Greg Bakun brings us the concluding part of his look back at Quatermass II.
As I watched the end of
the fourth episode of Quatermass II, The Coming, the story was moving
along swiftly. The invasion had begun; thousands of meteorites are
falling out of the sky. The reporter Quatermass was telling his story
to had fallen victim to the alien infection. Quatermass infiltrated
himself into the synthetic food facility and saw first hand the
horror of what was living in those tanks. Today, we take a look at
the final two episodes of this 1955 serial.
To look at my article
for episodes 1 & 2, go here.
To look at my article
for episodes 3 & 4, go here.
The Frenzy TX: 19/11/55
The Frenzy is a very
appropriate name for this episode because by the time we get to the
end of The Coming, things have started to reach a frenzied pitch. The
workers in the pub that Quatermass and Conrad had spoken to have
become very suspicious of whatever had employed them to build the
food plant structure. In fact, based on Quatermass’ story, the
workers have decided to charge the food plant to get some answers. It
becomes violent very quickly as the Zombies in the plant confront the
workers. The workers are able to get into the pump room which could
be used to pump oxygen into the dome. That would be fatal to the
aliens. Quatermass is able to join the workers. They are surrounded
and need to come up with a plan fast or they will be destroyed.
Back at Quatermass’
Rocket centre, Paula knows her father was with Conrad and is trying
to find out through the offices of Conrad’s newspaper to tell her
where her father is located. She is immediately concerned that the
person on the other end of the line is asking more questions about
Quatermass’ whereabouts than they are giving her answers. They ask
her where she is. As she puts the phone down, more calls come in from
other people who are asking where Quatermass is and are trying and
get information about the rocket. These people are under control of
the aliens and they know Quatermass’ rocket is the only thing to
stop their invasion. Paula goes out to the rocket to find Pugh. There
is a real chilling scene which benefits from being done live. Paula
explains all the strange phone calls she has been getting to Pugh but
then stops and looks around. She says, “It’s closing in. Those
woods over there, the cut out of the moonlight, the air itself. As if
it were changing already.” This is a great scene because it sets
get atmosphere even without us having to see anything. Just by seeing
Paula’s reaction shows how serious the situation is at the moment
as the invasion is going on in the background. The people in
Quatermass’ Rocket centre is in real danger. Pugh and Paula are
positive Quatermass is in the plant and Pugh decides to go out there
and retrieve him.
Back at the plant,
Quatermass is filling the dome with oxygen, lethal to the aliens.
Immediately, there are constant warnings from the plant via
loudspeaker announcements filling the pump room where Quatermass and
the workers are located. Quatermass knows the aliens are getting
desperate because the announcements have moved away from violent
threats to a chance to work together and have the workers inspect the
plant to see there are no alien influences in the facility. The union
leader of the workers, McCloud decides to take them up on their word
to meet with them despite the opposition put up by Quatermass and
McCloud’s friend Paddy. Soon everyone realizes McCloud made a
disastrous mistake. Oxygen was being pumped into the doom to kill the
aliens who could not breathe oxygen. Now the pipe funneling in oxygen
had been blocked. Blocked by the body of McCloud and a few others who
went with him. It is not seen on screen but it doesn’t need to be.
It is graphic enough by description. The workers respond the murder
of their comrades by firing what appears to be a bazooka at the doom
blowing it apart. Gases envelope the near by village. As Quatermass
escapes, he finds the car that Pugh is in, passed out. They go back
to Quatermass’ Rocket centre. There they are surrounded by the army
lead by Captain Dillon still under the control of the aliens.
Not only does a lot
take place in the episode, it also conveys an atmosphere of terror.
For the first four episodes, Quatermass has been investigating what
he thinks is an invasion. With The Frenzy, the invasion is happening
and Quatermass is right in the middle of it. Although the food plant
is destroyed at the end of the episode, it is only one of a half a
dozen plants around the world. Not only does a lot of stuff happen in
the episode but it is all done live which is really quite an
achievement. The episode is of a high quality of storytelling that
many programs made today could not duplicate and those programs have
the benefit of having re-takes and not broadcast live. The scenes
filmed on location at night such as the workers storming the plant to
me are reminiscent of the Russian Revolution. Shots of Quatermass
escaping the plant in a basically “every man for themselves”
scenario is eerily lit with a lot of fog and Quatermass backlit as he
tries to escape what appears to be a post apocalyptic situation. The
cliffhanger itself is creepy as we see the return of Captain Dillon,
as a zombie, taking over Quatermass’ rocket launch area. There is a
story about someone dying during the recording of The Frenzy. Nigel
Kneale recalls that during the crowd scene word came back to the
studio gallery someone had dropped dead. During the course of the
broadcast of the episode, this guy was taken away for treatment.
Kneale never knew if the man lived or not. Hopefully he lived!
Speaking of Kneale, it was his voiced used for all the loud speaker
announcements in the synthetic food plant.
The Destroyers TX:
26/11/55
With Captain Dillon’s
men surrounding Quatermass’ rocket base, Quatermass has no choice
but to get Dillon in to talk reason with him. Quatermass needs to
launch his rocket to destroy the asteroid with the aliens on it.
Dillon enters with his men and gives them a signed order for allowing
for the army to take over the rocket base. It’s interesting that
although it is not said, it is implied that the orders are signed
personally by the Prime Minister meaning that the alien influence has
reached as far as Number 10 Downing Street. Perhaps the entire
government of not only the UK but every government had been taken
over. Quatermass is able to talk Dillon out of his orders, appealing
to what is left of his human self to allow Quatermass and Pugh to
take the rocket on a rendezvous with the alien asteroid. Once in
space for many hours, it is clear that Pugh has been under the
control of the aliens for hours. On the surface of the asteroid, Pugh
with a gun, fires at Quatermass but the shooting of the gun propels
him off the asteroid and to his death. With Quatermass losing his
closest friend, he deposits the nuclear core on the asteroid to blow
it up. After the aliens are destroyed, the people who were under its
influence return to normal including Captain Dillon.
The total budget for
Quatermass II was around £7600. By the time
production began on The Destroyers there was about £600
left to make the final episode. One of the more ambitious episodes,
money had to be use to build the inside of the rocket craft as well
as the alien surface. This set was nothing more than chair stacked on
top of each other with a tarp over them to create the effect of a
jagged alien surface. This would have looked fine in the 1950s but
even with the lower quality of the telerecordings presented on the
DVD, the effect is not very convincing. Though, it is still a mammoth
feat to try to pull of all of these locations on a very small budget
while being done on live TV. Though not nearly as enjoyable of an
episode as The Frenzy, The Destroyers bring a satisfying end to the
serial.
The
fun part of watching Quatermass II is looking at some of the guest
artist who had shown up in this serial and recognizing them from
other productions. The first notable is Hilda Barry in The Bolts as
Mrs. Large. She was a wonderful character actor who also appears in
Quatermass and the Pit, The Prisoner, and I even just recently saw
her in an episode of Ace of Wands. Wilfred Brambell, best known as
Albert Steptoe from Steptoe and Son, appears in The Mark as a tramp.
He appears in a slightly similar role in the 1954 BBC version of
Nineteen Eighty-Four. Just as Nigel Kneale does the alarmed and
mysterious voice on the loudspeaker in The Frenzy, his voice also
appears in Nineteen Eighty-Four in a similar fashion. Hugh Griffith,
who played Dr. Leo Pugh had a prolific career and was nominated for
an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1959 for Ben-Hur and again in
1963 for Tom Jones. Cyril Shaps as a Control Assistant in The
Destroyers. I know him best in multiple roles he played in Doctor Who
and was happy to see him here. Of course for the Doctor Who fan, one
of the biggest names to appear in the serial was Roger Delgado who is
usually referred to as The Master. He played the reporter Conrad who
came to an unhappy end as he was trying to wire the story of the
invasion to his newspaper.
Does
Quatermass II hold up today? Of course I would say yes because I am a
collector and fan of such programs. I can see past dodgy effects,
black & White television and focus on the story. I would be
interested in seeing someone of a younger generation sit down to
watch this. Not all in one go but broken up in similar fashion to how
I have viewed it over a period of time. These programs are not
generally meant to be watched in one sitting. Would they appreciate
the story and significance to television history? It would be an
interesting experiment. This serial and the character Quatermass are
still very much beloved fixtures to the British public. This serial
was made into a Hammer Film in 1957 starring Brian Donlevy in his
second outing as Professor Quatermass. There was a spoof by Comedian
Bob Monkhouse which included Monica Grey who played Paula Quatermass
in the original serial. Its influence runs from Doctor Who to The
X-Files. Sadly, Nigel Kneale approached the BBC about doing a prequel
to Quatermass reportedly titled Quatermass and the Third Reich which
would have seen Quatermass in Germany in the 1930s. This was rejected
by the BBC. Quatermass did return to the screen again in 2005 in alive remake of The Quatermass Experiment. By this time, Kneale was no
longer the writer but was a consultant to the production. Nigel
Kneale passed away in 2006 but leaves behind a wonderful legacy which
includes this very unique and complicated character in the form of
Professor Bernard Quatermass.
Greg Bakun is a seasoned connoisseur and
reviewer of British television. You can read more of his articles and
reviews on his site From the Archive: A British Television Blog or listen to him drink wine on the Doctor Who podcast The Others. Oh, you can follow him on Twitter too.