Tales of the Unexpected was a British series from Anglia Television that ran from 1979 to 1988. The series was created by Roald Dahl, yes the one who made "Matilda" amongst other stories. He brings his twistedness to this series which is "Twilight Zone" like. Episodes are different stories with different flavors and stories, with usually twist endings, because Unexpected.
I have decided to write about an episode of this show. So from Season 4, episode 7, it's "The Sound Machine".
Plants are have an interesting designation. They are alive but unlike animals and people they aren't moving, active and give off the sense of being alive in the same way. Their being alive but unable to kind of do anything about it does make a little cognitive dissonance to us , the people. A kid picks a dandelion out of the ground to blow the seeds around, the plant has done its mission of repopulating the Earth, but also it's slowly dying , and was probably ripped out from its roots. If that plant was to scream out lout in painful agony there'd be a different thought about such an action. Cutting grass then hearing the sound of hundreds of blades of grass crying out in pain would be horrific.
In theory, plants don't feel that kind of pain, at least we hope so. This episode decides to go with a question of what if we could? The story takes place in summer 1935, as the intro says. Why summer 1935? I don't know. There's a man, a botanist, named Mr. Klausner who is working on a machine. We're introduced to Dr. Scott, who was talking to a neighbor --this is British Show , uh Neighour, named Mrs. Saunders. She seems to be also be talking a lot about him.
The Doctor decides to go see Mr. Klausner to see if he's alright and the man is focused on his machine. He's interested in the machine as it made him curious. Klasuner says he is looking for sounds that we can't normally here. He points to a spider and says he wonders what noise the spider actually makes. He wants to find sounds beyond our comprehension.(He wants to find 99.5 ROCK FM the station that rocks beyond human thought) 
I want to play EDM
The doctor leaves and he goes outside to see if his machine will pick up something. He hears a loud screaming sound and sees his neighbour cutting some roses and asks her like a crazed man to cut another rose. The screaming sound comes at the same time she cuts one. He tells her that he heard roses screeching every time she cut one. He goes and finds a small flower to pluck and it screams. This development has disturbed him deeply. He decides to take his machine to find out if it's just flowers and maybe "stronger" plants are immune.
He goes to the graveyard to find some trees (as one does) and then grabs an ax to out of context scare Mrs. Saunders as he goes back. He hits the tree with the ax and he hears a moaning scream. He says he's sorry to the tree. He decides to call the doctor (because this episode has a limited cast) and might not have been the best decision for him.
I'm not a plant killer!
Dr. Scott shows up and the man asks him to put on the headphones then the man hurts the tree again. A branch falls from the tree as if it's mad. The doctor denies that he heard a sound, but thinking about the branch. It's interesting to see his reaction as he pretty much did hear it but doesn't want to admit it. Klausner asks him help the tree's "wound" and then asks for iodine to help the cut.
What is interesting here is that the man has heard a living thing in pain and wants it to be treated as one does if another person, or an an animal had been injured. He apologized earlier to the tree, the first time, he tells the tree that the iodine will sting but it's there to help. Dr. Scott is taking this not in a mean way but he thinks that this isn't healthy for the man.
Dr. Scott has called the asylum and is waiting there with man who doesn't know he has. Klausner wonders what plants call pain. He wonders what the sounds of wheat being cut sound like. The doctor goes back to the sound machine and the tree from earlier and touches it and tells the tree it's alright. Then it ends.
I'm sorry tree, please don't tell the others
The idea of someone being able to hear the pain of plants and now wondering with that info the awfulness of that is a concept that is horrifying. We know that there are animals killed for the purpose of being food, but even there there's humane rules and steps that have been put in place as humans have decided to be more civil to other living things. This man was driven to distress, if we knew that every time we walked on grass or giving flowers as a gift meant plants were screaming in utter agony it would probably make us go mad. Good thing this episode didn't explore bugs and spiders. It explores the horror from our point of view of being empathic to living things.
The doctor did hear the noise but didn't want to tell the man as probably a way to a) not think of it himself, and b) to have the man calm down. But later he goes back to the tree and he tells the tree it's alright is showing that he also has the same feelings. He was concerned about the man as he did seem to really be losing his composure. Still feels kind of mean, though.
The episode does feel open to interruption as well , you can take it literally and the concept works there. It also could be like the idea of the horrors of our world around us, but we can't hear them. That there are people out there who are being inflicted in pain and we just can't hear them or quick to refuse it. There's probably a even a big pro-nature be kind to our greenery part of the idea too.
It's a very basic episode, small cast, and very intimate in design. It's horror is more existential than a killer or a force, so it is kind of slow and dry. It's one of the episodes I think of from this show when recalling it, it's an episode that stuck in my mind, and only few of them have. If you are interested in the whole show, it's not a whole sample of the show as each episode is different. I liked this episode and think it's pretty strong and makes one think.
That's it for now, tune in next time when we tell you that every bug you've killed is noted by the other bugs and they are planning something.
