Quatermass II

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...

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).

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.

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.

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.