Quatermass II (1955) User Reviews

QUATERMASS II {Episodes 1-6} (Rudolph Cartier, 1955; TV) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 10 November 2006]

The 1957 film version of "Quatertmass II" was superior to its predecessor, and one can only assume that the serial was too; again, it obviously goes deeper into the various themes than the film does, but it's interesting to see how Kneale was able to compress his own work without losing the essential quality and potency of his concept (we've seen several films which have had large chunks removed from them with the result that one would hardly recognize the original - but it's certainly not the case with the Quatermass series!).

All things considered, I guess I prefer the films to the serials for two reasons: one, the fact that the former - even if still done on a low budget - were invariably more polished (given their crisp photography as opposed to the fuzziness of a TV program); the other reason is the essential tautness of the films - the serials don't necessarily feel draggy and are certainly never boring but, watched in one sitting (which, I guess, was never the intention to begin with!), Kneale's gripping and thought-provoking plots could make for a tiresome overall experience!!

John Robinson replaced Reginald Tate (who had died in the meantime) as Professor Quatermass; he does a good job at it but, from the three actors who performed the character on TV (I haven't watched John Mills in the final serial, named simply QUATERMASS, from 1979), he's the one who comes closest to Brian Donlevy's interpretation in the first two films and which so dissatisfied Kneale! The cast also features Hugh Griffith as Quatermass' assistant and future stalwart of British horror cinema Rupert Davies as a government official.

The fact of these being live broadcasts was betrayed more than anything else during this particular serial by the surprising number of lines flubbed by the actors throughout - chief among them Robinson himself! Besides, even if scenes that were made memorable by the films (which I obviously watched prior to the serials) generate their own tension and excitement on the small screen, the film's ending is preferable to the one presented here - in which Robinson and Griffith are flown into outer space in order to destroy the planet which was attempting to colonize Earth.

A good movie for an afternoon of B&W entertainment

[trash_42 · 8/10 · 29 September 2014]

I had never heard of the Quartermass series before and after seeing Quartermass II: The Enemy From Space, I hope I can find the others.

Being honest here, I never have been too much a fan of British made films as comparatively they always had what I (personal opinion - NOT meant as a negative!) felt was a cheap, amateurish feel to them. I still see this in some of today's work. However, this movie was quality done for its day. The actors, for the most part don't deliberately "act" so it distracts from the plot. Instead they seem immersed enough to make the plot flow smoothly.

A definite fun watch, and likely I will watch it again. When taken in context of the time period it was made, it would rate a full 10... I think. But just b/c this review may be read by people too young to remember/understand this was made in a much different time period and culture, I rated it an 8. Its certainly not part of the Star Wars series ... but to enjoy these old films, people must realize watching it to make a comparisons with modern productions will always be disappointing.

Watch films like this for the fun of seeing how people back then saw sci fi. Then they become very enjoyable since you get to experience the mindset underlying today's sci fi culture, and you can see where we came from!

I Still Hate Oil Refineries

[TondaCoolwal · 8/10 · 5 November 2021]

Rather unwisely my mother allowed me to watch this when I was five years old. That's despite the famous pre-credits warning by a plummy voiced BBC announcer that "The following programme is not suitable for children or persons of a nervous disposition." Have to say, it scared the bejabbers out of me but, despite many sleepless nights and requests for the landing light to be left on, I stayed with it to the bitter end. The story is basically about alien meterorites bursting open when handled and turning the victim into a compliant zombie. Those affected then help to build a huge processing facility in which to breed other aliens.

I recall there were some out and out horror bits. The guy staggering down the steps covered in corrosive black tar and the rocket being crushed by alien tentacles. But, for me, the real scary parts were the silences, which usually hinted that one of the characters had been taken over. This tended to be accompanied by a basilisk stare from that character. So you knew something was amiss, even though the rest of the cast didn't. This, together with the brutality of the"Nazi" guards, made the whole thing very unsettling. The final episode was the most terrifying. Professor Quatermass and his friend Leo Pugh, fly a rocket with an unstable "atomic" motor to the orbiting asteroid from whence the aliens originate. The intention is to push the motor to a critical mass stage then use the escape pod to get away. The exploding rocket will then destroy the aliens and end the mind control. Trouble is, you guessed it, at the crucial moment Quatermass realises that Leo has been infected and a fight ensues. In the meantime the asteroid comes alive and great, oily tentacles wrap around the rocket which begins to buckle. Fortunately Quatermass just manages to escape and the Earth is saved yet again. Phew!

I'm 50-50 as to whether this or, Quatermass and The Pit is the better serial. Both are excellent stories with drama and excitement. On balance I'm voting for Q2 for its creepiness. The Pit seems more like a Dr Who adventure.

Oh yes. Why do I hate oil refineries? Well, the alien breeding facility in the programmes is in reality the Shell Haven oil refinery. In the fifties my Dad delivered refurbished oil drums to a variety of loacations and often took me with him. Shortly after watching Q2 he delivered some to - the Regent Oil Refinery on the River Severn at Stourport. I was paralysed with fear! The huge silver retorts emitting sulphurous odours and the dreadful quietness of the place. It was just like the serial! I fully expected to see black-suited guards marching around the corner or the jelly-like monsters erupting from the tanks. After that experience I have always viewed oil refineries with trepidation.

Diabolical horror in 1955

[uds3 · 2 June 2002]

By far the most frightening serial ever shown on British TV and in 1955 the Beeb took the unprecedented step of warning viewers before each episode that under no circumstances should children view this film and anyone of a nervous disposition would be best advised not watching. My own father, a man one would view as strongly masculine to the core was absolutely terrified at the concepts here and deeply disturbed by the music - Holst's Planet Suite: Mars: The Bringer of War. For years after and until his death in fact, he could never listen to that piece of music without leaving the room. I begged mum to let me watch it (I was 10) - she knew me well enough to let me thank God!

The story by scifi specialist Nigel Kneale was hi-tech stuff then. Alien spores infiltrated the earth's atmosphere crashing to earth in small rock-size meteorites. On contact by individuals, the smallest stream of vapor would escape and enter the victim who became "one of them" - looking unchanged, but "taken over" body-snatcher style! As always, a major Government cover-up allowed an enormous domed plant to be built - quite impenetrable and unaccountable seemingly to anyone. Of course, once Bernard Quatermass was on the case, things moved along.

The first real horror came at the end of episode 2 I think when Quatermass stumbles across some poor worker who has tumbled down a flight of metal steps having tried to get into the dome. He is covered with a black shiny resin burning him to death. Might sound a cack now, but in 1955 it was gruesome and horrific. As the extent of the "takeover" becomes apparent, Quatermass and his small team of assistants realise they must break into the dome at all costs. What they find is seared on my mind for all time. The dome is full of boiling slimy protoplasmic shapes which rear up as the camera pans closer..thats the only way to describe them, existing in an artificially created environment which is a replication of the conditions upon their own asteroid. As the credits rolled on that episode, not too many people in Britain would have been saying much!

Ultimately, the dome is destroyed despite the "thing's" valiant attempts to defend their earth-base. The concluding episode saw the locating of the asteroid and Quatermass's final flight there to destroy the alien threat. One would today laugh at both the rocket and the alien life-forms as they all but crushed the ship in the dying seconds. You wouldn't have laughed in 1955!

Val Guest's big screen remake: ENEMY FROM SPACE many years later, was certainly OK but could never hold a candle to this original work which as many have commented is just about impossible to find. I actually have a softcover book of this great film series, complete with the entire dialog and several plates from the old black and white serial. It is one of my favorite possessions.

Excellent early BBC sci-fi series

[jamesrupert2014 · 8/10 · 17 November 2021]

British space boffin Bernard Quatermass (John Robinson) becomes suspicious when hollow meteorites start peppering the English countryside, people begin to act inexplicably, and he discovers a top-secret installation that is very similar to his proposed moon-colony. The 6-part BBC teleplay was a sequel to the successful series 'The Quatermass Experiment' (1953) and Robinson was a last-minute replacement for Reginald Tate, who had played the titular character in the earlier series but who had died shortly before filming of the sequel was to begin. Quatermass II was one of the first sci-fi productions to feature the eventually well-worn trope of aliens taking over human minds ('Invaders from Mars' and 'It Came from Outer Space' came out a couple of years earlier) and was the first sequel to simply add a number to the title. Reflecting the times, writer Nigel Kneale weaves public mistrust of their own government (the story takes place in a top-secret government installation located on the site of a razed village) and labour unrest (at one point the workers at the secret plant riot) into the story. While still modest, the budget was twice that of the first series and the production, although clearly cost-conscious, is quite well done. The acting, especially Robinson, is very good and the script is literate and reasonably scientific (within the constraints of the storyline). The story has a hard edge at times and elements of the plot prompted the BBC to issue warnings to children and "...people with a nervous disposition" although the concern seemed to be more with the (off-camera) murder of an innocent family than with the alien horrors. Remade in 1957 as a feature-length film (albeit with a different ending) by Hammer Film Productions starring Brian Donlevy as Quatermass, and directed by Val Guest (who directed the excellent 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire' in 1961). As a teleplay, Quatermass II is smarter, more entertaining, and has aged better than contemporaneous British sci-fi movies (such as 'Spaceways' and 'Satellite in the Sky', both 1953) and is well worth watching (all 6 episodes can be found on-line at the time of this writing).

I Agree With SteveReed100: This Is The Best One

[deletewindowson · 10/10 · 15 January 2013]

I was lucky enough to find this on YouTube and have rewatched it a couple of times. Definitely IMO as well, it's the best of all the Quatermass offerings. I know that most people will disagree. Oh well. What makes this work is precisely what some would complain about: it's clunky. Very clunky. Funky and clunky. But I like that. Why I don't know. The main actor is.. let's say it: he's terrible. This was live television back when. Maybe that's the charm: they make mistakes. I like that. The man slotted for the part died and this fellow was brought in. Supposedly he "had trouble" with the "technical parts" of his lines. Hmm. I don't know. I just think he was a bad actor. But, as I said, I like that. Don't know why. The space trip is a riot. Really enjoyed it. Especially when they're walking around on the "asteroid". It's wonderfully ridiculous. They wear spacesuits that make them look like giant dildos. No kidding. And yet the series is actually frightening. As clunky as it is it still manages to provide a chill. Don't forget.. this was just after WW2.. after Naziism and Fascism in Europe and the rise of absolutist Communism in Eastern Europe. Therefore you could see the series as metaphor for the fascist or communist usurpation of power in the UK. That's where the chill comes from. Normal people easily corrupted and turned into grim fascist goons working for hideous monsters. That is a metaphor that still resonates and somehow the clunkiness amplifies the effect. For me anyway. You probably wouldn't see it that way. Oh well.

"We ran out of money"

[DanTheMan2150AD · 4/10 · 12 March 2024]

With its tale of an invasion by an invisible enemy indistinguishable from ourselves, Quatermass II is very much the British Invasion of the Body Snatchers, unfortunately, despite boasting a fine script, it just doesn't come together onscreen. Kneale's story reflects the widespread anxiety of the nuclear age and taps into contemporary fears about the red threat, although in a less direct way than the American science fiction films of the time; taking that metaphor and applying it to the specific conditions of Britain in the 1950s, not just the Cold War paranoia, but the traditional British grumbling resentment of bureaucracy.

Sadly, the acting from the principal cast is abysmal and hampers an otherwise engaging story, especially that of the gravely miscast John Robinson in the role of Quatermass. His difficulty with the technical dialogue and uncomfortable demeanour behind the scenes bleed into his performance, that said, the deck was stacked firmly against him due to the unfortunate death of original Quatermass actor Reginald Tate and Robinson being a last-minute change. However, there's a small bright spot in Episode 4 thanks to Roger Delgado in a supporting role as a journalist who assists Quatermass before falling victim to the mark. The production values are noticeably worse than that of the original serial, which was made for nearly half the amount afforded to this sequel; I will say, however, that the model shots are well realised and the increased prominence of 35mm inserts is more than welcomed.

Quatermass II is an extremely rough ride, there's a small high point during Episodes 4 & 5 but it just falls apart by the end with possibly one of the worst cases of budgetary mismanagement I've ever witnessed. A real shame for what could have been one of the high points of British sci-fi, we can at least take comfort in that Robert Holmes retooled Kneale's ideas from this serial and delivered a much more worthwhile affair 15 years later...

Excellent Science Fiction Television if you can find it

[Vigilante-407 · 25 January 2001]

Unfortunately, at the current time Quatermass II is really only available in bootlegs of varying quality. That's how I saw it, though the copy I found is of pretty good quality considering the rarity of the material.

Like most folks, I watched all the movie versions of the Quatermass saga before seeing any of the hard-to-find BBC television serials. The effects are, of course better in the silver screen treatments, but the television serials let a lot more exposition and explanations get out, so things make even more sense and characters and situations get fleshed out in some rather interesting ways...the movie (Enemy From Space) has an unmanned rocket being launched at the aliens, while the serial has Quatermass and a fellow scientist taking the rocket up to face the aliens.

John Robinson makes a great Quatermass...very arrogant and domineering, but at the same time you can sense some concern for humanity in the man. He's no quite as good as John Mills in the last installment of the series (The Quatermass Conclusion), but he does make the serial much more enjoyable than the movie (nothing against Brian Donlevy in that particular production).

It's also fun to see Roger Delgado (best known as The Master on Doctor Who) in the role of the reporter who comes with Quatermass to the strange little town of Wynnerton Flats.

Unless you frequent the newsgroups and video-trading circles, you don't have much chance of finding this little gem...but if you do, remember that it is definitely worth the four hours to watch.

Spoiled By The Technical Failures

[Theo Robertson · 15 April 2004]

I have to passsionately disagree with people who have come onto this page claiming this is the best of the QUATERMASS serials . I`ve not seen the original BBC QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT but both QUATERMASS AND THE PIT and the 1979 ITV serial are far better than this .

!!!! POSSIBLE SPOILERS !!!!

The script as you would expect from Nigel Kneale is fairly good but far from his best and there is a slight problem watching this in 2004 and that is the basic plot of mankind being infiltrated by pods taking over human beings has been done to death over the years . We`ve seen three versions of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS , alongside THE PUPPET MASTERS , THE INVADERS etc the plot is rather stale now though to be fair the aliens in this are totally apolitical as compared to being communist . Another thing you`ll notice if you`re watching this on a pirate video tape is that the story itself is very episodic ie when character A is killed off after their use to the plot is finished character B is introduced to push the story forward and after they die character C comes along . Obviously people didn`t notice this when the episodes were broadcast in 1955 but it`s strange when Kneale wrote THE PIT he included a radio report in the first episode which ties in with Quatermass`s TV speech in the final scene . Here there`s no such cohesive flourish

But what more or less ruins the serial are the technical aspects . The acting is to put it kindly patchy at best with only Roger Delgado , Rupert Davies and Hugh Griffith putting in any type of convincing performance . John Robinson was cast at very short notice in the title role and it`s painfully obvious he`s not had enough time to learn the lines never mind get into character which does bring the proceedings down and the rest of the cast give either laughably over emphatic performances , are totally wooden or sound like Dick Van Dyke in MARY POPPINS . To be fair no one from a working class background became actors in the 1950s so maybe I shouldn`t criticise a bunch of RADA trained thespians trying to portray the proles but it`s difficult not to notice the manual workers don`t sound like manual workers , and Monica Grey who plays Paula Quatermass gives probably the most annoyingly stagey performance in the serial

Director Rudolph Cartier work is also patchy . When he`s good like in the classic scene where Quatermass looks into an inspection hatch and sees the alien pods hatching he`s excellent but since I`ve complained about the acting the director should bare some blame for that and there`s too many jarring scenes where it`s obvious location film footage cuts to a studio interior , but again because television was a fledgeling media I shouldn`t criticise too much . Alas Cartier`s biggest mistake is as producer where the serial`s climax takes place on an alien asteroid out in space . Considering the show was broadcast live with severe technical limitations it seems a bad idea from the outset on having the climax take place here as the final result shows , and am I alone thinking the Hammer film version took a more sensible approach

Sorry if I give the impression I disliked QUATERMASS 2 . I don`t but it`s a severe disappointment especially when I consider QUATERMASS AND THE PIT to be the greatest telefantasy series ever broadcast

Great sci-fi with atmosphere, tension and good pacing – well, until it loses the plot in the final episode at least (SPOILERS)

[bob the moo · 10 April 2012]

Every generation thinks they invented everything themselves and that everything under the sun is new; for myself I find it easy to believe that mistrust of Government, alien conspiracy and the like are all themes which came into sci-fi with the X-Files, and that in the 1950's it was all thinly veiled Communist allegory and nothing else. Quatermass is proof that this idea is of course nonsense. I have seen the film versions but fellow IMDb user Theo Robertson kindly lent me his DVD of the original series so that I can find out about it for myself. The first season offered potential but unfortunately only a couple of episodes existed, but it was enough to make me keen to watch the second season (all of which remains).

As before this was broadcast live – amazing to someone like me who is used to such a thing being a "special" event a la ER or 30 Rock doing it. Using some recorded external shots, the show is impressive for being live – the odd flubbed word but no break in reality and no visible problems (although the inability to precisely hit the 30 minute mark must have been a big headache of the BBC at the time). Although the majority of the show is therefore shot on sound stages and limited in regards movement, it doesn't feel like it is because the delivery is so very atmospheric and the tone so very engaging. The very proper 1950's BBC warning about viewer discretion may be a period curio that is amusing now, but one can imagine the impact of this show in this world of sedate and family-friendly programming. The build within the show is mostly strong – from the very early episodes through to the bigger Governmental conspiracy it is mostly all very well done because it remains within the real world and takes real world suspicious and flips them within sci-fi. The lack of trust for Government and for large businesses is all here and it is very well done.

Such a shame then that the last episode blows it completely by taking it from this into the realm of fantasy. Heading into this episode I had assumed that the rocket would be used as a missile to destroy the aliens high above earth; when Leo got infected I assumed that the rocket would need a pilot and that he would sacrifice himself in a good ending. While not great ideas, these are better than what we got which was a manned rocket mission which ends with Quatermass returning. It is a poor ending to an otherwise strong run of episodes and it did feel like the season could easily have done without it. Not sure what the fans feel (I may have just committed blasphemy here) but for me it was excessive, a bit silly and went against the tension and drama that had been so consistent up till that point.

The cast are different from the previous season – in particular we have a new Quatermass in the form of Robinson. His voice took me a minute to get used to because at times he sounded like he was acting in a theatre rather than TV, but quickly he is natural and good – able to deliver complex dialogue but yet make it dramatic and urgent. He is reasonably well supported by those around him but Grey is a massive problem as his daughter. It is not that she is bad, it is just that she seems to have been almost too "trained" – while others are acting, she is Acting. She speaks very clearly, her dialogue is as crisp as the finest BBC announcer and it would not have surprised me if she had delivered some of her scenes with three books balanced on her head to show how good her posture was; every time she is on screen she is unnatural and rather disruptive – fortunately she is not on too much. Speaking of stiff, the performances of the infected don't really work either as they are just a bit too obviously wrong. This is not a massive problem when we have them as guards, but when they are in parliament I would have liked them to have been a bit more subtle. I remember as a child laughing myself silly at the idea that the aliens in V were easily spotted by not being able to wave without their fingers sticking together in a certain way, here it is almost as obvious – not a massive problem again, but it meant the "menace" that Quatermass describes feeling isn't really as creeping or as hidden as I would have liked.

Overall though, this is a very impressive piece of sci-fi. Technically the live broadcast is all the more impressive for the fact that it isn't obviously live but it is the writing and delivery that makes it work. Feeding on themes of conspiracy and paranoia, the plot develops at a good pace and builds menace and tension throughout – it is only some wobbly moments and a really weak final episode that let it down. Well worth seeing – this is almost 50 years old but (production values and effects aside) still feels fresh and relevant.

Room for improvement

[keith-moyes · 11 September 2007]

I recently watched this TV serial back-to-back with the Hammer movie version.

It was originally broadcast live, but was recorded off monitors using two different systems. One system only recorded alternate scan lines so the image is often of very low resolution. The recording is also marred by light leakage. In one episode there was clearly a fault with one of the TV cameras. As a result, the image quality is highly variable, but is still good enough for an evaluation of this early TV classic.

It inevitably suffers from the limitations of live broadcasting, but also looks under-rehearsed. Actors are noticeably missing their marks, fluffing their lines, jumping their cues and freezing into 'meaningful' close-ups before the camera is ready for them. Quatermass and the Pit was also broadcast live but is a much slicker production all round.

It was probably too ambitious for its paltry budget. Even without the cost of the BBC contract staff, $20,000 was an impossibly small sum for a three hour drama. In retrospect, the final episode, set in space, was probably a mistake. The asteroid set was just tarpaulins thrown over studio junk - and that is exactly what it looks like. Although the Hammer movie was shot on a tight budget and was only half as long, it still cost ten times as much.

All this can be taken for granted. The real issue is which version tells the story best.

Of course, they were made for different media, so told the story in a different way. The TV version was structured to gradually draw the audience into an increasingly paranoid world, week by week, building steadily towards its climax. The movie had to grab them immediately and lead them from plot point to plot point as efficiently as possible.

This serial was a distinct improvement on The Quatermass Experiment. It had a tighter, more plausible story, more action, less padding and built to a more satisfying climax. But there was room for improvement.

It shows signs of having been written very quickly and could have done with a re-write. When Kneale was hired to write the movie version it was an opportunity to rethink aspects of the story. His overlong screenplay was then trimmed by Jimmy Sangster and Val Guest, who brought a fresh eye to the story and introduced further improvements. A comparison of the two versions demonstrates the advantages of this script development process. I give a few examples.

In the movie, the problems with the atomic rocket are established with a just couple of lines of dialogue.

In the TV version, this takes two complete scenes. Quatermass is checking his rocket because he has heard the sister rocket in Australia has gone into nuclear melt-down. This is then reinforced by a scene where he views footage of the Austalian disaster. However, to allow Robinson time for his costume change, this second scene starts with Paula Quatermass and Pugh discussing the set-back. When Quatermass appears, the scene then simply repeats information we have now already heard twice.

In the movie, Quatermass is introduced to Vincent Broadhead, an MP who is already suspicious about the Winnerton Flats project. He gets Quatermass into the food plant, sneaks off to investigate one of the domes and falls into the corrosive 'food'.

In the TV version, he merely gets Quatermass into a meeting of the investigation committee. He is then possessed by an alien. This means another character has to be introduced to get Quatermass into the plant and it is he who falls into the food. But he is just a PR man. Why would he go snooping around? The movie version is both more efficient and more plausible.

On TV, Quatermass takes a reporter to the workers' village where he gets infected by an alien. Guards turn up to investigate the 'overshot'. Now convinced Quatermass is right, the reporter phones in his story. Spooked by what he says, the workers march on the plant.

In the movie, it is someone else who gets infected. The guards turn up while the reporter is telephoning his paper and shoot him. This provides much better motivation for the workers' subsequent attack on the plant.

On TV, we first see a farmer possessed by the aliens, then Dillon, a little girl, Broadhead, a Minister, the reporter and, finally, Pugh. These multiple possessions contribute to the growing paranoia, but are mostly irrelevant to the plot.

The movie combines the roles of Dillon and Pugh into a single character (Marsh) and omits most of other possessions. They are not really missed.

On TV, we have two climaxes: the destruction of the pressure dome, followed by the destruction of the asteroid in the next episode. The movie combines them, inter-cutting between the rocket base and the siege of the control room. The puncturing of the dome releases the aliens and the destruction of the asteroid kills them, making for a neater and more striking conclusion.

Overall, therefore, the TV version has the advantage of a more measured build-up of tension and can include plot details I regret were not in the movie, but is more diffuse, more obviously padded and less well plotted. The movie is arguably a bit too efficient, but in the final analysis, it is not only better made, it is better written too.

However, I am delighted this TV version is finally available for viewing. It is long overdue. 15 years ago I learnt from a TV programme that it had survived intact and wrote urging the BBC to release it on video. At long last they have.

Now, my only regret is that we will never see if Neale's more expansive screenplay for Hammer might have produced an even better movie.

The very best of the Quatermass stories

[stevereed100 · 26 June 2002]

Having recently come by a pirated copy of this on VCR recently, I can honestly say after several viewings that this has to be the best of the Quatermass seriels made by the BBC in the 1950s. Broadcast live on UK TV in 1955, this is an altogether more together piece than the remade Hammer film of a few years later and has a much more involving plot. One of the main diferences in the story has Professor Quatermass actually travel to the alien asteroid with his assistant Leo Pugh to destroy the ammonid things before more of them reach the earth.

Another plot addition is the introduction of little metallic cases to contain the aliens in and make them more readily available for transportation to one victim to another, a side plot sadly missing from the afformentioned Hammer film. The story is slow to build up, but once it gets going there is no stopping it and you soon become deeply involved in the plot. The character Broadhead from the film version is called Ward here and it is only a 3 man expedition that enters the Synthetic Food plant at Winnerden Flats, during this visit Ward dies covered in black slime and Quatermass and a character called Fowler discover to their horror that a nearby picnicking family have been gunned down by the impossing Zombie guards. Altogether a fantastic serial in all 6 parts (complete for those that are still hanging onto the belief that all or some of the episodes are missing). News is doing the rounds that the serial may be making it's way onto DVD this year and hopefully it will make it.

Ingenious, frightening story, slightly dated

[graceblog · 27 February 2005]

I could never get totally comfortable with a Quatermass who looks like and spoke like an American gangster. In spite of Brian Donlevy's fine acting skills, I thought he was totally mis-cast in this early sci-fi techno thriller. His gruffness, rudeness, and curtness, especially to women, especially date this story and get downright annoying at times. And his diction hardly creates the illusion of a top level scientist. He says things like "What's dat?" and "Both aya" (for "Both of you").

It's the story that carries the movie, and a great story it is. "Meteorites" that are actually carriers of alien germination cells rain down on earth. Once a human gets too close, a meteor bursts open with a jet of ammonia gas and shoots a tiny stinger or spore into the intended carrier. Thus, humans are taken over as hosts to these aliens. Quatermass is pulled into the government conspiracy to hide the beach head "factory" of the alien invasion force when his subordinates spot the unusual series of meteor showers and his own assistant is spirited away by guards of the mysterious plant.

Less is definitely more in this story. Granted, the scene where a man, coated with the pitch- like "food" manufactured at the forbidden factory, dies in agony in front of Quatermass is horrifying, even now. Otherwise, the suggestion is more powerful than the special effects. As people are taken over, and Quatermass's search for his missing assistant is thwarted again and again, the tension builds. The "tour" of the plant builds to near terror. But after that, as the viewer actually sees what Quatermass is talking about, the story becomes a lot less powerful. BBC special effects diminished the impact. As any Doctor Who fan can tell you, what the story places in your mind is far superior to what it actually depicted.

The enemy forces blocking the pipe with "human pulp" struck me as absurd. And an untested atomic rocket in the backyard of the research HQ was another impossible device in the plot. Ultimately, the story reached for one horror too many, and was further undercut by the especially poor special effects at the end.

That being said, it was terrific Sci-Fi for 1955, imaginative, technological, and filmed locally to enhance a "this is now" feel to the horror.

For Doctor Who fans, the similarities to SPEAHEAD FROM SPACE and INFERNO are unmistakable. Some of the long shots of the plant look like shots from INFERNO (and, much later, from THE HAND OF FEAR). Another Doctor Who tie-in is the presence of Roger Delgado (the Master, from Doctor Who) as Conrad, though I never was able to spot Conrad in the film. (However, Delgado shows up in the credits, so he's got to be in there somewhere.)

It's apparent that the first season of the Third Doctor era borrowed heavily from Quatermass. I'd recommend that hard-core Whovians drop the pence to buy this two-DVD set. You'll enjoy the stories and will be entertained by trying to tie in the plot lines to Third Doc/Liz Shaw era stories. The DVD Double Feature (Quatermass and the Pit and Quatermass 2) are sold by Anchor Bay.