Fusion Patrol

The Beasts episode Baby explores the idyllic life of the English country vet.  Simon and Eugene discuss.

Synopsis:

Jo and Peter Gilkes have recently moved to the country and are having their cottage renovated by two local workman, Stan Biddick and Arthur Grace.  Jo is a housewife, country-born and six-months pregnant.  She’s been pregnant before, but without success.

Peter splits his time between being a vet and a first-class asshole.  He’s a city boy who’s moved to the country to be James Herriot.  He’s tired of expressing neurotic poodle’s anal glands and wants to get his arm up to his shoulder in a cow’s backside.  That is… when he’s not shouting at his wife.  It’s clear, she’s not as thrilled about moving to the country as he is.

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Jo has just brought the family cat, Muddslinger, to the cottage and he screams and yowls from the moment she brings his basket in the door until she lets him out, when he promptly bolts out the door and keeps running till he’s out of sight.

In the evening, Peter decides the workman aren’t moving fast enough, and starts doing some of the demolition work himself.  He uncovers a large earthen jar bricked up in the 300-year old wall.  Inside, they find the mummified remains of… something.  Peter the vet cannot identify it.  Neither dog nor cat, it looks rather like a pig, but furry.  Or like a lamb, with claws.  He is fascinated by it.  She is horrified by it.  But he won’t take it out and bury it – he wants to show it to his new partner, senior local vet and colorful character, Siegfried Farnum – no, no, sorry, Dick Pummery.

He leaves the mummy at the house when he goes to work the next day, and when the workmen see it, they think it should be gotten rid of.  Jo agrees and takes it out to the fire in the yard and drops it in just as Peter pulls up and shouts her down, rescuing it from the flames.

That night, Dick comes over and does a lot of talking about the somewhat dark history of the cottage and the surrounding land.  The house was previously owned by the Jacksons, a childless couple who tried to run a dog farm.  They never made a go of it though, the dogs kept spontaneously aborting.  Funny that, that’s the same reason the land isn’t used for cattle, either.  Spontaneous abortions.  Must be a germ or something in the soil in the area that causes it.

All this talk of something in the area causing spontaneous abortions makes Jo feel absolutely confident that this is the right place for her to be right now.  No, strike that, it makes her hysterically worried for the safety of her unborn child.  “Not to worry, my dear, couldn’t happen to humans!” says Dick, and that calms her down a lot (read: not at all.)

With the fun and uplifting evening coming to an end, Peter shows Dick the mummy.  He finds it fascinating, too.  They decide to take it back to the practice and do a post-mortem on it.  Jo is thrilled to get it out of the house.

Just one problem, the bag starts to break as Dick makes to leave so, rather than find another bag, Peter sneaks the mummy upstairs and into the nursery, where he locks it in a cabinet.  No need to worry Jo that it’s still in the house.  He’ll take it to work in the morning.  Unless he forgets.  Which he does.

Next day, the workmen and Jo are gossiping about the creature.  Arthur thinks its a thing that hard a purpose.  A dark purpose.  A thing that was made to do dark things.  Made by somebody who’d have been wise in them dark ways.  A thing like that would have been suckled, too, by a human.

All this talk has Jo upset again and she goes into the woods looking for her cat.  She fails to find him but while out, she sees and hears a strange shadow in the woods and runs all the way home in a fright.  

The workmen knock off early and Jo is left at home alone.  She hears sounds and she finds the locked cabinet in the nursery.  She goes downstairs investigating and discovers the earthen jar in the doorway with the door open.  Outside, she hears that sound again.

Peter arrives home. He’s in a right state.  Dick put him to work on some pigs and the pigs got the better of him.  He’s covered in… let’s be charitable and call it “muck” and he’s livid at Dick, who laughed at him!  That’s it, I hate it here! I can’t work with that man! I’ve decided to quit!

This is the best news Jo could hear and she confides to Peter that she hates it here.  He, of course, dismisses that as the pregnancy talking.  But it doesn’t really matter about her, the important thing is he doesn’t want this job anymore and he’s quitting in the morning.

Downstairs, Jo notices that the rocking chair is moving, as if someone was… or is… sitting in it.  At this moment, Dick and his wife Dorothy show up, with booze.  He’s in a festive mood and has come to make amends with Peter.  He’s there to celebrate his baptism of fire – the incident with the pigs.  It happens to all the vets and he passed with flying colors.

Peter, presented with a bottle of booze, doesn’t immediately quit and an evening of drunkenness ensues – for everyone but Jo, of course.  By the end of the evening, Peter and Dick are best friends again and the idea of quitting is long gone and also, Jo has seen the mysterious shadow inside the house.

As Dick and Dorothy leave, Jo overhears a comment that makes her think Peter kept the mummy in the house after all.  When she asks him, he lies and tells her he didn’t.

Later that night, Peter is unconscious in bed and Jo is hearing the sounds of wood being gnawed.  She gets up to investigate and finds the cabinet in the nursery chewed up and destroyed.  She also finds the remnants of the bag and realizes what was in the cabinet.  Not content with just that small, horrifying discovery, she goes downstairs by herself for more.

She hears contented, suckling noises and the sound of the rocking chair.  As she looks at the moving chair, a horrible, black-clad, disfigured woman is suckling the now re-animated creature.  Jo screams in terror and collapses in the empty room.

And so ends another episode of “Well, That never happened on All Creatures Great and Small.”

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A New Year’s message from Fusion Patrol.

What is the Klae Resource?

John and Eugene start with the first “proper” episode of the 1970’s Invisible Man Series with the episode entitled The Klae Resource.

Synopsis:

Dan and Kate Westin have settled into their new life as “The Klae Resource.”  In exchange for funding to try to reverse Dan’s permanent invisibility, they perform espionage services at the behest of the US Government.

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Lionel Parks is a multi-millionaire, tycoon and inventor.  He owns a number of Las Vegas casinos and, reportedly, lives in the penthouse of one of them.  He is notoriously reclusive and no one, apart from his right-hand man, Jim Fielder, has seen his for years.

The Energy Department has come asking the Klae Resource for help – even though they don’t know what it is.

Parks’ company has developed a technique to triple the yield of refined petroleum products from crude oil.  He’s also placed the product up for bid and the highest bidder is an Arab nation.  Parks is an ultra-patriot and they cannot believe he would sell to the Arabs.

But when they call him with a voice analyzer device, Fielder uses a computer to simulate Parks’ voice.  The voice analyzer at the Klae Corporation cannot identify it as a fake.  Dan is sent to Las Vegas to get inside and find out if Parks is still alive, or somehow under control of Fielder.  This should be a piece of cake because Dan Westin is THE INVISIBLE MAN!

His first attempt is quite simple.  He walks in, invisible, and, with a variety of minor ruses, gets the guards to open the various doors he needs to pass through.  Alone in the computer room, he discovers the computer that simulates Parks’ voice.  He also finds a locked elevator door and an alarm system that is triggered by his physical presence.  Gas is released into the room.

Luckily the gas doesn’t incapacitate Dan enough that he cannot escape, but they will have to come up with Plan B.

Plan B is this:  Dan uses his powers of invisibility to rig it so that Kate wins big at the tables, first roulette, then craps.  When Fielder gets interested, Dan (now visible again) explains they have an unbeatable system, and they’ll sell it to Parks – but only Parks.

No deal.  Parks sees no one.

Dan explains it’s also the system that allows him to know that they have a computer that simulates Parks’ voice in the computer room upstairs.  His hand forced, Fielder calls the limo to take them to “the Farm” to see Parks.  In reality, it’s a one-way ride to their death.

Luckily, Dan has an ace up his sleeve.  He just needs to strip off all his clothes while in the backseat of a limo being driven by two armed thugs, and he’ll be THE INVISIBLE MAN.  This he does and easily subdues the bad guys, stealing their car and returning to Fielder.

This time he holds Fielder at gunpoint and forces him to take him to the secret elevator and finally to see Parks himself.

Parks, although actually a recluse, is also being held prisoner and hasn’t been out of his luxury cell in years.  Dan convinces him that the wants to leave this room and convinces him it can be done by showing him that he’s THE INVISIBLE MAN – after first getting Parks to Pinky Swear that he’ll never tell.

Fielder has no intention of letting Dan go free, but because Dan is THE INVISIBLE MAN, he over-powers Fielder and he and Parks just walk out of the penthouse and have Fielder arrested.

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In a universe where god-like powers are real, what is religion?  Is it any different?

Kenneth and Eugene discuss Order.

Synopsis:

A large, ornate and very expensive looking pyramid shaped spacecraft filled with cavorting druids hurtles perilously close to the sun.  The cavorting druids turn out to be followers of Vahootie, and specifically, their spiritual leader, Brother 13.  They are plunging into the sun so that they can transcend to heaven and be by Vahootie’s side.

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Brother 13 is about to do some… ahem… meditation.. ahem… with his child bride, when brother Jacob, suffering from some last minute doubts that killing themselves in the sun is the right thing to do interrupts them.  A quick laying on of hands and a blue glow is enough to renew and reinvigorate Jacob’s faith.  Killing ourselves in the sun is definitely the right thing to do.

Nearby, the Transutopian makes a half-hearted, but doomed attempt to rescue them.  Dante and Percy, experts on stupid, marvel at the insanity, or stupidity, the Vahootians.  Lucretia is less down on the loonies, stating without evidence that the need to believe in something is just as important and food or shelter to humans.

We wouldn’t have much of a story if the ship just plunged into the sun, though, so at the last minute, leaving his followers to their fate, Brother 13, his child-bride and crazy brother Jacob escape in a shuttle, where they are rescued by Dante.

Brother Jacob, who is armed with a knife is immediately locked up.  When Dante realizes that Brother 13 is the leader of the cult, and therefore the mass murderer of the ship full of Vahootians, he treats him rudely, but surprisingly nicely.  He asks Lucretia to tend Brother 13’s wounds and lock him up.

Dante also asks Percy, the person voted most likely to be taken in by a cult, to take food to the mass murderer cult leader and his child bride.  Brother 13 asks for his child bride to be taken out of the room with Percy, so that he can have a quiet word with Lucretia.  First he demonstrates that he knows she’s looking for “the cluster” – could he mean the Divinity Cluster? – and that he knows she’s desperate to please her father.  Thus caught slightly off guard, he then mind rapes her with his glowing blue hands, although Brother 13 calls it a “Rejuvenation of faith.”  Soon she is beginning to understand that Vahootie is the answer.

Dante returns and finds Brother 13 and Lucretia having an amicable chat.  To his credit, and my amazement, Dante seems to catch on very quickly that Brother 13 is “getting at” Lucretia.  He sends her to confinement in her quarters until the prisoners are off the ship.  Dante’s disgust of Brother 13 and what he represents is apparent, and when Brother 13 attempts to read Dante’s mind about his son and mind rape him, too, Dante hurts him and throws him in a cage.

In the cages, Jacob is beginning to have doubts again, he needs Brother 13 to perform a rejuvenation on his faith, but Brother 13 is tired of Jacob’s lack of faith and refuses.  It’s very clear that when Brother 13 is unhappy, he’s a very nasty piece of work.

Meanwhile, Percy has handcuffed the child bride and is showing her around the ship.  Percy tries to indoctrinate her into the cult of Billy Toonami, or at least come to a meeting of minds.  It becomes clear that her faith in Brother 13 is slipping.  Could it be that his mind-whammy is only temporary?  Realizing now that there’s something more than just verbal persuasion, Dante orders Percy and the child bride to stay on the bridge and not let anyone in, including Lucretia.

Dante goes to talk to Lucretia, but she’s gone.  She has gone to the cages and let Brother 13 and Jacob out.

On the bridge, the child bride grabs a gun and threatens Percy, but it is unloaded and the joke is on her.

Dante confronts Lucretia, Brother 13 and Jacob in the lockup area. Brother 13 orders Lucretia to kill him.  When she tries, Dante shoots the gun out of her hand, but Jacob takes Lucretia hostage and knife point.  Jacob drops dead to the sound of a gunshot as Percy shoots him from behind.  For once, ignoring orders paid off.

Dante sends Lucretia back to her quarters, but instead, she locks herself in a cage.

Soon, they are handing the prisoners to the Authority officials on Mercury, and Rudolfo is very pleased by the large bounty they’ve collected for putting away a mass murdering cult leader.

Later Dante releases Lucretia, she seems to be back to her old self, and she immediately goes to open a secret channel to her father and warn him that Brother 13 is very dangerous, may have had contact with Novak, and have some knowledge of the Divinity Cluster.

On the transport shuttle, Brother 13 is mind raping the guards.  Perhaps Dante will get another chance to put a bullet in his head someday.

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We look at a deeply-troubling story about obsession, pretensions, unnatural lust and perhaps even possession as Simon and Eugene discuss Buddyboy.

Synopsis:

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John and Eugene start looking at a new series: 1975’s Invisible Man starring David McCallum.

Our series beings here with a look at the pilot TV Movie from May, 1975.

Synopsis:

We start mid-story with an invisible man, Daniel Weston, sneaking into a hospital, finding the information on a plastic surgeon currently in the operating theatre, and sitting down in the gallery, watching him work.

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Dan Weston and his wife Kate are both research PhDs working on a top secret project at the KLAE Corporation.  They have spent a million and a half dollars and eight months attempting to develop a device to instantaneously teleport matter from one place to another; however, his work is a complete failure.

He does have something to show for it, though, and, although reluctant to give a demo before the process is stable, he concedes to giving a demo to the man who gets him money.  What he has developed is temporary invisibility of matter, both living and non-living.  While the process doesn’t currently last but a few hours, the potential overjoys his boss, Walter Carlson, who sees the enormous weapons potential in the process.  The military will be barfing money at them for this process.

“Hold on there a minute, Walter!  I am a principled scientist and you promised me that all my research would only be used for good, non-weapons purposes.”

“Name one.”

“Well, I can’t but… but… there MUST be something.  No military!”

Carlson backs down and promises, no military, but when he leaves the room he immediately calls the military.

Weston’s next development is a serum that can return an invisible animal to visibiliy on demand.  That night he can’t sleep, his mind racing with ideas.  He heads back into the lab and makes himself invisible.

Kate is furious with his irresponsible action but, it seems it works and Carlson is overjoyed.  With this incredible success, it’s time Dan finds out where the money has been coming from all along: the military.  Shocked, Dan refuses to do anymore work, and Carlson has the couple barred from the facility and escorted off the premises.

That night, Carlson’s assistant, Steiner, tries to make Dan see sense.  He points out that Carlson has him watched by agents and his phone tapped.  He has to play ball, but he won’t

That night, he breaks into his lab, makes himself invisible, grabs a supply of the serum and destroys the equipment, escaping into the night.  He returns to visibility, but his house has been overrun by Carlson’s people.  He takes a hotel room and calls to let Kate know he’s fine.  But he isn’t fine, for suddenly he starts to disappear again, and this time, the serum doesn’t work.

Naked and invisible, he heads out in search of his old friend Dr. Maggio, plastic surgeon.  Along the way, he tries to force a blind man to feed him and let him wait out the night indoors.  What he gets is a bullet from the feisty old blind man.

Now wounded, he finally reaches the hospital where Maggio works.  Flashback ends.

After surgery, and outside, he accosts Maggio, who had an inkling of Dan’s work.  He takes him home, tends his wounds and then devises a plan to make Dan the most amazing mask and gloves ever devised.  Wearing them it will be almost impossible to tell he is the invisible man.

First, he returns to Kate, and the disguise works until she touches his hands and face and she knows what’s he’s done.  He admits he has no choice but to go back to Carlson and ask to continue his research.  He does, but does not let Carlson know he’s invisible.  Carlson is skeptical, but will to give him a chance.

Back at the Weston home, Kate and then Dan are taken prisoner by Steiner and some fine folks he’s sold out to.  For 10 million dollars, he’s going to turn Dan over to another interested party.

On the way, Dan shucks his clothes, captures the van and he and his wife escape.  Letting his wife off to go get help, Dan appears to be killed in the car accident which also kills all the bad guys.  As the show ends, Dan reveals to Carlson and his wife that he’s alive and he’ll start work again soon – after his wife and he go back home for a little invisible on visible sexual action.

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Five Hundred episodes and we’ve landed on Altair IV, the Forbidden Planet.

For our Big 500, Simon and Eugene discuss the impact this ground-breaking film had on things to come and talk about some of the things that have not aged so well.

Surely, you’re not going to bring up the overt sexism?

Yes, we are, and don’t call us Shirley.

Movie Synopsis

In the 22nd century, the United Planet’s Cruiser C-57D under the command of JJ Adams comes out of hyperspace drive near the star Altair after one year in flight.  The are checking on the planet Altair IV and the scientific colony ship Bellerophon which travelled to Altair IV 20 years earlier.

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Their arrival is greeted coldly by Professor Morbius, one of the Bellerophon crew.  He warns them of danger, but when they persist he invites them to lunch.  He reveals that he is the sole survivor of the Bellerophon.  The others either died when some mysterious planetary force ripped them apart, when their spaceship vaporized when they attempted to leave or, in the case of his wife, died of natural causes.  Morbius claims to be immune, but he warns that it will come back for them is they stay.

They are interrupted by by Morbius’ little white lie:  While he is the only survivor of the crew, he’s not alone on the planet.  He has a beautiful, teenage daughter, Altaira, (also know as Alta) who was born on the planet.  She’s never seen young men before and she likes what she sees.  The men of the C-57D like what they see, too.  They are 18, hyper-competitive, 24 year old perfect physical specimens of manhood, and they’ve been cooped up on a spaceship for a year.

Morbius also has an amazing robot, Robby, which he built as a hyper-capable servant. Only the ship’s cook seems hard up enough to take a shine to Robby.

In light of the news about the Bellerophon, Adams needs to contact Earth, that will require setting up communications equipment and partially dismantling the ship.  They’re going to be on the planet a few days, at least.

Executive Officer Lt. Jerry Farman sees this as an opportunity to teach Alta all about the important physical benefits of hugging and kissing.  Adams breaks this up and is furious… with Alta for dressing so provocatively and being a willing participant… or being unwittingly taken advantage of.  They fight over this and Alta is just all hot and bothered and doesn’t understand why.

That night, something invisible enters the ship and sabotages some of the equipment.

The next day, Adams returns to the Morbius residence to ask questions.  Alta is there and she and Adams begin to realize that they’ve fallen madly in lust.  It must be lust, right, since they’ve only actually known been in each other’s presence for about an hour.

The thought Morbius was in his study, but he wasn’t.  When Morbius emerges from a secret passage he catches Adams and Doc snooping through his papers.  He takes them on a tour.  Beneath them is a 20 square mile underground city, left behind 200,000 years ago.  This was the planet of the Krell, a civilization advanced a million years beyond mankind.  Overnight, their civilization died.  Their cities crumbled to dust.  All that remains is the underground machine.  Quietly working at its unknown purpose, and maintaining and repairing itself for 200,000 years.  Morbius has spent his life on Altair IV studying what he can of the Krell.

All he really knows is that the Krell were working on the ultimate advancement of their civilization.  Complete mastery of creation without instrumentation.  He has been able to get as far as he has because, while experimenting with one of the Krell machines, his brain capacity was permanently expanded.

Adams argues that this discovery must be reported back to the United Planets.  Morbius doesn’t want that.  He doesn’t believe mankind can deal with the technology and wants to oversee it himself.

Back at the ship, the crew have erected a force barrier around the ship.  Despite that, an invisible creature gets through the barrier, past the guards and kills Quinn, the communications officer.  Adams and Doc were with Morbius and Alta, and cook was getting drunk with Robby when Quinn was killed, so they all have an alibi.

The next night, the ship have the big guns setup, and something approaches.  Their weapons slow it down a bit, but are effectively worthless against the invisible creature.  It begins killing the crew, including Lt. Farman and then, suddenly, it disappears.

Back at the residence, Morbius awake from a fitful sleep at this desk.  Alta is screaming, having experienced a dream that seems to reflect the events at the ship.

Adams decides to evacuate the planet and heads to collect Alta and Morbius, even if it is against his will.  He and Doc also want to get a crack at the Krell brain enhancement machine.

While Adams tries to convince Alta to leave, Doc sneaks off and has a go at the machine.  It kills him, but not before expanding his brain and giving him clarity of what happened to the Krell.  The Krell machine translates pure thought into anything, anywhere.  The machine works, but what the Krell didn’t realize is that they still had a primitive Id in their subconscious.  The subconscious monsters wiped out their entire race overnight.

Morbius didn’t understand that, nor did he realize that, while his brain isn’t strong enough to use the machine directly, his subscious is strong enough to manifest the monster.  He is the unwitting murderer of the crew of the Bellerophon and the C-57D.  Confronted with the accusation by Adams and the fact that Alta has decided to leave with Adams, the monster is coming to kill them both.

Realizing the truth of the situation, Morbius throws himself between the monster and Alta and is killed ending the monster, too.  As his last act, he instructs Adams to put the Krell machine, and the planet itself, on self-destruct.

24 hours later, and a 100 million miles away, Adams, Alta, Robby and the remaining crew watch from the C-57D as the planet explodes like a supernova.

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Lucretia’s ex-husband shows up as an on-the-run fugitive from the Orchard and its sexy times galore (in her dreams only.)

Kenneth and Eugene discuss Past Lives 

Synopsis:

On Saturn, a man, Eric, is apprehended for outstanding gambling debts.  His debt has been sold to the BioMycron corporation.  They use their debtors as human guinnea pigs, and he is injected, without warning with a substance that will most likely kill him in 48 hours.  In the turn of hair, this bumbling gambling fool becomes lethal killer, killing two of his captors, escaping and stealing a shuttle, the Carpathia.

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Very soon, Rudolfo is assigning Dante and the crew of the Trans-Utopia with his retrieval.  He’s wanted alive and he needs to be delivered within 48 hours.  Dante just happens to be in the area.  Lucretia is shocked to learn that the fugitive is her ex-husband.  This leads to a bit of very awkward and not-entirely-good-natured ribbing.

On the shuttle, Eric is trying to reach the nearest medical facility to find an antidote, he can get there in time, but only if he flies through a meteor storm.  The Trans-Utopia follows, sustaining considerable damage before they are able to retrieve the fugitive’s ship.

Once captured, Eric disputes the story that Dante has been given.  He is not a janitor in the employ of BioMycron, and he did not murder two people, he killed them in self-defense after they injected him with poison.  Dante is seemingly unmoved, but back on the bridge, he does a bit of checking and BioMycron’s story doesn’t entirely hold water.  He asks Carravagio to perform a medical scan, which confirms that Eric has been poisoned and he will die.

Dante tries to get him to the medical facility, but with the engines damaged from the earlier hi jinx they cannot reach the facility in time.  With no qualified, responsible engineer on the crew, he must rely on Percy, as always, to do the job in time.

Dante decides to soliloquize to the audience about his dead wife being a data ghost in the machine, and then goes to ask her to help, since she is a doctor.  I’m not that kind of doctor, I’m a dead kind of doctor who doesn’t really exist.  Tell Carravaggio to do a better job scanning.

Carravagio does a better job scanning and then develops an antidote, which is given to Eric.

While all this is going on, Lucretia and Eric talk a bunch about their failed marriage, plus Lucretia has sexy time flashbacks.

Also, it turns out the antidote didn’t work, Eric will die soon.

Percy gets the engines working, but its too late.  Lucretia discovers a familiar name, Paquette, on the board of directors of BioMycron and sends a nasty voicemail to her dad.  He’d better not be part of this.

Eric convinces, first Dante, then finally Lucretia, to let him go in the shuttle so he can die in space.  They do, and, as the amazingly precise 48 hours elapses, Eric begins to glow… and his shuttle explodes.

Dante tries to talk to Percy, I hope you’re not upset you couldn’t get the engines fixed in time and a man died because of your incompetence.  No.  I’m an emotionally-stunted cripple and that doesn’t bother me.

“Does anything bother you?”

“My parents were killed, that bothers me.”

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Let’s face it, party crashers are rats, but what happens when your party crashers really are ratus ratus, and what can Barty do about it?

Simon and Eugene discuss the episode, During Barty’s Party.

Synopsis:

We open on a romantic scene.  An open-top two-seat sports car, parked on a country road, music playing on the radio and the screams of the amorous couple.

Angie, who lives nearby, is asleep, but their screams invade her dreams and deeply upset her.  When he husband, Roger, comes home from the city he finds her at home, blasting rock and roll music and, apparently, drinking bit heavily.   She’s nervous and feeling alone.  She’d tried calling him, but he’d already left the office.  She’d tried to visit their neighbors, the Gibsons, but they’re not home today.

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There’s a rat under the floorboards making noises and it’s really bothering her.  She set the dog, Buster, on him earlier but he ran off out the door and hasn’t come back.  Roger brings a typically manly perspective to the situation, basically, “buck up, woman, you’re getting hysterical over nothing.  It’s just a rat.”  He stomps the floor and the rat is gone.

Angie points out the sports car to Roger.  It’s been there since I woke up from my nightmare sleep, door wide open.  Don’t you think that’s odd?

“Not really, no.”

While Roger attends to some unfinished business on the phone, Angie turns on the radio, listening to the program, Barty’s Party, a light mixture of inane banter and popular music.  On it, Barty notes a few people have been calling in from the country with reports of flocks of rats swarming.  Isn’t that funny.

And then the rat is back.  Or perhaps I should say, rats, for there are now more than one.

Roger refuses to leave and go out for dinner, as Angie asks, because he will not be ratted out of his home.  He calls the police to see if there’s anything to the whole rats story on the radio, but they’ve heard nothing and suggest ringing the council in the morning.

There are more rats.  And they are following them through the house.

Roger decides to whip up some chlorine gas to kills the rats, but when he tries to get water the line is clogged.  “It was the rats,” posits Angie.

“Nonsense,” counters Roger.

Angie calls Barty’s Party and tells them what’s going on, and it actually concerns Barty enough to try to send help, but before Angie can give their address, the phone line goes dead.  Then the electricity.  Roger loses it.  First trying to rip up the floorboards to pour in his chlorine mixture, and then finally succumbing to hysterical panic.

Angie formulates an escape plan using their fencing gear to help them get to the car.

Just when they are about to start, the Gibson’s return and they are overjoyed.  Shouting from the window across the way, “  We’re coming over, OK?”

And the rats are gone.  But soon they know why, as the Gibson’s are ripped to shreds by the rats in front of Roger and Angie’s eyes.

And the rats are back, and the doors are giving way to their relentless chewing.  As Angie helps the panic paralyzed Roger upstairs, on the radio, Barty is trying to reach Angie, thinking it might be a hoax, but he certainly hopes she really is a real person.”

We fade to black.

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