Quatermass II

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.

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.

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).

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.

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...