A Young Doctor's Notebook & Other Stories

- Season 2

(2013)

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.

The Older Doctor is on a train with Vlas, a vagrant, who tells him that he hates morphine addicts. Having discovered that Vlas has been using pages from his notebook as toilet paper the doctor recalls how in 1918, as he was busy trying to cover up his theft of the morphine, a party of the White Guard arrived at the hospital, seeking treatment for one of their soldiers. His sister Natasha invites the hospital staff to dine with the guards and the Young Doctor is smitten with her. After getting drunk and accidentally shooting himself in the foot he declares his feelings...

The Older Doctor decides that he is going to write an opera as a cathartic experience. Meanwhile back at the hospital Pelageya is stricken with typhus but the Young Doctor neglects her to pursue Natasha in vain. A badly wounded soldier is admitted and Natasha is anxious to know if he has any news of her lover Gregory but the Young Doctor lies to her, claiming that Gregory is dead. He is hopeful that now she may feel something towards him but it is a vain hope. Pelageya dies and the Older Doctor feels ashamed of his younger self for using her so badly.

The Young Doctor reads a rather bland and callous eulogy over Pelegaya's body, before reciting a poem which he hopes will impress Natasha. He also admits to her that he lied about her lover being dead but she and the rest of the White Guard are forced to flee when the Bolsheviks return to the hospital and they escape on a medical supplies train. However the train is derailed following an explosion and the carriage in which Natasha is travelling catches fire. The Young Doctor goes to save her but is distracted when he discovers several bottles of morphine which have ...