The Quatermass Experiment BBC4 live 2005

[Tiffany]

I have just come across this DVD. Is it worth buying? Missed it when it was on TV.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Depends if it was the original series or the remake I preferred the original, although the remake was Ok ish.
Try and get a clip of it on youtube Tiff.

 

[Quatermass]

It's not like the original exists any more, WWD. Only two episodes exist any more from the original serial, and they're pretty crappy primitive telerecordings. The nearest I have come to enjoying the original serial is reading the scriptbook.

The remake is a fine enough way to enjoy the full story, even if it is abridged. Just don't expect to see the monster.

Anyway, I have the DVD.

 

[Tiffany]

Thanks Guys, I saw it when the original series was on TV, didn't know they had remade it. It isn't expensive so I think I'll get it soon & it has David Tennant in it too. Cor!!!!

 

[Quatermass]

The original serial was in 1953. :| Or do you mean the movie version?

 

[Tiffany]

The original serial was in 1953. :| Or do you mean the movie version?

Yes, I saw the original TV series in 1953, on our tiny b&w screen . The new version has David in it.

 

[Quatermass]

The original serial was in 1953. :| Or do you mean the movie version?

Yes, I saw the original TV series in 1953, on our tiny b&w screen . The new version has David in it.

Damn. All I will ever get to see of the monster is a picture in the scriptbook...

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

They repeated it a couple of times Q, if I remember correctly, I do remember the slimy monster but it's a bit hazy now.

 

[Quatermass]

They repeated it a couple of times Q, if I remember correctly, I do remember the slimy monster but it's a bit hazy now.

They can't have. The only episodes in existence are the first two, and they abandoned telerecording the others because it was crap at the time. There are currently only two complete versions of The Quatermass Experiment: the Hammer Horror version, and the 2005 remake.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Q they repeated it on BBC SCOTLAND, I saw it before the 60s you were not born before then I take it. : Out of the three II is my favorite I've seen them all.

 

[Quatermass]

WWD, from what I know, it's impossible for you to have seen a repeat. You may have seen it live, but there was no repeat of the whole serial. There was a plan to do the play again (like they did with Kneale and Cartier's version of Nineteen Eighty-Four), but they didn't.

From Wikipedia (italics added by me):

The BBC intended that each episode be telerecorded onto 35mm film, a relatively new process that allowed for the preservation of live television broadcasts. Sale of the serial had been provisionally agreed with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Cartier wanted the material available to use in trailers and recaps. Only poor-quality copies of the first two episodes were recorded before the idea was abandoned, although the first of these was later shown in Canada. During the telerecording of the second episode, an insect landed on the screen being filmed, and can be seen on the image for several minutes. It is highly unlikely that material from the third to sixth episodes of the serial will ever be recovered to the BBC's archives. The two existing episodes are the oldest surviving examples of a multi-episodic British drama production, and some of the earliest existing examples of British television drama at all, with only a few earlier one-off plays surviving.

In November 1953, it was suggested that the existing two episodes could be combined and followed with a condensed live production of the latter part of the story for a special Christmas omnibus repeat of the serial. This idea was abandoned. Although Cartier and star Reginald Tate were keen to make an all-film omnibus version for television, this also did not come to fruition.

Of course, if you have actually seen the original serial, that would have been something...

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I definitley did, the ants (Martians in the Pit was not anywhere near as good)and BBC Scotland was different as in telvised programmes to the London ones, just because it's on Wikipedeia does not mean it absolutely true I suppose you just had to be there.

 

[Quatermass]

I definitley did, the ants (Martians in the Pit was not anywhere near as good)and BBC Scotland was different as in telvised programmes to the London ones, just because it's on Wikipedeia does not mean it absolutely true I suppose you just had to be there.

I wish I was.

WWD, Wikipedia isn't the only source. I have a well-researched DVD booklet that came with a DVD of the Quatermass serials. They confirm what Wikipedia said. And this was in the days when virtually all television was live and almost never recorded, and repeats, due to rights issues, were rare. So either BBC Scotland broadcast the original serial at the same time as the rest of the UK, or else you saw the movie version. I sincerely hope it's the former, I'd love to quiz you on what memories you have.

It is a real pity that they never telerecorded the other four episodes.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I saw them all Q at the time well the ones that were televised, but I would not be much good at answering your questions as it was a rather long time ago, and a lot of water has flown under the bridge so to speak, my recollections are a bit hazy in parts although it did leave quite an impression on me as a young lad, and it made a change from Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers.

 

[Quatermass]

Actually, Nigel Kneale hated those sort of things . He even satirises them with a faux-3D science fiction adventure film called Planet of the Dragons in the fourth episode of The Quatermass Experiment. But then again, he hated Doctor Who and Blake's 7. :x

 

[Tiffany]

I saw them all Q at the time well the ones that were televised, but I would not be much good at answering your questions as it was a rather long time ago, and a lot of water has flown under the bridge so to speak, my recollections are a bit hazy in parts although it did leave quite an impression on me as a young lad, and it made a change from Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers.

Same here, WWD.

I remember the cactus looking thing growing out of the man's hand, but no details.
I think my favourite was Quatermass & the Pit. Where they discovered the space ship in the underground. Though the one with the sinister plants growing in the gas tanks (were they gas tanks?) was scary.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Like big mushrooms that blew up it that guys face when he bent down to look at it, QII was my favorite.