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Written by: Michael Angeli
Directed by: Michael Rymer
Starring: Richard Hatch, Donnelly Rhodes, Bruce Davison
Rating:
The One Where: There’s a “Doctor Death”.
Synopsis
Karl Agathon is put in a hangar bay housing 300 displaced civilians. Many are
pacifist Sagittarons. There’s an outbreak of Mellorak sickness – potentially fatal, but curable if treated. The Sagittarons believe medicine is a sin, and start dying.
One woman – the titular Mrs King – tells Helo that her son died after she allowed civilian medic Dr Robert to treat him.
Robert says the treatment simply came too late, but after a second suspicious death, Agathon takes his concerns to Adama – who dismisses them.
Agathon’s anxiety increases when first Hera and then Dee (a Sagittaron) are treated by Robert. Checking the doctor’s records, he discovers a high mortality rate amongst Sagittaron patients. Blood checks reveal the truth: the doctor’s been injecting Sagittarons with toxins to save the vaccine for “more deserving” people...
Review
Another bottle episode, and it’s a medical ethics one. How thrilling. It’s good to see an aspect of the series that hasn’t been touched upon for a while – the cultural differences that divide the fleet – brought to the fore, but still: this is one of those episodes where you know exactly where everything’s heading. Maybe, though, it seems more predictable for British viewers cos we know what Harold Shipman did, and are more inclined to believe the worst of doctors? Anyhow, Agathon’s turmoil is well-played, but otherwise this is unremarkable.
Dialogue
Six: “There’s a trick to being human. You have to think only about yourself.”
Ian Berriman
