The Continuity Guide
Medical Monitors
by Martin Willey

Medical monitors in 1999 rarely require direct contact with the patient, and are able to produce valuable diagnostic information merely through close proximity. The most versatile is the life support pack placed over the patient's chest, although by 2000 Dr Russell favoured her small bioscan units for rapid analysis of diagnostic data.

All personnel wear a monitor like a wrist-watch, monitoring their vital signs and alerting Medical staff if required. The monitors are featured in Guardian Of Piri, Force Of Life & The Full Circle, but worn in every episode. In Year 2 they are not worn, except in Journey To Where. The new Journey To Where design has a coloured screen and buttons captioned "H", "T" & "R", for heart, temperature and respiration (plus the text "heat" above the "R"). Note also a good view in Collision Course (on Alan). In Missing Link, Koenig is seen wearing a conventional analogue watch. In Force Of Life, the monitors raise alarms if the wearer dies ("Technician Mark Dominix Life Functions Terminated"). This was also scripted but not seen in End Of Eternity & The Troubled Spirit. In Dragon's Domain medical computer raises the alarm when Cellini's "pulse and metabolic rate peaked in the danger zone". Eagle pilots are routinely monitored, their vital signs shown as two traces on a video screen. The screen may be shown in Main Mission (Matter Of Life And Death, Voyager's Return, The Metamorph) or from Medical (Ring Around The Moon, Missing Link).

Placed over the chest, with no apparent connection to the patient, these units monitored and maintained life support. First seen in Breakaway, they are featured in Missing Link, Alpha Child, Collision Course, Space Brain, Dragon's Domain, The Mark Of Archanon & Dorzak.

Small match-box sized units held in the hand and scanned over the patient. Of at least two designs, they feature two perspex slides which can be extended alternately from the top. Used in The Mark Of Archanon, New Adam, New Eve, The Beta Cloud, Space Warp, The Bringers Of Wonder part 2, The Seance Spectre, Dorzak, The Immunity Syndrome.

These units were fitted on trolleys and could be moved as required. Three designs were used in Year 1 (from Earthbound onwards). Two were oscilloscopes with round screens (one had the caption "Alphan Monitor **163", and was used as a normal square television screen in End Of Eternity).

The third had an array of light and four voltmeter dials, and also appeared as the "Power Control" in The A B Chrysalis.

In Year 2 the square screen configuration was always used (the round oscilloscope screen disappears). They were also used for non-medical functions. Among the capabilities were showing heart, temperature and respiration scales for Koenig, Russell and Carter in Journey To Where; video telephony in The Beta Cloud, real time video monitoring of Koenig's sickbed in The Bringers of Wonder, displaying text from Tony Verdeschi's computer file in The Immunity Syndrome as well as X-ray graphs and medical sensor data in Dorzak).

The movable monitors are frequently used by Medical Centre personnel, however, they are seen elsewhere as well e.g. the engineering section in Dorzak (this particular unit was labeled "Tech Monitor XZ3").

The Lambda Factor also features an unusual configuration consisting of one or two small screens fitted on trolleys. In The Mark Of Archanon & All That Glisters, Helena's Alpha Log Recorder was modified to record life signs.

A panel with three rows of lights which fluctuate according to the relevant life signs. Featured in The Mark Of Archanon as a mobile unit on a trolley (two were used, with slightly different designs). This also appeared as a computer panel in Medical (eg The Exiles, or in the Eagle in All That Glisters).