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As always there are spoilers ahead!
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As mentioned on the podcast here is an outline of the Quatermass offerings:
FILM
1955: The Quatermass Xperiment AKA The Creeping Unknown (dir, Val Guest)
1957: Quatermass 2 AKA Enemy from Space (dir. Val Guest)
1967: Quatermass & the Pit AKA Five Million Years to Earth (dir. Roy Ward Baker)
1979 The Quatermass Conclusion (recut from TV series, dir. Piers Haggard)
2005 The Quatermass Experiment (Live TV movie, dir. Sam Miller)
Radio
1996: The Quatermass Memoirs
TV Series
1953: The Quatermass Experiment
1955: Quatermass II
1958-59 Quatermass and the Pit
1979 Quatermass (AKA Quatermass IV or The Quatermass Conclusion)
2005 The Quatermass Experiment (Live)
Professor Bernard Quatermass was created by British superstar screenwriter Nigel Kneale and aired on the BBC in 1953. The TV series went on to great popularity and Hammer Films eventually came knocking for film rights.
Nigel Kneale did not have any rights over the character due to being a staff writer at the time but would eventually go on to international fame especially in sci-fi and horror circles with John Carpenter (amongst others) being a vocal fan.
Despite all this many people have not heard of Quatermass. Although there have been many attempts to revive the franchise none have come to fruition.
But that won't stop me seeking out two of the best academics to talk excitedly about their passion for this early TV sci-fi pioneer.
Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has written/edited extensively about science fiction cinema.
Matthew Rule-Jones is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Exeter. A doctor of science fiction who likes to write about cinema including the book Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain: Recontextualising Cultural Anxiety.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:24 Nigel Kneale
06:28 Rudolph Cartier and changes in TV
08:22 Hammer films and Quatermass
13:09 The many iterations of Quatermass
22:04 The traditional tinkering British scientist
26:47 From TV to Film
32:44 Quatermass 2 and the 1950s
41:30 Aliens!
48:58 Kneale and Victorian influences
52:21 Legacy
57:47 Recommendations
Recommendations
Sapphire & Steel (1979-1982, TV series)
Event Horizon (1997)
NEXT EPISODE!
Next episode we take a break from science fiction films to talk to two experts about science fiction and architecture. Then we're heading into 1968 so wish me luck!