jamesrupert2014 Review of Quatermass and the Pit

Quatermass and the Pit (1958–1959)

Excellent example of 1950s British science fiction programming

[9/10 · 19 November 2021]

A quasi-sentient spaceship that has been buried under London for five million years awakens, triggering hallucinations, psychoses and psychokinetic abilities in a subset of humans that are descended from ancient Martian-hominoid hybrids, which were the insectoidal Martians' last attempt at avoiding extinction after genocidal race wars. Nigel Kneale's story, which links alien science with human superstitions is quite clever. The production, which had twice the budget of the previous series ('Quatermass II', 1955), is very well made with only a bit of BBC frugalness on display. The script is literate and the acting generally very good, with André Morell stepping into the role of the titular boffin. One minor weakness in the plot is the unnecessarily 'convenient coincidence' that Dr. Romey (Cec Linder),the Canadian anthropologist investigating the buried ship, just happened to be working on an "optic-encephalogram", a gadget that allows recording of a person's visual perceptions (real or hallucinatory), which comes in extremely handy as the plot unspools. The references to Martian 'race wars' and the scenes of fratricidal violence at the film's climax were very timely as the world was only just beginning to realise the magnitude and brutality of the Holocaust (Alain Resnais' 'Night and Fog' was released in 1956) and Britons were dealing with the aftermath of the St Ann's race riots in Nottingham in the spring of 1958. Kneale's message about the evils of bigotry and internecine strife is not subtle, especially at the end of the film, when Quatermass breaks the fourth wall and lectures viewers about the need for tolerance (otherwise we'll end up imploding like the film's doomed Martian civilisation). Extra-terrestrials manipulating human evolution was revisited in '2001 A Space Odyssey' (1968) and the idea that our images of devils and demons reflect racial memories of aliens was at the core of Arthur C. Clarke's excellent 1953 novel 'Childhood's End' and resurfaced in the Dr. Who serial "The Dæmons" in 1971. 'Quatermass and the Pit' was critically well-received and was the most watched of the three original Quatermass series (partly do the rapidly increasing number of homes with television sets over the 1950s). Remade by Hammer Film Predictions in 1967 with Andrew Kier as Quatermass (and released as 'Five Million Years to Earth' in the U. S.). Highly recommended.