'The Living Skins' (2 Parts) by Roger Price

When Elizabeth, Mike and Hsui Tai take Andrew to buy some clothes, Mike and Hsui find some of the trendy new ‘Bubble Skin’ jumpsuits. Later, the shop owner, Winton, goes into the basement and reports to some spherical alien creatures that order him to go to ‘the landing place’. Elizabeth, Mike, Hsui Tai and Andrew return to the Lab, where they show John - who has stayed behind with a cold - the new jumpsuits that they have bought. Meanwhile, Wilton takes a lorry to where another group of bubble aliens are arriving from space. Mike and Hsui Tai put the ‘Bubble Skin’ jumpsuits, but they begin behaving strangely, and jaunt out of the Lab. Wilton is commanded by the bubble-aliens to make more jumpsuits. John, Elizabeth and Andrew analyse the ‘Bubble Skin’ fabric, and find that it has characteristics of both living matter and plastic, and rapidly repairs itself when cut. Mike and Hsui Tai return to the shop and buy another ‘Bubble Skin’ jumpsuit for John. They jaunt to the Lab, and, after refusing once more to remove their jumpsuits, John stuns them. John and Elizabeth attempt to remove the jumpsuits from Mike and Hsui Tai, but the fabric is stuck to their skin. Tim stimulates Mike's antibodies, which attack and destroy the ‘Bubble Skin’; but when the procedure is tried on Hsui Tai, it is much more difficult, as if the ‘Bubble Skin’ has learned to fight back. Hsui Tai is eventually freed, and John and Elizabeth decide to investigate the shop, while Andrew stays behind to look after the others. Wilton takes John and Elizabeth to the basement and pushes them into the cluster of bubble aliens. Back in the Lab the two ‘Bubble Skin’ jumpsuits come to life and attack Tim and Andrew. Mike wakes up and manages to stun the jumpsuits. But John and Elizabeth have been taken over by the bubble-aliens, and jaunt back to the Lab, where they try to make Andrew wear a ‘Bubble Skin’ jump suit. After Mike stuns them, Tim tries to remove Elizabeth's jumpsuit, but it cannot be taken off, although John's jump suit is not stuck to him, and is easily removed. Now recovered, John thinks his cold might have stopped the ‘Bubble Skin’ jumpsuit joining to him. The bubble-aliens decide to stop hiding, and openly attack people. John injects Elizabeth with some of him cold virus, causing the jumpsuit to break its bond with her, and enabling it to be stunned. Tim reports that the bubble-aliens have appeared in the open all over the world. The Galactic Federation inform Tim that the bubble-aliens are known a Ballboids, parasites that attack life-forms by wrapping themselves around them and digesting them. John and Mike jaunt to a warehouse to get some cylinders, then return to the Lab where Elizabeth, Hsui Tai and Andrew have been culturing the cold virus. John and Mike jaunt to several satellites and attach the cylinders, which are now filled with the cold virus. Once the virus is released, everyone on Earth catches the cold virus, causing the Ballboids to immediately flee into space.



Nicholas Young (John), Elizabeth Adare (Liz), Michael Holoway (Michael Bell), Misako Koba (Hsui Tai), Nigel Rhodes (Andrew), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Ralph Lawford (Wilton), Judith Fielding (Girl), Dave Carter (Guard)

Directed by Stan Woodward

TX:
'A Harmless Fashion' - 6th November 1978
'Cold War' - 13th November 1978

Notes:
*Featuring John, Elizabeth, Mike, Hsui Tai, Andrew and Tim