Quatermass (1979) User Reviews

The end of Quatermass, from the man who sets his scares on slow-burn

[darkdayforanime · 7/10 · 3 March 2005]

You have to hand it to Nigel Kneale.... Even after all these years, his works still have the power to leave you feeling just a bit disturbed. Not in the out and out conventions of most horror/sci-fi titles, but with the underlying neuroses and paranoias that afflict all societies, regardless of culture.

All of the Quatermass serials contained these elements, so much so that they were practically strip-mined by The X Files. And so, regardless of the quaint anachronisms that they contain, they still, somehow, manage to retain something for the modern viewer.

The 1970's Quatermass series is the most anachronistic of all, because it is so unlike the earlier serials (produced in the 50's and 60's, as were the film versions of said series). This makes the aesthetic of the series so much more nihilistic. Made under the backdrop of the (then) rising punk scene, the random violence and criminal behaviour that is portrayed must have seemed entirely topical. Even the relative cheapness of the production adds to this aesthetic: so very 70's Brit sci-fi.

But the series was written back in the late 60's, originally intended to be the 4th film in the movie series (especially with the relative success of the "Quatermass and the Pit" film). This is why we have the strange interbreeding of hippy culture and guns....

As such, you have to say that Kneale was certainly visionary in that oh-so grim British way.... And the concept that human beings might be hardwired to seek out destructive (even genocidal) religious ideals (by unseen, advanced intelligences), capable of being intensified remotely for "harvesting" (for reasons unknown), certainly has a lot of resonance in today's world.

The acting in the series was variable (understandable for a TV series). John Mills is capable as the aging and (initially) confused Quatermass, desperately seeking his granddaughter in a world that seems to be falling apart. Once the threat is recognised, the scientist in him takes over, leading to a slow and tragic conclusion.

Simon McCorkindale, an actor who seemed to be on top of his game at this time, ably plays Quatermass's sidekick, Joe Kapp. Never the safest thing to be in any Quatermass serial, Kapp is taken through the emotional wringer in ways too horrible for a husband and father to bear, before facing the fate of sidekicks before him.

Bruce Purchase and David Yip provide temporary interest (never destined to be long-lived in a Quatermass serial).

On the flipside, Ralph Arliss is quite painful as the murderous (and annoying) Kickalong, whose fate is far too kind (and long in waiting). There is an earlier scene where a group of the planet people are massacred whilst walking between rival gangs having a shootout. Something like that would have been more appropriate for Kickalong, but it was, sadly, not to be....

The effects are of a pretty low standard, but given everything else, this doesn't really seem to matter. Given the cheap, 70's budget the producers had to work with (we certainly aren't looking at a Space: 1999 cashflow here), they managed to perform miracles.

I remember first watching this some time in the 80's (I'm not sure when precisely) on late-night TV. The darkly-nihilistic atmosphere of the series attracted me to it, then, because it was so different to other sci-fi shows going around. Years later I still find it strangely appealing, even with the faults of its age.

A product of its time...

[quatermax-1 · 6/10 · 8 February 2008]

It is the near future. Britain struggles with the collapse of civilisation and violent bands of urban guerrillas rule. Also Earth is being harvested. Ancient sites of gathering all over the globe turn out to be the focal points of a blinding and powerful ray from outer space that leaves a pile of ash where thousands once stood. Various elements of Homo sapiens are essential to an anonymous alien race, and once again the time is, or rather we are, literally, ripe. It falls on the now retired Professor Bernard Quatermass, veteran of weird goings on long before Fox Mulder, to basically save the planet. Again.

The idea of a fourth Quatermass serial was kicked around the BBC for three years before being finally commissioned in 1971, and then later dropped by them as being too expensive. The production was picked up by Euston Films, Thames Television's TV film-making subsidiary (their most famous production at the time being the uncompromising and controversial police drama 'The Sweeney'). Euston increased the budget to £300,000 per episode with the criterion that the final product be produced in two versions: four fifty-minute episodes plus a single, shortened version for theatrical release and overseas markets in order to recoup some of their production costs. This created a writing dilemma for original creator and writer Nigel Kneale who now had to come up with two scripts for the same story. He neither wanted the theatrical release to be an edited version of the series, nor the series to be a padded out version of the film. Both had to work in their own right, and, thanks to Kneale's skill (he was an experienced screenwriter and at one time 'script doctor' for the BBC), they do. Unfortunately with the story having been written in 1972 and reflecting the political and economic concerns of that time, by the time it reached the screens in 1979, with it's new-age hippy type characters, it was already out of date (though it is still superior to the recent and dreadful '28 Days Later').

Euston also wanted a big name to play the lead, hence Sir John Mills, who is badly miscast and clearly looks as uneasy as he reportedly was with the role. Gone is the bombastic, resourceful yet flawed character played in the '50s BBC serials by Reginald Tate and brilliantly by Andre Morell, and later more famously by Andrew Keir in Hammer's 1967 'Quatermass and the Pit' (American actor Brian Donlevy had played the role in the first two Hammer Films but Kneale so hated him in the role he withheld permission to make a third Quatermass film for ten years). Here Mills plays him as a semi-senile, despairing, doddering tired old man. He is as much Quatermass as Peter Cushing was Dr. Who, but he fulfilled the need of the 'big name' at the time, being not only an already established British film dignitary and household name, but also then still familiar to TV audiences as having recently appeared in the popular 'Zoo Gang'. But it is hard to believe this is meant to be the same Quatermass we have seen in previous incarnations.

The plusses though are in the production values. At that time most British TV drama series tended to be controlled environment, studio bound affairs with the odd bit of grainy location footage (a la 'Dr. Who', 'Doomwatch' etc.) but 'Quatermass' was, strikingly for the time, shot entirely on location on 35mm Panavision, with great expense being laid out particularly on Joe Kapp's radar facility and home. It was also intended that Stonehenge would be one of the main locations. Permission to use it was however withdrawn by the British Tourist Board because it had become very popular with tourists and they didn't want anyone, or anything, even by inference (in the script several thousand people get fried simply by gathering there, so I suppose not a good selling point from their point of view), jeopardising their little earner.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy film and TV buffs will enjoy early appearances by Simon MacCorkindale, later of the short lived series 'Manimal'; Brian Croucher (the second 'Travis' in 'Blake's 7'); Declan Mullholland (the original, later CGI'd out, actor who played 'Jabba the Hutt' in 'Star Wars') as a TV Studio guard; David Yip, who would be Indie's ill-fated accomplice in the 'Club Obi-Wan' in the opening sequence of 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'; and, talking of Indie, a major role played by Margaret Tyzack, who would later become the young Indie's long-suffering Oxford tutor in 'The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'. Also featured in an early role is Brenda Fricker, later to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 'My Left Foot'. Executive Producer Verity Lambert was already well known to fans of this genre for her involvement with 'Dr. Who' and 'The Avengers'.

If you are a Quatermass fan, a fan of British Sci-Fi, or even a budding screenwriter wanting to pick up a few tips, then this is an essential addition to your library. The set is nicely presented and is released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first broadcast of 'The Quatermass Experiment' in 1953. The package folds out to an 18" picture of (ironically) Stonehenge. The two discs containing the four episodes, simply called 'Quatermass', feature extensive production notes, animated menus, the opening and closing titles for each episode with each episode having a spectacular cliffhanger ending, making you eager to watch the next, and the hours pass swiftly. The third disc contains the theatrical version, retitled 'The Quatermass Conclusion', and a previously unseen Sci-Fi Channel interview with Nigel Kneale. Also enclosed is a booklet on the Quatermass history.

Overall it is an engrossing watch, but as Nigel Kneale himself says: "It was a product of its time."

Apocalyptic sci-fi with a conscience

[pixfarina · 8/10 · 14 January 2021]

I first saw this TV series as young child and it scared the hell out of me. Having recently watched it again 38 years later I was amazed at how good it still is. The TV acting is stilted in places but it's budget was used to good effect to produce a world steeped in chaos and slipping towards an abyss. I certainly think the 2006 film 'Children of Men' was inspired in part by this mini-series.

Central to the plot is professor Quatermass who is called back from disgrace to investigate the mass extermination of young people at pre-historic sites around the world. The budget barely stretches to evoke all this, but none the less it delivers and the drama and sense of urgency in Quatermass is palpable.

What ultimately is examined is the sense of growing alarm and division between the older generation and the new age generation that emerged in the 1960's and evolved into Punk in the 70's. The film brackets this generational divide in a story that is compelling and tragic, and it has to be said the series wisely chooses to concentrate on the gravity and graveness of the situation rather than cheap mawkishness.

Secondary characters in Quatermass are deployed to good effect, and modern film makers should take note about how such characters can be used to fill out a plot and create interesting characters, rather than props or dumb cannon fodder. They are used well to bolster the sense of discovery and revelation about what is happening and treated with intelligence and compassion.

Across all it's outings Quatermass has always been a work of it's time and dealt with the themes of the era each was made in. This outing is no different and indeed a generation later it's message about the dislocation between generations still resonates. Cleverly Quatermass takes this, something that is a tangible concern in the real world, as the central theme of it science fiction story. Even though it was made in 1979 my kids who watched it this time around were as impressed and disquieted as I was at there age.

John Mills is excellent as Quatermass. Embracing his role he obviously drew on his age and paternal experience to inject the famous scientist with pathos and real focus.

There are stilted moments in Quatermass and the effects have aged a lot. But none of that can detract from a fine and brave science fiction mini-series.

Extremely underrated, and a fine close to Nigel Kneale's Quatermass series.

[Infofreak · 20 October 2003]

This was Nigel Kneale's fourth and final Quatermass TV serial. The first three were also adapted into very good movies, this one wasn't, but it was edited down into a film, usually known as "The Quatermass Conclusion". I say avoid that and try and see this the full version, which goes for around 200 minutes. John Mills' Quatermass is very different from Andrew Keir's, Andre Morell's and most especially Brian Donlevy's Quatermass. Mills plays him as a tired and out of touch old man. The plot is set in the near future. Society has broken down, youth gangs roam the streets, while others known as "the planet people" wander the countryside. They are anti-science, anti-"progress" hippies who believe that they will one day be taken up and sent to another planet. I see some people criticise the planet people as being "out of date". These people seem to be unaware of the travellers/"crusties" phenomenon in Britain in the 1980s, and what about the "Heaven's Gate" cult of more recent years? Quatermass' granddaughter has run away from home, and while he searches for her he becomes involved with the planet people, a group of which seemingly are "taken" while congregating around some ancient standing stones. But this is only the beginning... to give away more of the plot would be a shame. The budget for this mini-series is obviously not all that large, and the special effects are modest, but they are generally pretty effective, the acting is good for the most part, and it contains an intelligence and darkness rarely seen in contemporary TV SF. 'Quatermass' has a few flaws but I think it is extremely underrated and a fine close to Kneale's Quatermass series.

QUATERMASS (TV) {Episodes 1-4} (Piers Haggard, 1979) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 23 February 2008]

I viewed this as part of a two-film retrospective of John Mills titles (the other being THE SINGER NOT THE SONG [1961]) to commemorate the centenary of his birth on the 22nd of February. Incidentally, I'd purchased the R4 DVD edition – and two other Nigel Kneale-scripted made-for-TV efforts, THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS (1968) and BEASTS (1976) – following the death last year of that noted sci-fi literary figure, one of my favorite exponents of the genre, but hadn't yet gotten around to watching it until now!

Of course, this is the fourth (and last) of Kneale's serials revolving around Professor Bernard Quatermass – submitting yet another scary (but totally persuasive) scenario to challenge our established notions of humanity, the world and beyond. Interestingly, the protagonist was played by a different actor each time: here, Mills turns in a typically excellent (albeit low-key) performance. However, the muddled apocalyptic plot – in which space missions go horribly wrong, Britain is reduced to a wasteland, a mass of fanatical but deluded youth is "harvested" (read exterminated), senior citizens are forced to literally live underground, etc. – is somehow insufficient for the film's 200-minute length; this eventually gives rise to a fair bit of repetitiveness throughout (particularly with respect to the gibberish chants of the Planet People).

The serial does culminate in an intense and moving finale in which Quatermass meets up with his missing granddaughter, who has joined the ranks of the Planet People, just as he's set to fire a nuclear missile at the death ray from outer space; about to perish himself (from a heart attack!), it's she who guides his movements in saving the world. One of the definite assets here is the effectively moody synthesizer score; besides, the supporting cast is led by Simon MacCorkindale (from JAWS 3-D [1983] and the MANIMAL [1983] TV series) – who's good in his role of the young scientist aiding Quatermass understand the extraterrestrial phenomenon; a histrionic Barbara Kellerman appears as his wife, who soon falls victim to the devastation; Margaret Tyzack (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [1968]), Brenda Fricker (future Oscar winner for MY LEFT FOOT [1989]) and actress/rocker Toyah Willcox also appear.

While not up to Kneale's earlier QUATERMASS scripts in the long run, this is still quite good – with the 20-year gap since that character's last TV appearance enabling a far smoother production. In fact, there was no need to adapt it for the cinema as Hammer had done with the first three; rather, the serial was probably made with this in mind (director Haggard had made another cult-based supernatural horror piece – THE BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW [1971]) and subsequently got reduced to about half its length for theatrical exhibition. Originally shot in Panavision, the four episodes are however presented here open-matte so as to preserve the standard TV format; the Australian 3-Disc Set I purchased, then, thoughtfully includes both versions.

Sc-fi fans should appreciate this forgotten classic

[simon-81093 · 7/10 · 24 July 2020]

I remember watching this on TV back in 1979. Seeing it again reminded me why I liked it. It has a good story with good characters and mostly good acting. The acting from some of the minor roles/extras like the street gangs lets it down - being either bland or over-dramatic. The lead actors do a fine job, especially John Mills of course. Overall, it was a good production at that time. Of course it's dated quite badly, mostly due to the awful synthesiser soundtrack. It would be nice to see a digitally restored version using a more appropriate music soundtrack. Perhaps it's time for a new UK remake? Until then, it will probably only appeal to sci-fi fans who can appreciate this as a good effort back in its day.

The Quatermass Rediscovery

[timdalton007 · 10/10 · 10 November 2011]

Twenty years after Quatermass And The Pit aired on the BBC, Nigel Kneale's creation Professor Bernard Quatermass returned to television screen (albeit on BBC's competition ITV) yet again. This time he was an old man living in a world that was in a state of anarchy and collapse. Into that world comes a strange force from beyond the Earth that takes the good professor out of retirement and facing a threat bigger than anything he has ever faced before. The resulting story is the fourth and final adventure for the Professor.

Leading the cast is Sir John Mills as Quatermass, become the sixth actor to play the role. Mills Quatermass is different from any of the previous versions of the professor seen in the various television and film productions. This is a Quatermass who has retired, stayed out of the fray for some time and is called out to appear on a live television program that leads him towards facing an incredible threat. This might be an older Quatermass, but Mills' performance shows that this old man is as sharp as he has ever been. Mills brings a strong sense of intelligence to the role along with a sense of vulnerability apparent in the best actors to play the role. Mills performance is perfectly suited to this particular story and this particular take on Professor Quatermass.

The supporting cast is strong as well. The supporting cast includes Simon MacCorkindale as Joe Kapp, a radio astronomer who takes the elder Quatermass under his wing in this not so brave new world and becomes a much needed ally. Also appearing throughout the four the episodes is Ralph Arliss as Kickalong, the most prominent of the youthful Planet People and who becomes a way of measuring the decent of society into chaos. The rest of the supporting cast ranges from Barbara Kellerman as Kapp's wife Clare, Margaret Tyzack as district commissioner Annie Morgan, Brewster Mason as Soviet scientist Gurov, David Ashford as the government minister David Hatherley, Bruce Purchase as scientist Tommy Roach, David Yip as scientist Frank Chen and Tony Sibbald as former astronaut Chuck Marshall. The supporting cast does what any good supporting cast should do: back up the leading actor and serving the story well.

The production values of Quatermass hold up well for the most part. The production design gives a strong sense of the story's setting of a world in a constant state of anarchy and collapse from the bodies and rubble in London streets to the worn out facilities used for the television studio and Kapp's radio telescope. The costumes are a bit of a mixed affair as some of them give a strong sense of what the production design does so well yet some of the costumes are hopelessly dated. The dating might work in giving the sense of society sliding downhill after the 1970s but looking back on it from thirty years later it doesn't quite work. The special effects are a mixed bag as well. The more earthbound effects, such as the lightning strikes and what happens to Isobel in episode three all hold up very well for a three decade old production. When the effects go into outer space, as they do on a number of occasions across the four episodes, the results are less than satisfying. Indeed, the model shots used in episodes one and three in particular are almost laughable at times in their failure to convince. Whatever the faults of the costumes and some of the special effects, the production values of Quatermass hold up for the most part and serve the story well.

The real star of any of the Quatermass productions of course is the script by Nigel Kneale. The script for this fourth Quatermass story was originally written several years for the BBC but was unmade until the late 1970s. It might be important to remember that was going in Britain at the time it was written: a miners' strike that put Britain on a three day work week, rolling power cuts, public unrest and a sense that society might be on the brink of collapse. All that feeds into the script by Kneale along with both the rise of hippies, a revived interest in megalithic stone circles along with some of the themes he had explored throughout the scripts of his career (ancient forces terrorizing the present from Quatermass And The Pit and The Stone Tape for example). The result is perhaps the most intriguing of the four Quatermass stories. While all that might make this story seem dated it might be worth keeping in mind the rise of belief in an apocalypse in 2012, the popularity of end time prophecy and the rapture or increasing concerns about the economy. Somehow this Quatermass story seems more relevant than ever.

So how does the fourth and final Quatermass story hold up after more than thirty years? John Mills Quatermass holds up just as well as Andre Morell's or Andrew Keir's, the supporting cast is a strong one and the production values hold up despite issues with both costumes and special effects. Yet it is the script from Nigel Kneale that stands up stronger than anything else in the story. Quatermass has been overlooked when compared with its three BBC predecessors yet, with the themes in Kneale's script makes it more relevant than ever. Perhaps the time has come for its rediscovery?

An Epic of 1970s TV Sci Fi

[jonathanmimnagh · 7/10 · 12 July 2020]

At the time of first viewing, I would have been around 9 years of age, probably too young to see a cinematic release. But I managed to follow the series on TV and was gripped. I'd tried to watch other Quatermass films but they'd never gripped me like this one, set in a ravaged UK with hoardes if wandering planet people and technology close to failing. The acting was excellent, John Mills was an inspired choice for Quatermass with brilliant supporting cast. Very 1970s SFX, but no worse that Dr Who of the equivalent time period I'd say . Also scarier for a lad of my age to view as well.

Another Science Fiction Classic From Nigel Kneale

[Theo Robertson · 10/10 · 26 May 2004]

The commercial TV channel ITV ( In those days there were only three channels Brits could get - BBC1 BBC2 and ITV ) closed down for several months in 1979 due to a strike . What made this a bummer was that I was really looking forward to seeing the broadcast of QUATERMASS that was scheduled to be shown on the channel just before the station shut . ITV came back in October 1979 and the very first peak time show it broadcast was QUATERMASS something I'd been climbing the walls to see for several months . I was slightly disappointed with the first episode but when I went to school the following Thursday morning my 12 and 13 year old classmates were talking about nothing else except this brilliant TV show they'd seen the night before . In some ways it was like taking a trip back to the 1950s when the BBC broadcast THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT

!!!!! MILD SPOILERS !!!!!

The disappointment was probably down to what I thought I was going to be watching rather than what I got unlike most of my peers who'd never heard of Bernard Quatermass . I'd seen the old Hammer adaptations of the BBC serials but these were very simplified that confuses the viewer into thinking the saga of Quatermass is a slightly more intelligent version of DOCTOR WHO but it's not really , Nigel Kneale writes about the human condition and society and that's what disappointed me since - Unlike my class mates who didn't know what to expect - I was expecting blood chilling horror rather than mind blowing drama , but after seeing this series several times since then I have to concede this is another Nigel Kneale classic

Civilization has collapsed and founder of the British Rocket Group Bernard Quatermass goes to a devastated London to find his granddaughter who has run away to join to cult known as The Planet People who believe they'll mystically to transported to a utopian planet . Attending a gathering of Planet People Quatermass sees hundreds of these cultists disappear in a flash of light and Quatermass soon concludes they have been taken as a food source

What Kneale has done is he's merged two subplots : The one about a collapsed civilization so he can comment on human nature and society and the other about humans being transported to another planet so he can write a thought provoking Sci-Fi story . Kneale does well with both . " Youth is wasted on the young while experience is wasted on the old " is the subtext . According to this script the fiery idealism of youth is a terrible thing ( kneale's right ) that leads young people to believe in something no matter how ridiculous it is , Hitler and Mao both also noticed this , while being bitter and twisted is a common personality trait of the old . To all intents and purposes age is something that disunites humanity far more than class difference and almost as much as race , the young and the old may as well be two different species . As for the sci-fi elements the aliens here don't actually exist on screen , they are unimaginable beings while the laser attacks are done by an alien probe that is also a concept difficult to imagine . Anyone expecting a show with men dressed up as rubber monsters will get a huge shock watching this

Praise too for director Piers Haggard who doesn't have a Hollywood budget but who manages to make this production so very memorable . A lot of people criticise QUATERMASS as being dated when it was broadcast but look at the differences between the two gangs - The Blue Brigade and The Badders . In the late 1970s British cities had seen some serious violence between the fascist National Front and the trotskyite Anti Nazi League and here we see the shaven headed members of The Blue Brigade being exclusively white males while The Badders fly red banners with their members being multi racial and both male and female . Very subtle but also very thoughtful on the part of Haggard . There's also a lot of very familiar faces on show like future Oscar winning actress Brenda Fricker and if you're wondering where you've seen that soldier in episode 3 who deserts to join the planet people it's CORONATION STREET's Brian Tilsy . The climax of the story where Quatermass and his granddaughter slowly climb the stairs to the bomb is dialogue free but far , far more touching and emotional than it could possibly have looked on paper

There are a few flaws with QUATERMASS though . The reasons for civilization's collapse are never really explained till you read Kneale's novelization of the series where it's stated that the Arabs have cut off the oil supply causing the West's economies to collapse . It's never really stated what cause the world's youth to gather at monoilithic sites either . Despite being one of the 20th centuries greatest actors Sir John Mills is rather flat in the title role and the actor playing Captain Torrence is simply awful

But all in all this is a truly great science fiction series . Maybe not the best of the Quatermass serials since that accolade belongs to QUATERMASS AND THE PIT but still a thought provoking piece of television . Nigel Kneale I salute you

Hokey 70s TV

[Halo572 · 2/10 · 14 August 2021]

Never having seen Quatermass I binge watched them all in the past 2 weeks.

Experiment - disappointingly incomplete, II - getting there but stilted acting, Pit - excellent even if it was over long.

And Conclusion - although I watched the miniseries, the most recent and therefore you would expect the best being as TV had come a long way since the 50s and even with low 70s budgets there are series like Hitchikers, Day of The Triffids and Salems Lot that are classics.

And - Dear Lord - what a dud. Some 70s TV was appalling and this is a prime example, although that may be explained by a script written 6 years earlier, never updated and filmed in a different world of 1978.

The terrible non-explained breakdown of society, the toe cringing hippy cult Planet People - they are so bad, the generally poor acting, the appalling music.

4 hours that I suffered through, with the first episode setting your low expectations that never improved. I even skipped through some sections as I couldn't stomach their duration and I rarely do that.

Those who previously knew Quatermass - sadly biased and using words like 'chilling' and 'prescient' and explains the 10/10s and the source of down votes that don't give 9-10/10.

For anyone else - including me with an interest in popular culture history - 'is it over yet? Please, it must be over?'.

Go into it expecting nothing and you may just be able to get through it, otherwise unless you are a standing fan you will be sorely disappointed IF you get to the end.

Truly Disturbing Apocalyptic Mini Series!

[chazken-14372 · 8/10 · 24 August 2020]

I was only sixteen years old when I first saw this mini series and it still scares me to this day. John Mills as Quatermass bought real gravitas and sensitivity to the role. "Huffty Puffty Ringstone Round" Mesmerising, Hypnotic Rhyme that sets the tone for the entire series!

Unimpressive swansong for an iconic sci-fi character

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 23 November 2021]

Now retired, Professor Quatermass (John Mills) travels to London in search of his granddaughter only to find himself in a dystopian urban battleground, through which pass parades of cult-followers (the "Planet People") hoping to find transcendence at sites of ancient human gatherings, only to find (apparently) dissolution. The usually reliable screenwriter Nigel Kneale fails to offer up sufficient exposition for the story to make any real sense to viewers, yet once again the venerable boffin figures out what is exactly going on and how to prevent based on very little actual data. No explanation is offered as to what is drawing the latter-day hippies to the mystical sites (despite the imagery that implies that they are being guided somehow), why people spontaneously join the pilgrims, why only young people are affected, and (above all) why does one victim of the mysterious force levitate (an event seen by several characters yet inexplicably never brought up in later discussions of the strange events plaguing the world). The show's imagery is badly dated (possibly because the Kneale had written the story in the early 1970s and the producers failed to update the story to the late 1970s), so the Planet People look like throwbacks heading to Height-Ashbury. The scenes of a decaying England overrun by violent youth had been better done in Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' (1972) (and the opening scene of elderly scholar Quatermass getting mugged by erudite hoods looks lifted straight out of the early pages of Anthony Burgess's book). John Mills is a very good actor but his portrayal of Quatermass presented the traditionally tetchy, hard-driven and sometimes supercilious 'rocket scientist' as almost pathetic (notably when he is desperately handing out photos of the missing girl) - the character drifts back into form later in the series but his opening scenes are more sad than intriguing (apparently viewer numbers dropped dramatically after the first instalment was shown by Thames TV in Oct. 1979). At 200+ minutes, the series is way too long for the story and there is a lot of filler material (notably around a moping Joe Kapp (Simon MacCorkindale)), but oddly, comments on the 100 minute 'film version' suggest that it is disjointed and missing too many connections for the story to hold together. The early Quatermass series were 'cutting edge' television sci-fi in the 1950s, with complex adult stories and effective, albeit low-budget, imagery and production values. Even correcting for inflation, the budget for 'Quatermass' was far higher yet the series is not nearly as imaginative or impressive. By 1979, 'Star Wars' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' (both 1977) had redefined the genre, bleak post-apocalyptic films such as 'No Blade of Grass' (1970) were becoming common, and many of the plot elements in the fourth Quatermass outing had been done earlier, and better, in the first three (notably the linking of alien technology and human mythology in the excellent 'Quatermass and the Pit' (1958)). On the plus side, the premise that ancient sites were to serve as warnings, not as gathering sites, is interesting and the down-beat, jaded (although a slightly maudlin) ending is somewhat unexpected. Too bad - the first three Quatermass series were genre milestones - perhaps if the fourth had come out a decade earlier, it would have come closer to maintaining that legacy but, for a series/film in the late 1970s, it is derivative, underwhelming, and not particularly entertaining.

See the 4-hour miniseries instead of the edited movie.

[armstror · 7 September 1999]

I recently watched the complete four-hour version of Nigel Kneale's British miniseries "Quatermass." I had seen an edited movie version called "The Quatermass Conclusion" some years earlier. The verdict: The miniseries is superior. It expands on several subplots (of course) and offers richer characterizations. John Mills makes an excellent Quatermass--somewhat befuddled at the outset, but strong and clear of mind when the survival of the world is at stake. Granted, the production is not as polished as the movie version of "Quatermass and the Pit" (the music, in particular, sounds like it costs a couple of hundred bucks). But the ideas are intriguing and that darn nursery rhyme about Ringstone Round is still running around my brain. Kneale wrote a novelization of the miniseries that clarifies a few vague points.

The Old is New Again.

[midnightmosesuk · 8/10 · 1 July 2020]

41 years ago Quatermass was aired on ITV. It depicted human society in terminal decline. Random acts of destruction and violence are commonplace, the underfunded police try to keep order but are ultimately forced to hire corrupt and thuggish 'pay cops' to supplement their numbers. Gangs fight for control of the streets in bloody battles for supremacy.

I am writing this in 2020, violent protests are erupting across the globe and here, in the UK, the undermanned and underfunded police struggle to contain the trouble. Drug gangs fight for control of the streets making for the worst knife crime in London for nearly a generation.

Yes, Quatermass looks dated now, but it's themes are not, they're just as relevant now as they were all that time ago.

One of the single most unsettling pieces of telefantasy ever made

[dr_clarke_2 · 8/10 · 6 September 2020]

Twenty years after 'Quatermass and the Pit', Nigel Kneale returned to his most enduring character for one final story. Originally pitched to the BBC, Euston Films took on the production when the BBC balked at the rapidly expanding budget, and spent a great deal on it. Shot on film, with extensive location filming, and great sets, props, and model work, 'Quatermass' looks fantastic. Marc Wilkinson and Nic Rowley's incidental score is very creepy, with a sort of twisted nursery rhyme riff to it and the whole serial has a polish to it that perhaps lacks the intimacy of the BBC serials but provides instead a powerfully effective gritty realism. 'Quatermass' is horrible, a disturbing, dystopian image of the near-future with society collapsing into anarchy, setting the scene for the arrival of Bernard's most unknowably alien and implacable foe. The chaos and slaughter at Wembley Stadium is superbly conveyed, and the aftermath, as an ash-covered Quatermass staggers through the charred structure, is very grim, and this is just one example of how utterly bleak the serial is. The stones of Ringstone Round might be obviously made of plastic, but 'Quatermass' rises above such minor limitations to be one of the single most unsettling pieces of telefantasy ever made.

As with Kneale's serials of the nineteen-fifties, 'Quatermass' is heavily influenced by the social concerns of its time, in this case fear of power and oil shortages, and economic collapse. Gangs of feral youths roaming London and old people living in fear of them still feels very relevant (thanks perhaps more to do with the scare mongering of the media rather than actual fact), and sights such as taxis with "no cash carried" written on their doors and vehicles with mesh protecting their windows, protects a stark and terrifying vision of dystopia. The stark imagery of the title sequence reflects this, and as the serial begins and we learn that "Some primal discord was asserting itself", we are plunged headlong into a nightmarish London in which public school gang members, with lines such as "Take his teeth out" "I say, they're his own!" "So?" "Righty-ho", illustrate the extent of the social collapse and echo A Clockwork Orange. Bodies litter the streets, and looters run amok. Books are on sale, "Guaranteed to burn well", and Wembley Stadium is now known as "the killing ground" and is used as a Roman-style arena to contain some of the violence by making a spectator sport of it. The old people of London live in a subterranean warren beneath the ruins of an old scrap yard, paying a "soft gang" for protection, although in an obvious lesson about the value of experience, it takes the older characters to find a way of warning off the Probe, saving the world's remaining children. Famously, Quatermass himself gives his life so that the children can go on living their lives, but his sacrifice only adds to the air of desperation that permeates the story. Moral decay is in evidence everywhere; when Quatermass is mugged outside the television studios, the Producer demands, "Why haven't you cleaned him up?" and is clearly worried about losing her guest, not about his health. "Titity Bumpity" is television at its worst, a voyeuristic exercise in appealing to the basest desires of the viewers when nothing else is left to appeal to and this is a theme that Kneale explores in more detail in The Year of the Sex Olympics.

Kneale's prescience is again at work here, in the shape of the Planet People. Although Kneale wanted the Planet People to be more like punks, with all of the associated aggression, instead the flower power movement is extrapolated to predict New Age Travellers, and they are also reminiscent of suicide cults. There is a grim scene of the Planet People walking zombie-like through a battlefield, gunned down by gangs even as they continue their mindless chanting. Kickalong, their ostensible leader, is a fanatic, who declares the slaughter at Ringstone Round a successful exodus to "the planet", joyously crying, "They did it! They got away! All of them". He conveniently glosses over the fact of the glassy corpse left behind. His religious fervour is such that he's very dangerous and impossible to reason with, snarling, "You're always interfering, you science men!" when Quatermass and Kapp try to help Isabel. He's also a bully and a thug, obviously looking forward to killing the man holed up in his cottage, but he sees himself as a saviour, stating, "I pick you, I guide you" and preys on the ignorance of others. He's enraged by Kapp's learning and knowledge, because they make him immune to Kickalong's teachings, perhaps a nod to Marx's "opium of the people" argument concerning religion, at which Kneale makes vague pot-shots throughout. It is worth noting however that his target seems to specifically be fundamentalism. The Planet People are obsessed with magic, decrying science and spouting such cant as "Rockets make holes in the world", thus predicting "New Ageism" and Kneale, via Kapp, pores withering scorn on such ill-formed hippy views. Likewise, he champions scientific discovery, represented by the fact that Kapp has built his lab inside an eighteenth century observatory.

And yet, Kneale's lessons in 'Quatermass' aren't that clear-cut; dedicated scientist he may be, but Kapp worries, "Am I fiddling while Rome burns?" and Quatermass has to gently remind him that his family is more important than his work. Having lost his own family, Bernard clearly takes delight in Joe's, and Quatermass also sympathizes with the Planet People, seeming to understand why they have turned their back on society. He tries to reason with them, until Kickalong comes along and whips them into frenzy, but Quatermass sadly reflects, "I had to try." He rejects their views, as does Kneale, but he understands why they have come to find them so seductive. MacCorkindale conveys Kapp's anger and hatred of the Planet People very convincingly, when he shouts, "These are mad people, they believe in mad things, you must never take anything from them, never!" He seems to fear them too, perhaps because their blind faith is so at odds with his own discomfort with his and his wife's religion, when he almost embarrassedly tells Quatermass, "She's got the candles out. We're not very religious, but every once in a while..." Kapp's wife, like the Planet People, takes comfort against a hostile world in her beliefs, but unlike the Planet People (or at least, Kickalong), this manifests itself as compassion rather than fanaticism. After his family is killed, Kapp lights the candles himself, either taking comfort in his neglected religion or perhaps just because they remind him of his wife. Almost mad with grief, he desperately tries to take solace in the beliefs of the Planet People; realizing how low he's sunk, he suddenly and angrily breaks the moment, enraging Kickalong.

As for Kneale's eponymous hero, Quatermass here is old, tired, and lost in a world he no longer understands. He is determined to find his granddaughter amidst the chaos and he's disillusioned but indignant about the fact that there are so many missing kids that the police no longer care. When the two halves of the joint Russian/American space station link up, Quatermass says, "I'm ashamed to think that I contributed in any way to this disgusting charade" and in another obvious commentary by Kneale he condemns the expensive posturing of a "corrupt democracy and a monstrous tyranny" whilst the smaller countries collapse into social and economic anarchy. He says, "That's all I'm interested in now, a human face. The child of my own child. I want to see her again. And to hell with all this!" Appropriately, the climax of 'Quatermass' sees Bernard hero sacrifice himself, whereas in the past the menaces he faced were defeated by the sacrifices of others, including Carroon, Greene and Reichenheim, Pugh, and Roney. Although Kneale has expressed dissatisfaction with Sir John Mills' portrayal of the Professor, Mills exudes dignity as Quatermass waits for the Probe, calmly drinking tea and musing on good and evil with Kapp. Bernard finds a sort of peace at the end, reunited with Hettie as he detonates the bomb, although he clearly doesn't want her to die with him; Mills' face conveys Quatermass' conflicting joy and anguish as he finally finds her again, and they press the button together.

Having established such a grim backdrop for his story, Kneale introduces a science fiction menace against which mankind has virtually no defence. The greater horror begins with the collapse of the space lab, an unsettling scene that merely paves the way for the ending of Ringstone Round, as a blazing column of light stabs down at the circle and leaves nothing but human ashes. The Probe strikes all over the world, making this a global crisis, something that Kneale manages to depict far more effectively than he did in 'Quatermass II'. The blinded, deafened, traumatized Isabel is horribly creepy, with her hollow cries of "lovely lightning" as she lies burnt and sightless, and the scene in which she floats into the air and explodes into dust is strangely chilling. The final scene of Lovely Lightning is deeply unpleasant, as Joe finds Puppy's burnt remains and then the wreckage of his house, before screaming out "Children!" in an utterly heart-rending moment. Annie's fear of the kids, as she desperately asks, "What got into them?" provides a clue as to what is going on.

As with the previous Quatermass serials, the nature of the threat is revealed through the deductions of the Professor and his allies. He realises that this is long planned, the Probe striking at ancient gathering sites where beacons were left below the ground five millennia ago and explaining, "I think men have raised those megaliths to commemorate, to mark, places that had become terrible to them." He realises also that it is taking, "The most vulnerable of human organisms... those only recently formed

pretty good, considering....

[trevorandrewmillar-70769 · 5/10 · 10 June 2020]

I thought this work was a reasonable example of a s/f work; like all the best s/f, it wasn't so much a prediction of the future as a comment on contemporary (for the 70s) trends; the only real prescience was the privatised police force (the Contract Police or PayCops); my only beef is, that the ending was too like the one in that episode of Star Trek where Kirk used himself as bait to attract the vampiric cloud creature and destroyed it with an anti-matter bomb; unlike Kirk, Quatermass didn't have the option of "beaming out" at the last second. In my opinion, John Mills was the only actor in Britain at the tine with the moral authority to carry it off, which he does very well.

As a fan of John Carpenter

[urthpainter · 8/10 · 29 December 2016]

...this is absolutely essential viewing.

I'm reviewing the full TV episodic release, and not the edited down movie version.

Quartermass from 1979 is a collision of many ideas: verging on post apocalyptic, gang warfare, alien influence over humanities very existence, and a battle to save the species. As a mid-range production from its era, almost everything is delivered through dialog with spare use of effects. There's a lot of characters, and a fairly complicated story that has many layers. In one sense the dated nature is a hurdle to cross, but the production is absolutely beautiful to behold. The film stock has that 60s-70s European look that has a very unique quality. Really a clinic on camera work, and this is combined with set design and interesting well lit locations. The production is really well though out. It is also surprisingly violent and brutal.

Which gets me to my connection to John Carpenter. If your a die hard fan, Quatermass comes up, and its obvious to see the influence this series of films had on his work. Carpenter carried over a lot of the look and feel of this piece into Escape from New York. Carpenter obviously likes to remove societal rules and constraints - and create vicious playgrounds for his protagonists. All of these qualities are present in this series.

Also present is the story layering. Its not just society falling to pieces, not just a man looking for a relative, not just a conflict between the old and new guard, but also a diabolical alien plot to harvest humanity! Carpenter uses exactly these type of layering techniques in building the stories for his best films. This is especially true in a film like Prince of Darkness that has the character interaction, larger forces at work, and the ultimate struggle to overcome a calamity.

While its very dated, and I agree not the best casting or representation of the main character (if you've watched the earlier films) - ultimately the production qualities and clear influence on one of my favorite directors left me very satisfied.

great qualities outshining dated nature - 8 out of 10

Slightly dated, but intelligent SF

[Unicorn-9 · 19 June 2004]

I saw this series when first aired, when I was just a kid, and while I remembered little about the story, I did remember that it made more of an impression on me than most SF shows of the time. Now I can see why.

The setting is very much 'future 70s', with hippies, oil restrictions, social collapse, power cuts, and other fears of that era, the effects are certainly very old by modern standards, and Mills' Quatermass is too undeveloped and unsympathetic for my tastes. However, the story makes up for it, and there are some memorable ideas (like gladiatorial games in Wembley Stadium) and some memorable scenes (again, the Wembley Stadium 'harvesting' scene in particular, and the S&M 'family show' would also have been a lot more fun on Saturday night TV than Noel Edmonds).

One thing I hate about bad SF is that the aliens are just people with a few rubber bits stuck on their face, who come to Earth to kidnap women or steal our resources, or some other mundane and, frankly, very human goal. Quatermass' aliens, on the other hand, are never seen and we never even really find out quite what they're doing, just that they're extremely powerful and don't care about humans in the least... it's a far more intelligent premise, and very Lovecraftian, in a way.

So, the effects are dated, Quatermass himself could have done with more work and possibly a different actor, but overall it's an intelligent premise, and, frankly, the idea of an attack by hugely powerful aliens who care nothing for the human race is far more scary to me than most so-called 'horror' movies of recent years.

It's happening right now

[siobhan-rouse · 9/10 · 21 January 2007]

I don't have a great deal to add to the comments of those who have already praised this serial - it is highly perceptive and prophetic. If you live in down-town Los Angeles, and even more so Bagdad, you will recognise the social breakdown and alienation. As to the causes ... I expect some who watch this superb (though slightly hammily acted) story will interpret it as an attack on religion, but this is an oversimplification. It seems to me that Nigel Kneale is warning about the religious cults that ensnare youngsters, not mainstream religions. You recall that he put into the story an approximation of a Jewish Passover meal (please forgive me if I got the name wrong), where we saw three generations of people sitting down together in peace. The religious ritual helped them to find calm and a sense of purpose. In contrast, the cult of the Planet People encouraged them to separate themselves off from anyone who was older than them, and to lose interest in this life altogether. Some people have criticised the end of the story as unsatisfactory - but I actually prefer ambiguous endings. Why should a story explain everything? Aren't the best stories often those that leave you intrigued and desperately hoping for more?

Although this story was obviously conceived with the hippy movement in mind, by the time it was shown on British TV, the punk movement had burst into society, and the images (and especially the childish song) struck a definite chord with British teenagers. I was in the first year of secondary school at the time, and I definitely remember a lot of my contemporaries being obsessed with the nihilistic and violent events in this serial. As always, Nigel Kneale was completely in tune with the times.

As good as the other Quatermass Stories

[loza-1 · 8/10 · 11 June 2005]

There are flower-children types swinging dowsing pendulums and homing in on all the megaliths in England. One of them is Professor Quatermass's granddaughter. In urban areas law and order is rapidly breaking down, the little semblance of peacekeeping provided by white South African rentacops. On TV a nationwide broadcast by Professor Quatermass interrupts the "Tittupy Bumpity Show" to howls of protest. As another commentator rightly points out: "We're getting there."

John Mills steps into Brian Donlevy's shoes and is a worthy successor.

Nigel Kneale does have one weakness with his Quatermass stories. And that is the denouement. In Quatermass 2 (to a lesser extent) Quatermass and the Pit and this one, when the denouement is delivered it goes over people's heads. There is nothing wrong with the denouement in itself, it is just revealed in such an abstruse way, that you need to watch the thing a second or even a third time before you get the message. In this case I had to read the book to make sure I had got it right. The denouement, if you can fathom it, is a good one.

All in all, this is a worthy Quatermass epitaph.

Loses something in hindsight

[Bernie4444 · 8/10 · 16 January 2024]

Years after the original mass stories, an older Professor Bernard Quatermass is searching for his estranged granddaughter.

It is easy to see why the ratings for this TV Quatermass. It looks like there was no effort at cleaning up the view. This leaves the original resolution that may add to the experience. The dialog seems stilted. Come on, it is a TV teleplay; do you want Shakespeare? Ridicules environment: you got me there.

I was surprised to find Simon MacCorkindale who played Simon Doyle one year earlier in "Death on the Nile" plays Dr. Joe Kapp in four of the episodes. It took some time to recognize the actor with extra hair and a mustache.

In a ratty future (past) environment full of nasty people and corrupt governments a group of people seeks a way out. They move to a circle of stones where they see the light. What does this mean? Purchase this series and find out.

------------------

For people that want a product review, this package has two DVDs.

The first DVD is the complete four-part series (including a positive end instead of a cliffhanger.

The second DVD is the same series chopped to half the time and called the Quatermass "Conclusion." It also contains an interesting History Channel documentary on Stone Hinge.

Most Chilling Quatermass yet

[m_sabrettes · 28 May 2000]

The Quatermass Conclusion deals with an alien machine returning to the Earth after five thousand years to 'harvest' and stir-up the glandular secretions of humans which it then uses for it's own ends. Set in a near-future (in the 70s when it was released), the scene is an anarchistic, broken-down and violent vision of Britain, but none of the little touches are over the top enough to be classed as impossible. Prince Charles is on the throne, cars have number plates with 'v' on them and the Metropolitain Police are now privately contracted. Street crime, muggings and overall disorder are all the people know (oh no, it's all coming true!!) When the alien presence is identified as a threat rather than a religious saviour in a chilling Nigel Kneale trademark 'revelation of terror': the body parts in the ashes at Ringstone Round, Quatermass is employed in his quite usual role of leading science against politicians and the military machine to engage the menace. This seems to perk him up a little, when we see him first he is an old man broken down by the anarchy of society, depressed also that his work with the rocket group ended up being misused only for military ends. This is a very bleak piece which would depress viewers if it wasn't so busy chilling and terrifying the hell out if them with trademark Nigel Kneale 'terror revelations' and extremely succinct scientific concepts and valid predictions. Not only that, but it lays claim to having the most chilling and atmospherically terrifying aspect of all of the Quatermass films and serials, the spine-tingling refrain of 'huffity-puffity Ringstone Round'. I always only ever thought there were three Quatermass serials, Xperiment, II and Pit, up until about 4 years ago, when a conversation in a pub about there being another where 'people were being drawn to Stonehenge to be eaten' put me on the trail of this, and the first time I managed to get to see it after this revelation my blood ran cold at that nursery rhyme. I had a shudder just then recalling it.

Look past the production values and see greatness!

[uds3 · 19 November 2001]

Nigel Kneale wrote a story here equally as inventive and thought provoking as QUATERMASS AND THE PIT. Perhaps more cerebral and decidedly less horrific, but no less disturbing in its connotations. The concept of an alien technology "harvesting" the world's youth for its own physiological needs is both original and brilliant in its execution. Like its forerunners, originally shown as a mini-series, this being an arguably effective re-edit!

Where the film cannot hold-up to its predecessors unfortunately, is that it was done "on the cheap" and much as I personally respect and admire Sir John Mills' wonderful career (its unassailable highlights being the village idiot in RYANS DAUGHTER and Captain Anson in ICE COLD IN ALEX) for me, he doesn't have the physical presence for the role of Professor Quatermass! Simon MacCorkindale additionally, is a bit on the wussy side for my money. But hey, let's move on to the positives!

The setting of England, moving into a near post-apocalyptic state with anarchy ruling, the Police in the hands of Private ownership is pretty cool for 1978 - we're getting there nicely! Mills portrays the old disillusioned and resigned-to-it-all Quatermass so well. Retired now, all he wants in life is to find his missing grand-daughter. When the first terrifying beam from space sucks up its first victims and destroys a joint Anglo-Russian Space project, he is summoned to assist the Ministry.

Kneale has his knee on the viewer's neck at times as the beam returns for more of the world's youth. Although the budget ran obviously to limited fx, the attack on Wembley Stadium leaves any aware and thinking person with real spinal tap! Again, Kneale resorts to an association with lore and magic and the images of the hippie-esque multitudes as they converge on Stonehenge singing "Huffity Puffity Ringstone Round" are as chilling as any scenes I have ever seen. Kneale reaches right out of the screen here and puts one in an arm-lock. You ain't going nowhere, but WITH them to Ringstone Round!

Quatermass' ultimate understanding of the code and what it all means is literate stuff, his plan to rebuff the alien threat sheer genius. Without giving anything away, the final scene with his granddaughter ranks as one of the most moving and shatteringly emotional scenes in film history. If you can't SEE that, what a shame!

Low Budget, Good Ideas

[GlennNI · 6 May 1999]

"The Quatermass Conclusion" is one of the few 'true' pieces of science fiction ever committed to film and Nigel Neale's script rates up there with "2001" and "Dark Star" for inventiveness. Unfortunately it suffered from an obviously low budget and there are lapses here and there into melodrama. The story, set in a dystopian Britain, concerns the arrival of an unknown alien force which is 'harvesting' the youth by leading them to ancient ritual sites. Professor Quatermass (John Mills) comes out of retirement to look for his missing granddaughter and is drawn into the fight to save the planet's population. There are some disturbing images such as Wembley Stadium reduced to a 'killing ground' and the pensioners forced to live underground for safety. Many of the predictions in the film have since come about, such as the upsurge in 'hippy travellers' and the general social decay of the inner cities.

Atmosphere and tone is well done, but characters, construct and delivery not so well – has strengths but mostly this falls short of what could have been (SPOILERS)

[bob the moo · 9 August 2013]

If it wasn't bad enough that society is in the toilet with violent gangs controlling streets while chanting hippies march in the countryside, the glimmer of hope of progress of the international space station is destroyed live on television. Shortly after the world is hit by a powerful ray of intense light from deep in space. The Planet People are over the moon (so to speak) as they believe it is them being beamed up to the next planet, however Professor Quatermass (who is simply there to find his missing granddaughter) believes something much more sinister is going on.

This final mini-series involving Quatermass was on my "to see" list for a while – and not just because some Scottish guy would be pleased, but mostly because I had enjoyed all the other films and TV serials I had seen involving this character and I wanted to see more. I think it is only fair to say up-front that this 4-part miniseries was not all that I expected it to be given the caliber of the Brand and of writer Kneale. To start with the good aspects, the series has a very satisfying bleak outlook and content that it mostly sustains and justifies. It isn't a horror but the loss of life and the unflinching depiction of it is really well done and somewhat surprising. The problem comes when we move beyond the atmosphere though and start talking about plots and characters because here is where we start getting into "it should have been better than this" territory.

The breakdown of society and the existence of the Planet People are two things we are told just to accept. In some ways it is good we don't get a heavy narration to lead us into it, but on the other hand it seems so recognizable as a place that the events occurring in streets and countryside just look odd and out-of-place, which makes it harder to get into them. I liked the ideas within this world but as a place I didn't buy it, which was a problem. The ideas in the plot are also half-done and I longed for the thoughtful dialogue-heavy scenes that I remember from the original series. Here we had some ideas but they were mostly to move action forward and I felt it was missing a trick. Without taking time to talk and develop, things also seem to happen too quickly and easily – and I mean everything from Quatermass being in the right place at the right time, through to his granddaughter just turning up where he is within the precise 20 second window that the series needed her to be there – again, the idea of the ending is great but the construct and delivery is not. It has plenty of moments that interested and engaged me, but generally I felt it was working with wide themes but never making them sharp or insightful enough to really engage – and within the context of really good atmosphere and general ideas, it was a real shame that it never got that dull edge into a blade.

The casting is a much bigger problem though. First and foremost – John Mills isn't Quatermass, which is a pretty big problem in a series where you are the title character. If I did not know anything about this series and just jumped in randomly, I would have assumed that this character (who appears to know nothing as he needs everything explained to him) was merely a plot device to allow plot exposition to occur. He is not sharp in his mind and he lacks the presence and authority of the man in the other versions. He has moments but they are few and far between. Generally I found him totally miscast – not just against what I expected but against what the character had previously been in everyone else's hands. The support casting are a mixed ba...hang on a second is that the guy from Manimal? It bloody well is! MacCorkindale is clearly in here to protect Mills from criticism because he is really clunky and wooden; it is tragic really that his character is at the core of such an emotional punch to the guys but not only does the series not deliver that as well as it should, but his hamming prevents it feeling real and harrowing as it should have done. The rest of the cast are a mix of so- so turns ranging from atypical OAPs, hippies, scientists, military types and so on – it is interesting to find Willcox and Brenda Fricker in the mix though.

Overall Quatermass delivers a dark tone with sinister content and engaging themes, but it really doesn't pull them together or produce a sharp and impacting product. The writing has too many contrivances and too few discussions, while the acting is generally surprisingly weak. The high-points, strengths and brand-association explain why this series has stuck in the minds of so many that watched it, but for me these things were seriously hampered by the combination of things that it really doesn't do as well as it needed to.