Nova - Darwin's Darkest Hour (Darwin's Darkest Hour)

Tonight, a special two-hour dramatic presentation.

His was the fist mind of the age,

The father of modern biology,

Author of the most influential theory

In the history of science.

Nature's selection-- natural selection.

Have you the proofs of this?

Yes.

But in the summer of 1858,

Charles Darwin faced his darkest hour.

Charles? What is it?

Twenty years of work and I've...

I've been beaten to the post.

It's from a man called Wallace.

His theory and my own are identical.

He even employs phrases that I myself have used in my book--

"the struggle for existence," for example.

For 20 years, he has suppressed his greatest work,

Wary of public reaction, of scientific scrutiny,

Of religious differences with his wife, Emma.

I think I may have found the answer

To the mystery of mysteries.

And if I'm right,

Then the god that Lyell believes in so profoundly

Is dead.

And what of the god that I believe in?

Now, in the midst of personal tragedy...

It is scarlet fever.

I'm so desperately worried,

What with Etty so sick and now the baby.

I think it may prove too much for Charles.

On the verge of professional triumph...

Millions of small changes, of the same kind,

Over millions of years.

The danger in what you say

Is that it undermines the truth of scripture.

It's an axe to the root of the faith

By which men lead their lives

And which sustains our whole society.

Darwin must make a critical decision,

And the world's most controversial scientific theory

Hangs in the balance.

I think you must publish.

You'd be sorry to see me an object of hatred.

We must think very carefully.

"Darwin's Darkest Hour"--

Right now on this National Geographic

Special movie presentation.

Malthus...

Malthus...

The human popu...

The human population should have overwhelmed the...

Overwhelmed the planet by now.

That's what Malthus said.

Should have overwhelmed the planet by now,

But nothing of the sort has happened.

Why not? Why not?

Malthus...

External pressures... Pressures.

Natural disasters.

Malthus...

That's what Malthus says.

What if the same laws apply to animal populations?

External pressures, natural disasters.

Great heaven, what if that's true?

It could be the answer.

The answer...

The answer to the greatest question any scientist--

Any thinking man-- could ask.

Any thinking man could ask...

How you doing today, Joe?

Come along here.

Postman's here!

Morning, Mr. Parslow.

Thank you kindly.

Thank you, Parslow.

Ma'am.

Can I be postman?

My turn!

It's my turn!

I think it's Frankie's turn.

Frank?

Better hurry up, Frankie, it's half past nine.

Come on, boys, let's go play outside.

Thank you, Etty.

Come on, Horace, hurry up.

Postman!

Come in.

Thank you, Frankie.

Post's early today.

What is it, papa?

Oh, it's a model of a beehive cell.

Can we do bees today?

Hmm, yes, I should think so.

Morning, Jane.

Morning, Parslow.

Morning, master Charlie!

How's my lovely boy?

Parslow.

Take him, please.

Charles? What is it?

I've been beaten to the post.

Twenty years of work and I've...

I've been beaten to the post.

He wants me to forward it to Lyell.

What can I do?

I can't suppress it, I must do as he asks.

I'm honor-bound to do so.

Charles, step by step.

Method in all things, yes?

Yes.

It's from a man called Wallace.

Alfred Russel Wallace.

He's in the east, the Moluccas, I think.

He encloses an essay

"on the tendency of varieties..."

"...To depart indefinitely from the original type."

Yes, I see.

What does it mean?

What does it mean? It means I'm trumped!

Gammoned!

His theory and my own are identical.

He even employs phrases that I myself have used in my book--

"the struggle for existence," for example.

I don't know what's to be done, Emma.

I don't know which way to turn.

What's to be done is for you to sit down quietly

And tell me exactly who this man is.

I don't know what you'd call him.

A traveler? Explorer? Naturalist?

He was in the amazon basin and he wrote a book about it.

It was quite readable,

If rather light from a scientific point of view.

You've met him?

Mmm, once.

There are two books that have together alter in South America.

The other is your own voyage of HMS Beagle.

Humboldt?

Now, the first time I tried to read him,

I couldn't get through it.

But the second time, when I was at Cambridge,

I devoured it.

Nothing like it to stimulate a young man's appetite for travel.

Well, you ventured into wilder places than I ever did.

I never visited Amazonia.

Is that not sir Charles Lyell?

Yes, yes, it is.

There's another book that has changed

My whole way of thinking.

His principles of geology... Wonderful.

Yes, indeed.

Might I beg an introduction?

Certainly.

Forgive my slight tardiness,

My dear Charles.

Oh, think nothing of it.

Might I introduce Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace?

Ah, the amazonian adventurer.

Mr. Wallace.

A very great honor to meet you, sir Charles.

Yes, we really should be getting along.

I won't detain you any longer.

A great honor to meet you, sir.

And you, sir.

Bit of a rough diamond.

How so?

I believe his father was some sort of west country attorney.

Couldn't afford to give his son a decent education.

Well, he seems to have acquired one by his own efforts.

Hmm.

Wallace went abroad again soon after, to the east.

We corresponded.

About your theory?

No... Well, not at first.

I wanted specimens of poultry

That had been bred over many generations in remote regions.

He sent me those ducks from Bali, do you remember?

So many people sent you so many things.

Yes, well, Wallace was one of them.

He makes his living that way,

Collecting and selling specimens.

Then I read an article he'd written.

I made some notes on it; I must have them here somewhere.

It was entitled

"the law which has regulated the introduction of new species."

I wasn't greatly impressed;

There was nothing very new in it, but...

Where on earth are those notes?

Charles, don't bother about it now.

I wrote to Wallace kindly about it.

I said we were thinking along the same lines.

Lyell warned me.

You behold in me a member

Of the borough club of pigeon fanciers.

I thought it was the philoperisteron.

Oh, I attend the philo, of course,

But your true featherman prefers the borough.

We meet in all sorts of queer little grog shops

And beer halls.

How very disagreeable.