Mary's Baby - Die Geburt einer neuen Art

I first saw this movie before I changed careers to become a high school science teacher. Hadn't thought of it in years...till I was wrapping up my Genetics unit with Designer Babies from Discovery, and Gattaca as preludes to some ethical discussions with my students. After remembering this show, I thought...boy how ahead of its time. Designer Babies talks about the possibilities of testing "designer" chromosomes out in chimps to make sure they are safe and talks about the possibility of mistakenly creating animals with human characteristics or even intelligence! How scary and thought provoking! And in 88 it was truly sci-fi...but now????

I have been looking for this movie for ten to twenty years! Hadn't been able to find it in IMDb somehow, or anywhere else. None of the numerous people that I asked had ever heard of it.

The ape-boy born of the chimpanzee looked human and was raised by his human father and the father's wife. However, the "call of the wild" could be seen in his behavior and led to a highly moving ending. After all these years I can still see the final scene.

P.S. Let me add that I may have seen only the first episode, if it was a series. P.P.S. The source that was given by someone earlier no longer exists. If anyone can locate a source, please post it.

This was one of the most powerful pieces of drama I have ever seen. I originally tuned in when it was first aired in October 1988 (I still have the Radio Times for that week!) because I think Charles Dance is an excellent actor. Being a rather fond of scientific fiction, when I found out the subject matter of the story - well, that was just icing on the cake. But I was totally unprepared for the gut-punch of a story which followed. For anyone interested, it's based on a novel Gor-Saga by Maureen Duffy (which I promptly went out and bought!). The storyline is similar but the TV adap has a far more brutal and thought-provoking 'ending' and the character of Forrester has far more depth. The whole drama made me want to become a writer! What more can I say?

The acting in this series was superb! The subject matter is probably more pertinent today than it was when the show was released--definitely ahead of its time. Considering the incredible advances made in gene manipulation since then, I believe this is a series that should be seen by everyone.

That says it all I think. I was old enough to watch it and I felt fine. Then afterwards I went to see my parents in another room and wow, was just overcome with emotion. Was a bit sad that not many people spoke about it the next day at School.

This was pretty disturbing/sad stuff and pretty tense. A great BBC drama of the 80s. ITV brought out Chimera a couple of years later which was in a similar vein.

Anyway, I haven't seen it in 35 years so don't expect me to add anything further here because I can't remember! I've got the DVD but haven't brought myself to watch it again yet!

If you want another recommendation for the era, go and watch Maelstrom (1985).