14/12/1970      You Killed Toby Wren

While attempting to defuse the bomb washed up at Byfield Regis pier, Toby Wren was tragically killed. Quist finds himself wracked with guilt, and facing an investigating tribunal. Under pressure from the enquiry, and confronted by a furious Ridge - who holds Quist personally responsible for Toby’s death - Quist turns to a psychiatrist for help. Then Geoff Hardcastle arrives at the Doomwatch office, bringing with him disturbing news concerning horrific genetic experiments being conducted by Professor Hayland. Ridge decides to investigate, but becomes more involved than he was expecting to…

21/12/1970      Invasion

While exploring the caves beneath a mansion, two boys go missing. Ridge is sent in to investigate, but when he visits the local village he is arrested by an army unit, which has taken over the entire area and evacuated all of the villagers. He soon discovers that during the Second World War, the mansion was used as a base for the development of bacterial warfare, and that the chemical weapons which were stored there have now somehow leaked into the local water supply…

04/01/1971      The Islanders

When the remote Pacific island of St. Simon begins to suffer from dangerous earth tremors, the British government evacuates the two hundred inhabitants and brings them to the safety of the mainland. Forced into the bustle of busy London life, the islanders soon find themselves unable to cope with the modern world, and become objects of curiosity and the butt of jokes. But when one of them dies, the islanders are faced with a decision: should the try and stay in a world they don’t understand, or should they face death on their island home..?

11/01/1971      No Room for Error

Doctor Fay Chantry contacts the team at Doomwatch, asking for their urgent assistance. She is extremely concerned about the work that her company has been carrying out on a new ‘wonder-drug’ known as Stellamycin. Several children have died, and it appears that their deaths are attributable to the new drug - the country could be on the verge of an epidemic....

18/01/1971      By the Pricking of My Thumbs...

Sixteen year-old Stephen Franklin stages a prank while in a school science class, but the joke goes wrong, and a classmate suffers horrible facial injuries. When Stephen is then expelled from the comprehensive school, his father, journalist Oscar Franklin, agrees to allow a blood-test on his son by a scientist named Ensor. Stephen suffers from an abnormality of his hands, but the blood test also reveals that he has an obscure genetic defect: an extra Y chromosome. Doomwatch become involved when it seems that there may be a genetic explanation for violent and unpredictable behaviour…

25/01/1971      The Iron Doctor

The intensive care unit at Parkway hospital is using a computer to monitor the patients, but the computer inexplicably allows a patient to die. Quist is warned by the hospital’s Doctor Carson that the computer is a model 20/90 that has been modified by Doctor Whittaker, and that it is able to think for itself, making decisions based upon its observations. The only problem is the computer is deliberately killing the patients that it decides are beyond reasonable help…

01/02/1971      Flight into Yesterday

Quist flies to Los Angeles in order to address an important ecological conference, but at the last minute, he is recalled by the Minister. After the long flight home, he suffers from extreme jet-lag, but this is misinterpreted as drunkenness. Believing Quist to be unable to fulfil his obligations, the Minister orders him to be replaced by Ridge. But then he too falls victim of the rigours of excessive jet-lag in a scheme by rival businesses…

08/02/1971      The Web of Fear

What appears to be a flu epidemic breaks out at an exclusive health clinic on the Scilly Isles. After the islands are sealed off from visitors, Doomwatch is granted permission to investigate, but Quist’s team soon discovers that the illness is actually an outbreak of Yellow Fever. It seems that an experiment into Yellow Fever vaccines has gone wildly out of control, and hundreds of spiders are now carrying the deadly disease…

15/02/1971      In the Dark

Quist journeys to the south coast of England as part of a survey into the areas where mustard gas was dumped into the sea during the Second World War. While there he learns that his old colleague, McArthur, is living nearby, and so decides to pay him a visit. But Quist then discovers that his old friend is now being kept alive purely by machines, and soon will he lose all physical sensations, existing purely as a mind kept alive by mechanical means…

22/02/1971      The Human Time Bomb

At the Institute of Town Planning, property millionaire Sir Billy Langly foresees that by the year 2000 there will be eighty million people living in the country, which will result in a demand for new kinds of housing. Tower blocks are the way forward, but this ‘battery’ idea of living can result in a particularly depressing urban neurosis - something that Fay is forced to experience first hand…

01/03/1971      The Inquest

In the town of Silby, a schoolgirl named Marion Duffy dies of rabies, but no-one is able to identify the source. The inquest into her death is highly controversial, but even more shocking is Colin Bradley’s recommendation that every dog within a ten-mile radius be destroyed…

15/03/1971      The Logicians

Thieves break into Beresford Chemicals in Hampshire and steal vital papers. The company’s managing director, Jack Priestland is understandably concerned, particularly when the police are unable to find any clues as to how the culprits were able to penetrate the sophisticated electronic security system at the plant. But no-one has considered that Priestland’s son Malcolm, a mathematical genius who has been taught by computers, may be the true perpetrator…

22/03/1971      Public Enemy

When a young boy tries to retrieve his ball from the roof of Carlingham Alloys, he collapses, as does the workman attempting to rescue him. An inquest reveals that they both had their lungs burnt out - an incident that comes to the attention of Quist and his team. Doomwatch investigates the factory, where a new alloy process is being developed; but Quist suspects that pollution, waste disposal and ventilation systems at the plant may be responsible for the deaths. However, the management and workforce are unhappy with the investigation, which they see as a threat to their progress and jobs…