Fusion Patrol

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=&#822...

Sometimes you just need to get away from it all – and sometimes you succeed. John and Eugene discuss the  Outsiders Episode Synopsis:  Important research continues at Moonbase 3, but Helen Smith has concerns about two of the scientists.   Drs. Partness and Conway.   Although Partness is working on important fuel research, he’s working at a desperate pace.   Perhaps h...

It’s time some things got cleaned up.  You might say it’s time to take out the  Trash . Simon and Eugene discuss. Episode Synopsis:  Things are looking bad for Mal, he’s naked, stranded in the desert.   Oh wait, the storytellers can’t create appropriate tension without a flashback. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] Let’s star...

It’s time to say, “not yeti on the underground,” with a touch of disappointment, for while this episode does explore terrors underground, there is nary a yeti in sight. Simon and Eugene discuss the Web of Fear. Episode Synopsis: The Minister of Health and Duncan, Permanent Secretary at a mysteriously connected Ministry that somehow occasionally seems to hold Doomwatch’s fate dire...

This is a short special announcement to give you an idea of what’s coming up through the rest of 2019 and into 2020. Throughout the month of December 2019 we will be continuing our coverage of Firefly , Doomwatch and Moonbase 3 . We’ll be kicking off January 2020 with the special episode where we add Big Finish’s new Space: 1999 – Breakaway into our episode-by-episode coverage of Space: 1999...

Everyone has their Achilles Heel.  Can you make a compelling space story on that idea?  John and Eugene discuss. Episode Synopsis:  On the surface of the moon, scientists Adam Blaney and Bill Knight are working on an antenna installation.   Bill begins to act delirious, his oxygen supply running out.   Adam rushes to him, shares his air supply, and they make it safely back to the base. Back at the...

Wash just wants some male bonding time with Mal.  He gets more than he bargained for in War Stories.  Simon and Eugene discuss. Episode Synopsis:  Following the success of their raid on Ariel, the crew of the Firefly are sitting pretty with cash in their pockets.   Simon and River are especially buoyed because he has been able to devise new treatment regimes and River is showing signs of improveme...

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 disem...

Simon and Eugene continue their two-part discussion of the classic of Science Fiction cinema,  Blade Runner: The Final Cut. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe: Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die. – Roy Batty

Time for another celebration of some of the classics of Science Fiction cinema.  This time: Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Simon and Eugene discuss. Movie Synopsis:  Rick Deckard is a former Blade Runner: A special cop charged with retiring (read: hunting down and killing) rogue Replicants.   Replicants are artificial humans that are used as slave labor on Earth’s colony worlds, but outlawed on Eart...

Is there life on the moon?  Is it killing the crew of Moonbase 3?  Should we take this premise seriously? John and Eugene discuss Behemoth. Episode Synopsis:  A team of astronauts are working on the surface, conducting experiments in the Mare Frigoris .   There is some strange disturbance from under the surface.   Later, when they fail to check in, it is discovered that they, and all their equipme...

The Serenity gang’s master plotter, Simon, plans a high-stakes heist on the planet Ariel.  Meanwhile, perfidy is afoot. Simon and Eugene discuss Ariel. Episode Synopsis:  The Serenity arrives on the planet Ariel, one of the Core Planets in the Alliance.   While most of the crew are hoping to spend some time off the boat, Mal and Zoe are distinctly hostile to the idea of setting foot on a Cor...

Medicine has come a long way since leeches and eye of newt… or has it? Simon and Eugene discuss the Iron Doctor. Episode Synopsis: In a hospital, George, an old man is ecstatically happy.   He’s just received word that his first great-grandchild has been born and has been named after him.   Better still, the child will be brought to see him next week.   It is a gleaming ray of joy and hope f...

This week, we start looking at a new series:  The 1973 BBC science fiction series Moonbase 3 by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks. John and Eugene discuss. Since this program is not readily available on DVD or streaming, at time of publication you can watch the episodes on this YouTube Playlist – Moonbase 3 Episode Synopsis:  On the moon, the director of Moonbase 3, the European moonbase, is no...

The Serenity and her crew have got some serious problems. Simon and Eugene discuss. Episode Synopsis: Two stories told through a series of flashbacks: [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] The first: The Serenity, while in very off-the-radar space suffers a critical engine malfunction and fire. Zoe is critically wounded, the Serenity is dead...

Genetic profiling.  Yes…  genetic profiling… this was a thing back in 1971! Simon and Eugene discuss By the Pricking of My Thumbs… Episode Synopsis:  In a secondary school some students sabotage another student’s science experiment, making it so that it will explode. The results go… pretty much exactly how any rational person would expect them to go. The student is burned and has...

After the wild success of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass Experiment, the BBC brought Kneale’s Quatermass back again in 1955 for Quatermass II. Simon and Eugene discuss. Fusion Patrol is a listener supported podcast.  Find out how you can help support us at patreon.com/FusionPatrol . Episode Synopsis:  A radar post observes the arrival of yet another meteor.   Under orders for secrecy, Capt....

One of the Serenity’s crew turns out to be a local Robin Hood-type hero.  Who could it possibly be? Simon and Eugene discuss Jaynestown. Episode Synopsis:  The crew of the Serenity arrive on Canton, where they are to pick up some illicit merchandise.   Canton exports mud for high-tech ceramic production and costs are kept low by the use of indentured servitude and low regard for the conditio...

Drug-resistant typhoid is on the prowl in the UK, but fear not!  Doomwatch is watching. Simon and Eugene discuss “No Room for Error” Episode Synopsis:  In an isolation ward, a young woman lies stricken with typhoid.   The prognosis is grim:   This and several other cases appear to be a new, drug-resistent strain of the highly-infectious disease.   Nothing in the arsenal of wonder drugs...

Another exciting missing episode of Doctor Who is returned to the back catalog via animation.  Simon and Eugene discuss the Second Doctor adventure, the Macra Terror. Episode Synopsis:  On an Earth colony world a man, Medok, causes a scene during practice for a celebration. He’s seen creatures in the colony at night. His cries are branded as hallucinations but he runs away before they can restrain...

A creepy village in the south of England, a stone circle and a black hole make for some creepy happenings. Simon and Eugene discuss the Children of the Stones. Synopsis:  Professor Adam Brake and his son Matthew arrive in the small village of Milbury to conduct a 3 month research project .   Milbury is built inside a neolithic stone circle and Adam has come to conduct measurements on the magnetic...

Mal experiences wedded bliss. Simon and Eugene discuss Our Mrs. Reynolds. Episode Synopsis:  On a remote planet, Mal and the gang rescue a settlement from bandits that have been praying on the town.   The townsfolk throw a big party for the crew and there is much drinking to be had. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] Upon departure the ne...

The lives of poor, downtrodden South Pacific Islanders are crushed under the heels of isolation, politics, disease, pollution and injustice…  all while Quist and the Doomwatch team watch. Ben and Eugene discuss The Islanders. Episode Synopsis:  John Ridge is fingerprinting a group of bucolic, but slightly inbred-looking people.   They feel he’s treating them like criminals and they start tra...

The Douglas Adams story that just will not die as long as the BBC can milk some more money out of it.  Simon and Eugene look once again at Shada in its latest animated recreation form. Episode Synopsis:  Aboard a space station, something sinister involving people and a ball has happened.   The sinister Skagra leaves with his ball.   Meanwhile, at Cambridge, a researcher named Chris Parsons stops i...

Shepard Book gets shot, Simon and River get kidnapped and Mal has choices to make. Simon and Eugene discuss Safe. Episode Synopsis:  Mal and the gang have arrived on the planet Jiangyin to unload the cattle they smuggled in the previous episode.   River has been having unusually fits and Mal order Simon and River to go away during the cattle transaction.   They wander into town, as does Kaylee and...