Quatermass II: An Exceptional Sequel—Part One
Quatermass II: An Exceptional Sequel—Part One
By Greg Bakun
In 1953, the BBC broadcast the
groundbreaking series, The Quatermass
Experiment. This six-part adventure chronicles the work of Professor
Bernard Quatermass as he heads the British Experimental Rocket Group. The story
surrounds the mysterious crash of the Quatermass rocket ship where all the crew
seems to have disappeared apart from one. The British Film Institute described
this production as "one of the
most influential series of the 1950s." The BBC knew fairly quickly that
this serial was a success. They sold the film rights of the story to Hammer and
they commissioned Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale with creating another story
which would begin broadcast just as the BBC's new competition, ITV, started
broadcasting in September of 1955.
Episode 1: The Bolts Tx 22/10/55
Quatermass II is not only the title of the serial but
the name of the second rocket that Professor Quatermass designed and testing in
Australia to fine tune it from his designs. These tests lead to the rocket
exploding in a nuclear mushroom cloud even killing members of the team working
on the project. Quatermass knows this is the end of his dream of not only the
Quatermass II rocket but also his vision of how human beings will inhabit as
colonies on the moon. We, as the viewers, see what this moon base concept would
look like from small models that Quatermass' team had built. No sooner does
Quatermass come to this sad conclusion, Captain John Dillon consults Quatermass
over some meteorites that his military unit have been tracking. The meteorites
break up as they hit the ground but they are hollow. Something was inside.
Dillon, who is also courting Quatermass' daughter Paula, investigates further
where they know the meteorites are falling. They end up at a facility that is
creating synthetic food. This factory looks exactly like the base Quatermass
wanted to make on the moon which is built in a special way to support life in
an alien climate. Suddenly, more meteorites fall around them as Dillon is hit
with something and a mark appears on his face…..
Episode 2: The Mark Tx 29/10/55
No sooner than Dillon is hit by something from one of the meteors, armed
guards show up out of no where and take Dillon away back to the food facility
plant. They do not let Quatermass go with them but he notices they all have
strange marks on their faces similar to what he briefly saw on Dillon. Quatermass
goes to the ministry, where he gets his funding for the British Experimental
Rocket Group, hoping he can find out more about this food plant he found as well
as the strange worker village he found near to the plant. There he finds
Vincent Broadhead who also has been doing research in this facility. Broadhead
found out that this is not the only facility but there are more like it around
the world. Broadhead and Quatermass at first believe this is down to
competition from other companies vying for a position in the marketplace of
synthetic food. When Quatermass meets Broadhead, Broadhead is actually in a
ministerial hearing about his findings on these mysterious plants. Quatermass
wants to get in on the hearing as he is curious about these facilities too but
also wants to find out what happened to Dillon. At the hearing, as members
return the table, it is obvious that there is friction in the room. Quatermass
suddenly points out to Broadhead that one of the members in the room has the
mysterious mark on his face…..
As commercial television was starting up in the UK in the fall of 1955, the
BBC needed to come up with programming which could rival what ITV would be offering.
It was no surprise that the BBC turned to Kneale for another Quatermass serial.
In fact, as a dream team, Nigel Kneale worked very well with Austrian director
Rudolph Cartier. During this period, they would team up for numerous
productions such as Wuthering Heights and
the controversial production Nineteen
Eighty-Four. The two of them together created an atmosphere for their
productions which had viewers engaged in the serial week after week.
For Nigel Kneale, the role of Quatermass was actor Reginald Tate. Tate was
the first Quatermass in 1953 and Kneale wrote the sequel very much assuming
that Tate would be able reprise his role. Tate was happy to continue on and was
signed up and ready to do Quatermass II.
Production on the serial was to begin in September but Tate died unexpectedly
of a heart attack in August of 1955 at the age of 58. The role had to be filled
quickly and John Robinson stepped in at very short notice. Even in the first
episode, The Bolt, Robinson seems a
little shaky as Quatermass but this changes in episode two.
Some of the production was similar to how the first Quatermass serial was
made. The theme music was still the classical track Mars, The Bringer of War by Gustav Holst. Although it is the same
music, the track used is a different recording. The title sequence looks
similar to that of The Quatermass
Experiment but actually done a completely different way. This was done with
dry ice vapours through a sheet card with cut out letters for Quatermass II.
When The Quatermass Experiment
was made, it was broadcast live. Work was done to try and record the episodes
onto film as they were being performed live from Alexandra Palace in 1953. The
first 2 episodes were recorded on primitive machines and the quality of the
episodes was deemed unsatisfactory. For a long time fans of the serial thought
that episodes 3-6 of The Quatermass
Experiment were lost because the telerecorded episodes were lost. It is now
believed that the episodes were never recorded at all due to the poor results
from the quality of the film. With Quatermass
II, technology moved along in the two years since The Quatermass
Experiment. There were advances on how the film recorders could capture an
image. This method was employed for all six episodes of Quatermass II. The reason though was not really one for prosperity
sake but because the episode would be repeated two days after the "live"
episode aired. Usually, if something would be repeated, the BBC would have the
show performed live again just as if it were a play but on TV instead of a
theatre. Unlike The Quatermass
Experiment, a lot of time was given to location shooting. The episodes used
a lot different locations, such as the Shell oil refinery, with interiors being
done live on broadcast.
I enjoy this story but it had been a long time since I actually sat down to
watch it and pay attention to it. Right from the start of Mars, The Bringer of War, I am mesmerized. There is something about
black and white television which adds to the mystery of the unknown. Even though
I am watching this from restored episodes, the episodes are blurred to an
extant and have strange grey and dark bordering on some of the shots. I don't
mind this as it adds to the bleakness of the story and the mystery of what is
going on. What I really like is that the story began before we even got there. The
army has already been monitoring the situation long before we catch up with
them at the start of the episode.
It's hard to believe this is live television because it is so complicated.
A lot of film inserts, some special effects, and a lot of scenes on multiple
sets. If major fluffs happened during the "live" broadcast, some
scenes would be re-shot and edited into the episode in time for the repeat.
Still, some mistakes are small enough to not warrant a re-shoot such as one of
the earliest scenes of Dillon talking to his Sergeant travelling in an army
jeep. As we see them in their seats, there is a window behind them which is
white. While they are driving and talking, somebody walks behind the window and
by doing so, they are a silhouette in the background. So much for the moving
car! Ah, the perils live television!
Next week: We continue with Quatermass II with episodes 3 & 4: The Food and The Coming. Have
you seen these episodes? What are your thoughts?
Labels: Greg Bakun, Guest Blog, Quatermass
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