Quatermass II (1955)

Quatermass II (1955)

Dir. Rudolph Cartier | 6 episodes, approx 30 mins each

I skipped the first Quatermass and went direct to the second because, unfortunately, two-thirds of Series One, named The Quatermass Experiment (1953), is lost. Episodes Three, Four, Five and Six are gone, believed to no longer be in existence.

It's possible to watch the first two episodes as filmed and finish up by reading the available photocopied scripts of the remaining four if you really want to, although it's not necessary because, while it does reference what came before, Q II is a new story with a new threat.

If you did watch the previous two episodes, however, you'll notice that Professor Bernard Quatermass is no longer played by Reginald Tate.

Tragically, Tate died less than a month before shooting was due to begin. Instead of respectfully postponing the project the producers moved forward and quickly recast the role, which is how John Robinson came to be the titular scientist.

To his credit, Robinson did a fine job despite having had little time to prepare. He struggles in the final episode, but it's the weakest of the six and most of it is easily forgotten anyhow.

-Professor Bernard Quatermass as portrayed by John Robinson-

The Professor's daughter, Paula (Monica Grey), is employed at the laboratory. She's perhaps the most emotional one but only to a certain degree and often as a necessary foil to the driven men. Otherwise, she's the type of strong, intelligent female equal that 1950s TV series were capable of including but for whatever reason(s) rarely did.

It seems as if the actors sometimes — if not at all times — had a single chance to get it correct for the camera, one take and job done, as evidenced by the infrequent line errors being present in the final cut. But present too are the quick recoveries, just like stage actors do, pushing onward, making it seem less like a line-stumble and more like a real situational solecism.

(Edit: I've since learned that much of it was filmed as a live broadcast, so they really did have one chance to get it right. Even with the benefit of rehearsals, it would've been challenging.)

It would be easy for detractors or naysayers to pick apart the occasionally amateurish production methods in comparison to contemporary ones (or even to the subsequent big screen remake of the series), because the settings have the wobbly backgrounds you often see in stage productions that are operating beyond their budget, but if I'd been alive and watching Q II when it was first screened in 1966 I'm confident that I'd have been absolutely, utterly hooked.*

Each of the six episodes opens with a title card and a super-dramatic and stirring rendition of part of Gustav Holst's Mars, the Bringer of War (1914) that really gets you psyched. It's fair to say that it's perhaps the best part of the whole endeavour, but five of the six episodes don't disappoint - they're suspenseful, respectful to the topic, and at times even damn creepy, the latter being something that British-made science fiction frequently excels at.

*The big screen remake that I referred to above is Hammer Studio's Quatermass 2 (1957), directed by Val Guest and with actor Brian Donlevy in the title role.