The Quatermass Trilogy

Long before the X-Files, writer Nigel Kneale and Producer/Director Rudolph Cartier changed the face of television forever with their pioneering forays into science fiction with The Quatermass series. Beginning with 1953's The Quatermass Experiment and continuing on in Quatermass II in 1955 and Quatermass and the Pit in 1957, Kneale and Cartier, along with a trio of lead actors, fascinated and terrified a nation with these intense dramas pitting Professor Bernard Quatermass against sinister government conspiracies, extraterrestrial enemies and the startling truth about how we humans really evolved.

The first series, The Quatermass Experiment, appeared in 1953 and concerned the cruel fate of astronaut Victor Carroon who returns from space host to a deadly alien life form that threatens to destroy all life on earth. The Quatermass Experiment featured Reginald Tate as Prof. Bernard Quatermass, leader of the British Experimental Rocket Group. It is Prof. Q who must figure out how to save the planet. Luckily he does and two years later returns to save the earth again in Quatermass II. This time the good Professor is played by John Robinson, replacing the recently deceased Reginald Tate who had originally been slated to reprise his role. The plot centers upon a series of mysterious meteor showers that are turning the populace of a pre-fab town, and the workers at the nearby ominous industrial complex into Zombies. The stirring finale pits Prof. Quatermass and a group of heroic workers against the deadly alien menace.

The third Quatermass series, Quatermass and the Pit, starred yet another actor, André Morell, a Cartier-production veteran from the director's landmark production of Orwell's 1984, as Prof. Quatermass. A mysterious relic has been unearthed at a building site at Hobbs Lane in London and the Professor is called in to investigate only to discover the terrifying truth about man's Martian past and the deadly chaos that it releases. Quatermass and the Pit stands as one of the all time great moments of television drama and, if viewed with the BBC's limited capabilities at the time in mind, can still stir the soul while sending chills down ones spine.

Further adventures of Prof. Q continued both on telly and radio as well as the big screen though none had the impact of the original - admittedly primitive - trilogy. The best of the three Hammer-produced films based on the original series was the third Quatermass and the Pit (known as Five Million Miles to Earth in the USA and often shown on such cable networks as AMC) featuring Andrew Keir as Quatermass (American Brian Donlevy had been mis-cast as the Professor in the previous two films) and an understandably major improvement in special effects.

Tony McKay and Greg Quinn's Quatermass homepage provides a treasure trove of information on the series including comprehensive episode guides and extensive commentary on the entire Quatermass cannon including the films and even the recent radio series.