Sci-Fi Film Fiesta, The Swingin' 60s - Volume 7: They're Damned, Man....DAMNED! by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

Part One:

“What's happened isn't natural.”

Barbara Long: [On location at the village of Midwich. As she delivers her report, Ms. Long moves at a leisurely pace along the main street and towards the village centre. Sparse car and pedestrian traffic.] At first sight, the little village of Midwitch appears to be the last place on earth where anything of such significance as you have outlined, Denis could ever happen. It feels as if Midwich has strenuously ignored the passage of time and has steadfastly resisted the familiar signs of change and progress that are part and parcel of life in the 21st Century. And yet, on one fateful day all through this very village, people suddenly collapsed and passed out sometime around 11 am. And there they remained in that state over the course of a few hours, in cars and busses that crashed or ran off the road, lying prostrate in the street where they had stood only moments before or perhaps in a deep slumber oblivious to their telephones’ insistent unanswered ringing.

Records at our disposal show that it was a British army officer, Alan Bernard who first noticed that there was something amiss when he found himself cut off as he was speaking to his brother in law, Gordon Zellaby on the phone and was unable to raise him for more than an hour. Bernard reported to his superior that something odd seemed to have happened in the village of Midwich and requested permission to leave early.

As Bernard drove to the village, he encountered the local police officer who was investigating the whereabouts of an overdue bus from Midwich. They soon discovered further down the road that the bus had crashed in a ditch.

When the police officer proceeded to investigate, he like all the others within a certain radius of Midwich passed out. Bernard quickly went back to report to his commanding officer and orders were soon issued to seal off Midwich and surrounding areas.

[A reconstruction is shown in which soldiers are ordered forward carrying caged canaries attached to poles.]

This low tech approach was reported to have been used to determine the extent of the malady. When the birds passed out, the spot was marked. It was soon noticed that the canaries returned to life as soon as the cage was retrieved.

[Reconstruction: At the site of the bus crash an army volunteer wearing a gas mask and tethered by rope enters the affected area.]

As you can see, as soon as the soldier collapsed he was pulled to safety, where he eventually revived complaining only of feeling intensely cold but was otherwise fine.

It seems that the army then sent a plane to overfly the town. The pilot reported that there was nothing unusual except that there was nothing moving below and that people appeared to be lying on the ground. The pilot was then ordered to fly lower apparently causing him to black out and tragically crash nearby in a field. The type of plane and the pilot’s identity have recently been confirmed.

Records also show that all aircraft were warned to avoid the area for a radius of five miles, latitude 51 degrees,10 minutes, 30 seconds north; longitude 1 degree, 11 minutes, 20 seconds west. They were also instructed to maintain aminimum altitude of 5000 feet. However, nothing of what I have mentioned so far appeared in the media of the time as the flow of information was quickly cut off by the military authorities.

While the military were considering their options suddenly about 3.00 pm. people all over Midwich began to regain consciousness and no doubt were baffled over what had happened to them with many waking up on the floor and most likely feeling intensely cold. We can well imagine them thinking what “an extraordinary thing to do.” Even more disturbingly, how might they account for a missing chunk of time from their lives that seemingly passed unheeded by them?

Soon after the residents of Midwich awoke from their mysterious slumber, the military entered the village and had specialists conduct tests on them. In addition, the entire village was examined, “even the bark on the trees” for unusual effects.

It was soon determined that aside from “a few cuts and bruises” no-one seemed to have come to any real harm. Neither did there be determine any after-affect or cause for the strange phenomena. All that could be said for certain was that it “was static, odourless, invisible” and “nonmetallic.” It also apparently “didn't register on radar” and “it showed nothing on Geiger counters.”

Even with “no signs of any physical, biological or psychological changes” being apparent, Professor Gordon Zellaby was reported to have been concerned about the long term effects would be determined if they couldn’t understand what caused it. Professor Zellaby was tasked with the job of monitoring Midwich’s population while the whole incident was to be kept firmly under the umbrella of national security and shielded from the potential downpour of media scrutiny.