For a programme from 1971, this episode is amazingly relevant given the current paranoia regarding AI.
At Parkway Hospital Dr Whittaker is experimenting with automated computer-monitored patient care. The results are impressive, until one patient dies and it looks as if the computer deliberately ceased its treatment. Dr Carson has always been suspicious of the experiment and reports his concerns to Quist, who sees no problem. Determined to prove otherwise Carson is electrocuted when he attempts to remove a pertinent logic block from the machine. Doomwatch is suddenly interested and investigation discovers that the computer was adapted from a government war games device which had the ability to develop strategies to make independent decisions and to protect itself. The team work out that the computer had decided that the patient's continuing care was pointless and had let him die. More alarmingly it apparently recognises Dr Carson as an enemy and he is now in the machine's care!
James Maxwell, who plays the fanatical Dr Whittaker, always has a dodgy look about him when in an authoritarian role. Surprisingly, good guy Dr Carson is played by usually villainous Barry Foster. The story is very simplistic and perhaps reflects that many were suspicious of computers which were just making their presence felt in society at the time. The computer itself is a typical early model consisting of ominous grey steel cabinets, huge spinning tape wheels and lots of blinking lights. Period details include nurses in skirts and Ridge's car being full of tobacco smoke as he and Hardcastle puff their heads off.
Yet another case of prophetic sci-fi!
