur thinks that he is better than human.  Soon he will be pure thought, unfettered by the physical – capable of making his own reality.  Quist sees it as a living hell, locked in the dark, unable to adequately communicate, divorced from the physical reality that makes us human.  McArthur accuses Quist of being unable to see beyond the physical.  McArthur espouses the duality notion that his brain is just a repository for his mind – a separate, non-physical manifestation of what he is and what he can become.  He even hopes to remove all emotion, for that, too, is surely just left overs from the instinctive animal part of the human being. Slowly though, McArthur comes around and, in a final conversation with he daughter, tells her that it is time to let him die.  Later, with Quist and Fay still there for support and with her father, oblivious in the other room, Flora shuts off the machinery and McArthur quietly dies. Oh, and Ridge found the ship and the mustard gas problem was remediated. [/expand]