The Quatermass Experiment (TV series)
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Quatermass Experiment |
| Country of production | United Kingdom , United States |
| original language | English |
| year | 1953 |
| Production company |
BBC |
| length | 30 minutes |
| Episodes | 6 in 1 season |
| genre | Science fiction |
| idea | Nigel Kneale |
| production | Rudolph Cartier |
| First broadcast | July 18th, 1953 on BBC |
| occupation | |
| |
The Quatermass Experiment is a British science fiction - television series from 1953 to the ( fictional ) Professor Bernard Quatermass . The production was the basis of further television series and the feature film shock . The series was broadcast live ; Only the first two episodes recorded by kinescope have survived .
action
In Australia , the British Experimental Rocket Group's first space rocket with Victor Carroon, Dr. Ludwig Rechenheim and Charles Greene started. Suddenly the contact breaks off and the rocket disappears into space . She returns unexpectedly and crash-lands at Wimbledon .
When the rescue team opened the spaceship, instead of the three-man crew, they only met Victor Carroon. Since the spacesuits from Dr. However, Rechenheim and Greene are present and the rocket has demonstrably not been opened after the launch, the rescue team and the scientific team around Professor Bernard Quatermass, who heads the rocket project, are faced with a puzzle.
In the conversation of the confused-looking Carroon with his wife Judith and Quatermass, it turns out that Carroon contains the identities of the two missing crew members; he is suddenly able to speak German like Dr. Rechenheim. Quatermass and Paterson find a gelatinous substance in the spaceship that was not on board when it took off.
When Carroon is supposed to report on his experiences to scientists and reporters at the landing site, a group of journalists tries to kidnap him. While attacking one of his kidnappers, he begins to change outwardly. Carroon escapes to a cinema where the science fiction film Planet of the Dragons is being staged . He then visits a chemist, to whom he explains that he has pain in a hand that is badly disfigured.
Quatermass pursues Carroon, believing that the spaceman’s change was due to chemicals he ingested. Meanwhile, some murders occur and a vibrant, vegetable mass is moving towards Westminster Abbey . Quatermass realizes that Carroon was taken over by an alien life form that used his body as a host and killed the other two astronauts. The government has declared a state of emergency due to the situation at Westminster Abbey . The army is deployed. In the cathedral, Quatermass asks Carroon, who has since turned into a plant monster, that he must kill himself in order to destroy the alien life form that threatens humanity. Carroon complies with this request.
Production and reception history
The Quatermass Experiment was the first British adult science fiction television series; In 1951/52 the BBC had already broadcast an SF series for children called Stranger from Space . Producer and director Cartier and screenwriter Nigel Kneale knew each other from their work for the BBC and Cartier had expressed an interest in an SF production to Kneale, also out of a general interest in SF. Both worked closely together during the production of the series with a strict division of labor.
Kneale had deliberately chosen Westminster Abbey for the showdown , as the cathedral was still remembered by British television audiences from the televised broadcast of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation celebrations in the previous month. However, the BBC did not get permission to film, so a kind of photo wallpaper from the interior of the cathedral had to serve as a prop . The plant monster that Carroon had finally transformed into was shown wearing a glove . Kneale received £ 125 for his script, which was continued while the first episodes were being made .
The show was mainly produced in Alexandra Palace . The production was broadcast live, with some 35mm film footage pre-produced that was installed during the broadcast. The entire series was originally intended to be recorded on Kinescope, but the process was canceled after the second episode was recorded.
Although the BBC was initially skeptical of its production even after it was broadcast, as it was considered completely unrealistic, it was a street sweeper . Therefore, she decided to continue with the series Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit , which were broadcast in 1955 and 1958/59. The scripts were also from Kneale. In 1979 Kneale wrote the script for the four-part series Quatermass , which was no longer produced by the BBC, but by ITV .
Episodes
- Contact Has Been Established (first broadcast July 18, 1953, 3.4 million viewers)
- Persons Reported Missing (July 25, 1953, 3.5 million viewers)
- Very Special Knowledge (August 1, 1953, 3.1 million viewers)
- Believed to be Suffering (August 8, 1953, 4.4 million viewers)
- An Unidentified Species (August 15, 1953, 4.1 million viewers)
- State of Emergency (August 22, 1953, 5.0 million viewers)
Historical background
Australia was the British test site for nuclear bomb and missile research in the 1950s . The research center was located in the Woomera Prohibited Area .
The series was a response to the general popularity of space travel as well as the flying saucer phenomenon .
Lore
A DVD edition of the first two episodes was released in 2005 by BBC Worldwide Ltd. in The Quatermass Collection , which also includes the successor series Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit . The edition contains a 47-page booklet (viewing notes) written by Andrew Pixley with detailed background information on all three series.
literature
- Roger Fulton: The Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction , London (Boxtree Limited) 1997. ISBN 0-7522-1150-1
- John Wade: The Golden Age of Science Fiction. A Journey into Space with 1950s Radio, TV, Film, Comics and Books , Yorkshire / Philadelphia (Pen & Sword Books Ltd) 2019. ISBN 978-1-5267-2925-5 . ISBN 978-1-5267-5159-1
- Andrew Pixley: The Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass II, Quatermass and the Pit. Viewing Notes , BBC 2005 (47-page booklet to the DVD edition).
Web links
- The Quatermass Experiment in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Episode 1 on youtube.com