S3.E8

The Little Black Bag

Episode aired Feb 25, 1969
50m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Honora Burke and Geraldine Moffat in Out of the Unknown (1965)

When a down-at-heel, alcoholic physician discovers a medical kit, based on future technology, accidentally left in the wake of a time-travel expedition, he becomes a dispenser of miracle cur... Read allWhen a down-at-heel, alcoholic physician discovers a medical kit, based on future technology, accidentally left in the wake of a time-travel expedition, he becomes a dispenser of miracle cures. But is his discovery enough to salvage his self-esteem and redeem his life?When a down-at-heel, alcoholic physician discovers a medical kit, based on future technology, accidentally left in the wake of a time-travel expedition, he becomes a dispenser of miracle cures. But is his discovery enough to salvage his self-esteem and redeem his life?

Director
- Eric Hills
Writers
- Julian Bond
- Cyril M. Kornbluth
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.6/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- Eric Hills
Writers
- Julian Bond
- Cyril M. Kornbluth
Stars

3User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
This episode was wiped partially by the BBC, the only known extant copy is thirty minutes long, missing the first 18m and the final two. It is included as an extra on the BFI DVD edition of the surviving complete episodes.

Connections
Version of Tales of Tomorrow: The Little Black Bag (1952)

User reviews3

Review

Featured review

9/10

Auld Lang Syne

I saw this more than fifty years ago, as a thirteen year old, in 1969 - the ending scared the life out of me. It's ironic, that it's now been lost, all we have is the mid-section of the episode.

It concerns an alcoholic, struck-off doctor who works with a cynical, manipulative woman to provide cosmetic - and sometimes, significant and important surgery - using a bag of medical equipment from the far future.

When the doctor seeks to regain respectability, his pushy partner, fearing the end of their lucrative association, stabs him - causing monitors from the future to decommission the bag - just as the cynical, vampish woman is performing a cosmetic operation, albeit with a scalpel, on a vain woman of a certain age's throat!

The last, lost scene has someone or other emphasising the bag will never be useable 'for ever and ever and ever....' It stuck with me all these years, it must, therefore have been a meaningful, drama. What it's meaning was, is a matter for discussion. It could be: 'do not mess with things you don't understand' or never assume what has been, will be in the future.

So if you do find a medical kit from 2150, be careful. I can tell you with certainty, having discovered this one, more than fifty years in the past. It may not last forever.