Everything you always wanted to know about The Flying Doctors. Dedicated to Lenore Smith and Christopher Stollery.
 

Season 1

1. Will to survive
An introduction to the show. It's Tom's birthday. The new doctor, Chris Randall, arrives. Later she is forced to amputate Jim Spencer's leg, to save his life.

2. Trial by gossip
Everybody is mad at Chris for amputating Jim Spencer's leg. Tom defends her. George Baxter and Jim Spencer threatens to sue Chris and the hospital. Chris discovers a girl with croup but the mother doesn't allow an operation because of the rumours Baxter's been spreading. Tom makes Baxter say he has been wrong. Chris saves the little girl.

3. Hot enough for you
The Robertson family comes to town, looking for work. On their way to a farm they get lost. The man goes to look for help, but it's extremely hot, he gets dehydrated and collapses. At the car the two boys wander off into the bush. The man is found and a search starts for the rest of the family. They find the car with the woman and a baby, but not the boys. Chris and George Baxter find them - a little too late. One of the boys died in the heat.

4. Dreams of sand
An old man called Rabbit is admitted to the hospital. Chris wants him to go to a nursing home for treatment, but Rabbit doesn't want to. He knows he won't live much longer and want to spend that time in freedom, which Chris finally understands. Hurtle is back from the coast, but he'll sell the garage, he has met a woman. She comes to visit him and tells him she doesn't want to get involved with him, which means he'll stay in Coopers Crossing after all. Hurtle is bitten by a snake but saved by Ron. Sharon and Gibbo see each other a lot which makes Vic upset. He thinks Gibbo tries to take advantage of Sharon.

5. Public property
Bruce comes to Coopers Crossing to get married. He has never met the bride to be, they have only written letters. When Joylene arrives it turns out that she is pregnant. Bruce (and everybody else) get really upset, and Bruce says he doesn't want to marry her anymore. Tom feels sorry for Joylene, who really wanted to marry Bruce, so he lets her stay at his place. Finally Bruce's brother proposes to Joylene and they get married. When she's having the baby, they call him Bruce, which makes the "old" Bruce pretty happy.

6. Is nothing sacred
A lady called Debbie Wilson shows up in town to fight for the aborigines. She wants to find sacred places and make sure that the aboriginals have access to these places. Many of the people in Coopers Crossing get upset, and when Tom invites Debbie to dinner they think things have gone too far. A man called Don Shepard knows about sacred places, but he won't tell Debbie. He doesn't tell because one of the sacred places is situated on George Baxter's land, and Baxter is paying Don not to tell anyone. But after a while Don takes Debbie to the spot, and it turns out everything is a fake. Don painted the false picture and the "sacred" place himself to get payed from Baxter. Debbie leaves Coopers Crossing and everything is back to normal again.

7. Square pegs
Andrew Cameron is a farmer and very successful in everything he does. He demands his son, Matt, to be just as successful as he is, which of course is impossible. Finally Matt breaks into the Nomad and steels some drugs and tries to kill himself. He is rescued by the RFDS. Tom finds an old woman, Ruth Pitt, in a tent outside town, where she lives with her retarded son Hugh. Ruth has a bad heart, and she dies, so they have to send Hugh to a home. It is a bit sad, as everybody liked him so much.

8. Sins of the father
Prue is pregnant and staying at a couple she says is her aunt and uncle. She delivers the baby but it requires help from the RFDS as the baby is in a wrong position. Prue doesn't want to look at her child at all, and it turns out the couple isn't related to her. They just want to buy her baby! But Prue changes her mind and wants to keep her child. Hurtle and Ron are babysitting, when some gunpowder blows up in Ron's face. He will be ok but has to go to Sydney for treatment.

9. Rally to the cause
An international rally comes to Coopers Crossing which makes everyone excited. A driver called Sandra spends a lot of time with Gibbo and Chris has dinner with a French driver. This makes Tom jealous, but when he finds out nothing happened he and Chris kiss! Emma Plimpton arrives in Coopers Crossing, she Hurtle's niece and a trained mechanic.

10. Talk of the town
Emma is upset with Hurtle, the garage's economy is a mess, Hurtle never demands people to pay their bills which makes it impossible for him to pay his! So Emma has to do his dirty work. Violet finds out she has got diabetes, but doesn't take care of it and collapses. Finally Tom makes her realize she can live a great life, even though she's a diabetic.

11. Do you read me
One of Sharon's friends is going out with a boy named Max, and she goes to Chris to get the pill. Linda gets the prescription at the pharmacy, but Violet sees her, and soon everybody knows about it. Linda's mother is more or less seeing George Baxter, and he gets really upset! He talks to Frank, Tom and Chris, and threatens to sue Chris for doing this. Linda suspects that she's already pregnant and she and Max run off. They're involved in a car-accident, and Linda looses her baby.

12. E.T - New girl in town
Tom and Gibbo have to land in the middle of nowhere after a clinic run. They go to an old cabin where they find a man and his dying mother. They also find the man's daughter Amanda who has lived there isolated for her whole life. When the old lady dies Tom promises to bring Amanda to town, but this upsets the man. He later comes to town to persuade Amanda to come back. She refuses and he kills himself.

13. A choice of enemies
RFDS gets an emergency call from Adrian Bailey, son of the wealthy Rex Bailey, who is out cycling in the bush. Everybody says he shouldn't go on, he doesn't know anything about the bush. But he ignores them. After a while they get another call from him, but at the same time there's an emergency call - a 7-year old boy with 50% burns. Tom chooses to go to the boy first, but when they come to Adrian he's dead! A very rude reporter is there, and he makes it sound as it was all Tom's fault Adrian died. Rex arrives in town and after reading the papers he also blames Tom. But Sharon talks to him, and he understands it wasn't Tom's fault.

14. Departures
Sharon tells everybody that she is moving to Sydney to study. She's going to be a social worker. Everybody at the base is happy for her but Gibbo is a bit upset about Sharon did not tell him she applied. Nancy is sad about Sharon leaving, but Vic's really angry. He and Sharon fight about it, but Sharon does go, eventually. There's a man, Jim Dawson, who is going crazy at a pub after drinking very much, where he also gets serious cuts to his face. He just rides off, and when Tom and Jack arrive, they go after him. Jim is in a really bad shape so they bring him home to his wife. This has happened a lot of times before, but now he really want to change things. His wife, Peg doesn't believe him, and she leaves him.

15. A lost generation
Gibbo, Ron and Emma meet a woman named Clare Dobson on the road where her car broke down. Gibbo gives her a ride back to town and Ron promises to fix her car. It's obvious that they are competing over her. Nancy is helping out on the base after Sharon left. Joe offered her the job, which makes Tom and Chris a bit upset. The war-memorial is coming up, and everybody is excited. Everybody except Chris. She thinks it's horrible to celebrate war, and she's arguing about it at the base. This really upsets Joe, and Chris finds out that he experienced some terrible things when he was in Vietnam. Later it turns out that Clare Dobson was Violet's granddaughter, which of course makes Violet very happy!

16. Someone special
Tom sees some horrible pictures of starving kids in Africa and starts thinking of going there to help. Chris thinks they're about to get married and tells Violet - which means the whole town knows. But Tom tells Chris he's made up his mind, he'll go to Africa. The talk in the town just says Tom will leave the outback and everybody thinks he'll go into town to start his own clinic. This hurts Tom a lot, but when he tells the truth, everybody apologizes. But the whole town, especially Chris, is sad when he leaves.

17. Return of the hero
The new doctor, Geoff Standish arrives, a really bragging city doctor. He gets drunk one night, when he was on call, which upsets Chris terribly. Geoff tells her he came to the outback because his wife died of cancer. He was to busy working and didn't notice until it was too late, and he blames himself for her death. They meet a man called Les Foster, who is gay, and has found out he has got aids. The disease gets worse and he finally dies.

18. Eye of the beholder
Kate is at George Baxter's place giving vaccine-shots. They run into bad weather during a ride and go to a shed. George is hit by lightning, and has a seizure. It turns out he might have epilepsy. Violet is organizing the Miss Coopers Crossing contest, and manages to talk Emma into entering. She wins over a stroppy girl called Melissa Cumberland-Brown.

19. Like a death in the family
A family, the Morgans, has to sell their property, and George Baxter buys it for his company. This makes the Morgans pretty mad. Nancy has done some tests with Geoff and the results show some cellular changes in her uterus, it's cancer. They have operate. After the operation it shows that the cancer has spread and they have to perform a hysterectomy (to remove the whole uterus), but Nancy refuses. She and Vic argue a lot about it, and this makes Sharon returns from Sydney for a while. But she can't make Vic understand why Nancy refuses to have the operation. Sharon talks to Geoff and Chris to get some advice. Finally she makes Vic understand and he talks to Nancy. She decides to have the operation, and it's a success, they managed to get rid of the whole cancer!

20. Million-acre prison
The base gets a call, a boy got shot and Chris flies out. She does her best, but the boy dies. The weather is really bad, so they can't fly the body back to town. Jack and dr. Turner agree that Chris should do the autopsy at the spot. She feels bad about it, but does it anyway. Geoff gets a telegram, a job-offer from Sydney, and Violet discovers this as well. Which means the whole town knows pretty soon. Kate is really upset about Geoff leaving, and so is the rest of the town. Finally Geoff decides to stay.

21. Fearless Frank
Gibbo demands vacation, and the only release-pilot is an old man called Frank Watson, known as Fearless Frank. He is a very good pilot but sometimes he takes risks. He really likes a woman called Val. She called the RFDS, but she's a hypochondriac, so Chris doesn't want to go. Frank went on his own but after picking Val up he got a stomach-ache and has to make an emergency landing on the road. This means Gibbo won't get his vacation after all... Frank ends up in hospital but discharges himself and goes flying. As he is sick he doesn't have the permission to fly. When he lands he claims this was his last flight, he'll start working for Val!

22. Forgiveness
Kate and George Baxter are together, but Kate finds out George also has a relation with another woman, so she breaks up with him again. Meanwhile a young woman called Sarah is very scared to be alone in her house, while her husband is gone. She thinks someone is sneaking around the house and she is right!

23. Acceptance
The Cochrane-brothers come to town. They end up in hospital after they've been in an accident with explosives - looking for gold! Josie Rattan has a car accident, but says she's ok. When Geoff finds her unconscious he does some tests, she has got a brain tumour. She knows she'll die but don't want to spend her last days in hospital. She finally convinces Geoff to let her go!

24. The show goes on
A theatre group comes to town, but their director and head-actor, Rick, breaks his leg. In hospital Chris discovers he has got a disease that needs treatment in Sydney but he won't go. Their manager runs with all their money, but the town helps them out. Joe gets a part instead of the one Rick should have and is a real success. He is offered to go with the group but refuses. Rick decides to go to Sydney after all.

25. To the rescue
Two thieves are troubling everyone, they want pills and medicines to sell to schoolkids. They hassle both Kate and Jack. But one of them is injured and is nearly killed! Chris saves him. Violet organizes the Queen of the Outback contest in Windoona, but everything goes wrong. Violet and Emma are arguing about clothes and Emma says she quits. Chris manages to make a compromise. Then it turns out the decoration is wrong, and the band doesn't play the right music. And Violet blames Chris for all of it!

26. Into the future
The Queen of the Outback competition is held in Windoona and Emma wins! On the way back Gibbo has to fly, even though he is on vacation because the other pilot was drunk. The engines catches fire, and he has to do an emergency landing. Everything seems to be all right, but Gibbo is seriously ill. He has to fly to Broken Hill but on the way he dies. George Baxter is elected new M.P of the district.

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Andrew and Lewis