'By the Pricking of My Thumbs...' by Robin Chapman

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…


John Paul (Doctor Spencer Quist), Simon Oates (Doctor John Ridge), John Nolan (Geoff Hardcastle), Jean Trend (Doctor Fay Chantry), Vivian Sherrard (Barbara Mason), Bernard Hepton (Oscar Franklin), Patsy Byrne (Mary Franklin), Martin Howells (Jenkins), Barry Stokes (Stephen Franklin), David Janson (MacPherson), Robert Yetzes (Painton), Olay Pooley (Ensor), Colin Jeavons (Botting), David Jarrett (Avery), Sally Thomsett (Judy Franklin), Julie May (Woman Shopper), Paula Smith (Ground Hostess), Patrick Milner (Airport Policeman)

Directed by Eric Hills
Produced by Terence Dudley

TX:
18th January, 1971 @ 9.20pm - 10.10pm

Notes:
*Featuring Doctor Spencer Quist, Doctor John Ridge, Geoff Hardcastle, Barbara Mason and Fay Chantry

*This episode exists as a black and white film telerecording, and colour NTSC videotape