A Young Doctor's Notebook & Other Stories (2012–2013): Season 2, Episode 1 - Episode #2.1 - full transcript

1935: The Older Doctor is released from the Moscow hospital where he has been staying to cure his drug addiction and recalls how, in 1918, he was having an affair with midwife Pelegaya, chiefly because she was able to get him his morphine. They panic when they learn that the government inspector is to visit, filling the empty morphine phials with water. An intake of wounded Bolshevik soldiers tests the hospital to its limits but the inspector is among those who fail to make it, keeping the Young Doctor safe for a while.

IN PREVIOUS EPISODES...

It's just an old notebook.

trivial ramblings of a medical student.

I was happy in 1917 when I was sent

to the remote village of Mureyvo.

- To run a hospital.
- What seems to be the trouble here then?

Did I really... used to look like that?

Happy Days.

Doctor, this is Pelageya.

Do not let her distract you.

No, I ah... won't.



You know, I don't think the
morphine is working.

I'm a doctor, I can handle it!

You only think you can 'cause you've never taken it.

A Young Doctor's Notebook and Other Stories
- Season 2 Episode 1

MOSCOW, 1935

'RELEASED'

Fantastic.

I've lost weight too.

You don't have a belt,

or a piece of rope or something... do you?

Ah, no.

No, of course not, because of the...

Right.

I understand.
No, you don't have to worry about me.



I am healed.

If it wasn't for this vomit,

I would have choked to death.

Now I will have 'so much more' time to write.

MURYEVO 1918

Come on.

Crying's not going to bring her back.

But she was only eleven!

Well it seems she outlasted her brother.

Aye,

That she did.

Pelageya had to shoot poor Nickolaj.

Once a horse
breaks a fetlock...

I'm pretty sure it was broken.

It was definitely sprained.

We all have our off days.

Ah, you're too hard on yourself Anna.
There was nothing else you could have done.

And besides, it was only a horse.

Who cares about a horse?

She was a true friend!

With a heart more human
than most people.

It's a good thing.

The soup will be thicker
for weeks to come.

Come, Doctor, lets clean you up.
You reek of horse inards.

Here you go, Mikha.

Thank you.

Oh God, what on earth's that smell?

It's worse than the dead!

I got it in Grabilovka.

Oh I see... um...

I didn't realise they had a parfumerie.

They don't.

But the blacksmith
there sells most of the ingredients.

Yes, I thought I detected

... a subtle hint of...

Was that peat?

Grabilovka?

I'll... I'll empty the chamber pot.

You know, Pelageya...

You have been spending a lot of
time here recently, and...

I do want this to feel like our home.

Perhaps we should...

Put in a comode.

You don't think Anna knows, do you?

- What?
- About you and...

What?

- "We all have our off days."
- But she wasn't talking about me.

- You did giggle a lot.
- It was a funny horse.

I know, but I thought you'd
promised not to.

- Before an operation.
- Yes, I did, And I haven't.

It was only a one percent solution,

It was really cold out there.
What did you expect me to do,

- Operate in sealskin mittens?
- No, Mikha.

Of course not.

I'm sorry.

You know what I'm like after
I lose a patient.

- Mmm, This is nice.
- Yes.

And tomorrow we will have more
hay for the mattress...

Thanks to you.

"We all have our off days, doctor."

Leopold Leopoldovich...

Never lost a horse!

What um... and what percentage
solution is that?

Three.

Oh, thank you.

Here, let me.

I didn't think...

I'd ever be happy here.

But I am, and...

It's because of you.

Thank you very much.

Oh, hello.

Help yourself.

Oh no, not for me.

Thank you.

I will have a tea, though.

What happened to the samovar?

I sold it.

No problem.

The books too, hmm.

I see you kept the Doderlein.

To hide the Turkish erotica.

Absolutely not a problem.

Are you alright?

No, I'm not.

I'm better.

Better than 'alright'.

- I'm amazing
- Opium?

Air!

It never runs out, and
you never come down.

- That's not air.
- Didn't I shoot you?

I thought I left you for the
wolves and they ate you.

There, there...

Are you going to read me a bedtime story?

A man cannot run from his past.

- That's a boring story.
- Monday the twenty-second.

Vomiting in the morning.

Three syringe-fulls of one percent solution.

I felt better.

Operated on H. ..

H died.

You do know that H is a horse?

H was a horse?

Still,

It was a life.

And the first to be lost to morphine.

Oh, you're not going to forgive me are you?

Yes,

Yes I am.

- Oh, don't tell me you've found religion.
- No.

I have found peace.

Me too.

Good morning, doctor.

What's left of it.

- Feeling unwell, I hear.
- Ah, yes.

His temperature's right down.

I said you were under the weather,
not dying of typhus!

What's going on?

- A Zemstvo inspection.
- What? Now?

It could be any time, they
sent this urgent dispatch

five weeks ago.

They just want to make sure
everything's clean, right?

Oh, it's not just cleanliness,
they'll be seeing the patient records are in order,

checking our instruments,
then we'll have a comprehensive stock take.

Leopold Leopoldovich lived for inspections.

They weren't able to come one year,
because of the snow.

- That's' why he built the road.
- You mean had the road built, don't you?

Wait! So it's just routine?

Oh yes, the best thing you can do
honestly, is keep out of the way.

- But tonight...
- You just treat the patients.

- Right.

There you are, Feldsher!

- What were you doing?
- I've been shaving...

The horse!

Well... Take a seat in there, I'll be
with you in a moment.

My ass hurts.

Perfect.

Stand in there, I'll get
hemorrhoid ointment.

I'm sorry, I just...

His ass hurts.

I hardly think the Zemstvo inspector is coming
to see how well groomed the horse is, do you?

It is dead.

Come on, we have a lot to do.

You have speculums to pick clean.

But I thought I'd make a wig.

You never know.

Its alright, I've just spoken to Anna, and
its just a routine inspection. We'll be fine.

We have a shortfall.

- I know, but it's not that bad, is it?
- It's a quart.

Well there you are then, it's a quart. That's nothing.

No junior district clerk is going to want to stay in Mureyvo
long enough to notice one missing quart.

Out of one and a half quarts?

Don't forget I let the patients have some too.

No, no, I've taken that into account
and a quart is the shortfall.

A quart IS the shortfall.

You say that like it's a lot.

It's basically a pond.

Pond

But I haven't taken that much. Somedays I
haven't taken at all, I just have a 1% solution.

Oh, no, you did take it all.

It says so right here.

And even though the

words are almost illegible,

I believe the pictures,

speak for themselves.

We cannot change the past.

That's it, you're right! I can change the past,

I'll just have to doctor the patient records.

No... I meant the opposite.

In fact, I'm sure
I said the opposite.

What about him? What did he have?
I'm sure I could've prescribed morphine.

- A bunion.
- How big a bunion?

It's no use. I need a quart of morphine.
I'll have to go to Golyevo, it's as simple as that.

- Is that a good idea?
- Yes!

What?

He won't remember.

Gauze...

Fifteen grams of caffeine,

twenty grams of aspirin,
hundred and twenty grams of morphine,

a bottle of camphor,
a bottle of chloroform...

I'm sorry,

Did you say 120 grams of morphine?

- Ah... yes, I did, yes.
- That is a lot of morphine.

Yes, well, you know...

It's those Bolsheviks.

- There's been a lot of fighting.
- What, even as far as Mureyvo?

Oh, yes, no, it's been brutal...
It's been...

I mean...

Just...

- You know, I'd rather not talk about it.
- Still...

One hundred and twenty grams is almost
double the hospital's allocation.

It's alright,
I can pay for the surplus.

I think...

This should cover it.

Oh...

Keep the change.

- I need to see an official stamp.
- Of course, yes.

You're not Leopold Leopoldovich.

You haven't heard the end of this!

Damnit! The bastard
reported me to the Zemstvo.

- This isn't a routine inspection.
- You don't know that.

- Have you thought this through?
- I don't have time to think this through.

Pelageya!

We need more bottles.

Where are they?

- Under your bed!
- Fetch them.

Please.

It's just for the inspection.

We'll put these ones at the back
and the morphine at the front.

Simple.

Yea, I didn't even think this through.

Pelageya, please.

I forgive you.

It's the Bolshoi.

I saw a wonderful production
of The Corsaire there.

I'd love to go to Moscow.

Or anywhere. Even Omsk.

What for?

We have everything we need right here.

Even the Bolshoi.

Oh, Mikha!

Soldiers.

Even as far as Mureyvo.

Alright, Feldsher,

- Tell me what's going on.
- Oh, well...

Since the fall of the Tsar,

Mother Russia has been at war

- With herself.
- Yes, yes

I am aware of this stupid
revolution, Feldsher.

Comrade,

Doctor.

Stupid that it took so long for Russia
to embrace the noble Bolshevik cause!

We need to sort out the
most seriously wounded.

Patch this one up, comrade.

Comrade?

It'll blow over, Doctor.

A three percent soution.

- This one looks bad.
- Yea, he's been shot in the chest

and the leg.

He's lost a lot of blood.

Frostbite too. And
that smells like gangrene.

I can't believe he's not dead.

Oh no, he is dead. So young.

This one, Doctor!

Shush now.

Stay with me, stay with me.

Perhaps a little anecdote?

And what was this garment of
such flamboyance?, you ask.

A most dazzling pair of trousers!

- And what's going on here?
- Please,

- make it stop.
- Feldsher, give this man a one percent solution.

And this one?

He was shot in the stomach.

- The bullet's still in there.
- There is a lot of 'there'.

He's the Zemstvo inspector.

How?

Doctor!

Keep up the good fight, comrade.

We'll have you back on your
foot in no time.

Don't dwell on it.

You're doing great.

I'd forgotten what a good doctor I used to be.

- Yes, I'm not allowed anymore.
- We have to stop the bleeding.

Over here, brave comrade.

- Best thing that's ever happened.
- No, no.

No, not this poor comrade,
this tormented comrade.

And the...

Rotund gentleman?

Take this.
Staunch the flow of blood.

I know it's none of my business,

I mean you're the doctor, not me.

They tore up my license,
which is great.

You know...

More time to
finish the old novel.

- Well, start it.
- Can't you see,

- I'm in the middle of someone...
- Someone, yes...

But uh... the sizeable...

citizen, out there with a...

Hole in his stomach,
well, it seems like he's...

going to...

die very soon.

And this, it doesn't look serious to you?

Well he's... still got... one left.

Ish.

A stretcher now! This loyal comrade
needs urgent medical attention.

- That's alright, I can walk.
- No, you can't.

I'm the Doctor.

What are you doing?

That portly individual out there is dying.

- Oh, you could kiss that better.
- Yes, but he is a Bolshevik soldier.

- What do you care about politics?
- I don't, but they do have a lot of guns.

What are you doing?

You could kiss that better,
Other people need it more than he does.

I've got him.

I've got him.

- I've got him.
- You've got him.

Yes, I've got... well... I've got too much.

I'got it, I've got it.

Haven't got enough of him.

Pelageya, help!

He weighs a ton!

And that's without the blood.

Pelageya, cut his clothes off.
Feldsher, the hydrogen peroxide.

Oh, Deputy Inspector Raveba,
I had no idea you were here. I do apologize.

Ah, how are you?

Yes, of course.

Forgive me.

I hear they made you Senior
Inspector. Congratulations.

Pelageya, the Senior
Inspector's mouth!

Wait.

Wait, he's the Zemstvo inspector?

Feldsher, please.
We don't keep corpses in here.

Of all the days you could have come,
Senior Inspector...

But you didn't.

I mean, not deliberately.

I did nothing of the kind.
You saw what it was like out there.

They didn't exactly form an orderly queue.

Actually, I think I'm doing rather well,
this is my first war.

As you know, it's normally
a lot cleaner in here.

But you made him wait out there for ages.

Well he's not dying of boredom, is he...

he's dying of a bullet in the stomach.

Actually...

Two bullets.

- Clamp.
- Clamp.

Oh Feldsher, for pity's sake,
Get this man another shot of morphine.

No!

Funny, I don't remember it like this, at all.

He does still seem to be in a lot of pain.

Perhaps he needs a lot more
because he's so fat.

I'd hardly describe the
Senior Inspector as "fat"

or even stout.

He's broad. Broad.

Pelageya, a 5% solution. Now.

What?

I didn't start this war. None of this is my fault.

I'm just a doctor.

- I forgive you.
- For what?

I suppose you didn't see me.

I saw you.

Shut the door.