The Laboratory of Dr Smith

Doctor Charles Smith is a scientist and dreamer.  He has a revolutionary idea for how the human race can develop itself and the planet. 

With the fruits of his work about to be revealed, Smith receives a visit from his commercial sponsor, who gets more than he bargained for in an explosive, life-threatening (and perhaps life-changing) encounter, as the horror of his vision is finally revealed.

Transcript

The Laboratory of Dr Smith by Ross Shand

FX opening music: ominous, fading out

Announcer
The Laboratory of Dr Smith, by Ross Shand.

FX sound of seagulls and sea in the background

Dr Smith
“Mr Harold! It’s me, Smith. What’s the matter, don’t you recognise me?”

Narrator
Smith grinned widely; I saw right the way through his mouth, to the dark tunnel of his throat.

“Of course I do. I just didn’t notice you at first.”

It was a lie. I hadn’t recognised him. Even now it was hard to see, in this new figure, any trace of the man I had known. Since our last meeting, Smith had undergone a terrible transformation.

Narrator
When I met him last Spring, he had been the usual sort. A quiet, intense man,
with glittering black eyes; quite the typical look for a scientist. His hands had fidgeted nervously at his sides. His skin had been sickly and white, like a sheet of lab notes. Now, though, that same skin was a ruddy pink colour, and the eyes were large and bulbous.

He grabbed my hand to shake it. The grip was far tighter than it had any right to be. He had immense, fat fingers.  They were like boa constrictors, coiling around my hand and squeezing the life out of me so tightly that I had to pull my arm away. Ahhh!  My hand ached from the pain, and for a moment I wondered if the injury had been deliberate.  But the grin on Smith’s face seemed real. I concluded that it must have been accidental.

“I am sorry I did not immediately recognise you, Dr Smith. You seem….changed.”

Dr Smith
(Grinning and ecstatic) “I am changed: most wonderfully changed! And I have no intention of keeping the changes to myself. With this invention, soon the whole world will be remade! Now isn’t that a fine thing?”

Narrator
“Indeed”.

I thought this a little theatrical. Such theatrics did not fit well with his character, so far as I remembered it. But I did not like to take the wind out of his sails. I let him lead me to the taxi. 

Dr Smith lived by the cliffs, in a little seaside town.

FX car doors opening and closing

FX car engine starting and then running in the background

Dr Smith
“Marine life is essential to my research.”

Narrator
“So the fish are cheaper here?”

Dr Smith
“Not really.  In fact, that has nothing to do with it. It’s more that being by the
sea helps my mind find the proper thoughts. I have to be near the sea to hear its
voice. Do you see what I mean?”

Narrator
“Well of course. That makes perfect sense”.  

I lied again. I did not like being in the cab with Dr Smith. I found that he sat too close to me for comfort. I hated being near him. I hated his strange skin, his swollen hands, and the shape of his face. The whole front part of his head seemed to lean forward somehow, like  a horse. And his smile! How he kept smiling! Somehow, that terrified me most of all.

FX car doors closing

FX two sets of footsteps

FX key opening front door

Narrator
We arrived at Dr Smith’s small wooden house, which was really a shack.
The interior smelled strongly of fish; that was that the only feature which spoke of the aquatic world. The very air seemed tinged with a hint of sea salt, and was as moist as the atmosphere around a swimming pool. It was a dark place.

Narrator
“So Mrs Smith is not at home?”

Dr Smith
“Oh no. Rebecca is….gone.”

Narrator
That explained the shabbiness of the place, and perhaps also, some of the strangeness in Smith’s character. Divorce changes a person ‒ sometimes I think men are affected worse than women.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I am divorced myself.”

Dr Smith
“It’s better this way – it could have been different if….”

Narrator
His voice trailed off into unexpressed thoughts. The more I considered this news,
the worse I felt. First, I was genuinely saddened at the breakdown of what had seemed like a happy marriage. Secondly, and much more selfishly, I reflected that the small ray of happiness I had anticipated from this visit had just gone out. I would be left alone with Smith for the next two days ‒ an uninspiring prospect.

Dr Smith
“Come. Let’s eat!”

FX – Smith’s gross, slobbering eating, continuing

Narrator
Dinner was fish and more fish, served near raw. The flavour and texture both
disgusted me, but clearly Smith had built up a tolerance to the stuff.  After only a 
few bites, I looked up to find Smith already ripping through his second plate. 
His face was coated with the glistening juices. The life of a bachelor had been a bad influence on his table manners.

After dinner we went through to the sitting room. It was time, at last, to begin the real business of my journey.

“So Dr Smith, tell me more about your invention.”

Dr Smith
(Messianic enthusiasm) “My aim is to create a synthesis of marine and terrestrial life. To create men capable of colonizing, and, who knows, conquering the entire aquatic world!”

Narrator
“To what end?”

Dr Smith
(Indignation) “To what end?!”

Narrator
He glared at me, the pink colour in his face turning an ugly shade of red.

Dr Smith
“To address the problem of overpopulation, for one. But really, we shouldn’t focus on just the utilitarian aspect. There are worlds to be conquered. Seventy percent of the planet lies underwater. It is our destiny to colonize it.”

Dr Smith
“You can’t measure that in pounds and pence, and if you don’t see the worth, I will not be able to explain it to you.”

Narrator
“We have had this conversation before. You will remember what the conclusion was. My employers were not satisfied with your appeals to… higher purposes. 
We chose to limit your funding to a bare minimum.”

Dr Smith
“Indeed. And yet, when I told you I had completed the working prototype,
you came running.”

Narrator
That was true. However reluctant my employers had been to finance the early stages of this project, if the scheme was to be a success, they wanted to be a part of it. Personally, I still thought the project fanciful. Nevertheless, I agreed to go with Smith to the lab.

It was the worst decision of my life.

FX sound of the sea and a blustery wind

Narrator
I had to walk next to him. It would be hard to say exactly what was wrong with his walk, but there was something enormously discomfiting about it. He seemed to slide along the ground, rather than stepping − his legs bending in all directions, his knees tilting at unnatural angles. I should have laughed at him - instead, I just felt more repulsed.

There was nothing in the scenery to encourage any alteration in my sentiments. The cliffs were bleak, the sea cold and hostile, and the only sound was the rattling shrieks of the gulls.

FX door lock being opened, and door closing

FX bubbling and gurgling of fish tanks

Narrator
The lab was as dark and unhomely as the house we had just come from.  Smith showed me his beakers and some diagrams; even some sketches he had made outlining an ‘Underwater Colony, Mark 1’. 

All around the walls were glass tanks of dead fish, their eyes vacant and staring.
Other tanks were divided neatly by organs − guts in one container,  kidneys in the next and so on. A barrel of salt water held tentacles, neatly chopped. 

One thing, though, was missing.

“Where’s the proof?”

Dr Smith
“The proof?”

Narrator
“Yes. The proof that your invention works. That’s what I need to see. Until I see that, there’s no point in showing me anything else.”

FX ominous background sound, continuing

Dr Smith
“You will have your proof…(minor voice distortion) presently.”

FX effort of Smith removing his human clothes

Narrator
And he began to remove his clothing.

FX effort of removing clothes

(Barking) “Dr Smith - what on earth are you about?!”

Dr Smith
(Voice beginning to distort) “Hush, hush, hush, child - you will see.”


Narrator
And see I did.

FX ominous music in background

FX slithering, slathering, weird sucking as Smith unpeels his clothes and human skin, backed by continuing exertion 

Narrator
One by one, he peeled back the layers of his clothing to reveal lumpy pink skin,
marked in some places by suckers, and sickly grey gills beneath each ribcage.

FX Smith sucking of gills in and out, and continued weird unpeeling with effort/exertion

FX Smith chomping-like movement of gill lips

Narrator
The gills seemed to stir a little as they tasted the air. The lips puckered, opening and closing. This was only the first phase. He did all this while standing upright, like a man. A moment later, having stripped off the last item, he allowed himself to relax.

FX slobbery collapsing of fleshy matter amid distorted moaning and groaning from Smith as he extends his marine body, with writhing voice sounds   

Dr Smith
“Hmmmmmmph!”

Narrator
….and his whole body slouched.

Dr Smith
(Striving, inhuman voice of straining amidst the continuing FX) “Ooooooaaaaaaah!!!!!”

Narrator
That was the most sickening part of the whole thing – seeing his face bend forward, suddenly doubling in size…

Dr Smith
(More striving, inhuman voice of straining amidst the FX) “Ooooooaaaaaaah!!!!!”

(Prolonged alien scream of triumph) “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaar!”

Narrator
His arms stretched to the length of flagpoles, while at the same time, his fingers flexed, coiling around and around until they were unmistakably - tentacles.

FX tentacly struggle sounds from Smith climax and stop…with then equally weird swishing of tentacles

Pause

Dr Smith
(Voice now fully distorted permanently) “The octopus is our best friend. It  is closer to us than fish. It makes for a….aaaah…stable combination. And then, there are advantages to tentacles.”

FX tentacular flexing

Dr Smith
“They will be useful for the work.”

Narrator
He gestured, with one of his tentacles, to the colony plans he had drawn up.

“You’re no longer human, Smith!”

Dr Smith
“Of course not! I told you what the plan was…what did you want! What did you expect?!”

Narrator
He was right I suppose, but in my defence, there is a huge gulf of difference between hearing a plan outlined and actually seeing it put into action.

(Abrupt, panicky) “This must finish. We’re pulling all your funding. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you never get off the ground!”

Narrator
With that, I turned and ran.

FX heavy breathing from running and sound of fast footsteps and door slamming

Dr Smith
“Stop!” “Stop!”

FX heavy breathing from running

Narrator
Sprinting over a grassy verge, I headed for the train station. Smith followed.

FX bang-banging of loud, slithery movement and gurgled tentacly exertion

Dr Smith
“I won’t warn you again - stop!”

FX whiplash-like sound of tentacles launched and wrapping around Narrator’s body

Narrator
And then I felt his tentacles wrapping around me, crushing my shoulders, crushing my legs. One coiled tightly around my waist, compressing my spine; another found its way around my throat and began to choke me.

FX Smith’s squeezing efforts and Narrator straining and choaking

FX thunder and lightning flash,  and torrential rain continuing in background

Narrator
I cursed the damned weather, knowing that any sensible person would be locked up indoors. There was no one around - no one to save me from the vile, inhuman being that I had played a role in creating.

FX revving of car approaching, squeal of tyres and screech of being driven fast and stopping suddenly

FX rapid opening of car door and running footsteps

Mrs Smith
“Stop it, Charlie!”

Narrator
It was Mrs Smith.

Dr Smith
(Distorted gargling) “Oh, YOU! Now you come back. And what! Point a gun at me?!”

Mrs Smith
“I won’t let you kill this man.”

Dr Smith
(Petulant and angry) “But he wants to ruin everything! The colonies! All of it!”

Mrs Smith
(Pleading) “Look at yourself, Charlie. I don’t even recognise you anymore. You’re a beast, that’s what you are, and it all has to stop.”

Dr Smith
(Violent, terrible anguish) “Aaaaaargh!

FX rapid, threatening, swishing movement of tentacles and loud octopus-bodily movement

FX rapid handgun shots continuing

Dr Smith
(Agony) “Aaaaaaah!”

FX rapid glooping of tentacly regeneration, continuing

Narrator
Mrs Smith fired again and again.  I saw the flesh start to bubble and knit together and then…

FX loud single and final shot, reverberating

FX Dr Smith octopus sounds of wounding and then sagging noises that stop

Mrs Smith
(Wielding exertions) Ah! Ah!

FX machete cuts, and glooping from tentacly flesh being cut

Narrator
The next thing I knew, Mrs Smith was chopping me free with a machete she had
brought with her from the car boot….

FX pulling exertion from Mrs Smith, grunts of pain from Narrator

Narrator
….and then she dragged me away from the remains of Smith.

FX ongoing rain/weather begins to fade out

Mrs Smith
(Panting heavily) “Are you OK?!”

Narrator
(Pained and panicked) “Aaaah! Yes – I think so!”

Mrs Smith
(Panting from exertion as she speaks) “I kept a watch on him. I hated to do it. Just looking at him upset me. But I wasn’t going to let him harm anyone else. Whether through violence or making more like him. I saw you both go into the house, and I knew something was wrong.”

Narrator
“So what were you going to do - what if we did want to invest in his…project?”

Mrs Smith
(Utter determination) “I wasn’t going to let that happen”.

Narrator
I felt a mild shock as I realised what she meant. If things had gone differently, the bullets in that gun might have been…for me.

(Sudden realisation) “But what about the body? We have to burn it.”

FX doom sound begins, low key and builds slowly to the end

We both turned to where Smith had been.

Mrs Smith
“Oh my God!”

Narrator
(Shocked) “He’s gone. How did that happen?”

Mrs Smith
(Brain scanning as she speaks to work it out) “I don’t know. Octopuses can regrow their limbs…but this….quick!”

FX two people panting as they run continuing under the narration that follows

Narrator
Mrs Smith ran faster than I could, following the slimy trail that Smith had left behind in his escape. She ran to the cliff’s edge. Where the trail stopped abruptly.

FX Mrs Smith and Narrator panting and running stops, cliff wind in the background continuing

Narrator
(Between breaths) “What…what does this mean?”

FX doom sound climaxes and fades into sounds of the sea, seagulls and, audible, Dr Smith’s faint and angry octopussy voice on the air then fading out slowly

Announcer
In “The Laboratory of Dr Smith”, Dr Smith was played by Mike Ayris, the Narrator by Jim Newberry and Mrs Smith was S-J Vant.  The story was produced and directed by Jim Newberry, with all the gory special effects engineered by Robbie “Monster Mash” Burgess.  It is a joint effort from Uptick Productions and the “Chatting Tracks” Podcast.