Description
THE QUATERMASS COLLECTION
3-DVD Set
THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT; QUATERMASS II; QUATERMASS & THE PIT.
3 discs. OPTIONAL SUBTITLES Horror. Black & White.
Running time approx: 459 mins.
Created by: Nigel Kneale.
Includes special features: The Kneale Tapes; Cartier & Kneale in Conversation; Making Demons; Scripts for the four missing episodes of The Quatermass Experiment; Photo Gallery. Booklet included.
The Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit – were three groundbreaking 1950s TV series, among the very first sci-fi programmes on British TV. The Quatermass trilogy greatly influenced later series like Doctor Who. This set includes the two surviving episodes of series one, plus all episodes of series two & three.
The Quatermass Experiment (1953) stars Reginald Tate, Hugh Kelly, Isabel Dean, John Glen, Paul Whitsun-Jones and Ian Colin. Reginald Tate plays Professor Bernard Quatermass, head of the British Rocket Group. An alien presence entered the first manned rocket flight and Quatermass must prevent it from destroying the world. By the last episode, nearly every TV set in England was tuned in to the programme.
Quatermass II (1955) stars John Robinson, Monica Grey, Hugh Griffith, John Stone, Rupert Davies, Roger Delgado, Wilfrid Brambell and Melvyn Hayes. Strange metallic meteorites rain down over Winnerden Flats, an eerie new town near a strongly guarded chemical plant. Professor Quatermass, (played by John Robinson), discovers that contact with the meteorites causes an unusual infection. He is also astonished to find that the chemical plant is modelled after his own design for a moonbase, where life can thrive in an artificial atmosphere. Investigations uncover a conspiracy that extends from government level to the zombie-like workers who will stop at nothing to protect the plant. Quatermass deduces that aliens from one of the moons of Saturn travel to earth in the meteorites, possess human minds, and share knowledge through a collective consciousness.
The third series, Quatermass and the Pit (1958) stars André Morell, Cec Linder, Anthony Bushell, John Stratton and Christine Finn. André Morell plays Quatermass, whose curiosity is aroused when ancient bones and a strange pod are dug up on a Knightsbridge building site. Closer inspection reveals unidentifiable creatures. Could this discovery explain events that have taken place in the area over the centuries, as well as the wave of sinister occurrences that are now engulfing the entire city? Quatermass realises that aliens abducted early mankind, modifying them to give them psychic abilities before returning them to Earth – a genetic legacy responsible for much of the war and racial strife in the world. Quatermass must prevent the implanted psychic impulse from taking over the human race. The series was watched by an average audience of 9.6 million viewers, peaking at 11 million for the final episode of a series that continues to influence even today.
