Quatermass - The Complete Collection

1953 · horror · science-fiction · Nigel Kneal

The Quatermass Experiment 1953 The Quatermass Experiment is a British science fiction serial broadcast by BBC Television during the summer of 1953 and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme , it tells the story of the first crewed flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carries the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third – Victor Carroon – is behaving strangely. It eventually becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the rocket during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world. Originally comprising six half-hour episodes, it was the first science fiction production to be written especially for a British adult television audience. [ 1 ] The serial was the first of four Quatermass productions to be screened on British television between 1953 and 1979. It was transmitted live from the BBC's original television studios at Alexandra Palace in north London, one of the final productions before BBC television drama moved to west London. Despite its success and influence, only two episodes have survived, the other four having never even been recorded on their live broadcast. As well as spawning various remakes and sequels, The Quatermass Experiment inspired much of the television science fiction that succeeded it, particularly in the United Kingdom Quatermass II 1955 Quatermass II is a British science fiction serial , originally broadcast by BBC Television in the autumn of 1955. It is the second in the Quatermass series by writer Nigel Kneale , and the oldest of those serials to survive in its entirety in the BBC archives. The serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group being asked to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British government. As even some of Quatermass's closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind. Although sometimes compared unfavourably to the first and third Quatermass serials, [ 1 ] Quatermass II was praised for its allegorical concerns of the damaging effects of industrialisation and the corruption of governments by big business . [ 2 ] It is described on the British Film Institute 's Screenonline website as "compulsive viewing". [ 3 ] Quatermass and the Pit 1958 Quatermass and the Pit is a British television science-fiction serial transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It was the third and last of the BBC's Quatermass serials, although the chief character, Professor Bernard Quatermass , reappeared in a 1979 ITV production called Quatermass . Like its predecessors, Quatermass and the Pit was written by Nigel Kneale . The serial continues the loose chronology of the Quatermass adventures. Workmen excavating a site in Knightsbridge , London , discover a strange skull and what at first appears to be an unexploded bomb. Quatermass and his newly appointed military superior at the British Rocket Group, Colonel Breen, become involved in the investigation when it becomes apparent that the object is an alien spacecraft. The ship and its contents have a powerful and malignant influence over many of those who come in contact with it, including Quatermass. He concludes that millions of years in the past the aliens, probably from Mars, had abducted pre-humans and modified them to give them psychic abilities much like their own before returning them to Earth, leaving a genetic legacy which is responsible for much of the war and racial strife in the world. The serial has been cited as having influenced Stephen King [ 1 ] and the film director John Carpenter . [ 2 ] It featured in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , which described it as "completely gripping". [ 3 ] The Quatermass Conclusion 1979 Quatermass (also known as Quatermass IV , or The Quatermass Conclusion for its limited international theatrical release) is a 1979 British television science fiction serial. Produced by Euston Films for Thames Television , it was broadcast on the ITV network in October and November 1979. Like its three predecessors, Quatermass was written by Nigel Kneale . It is the fourth and, to date, final television serial to feature the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass , this time played by John Mills . Influenced by the social and geopolitical situation of the early 1970s and the hippie youth movement of the late 1960s, Quatermass is set in a near future in which large numbers of young people are joining a cult known as the Planet People who