The late Dennis Spooner's C.V. reads like a roll-call of some of the finest T.V. fantasy of the 60's and 70's. As well as contributing to 'Dr.Who' and 'The Avengers', he created or co-created 'Man In a Suitcase' and 'The Champions' amongst others. 'Burial at Sea' was his only 'Doomwatch' script. It opens with a luxury yacht called the Saracen found drifting off the Devon coast. Aboard are four unconscious people - two men and two women. The men belong to a pop group, and the police assume that their condition is drug related. But no, it turns out that the crew dredged up an 18th century cannon from the sea-bed and it was contaminated with both radioactive waste and nerve gas, so it becomes a case for Doomwatch.
The opening to this story could have come from 'Department S' ( another of Spooner's creations ), but as it develops into a much more serious and thought-provoking story. Scary moment when Toby ( Robert Powell ) hallucinates and sees...himself! The pop group were based on the Rolling Stones ( Mick Jagger was into treasure hunting at the time ). Spooner said years later that Dr.Kit Pedler ( the show's co- creator ) was in the habit of coming into the production office with armfuls of documents marked 'Top Secret'! That same year, Spooner returned to the theme of nerve gas dumping when he wrote the 'Destruction' episode of Gerry Anderson's 'U.F.O'. Along with 'Friday's Child', 'Spectre At The Feast' and 'Hear No Evil', this Season 1 episode sadly no longer exists.
The opening to this story could have come from 'Department S' ( another of Spooner's creations ), but as it develops into a much more serious and thought-provoking story. Scary moment when Toby ( Robert Powell ) hallucinates and sees...himself! The pop group were based on the Rolling Stones ( Mick Jagger was into treasure hunting at the time ). Spooner said years later that Dr.Kit Pedler ( the show's co- creator ) was in the habit of coming into the production office with armfuls of documents marked 'Top Secret'! That same year, Spooner returned to the theme of nerve gas dumping when he wrote the 'Destruction' episode of Gerry Anderson's 'U.F.O'. Along with 'Friday's Child', 'Spectre At The Feast' and 'Hear No Evil', this Season 1 episode sadly no longer exists.
