The Quatermass Collection - The Quatermass Experiment / Quatermass 2 / Quatermass And The Pit (DVD)

...31/Feb 2: Said to be the biggest civil catastrophe in Britain in the 20th century - severe storm and high tides caused the loss of hundreds of lives -- effects travelled from the west coast of Scotland round to the south-east coast of England [The Netherlands were even worse affected with over a thousand deaths]
Feb 5: Sweet rationing ends in Britain
May 29: Everest conquered by Hillary and Tensing
Jun 2: Coronation of Elizabeth ...
...of Stalin
End of the Korean War
USSR explodes Hydrogen Bomb
Nobel prize for literature to W Churchill, Prime minister

This was a bleak time for Britain. I remember it as grey. Fashion, people, buildings everything grey and drab. Rationing had not quite finished. Whilst Clement Atlee might be regarded as a "Great man" I remember the policy of "Fair shares for all" where in practice the working ... more

Cast your minds back in time to 1953. This is before some of you were even born. You were not even a twinkle in your parent's eyes. Some of us were around at that time and some things we can remember.

Some notable events in 1953.
Jan 31/Feb 2: Said to be the biggest civil catastrophe in Britain in the 20th century - severe storm and high tides caused the loss of hundreds of lives -- effects travelled from the west coast of Scotland round to the south-east coast of England [The Netherlands were even worse affected with over a thousand deaths]
Feb 5: Sweet rationing ends in Britain
May 29: Everest conquered by Hillary and Tensing
Jun 2: Coronation of Elizabeth II
Sep 26: Sugar rationing ends in Britain (after nearly 14 years)
Death of Stalin
End of the Korean War
USSR explodes Hydrogen Bomb
Nobel prize for literature to W Churchill, Prime minister

This was a bleak time for Britain. I remember it as grey. Fashion, people, buildings everything grey and drab. Rationing had not quite finished. Whilst Clement Atlee might be regarded as a "Great man" I remember the policy of "Fair shares for all" where in practice the working man got B### er all, or so it seemed to me. Labour had been defeated in the election of 1951and Churchill had returned. You felt that life was gradually getting better.
I still remember the year previously when a railway worker stood on a bridge and shouted to the passers by "The King is dead" (6 Feb 1952)
So life was changing. Radio was the more common medium of entertainment. If you wanted the news you read a paper or went to a news cinema, Pathé as I recall.
Television was still in its infancy, Black and White with a 9" screen. Most of us didn't have a TV. You would go round to some body's house that did have one and you had a social evening watching that!

Something special happened on 18/07/1953. This was the first broadcast of "The Quatermass Experiment" It came about as the BBC had a gap in its programme schedule and wanted a drama to fill it for the Saturday night slot. This was live television and now the last 4 episodes of this drama are lost to posterity. So if your posteriors want to watch the complete series, they will have to get a different copy. Professor Quatermass was first played by Reginald Tate.

Here was a story of space exploration where something very nasty had happened. The rocket had crash landed and two of the three crew were dead and the sole survivor was slowly changing into something else. (How many time have we seen this since?)

This was in the days before there was any video tape or digital storage of images. What they had to do was to photograph the action from a special television screen using standard 35mm film. Even this process was in its infancy and did not work very well. That is why there are only two episodes f "The "experiment" saved. The quality was not good and it was a bit expensive, so they did not record the last four episodes. They are gone forever, unless you would care to travel in space to overtake the broadcast signal.

This was science fiction that concentrated on people rather than gadgets and not like the very bad American films that were being produced. It was innovation and caught the public imagination in a way that had not been known before. The whole drama had been produced for a budget of some £3500

Reginald Tate set the standard for all subsequent performances of Professor Quatermass. The action of the first series was done in such a way that nobody knew what the ending of the series was when they started production. This was because Nigel Kneale had not written it yet. This could not happen with today's drama or films. This gave the production its vibrancy, something that was kept for the whole series as everything was live, mistakes and all. Rehearsals could be and were done but with a live transmission, then any mistake went out also and could not be edited out first.

Quatermass II: broadcast 22/10/55-26/11/55
Prof. Quatermass John Robinson.

Some persons think this is the weakest of the trio. Professor Quatermass is refused some funding for further experiments. He is intrigued by some mysterious radar traces that appear to be a meteor shower. These are traced to a deserted village and a strange factory that closely resembles the professors own design for a space colony. The professor has to battle against official obstruction and secrecy to find the answer.

Here John Robinson took the part of the professor following the death of Reginald Tate. He does do an adequate job of bringing the professor to life.

Quatermass and the pit: broadcast 22/12/58-26/01/59
Prof. Quatermass Andre Morell

This one is perhaps the best known. The story is that during rebuilding work in London that some archaeological specimens are found. Then something that is thought to be an unexploded wartime bomb. So the military have to be called in. Professor Quatermass is a friend of the lead archaeologist and is invited to come along and see for himself. Things soon start to get interesting and a threat is revealed.

One of the best effects in this happened by accident. I will not say which. If you have seen it you will remember. Quite honestly I would not have been surprised to learn that the entire country moved.

In Hereford, the city council moved a proposal to adjourn their meeting while they went across the road to a hotel to watch the final episode, that is how much it meant to us at the time.

With this being taken from the live transmission by a recording means, then what you are getting is the opening title, brief recapitulation and end credits in full. Also a note when the next episode was due for transmission. Now such details are always in the papers and magazines.

The fashion of the clothing worn by all the actors was what the norm was for the time. It may look quaint to some of today's persons. As with the transport and some of the attitudes of the people. I am cynical enough to think that if some of these events were to happen today then there would be a rush either for the publicist or the annalist and lifestyle consultant.

This was stated as science fiction with a human face. It was not about gadgets and gizmos but on how ordinary people would react when faced with unexpected events. Not everything was seen on the screen, you could refer to events taking place elsewhere. There did not need to be blood and body parts scattered all over the screen. There may have been love or romance but this was not a sub plot or a filler. There are no writhing bedroom Olympics, not just because of the times that these were made but because they are not necessary. There is a sequence in the "Pit" where they refer to lots of fires in London. They have used some wartime footage taken from the roof of St Paul's during the Blitz. I recognise it, but when you consider that this was television and that budgets were limited as was space for special effects, then that is good use of available resource. By today's standards the acting was stilted, the sets were sometimes rather poor, the props were sometimes laughable but this was innovation when first broadcast.

What do you get for your money?
Cost at Amazon.co.uk is £26.99 save £3.00
You get three discs containing on Disc 1, Quatermass Experiment and special features. Disc 2,
Quatermass II. Disc 3, Quatermass and the pit. All are in Black and White and have mono
sound but the option of subtitles. They are region 2 coded and run together for some 459
minutes. They are classified as PG.
Extras:
.The Kneale Tapes
.making Demons
.Scripts For The Four Missing Episodes From The Quatermass Experiment
.Cartier And Kneale In Conversation
.Photo Gallery
Also contained is a very detailed booklet.
ASIN: B000772838

There is a warning on the box that whilst this is digitally remastered, due to the archive nature of the material the sound and picture quality may vary. If you want full details of all the casts and crews, please visit the IMDB. This review would be far longer if I tried to give such a full list for each and described each individual performance, Something I do not feel qualified to do. Suffice to say that I think the performances by all the actors employed were good and brought each character to life and are believable.

It's hard to explain now how new and different this was then. There was no recording and clever editing and special effects as we know them today. What there was was a slow build up of suspense and mounting horror of the unknown. There was no 9 o clock watershed, anybody who could watched though some Adults and small children from behind the sofa! Please remember that "Sputnik" was not launched until 1957! (If you don't know what that was, look it up in an encyclopaedia)

You may see the same pictures that we saw, but you will not have the same feelings that we had. Now there is so much special effects and the stories have been worked over many times. This was new and fresh. It was a wonder to us. There have been films made of these stories, there have been parodies, but these were the first. Some of the ideas were truly advanced for their time. Ideas that are still relevant in the science fiction world. Things that we cannot do in practical terms now, even after a lapse of 50 years. Care possible spoiler, Metalo-ceramic space ship and direct neural coupling to controls in "The Pit"

Hammer studios were very interested and started filming "The Quatermass Experiment" in October 1954. They went on to make films of all these stories and other notable horror stories,such as "Dracula"

People who were not around at the time may like to get a copy to see what they missed. People who were there get a copy to remember the feelings that it gave you. I consider it money well spent.
 

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