The Quatermass Experiment is a British television science-fiction serial, transmitted by BBC Television in the summer of 1953. Comprised of six half-hour episodes, it was the first science-fiction production to be written especially for an adult television audience: previous written-for-television efforts such as Stranger from Space (1951-52) had been aimed at children, whereas adult sci-fi dramas had been adapted from literary sources, such as R.U.R. (1938 and again in 1948) and The Time Machine (1949). It was the first of four Quatermass serials to be screened on British television between 1953 and 1979.

Background

The serial was written by BBC staff television drama writer Nigel Kneale, who had previously been an actor and an award-winning prose fiction writer before joining the staff of the BBC. He was interested in the idea of 'science going bad', and it was an interest in science and scientific concepts that led him to write The Quatermass Experiment. The serial was an expensive one: Head of Television Drama Michael Barry had to commit the majority of his original script budget for the year to the material. Kneale famously claimed to have picked his leading character's unusual-sounding name at random from a London telephone directory.

The serial was directed by Rudolph Cartier, one of the BBC's most highly-regarded directors, and transmitted live with only a few pre-filmed inserts from Studio A of the BBC's original television studios at Alexandra Palace in London. It was one of the last major dramas to be broadcast from the Palace, as the majority of television production was soon to transfer to Lime Grove Studios.

The Quatermass Experiment was transmitted weekly on Saturday nights from July 18 to August 22, 1953. Episode one (Contact Has Been Established) was scheduled from 8.15-8.45pm, episode two (Persons Reported Missing) 8.25-8.55pm, episodes three and four (Very Special Knowledge and Believed to be Suffering) 8.45-9.15pm, and the final two episodes (An Unidentified Species and State of Emergency) from 9.00-9.30pm. In practice, however, due to the live transmissions each episode overran its slot slightly, from between two (episode four) and six (episode six) minutes. The dramatic theme music for the serial was provided by Mars, Bringer of War from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite.

It was intended by the BBC that each episode should be telerecorded, a relatively new process that allowed for the preservation of live television broadcasts. Sale of the serial had even been provisionally agreed with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In the event, however, only poor-quality copies of the first two episodes would survive in the archives: it is not known for certain whether any further episodes were telerecorded, or whether the idea was abandoned after poor results for episodes one and two. It has been suggested that telerecording of later episodes was abandoned due to industrial action. The two episodes that do remain, however, are the oldest surviving examples of a multi-episodic drama production and some of the earliest extant examples of British television drama at all, with only a few one-off plays surviving from beforehand.

Plot

The story revolves around Professor Bernard Quatermass, head of the British Experimental Rocket Group, and begins with him anxiously awaitng the return to Earth of his experimental rocket ship and its crew, who have become the first ever human beings to travel into space. The rocket is at first thought lost, having dramatically overshot its planned orbit, but eventually is picked up on RADAR and returns to Earth, crash-landing in Wimbledon, London.

When Quatermass and his team reach the crash area and succeed in opening the rocket, they discover that only one of the three crewmen, Victor Caroon, remains inside: the space suits of the others are present, the instruments on board indicate that the door was never opened in flight, but of the other two there is no sign.

Caroon is gravely ill, and it is not just Quatermass who is interested in what happened to him: the newspapers and Scotland Yard's Inspector Lomax are also keen to hear his story. Caroon is abducted by a group of journalists who think they are onto a good story, but it is clear that there is something very wrong: he seems to have somehow absorbed the consciousnesses of the other two crewmembers, and is himself slowly mutating into some hideous creature.

Quatermass and his allies have to chase the rapidly transforming Caroon across London before he can wreak havoc, and corner him in Westminster Abbey as he fully transforms into a terrifying creature that will destroy the world...

Cast & Crew

Nigel Kneale went on to become one of the most highly-regarded scriptwriters in the history of British television following the success of The Quatermass Experiment - as well as the various Quatermass spin-offs and sequels, he penned such acclaimed productions as Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) and The Stone Tape (1972). Kneale also appeared on-screen, in a sense, in the final episode of the serial: he 'played' the monster seen in Westminster Abbey at the climax, his hands operating the 'creature' (actually gloves covered in various pieces of plant and other material) stuck through a photographic blow-up of the interior of the Abbey.

Rudolph Cartier had emigrated from Germany in the 1930s to escape the Nazi regime there, and was already one of the BBC's top television directors. He went on to collaborate with Kneale on several further productions, and became something of a legend within the television industry.

Of the cast, Quatermass himself was played by the experienced Reginald Tate, who had appeared in various films including The Way Ahead (1944). Sadly, he was to die just two years later, while preparing to take the role of the Professor again in Quatermass II. Victor Caroon was played by Scottish actor Duncan Lamont, who later appeared in the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) and as a different character in the film adaptation of Quatermass and the Pit (1967). Appearing briefly as a drunk was Wilfrid Brambell, who would later appear as a tramp in Quatermass II.

Film & Sequels

The popularity of The Quatermass Experiment did not go unnoticed in the film world, and Hammer Films quickly purchased the rights to make a feature film adaptation, which was released in 1955 and starred the American actor Brian Donlevy. It was directed by Val Guest, who also wrote the screenplay, and Nigel Kneale and very unhappy with the result - he had been unable to work on the project himself due to his BBC staff contract.

For the cinema, the film had been titled The Quatermass Xperiment, to play up the film's X-certificate status. In America, the film was re-titled The Creeping Unknown.

The BBC were also very pleased with the success of The Quatermass Experiment, and in 1955 a sequel, Quatermass II appeared. This was followed in 1958 by Quatermass and the Pit, and both of these also had feature film versions made by Hammer. The character returned to television in a 1979 serial, simply titled Quatermass, for Thames Television.

A script book of The Quatermass Experiment, containing several production stills from the missing episodes, was published by Penguin Books in 1959, and re-published in 1979 with a new introduction by Kneale.

External Links

• The Quatermass Home Page - Fan Site (http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/8504/qhome.htm)
• IMDb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045436/)
• BBC site - I Love Quatermass (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/quatermass/intro.shtml)