"The Quatermass Experiment" (1953) TV series

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

18 July 1953 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Professor Bernard Quatermass, Director General of the British Experimental Rocket Group, launches the first manned space flight from Australia...

Plot Keywords:

Rocket | Scotland Yard | Professor | Westminster Abbey | Alien

Cast

Reginald Tate	...	Professor Bernard Quatermass (6 episodes, 1953)
Isabel Dean	...	Judith Carroon (6 episodes, 1953)
Hugh Kelly	...	John Paterson (6 episodes, 1953)
Paul Whitsun-Jones	...	James Fullalove (6 episodes, 1953)
Duncan Lamont	...	Victor Carroon (6 episodes, 1953)
John Glen	...	Dr. Gordon Briscoe (5 episodes, 1953)
Ian Colin	...	Detective-Inspector Lomax (5 episodes, 1953)
Frank Hawkins	...	Detective-Sergeant Best (5 episodes, 1953)
Oliver Johnston	...	News Editor (3 episodes, 1953)
Katie Johnson	...	Miss Wilde (3 episodes, 1953)
Christopher Rhodes	...	Dr. Ludwig Reichenheim (3 episodes, 1953)
Peter Bathurst	...	Charles Greene (3 episodes, 1953)
Moray Watson	...	Peter Marsh (2 episodes, 1953)
Philip Vickers	...	American Reporter (2 episodes, 1953)
Richard Cuthbert	...	Chemist (2 episodes, 1953)
Anthony Green	...	Boy (2 episodes, 1953)
Tony Van Bridge	...	Producer (2 episodes, 1953)
Eugene Leahy	...	Police Inspector (2 episodes, 1953)
Lewis Wilson	...	Walters (2 episodes, 1953)
Neal Arden	...	Commentator (2 episodes, 1953)
Josephine Crombie	...	Secretary (2 episodes, 1953)
Neil Wilson	...	Policeman / ... (2 episodes, 1953)
Patrick Westwood	...	First Journalist / ... (2 episodes, 1953)
Bernadette Milnes	...	Usherette (2 episodes, 1953)
John Kidd	...	Sir Vernon Dodds (2 episodes, 1953)
Dominic Le Foe	...	Second Journalist / ... (2 episodes, 1953)
Sheldon Allan	...	Abbey Crowd / ... (2 episodes, 1953)
Halstan Crimmins	...	Journalist (2 episodes, 1953)
George Dudley	...	Journalist (2 episodes, 1953)
Mary Malcolm	...	Herself - Television Announcer (2 episodes, 1953)
Paddy Russell	...	Comet Passenger / ... (2 episodes, 1953)
Nickola Sterne	...	Abbey Crowd / ... (2 episodes, 1953)

Also Known As:

"Bring Something Back" (UK) (working title)
"The Unbegotten" (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

30 min (6 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Studio A, BBC Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, London, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Ian Colin replaced Keith Pyott; Pyott ended up with a more minor role.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: In an unusual illustration of the problems encountered with early live broadcasts, the telerecording of the second episode ("Persons Reported Missing") is obscured by an insect which landed on one of the cameras during the broadcast.

Quotes:

James Fullalove: I need something to denounce, Jacko. After the dieticians and the graphologists and the English Flower Shows, something that's somebody's fault!

Movie Connections:

Remade as The Quatermass Experiment (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Inhumanity

THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT {Episodes 1 & 2; Incomplete} (Rudolph Cartier, 1953; TV) N/A

I had "The Quatermass Collection" 3-Disc Set of the three BBC serials for quite some time but, being already familiar with their cinematic adaptations courtesy of Hammer Films, they weren't so much a priority. However, I decided to check them out now as a tribute to their creator - influential writer Nigel Kneale, who passed away only recently; with this in mind, I regret not picking up the fourth Quatermass serial (released as a 3-Disc SE and whose reduced 'film' version I had also missed on Cable TV a few years back!) and his THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS (1968), both of whose DVDs are virtually impossible to track down now - but will probably order yet another Kneale-penned TV program, BEASTS (1976), without waiting for it to be discounted so I won't risk losing it as well (and, in any case, there's no better time than the present to sample some more of this incredibly talented scribe's work)!!

There's not much one can say about the first Quatermass serial, given that four of the episodes are no longer extant!; the scripts are available as a DVD-ROM but, with all the films I watch and the little time I have after work, it's not easy to find a spot wherein to read them (in fact, I've never checked out any of the DVD-ROM stuff on the discs I own - and, among these, is the full-length script of another 'lost' Nigel Kneale piece, THE ROAD [1963], available on the BFI's R2 DVD of THE STONE TAPE [1972])! Anyway, from the first two episodes alone, I can understand the impact this serial must have had - right from the atmospheric credit sequence, accompanied by an appropriately ominous score; it's all the more impressive when one realizes that, at the time, such programs where filmed live!

The cast is largely unknown but clearly proficient (Reginald Tate makes a reasonably effective Professor Quatermass): interestingly, here Duncan Lamont plays Victor Caroon, the 'monster'; he would later appear in an important supporting role in the 1967 film version of "Quatermass And The Pit"! Even from these episodes, however, I can see that there's a bit of padding involved - so that the films undeniably benefited from being more compact, but they also lost some psychological depth in the process!

THE KNEALE TAPES (John Das, 2003; ***), the 40-minute documentary from the TV series "Time Shift", is featured as an extra on "The Quatermass Collection" 3-Disc Set. It's a pretty good overview of Nigel Kneale's career - though no mention is made of BEASTS or THE WOMAN IN BLACK (1989), his adaptation for TV of the famous ghost story (which I saw as a stage play in London in 2002).

The program shows clips from several of Kneale's work - and I was especially glad to finally be able to watch samples from the notorious 1954 TV adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 (which has been announced as upcoming on R2 DVD a number of times but is still M.I.A. for the moment), as well as THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS and QUATERMASS (1979), the fourth and final serial revolving around this leading figure in science-fiction lore. The interviewees include colleagues of Kneale's (including Christopher Morahan, director of THE ROAD) as well as younger admirers (such as noted film critic Kim Newman - who had moderated Kneale's Audio Commentary for the DVD of THE STONE TAPE - and the guys from "The League Of Gentlemen"), and they all show an obvious respect towards the man and his remarkably perceptive, indeed prophetic, legacy.

Other supplements on this set include: photo galleries for all three serials; the scripts of the 4 'lost' episodes of "The Quatermass Experiment" which, as mentioned earlier, are available as a DVD-ROM; excerpts from a conversation with Kneale and Rudolph Cartier (director of the three Quatermass serials) recorded in 1991; the title sequences of the two-part 'Omnibus' version of "Quatermass And The Pit" (1958-59) - shorn by about half-an-hour and whose previously-available DVD edition I had considered purchasing myself (without knowing it was edited!); and, as an Easter Egg, an amusing sample of an MST3K-style version of "Quatermass II" (1955)!

However, one of the most enjoyable extras (all found on the first disc of this set) is surely the 7-minute featurette, "Making Demons" - dealing with the special-effects work that the Quatermass serials involved, by the two men responsible; they talk about how these were devised while enthusiastically parading various still-extant cheapskate models and props, and they also touch upon their similar contribution to other seminal BBC productions (such as the afore-mentioned 1984 and the "Dr. Who" series).