"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:

Broadcast live, this was the first BBC Drama to be recorded onto film via the 'telerecording' or 'kinoscope' process. Telerecordings were made by filming the image off a specially designed TV screen with a film camera (either 16mm or 35mm.) Unfortunately, the results were judged to be unsatisfactory, and only the first two episodes were recorded, the rest being broadcast live. Because of this, only the first two episodes were preserved.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: During the scene in the Daily Gazette office at the start of Episode Two, the image collapses and turns negative before returning to normal. This was a fault during transmission preserved by the telerecording process.

Quotes:

Narrator: One morning, two hours after dawn, the first manned rocket in the history of the world takes off from the Tarooma Range, Australia. The three observers see on their scanning screens a quickly receding Earth. The rocket is guided from the ground by remote control as they rise through the ozone layer...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Corridor Sketch (1991) (V)

Soundtrack:

Inhumanity

And you thought SCREAM was frightening?

As a seven year old when I first saw this on television (not ours, because we didn't have one in 1953) it was simply the most terrifying and funk-inspiring piece of horror on offer. Many elder citizens complained to the BBC that they had no right showing such diabolically upsetting images during family viewing times (despite the fact NOT that great a percentage of families HAD television then.....and only 9 inch screens at that, for the most part)

It was the first of Nigel Kneale's FOUR Quatermass tales and for its time, was extremely frightening, even on a small screen. A rocket ship returns to earth and crashes. Two of the crew are killed and a third found in a totally disorientated state. He slowly metamorphosises into a most unpleasant alien being, half cactus - half God knows what. Although only having the benefits of prehistoric special effects available to them, the thing was just horrific and much of the scare-factor was lost in its translation to the big screen a few years later (THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT). Precisely the same outcome was evidenced in the movie adaptations of Quatermas II and Quatermass and the Pit (FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH)

Nigel Kneale's imagination and innovative writing places him right up there with Arthur C. Clarke. This show is a wonderful (and still deeply disturbing) memory. How many sci-fi flicks have since ripped off this man into monster concept? SPECIES 2 for example? (The less said about that turkey the better!)