Hello and welcome to this podcast from the BBC World Service.
Please let us know what you think and tell other people about us on social media.
Podcasts from the BBC World Service are supported by advertising.
Hello, I'm Tim. I've got a science fiction story for you today about some strange activities on a remote island where some odd looking creatures live.
We'd better get started.
The story is about an upper class man called Prendick who has been shipwrecked.
A passing ship rescues him and he is looked after by a doctor called Montgomery who is travelling with a cargo of animals to an unnamed island.
When they get there, an unfriendly man called Dr.
Morrow reluctantly allows Prendick to stay.
Prendick is curious about the research Dr.
Morrow is doing with the animals on the island.
One day he hears a puma which the doctor is experimenting on cry with pain.
He goes to investigate and he comes across a group of bizarre looking creatures who look almost like humans.
Strange. He questions Montgomery about this the next day but he cannot get a straight answer.
Next morning he is even more curious about what he has seen.
With bated breath he goes into one of Dr.
Morrow's animal enclosures and discovers a strange half human half beast lying in bandages.
It dawns on him that Dr.
Morrow has been carrying out scientific experiments on humans and that he could be the next victim.
Shaking with fear he runs out into the jungle where he meets an ape man who takes him to a colony of other half human creatures.
The leader of this colony is called Sayer of the law who tells Prendick about the laws that they must live with on the island.
Suddenly Dr. Morrow bursts in.
Prendick manages to escape but eventually he is caught by the doctor who explains to him the work he has been doing.
He tells him that these strange creatures are called beast folk and his aim is to be able to turn an animal into a complete human being.
Prendick knows there is something bad with what the doctor has been doing but somehow accepts this and agrees to continue living on the island.
Prendick knows there is something bad with what the doctor has been doing but somehow accepts this and agrees to continue living on the island.
He gets used to the strange looking beast folk that wonder about.
But one day the puma who Prendick had tried to rescue earlier escapes from the laboratory.
Dr. Morrow runs after it and tries to kill it with his bare hands but he and the animal kill each other.
His assistant Montgomery is very upset by this and starts drinking alcohol with the beast folk.
This doesn't go well and leads to a violent scuffle where Montgomery somehow dies leaving Prendick as the only proper human on the island.
Prendick is not interested in carrying on with Dr.
Morrow's work and instead makes preparations to leave the island.
Later in the story with the aid of a passing ship he is rescued.
He is unable to tell the crew about his experience because they'd think he was mad so he pretends he has lost his memory.
Well I would have trouble believing that story too.
It's a strange story and complete fiction but it makes you wonder if such an experiment would ever work.
Anyway, that's all for today and I'll see you soon for another story.
Bye for now.
