Monday, July 7, 2014

QUATERMASS II / BBC TV Mini Series - 1955

It's British Sci-Fi Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a rare 6 episode, 3 hour mini TV series produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation from the story by Nigel Kneale. Nigel also wrote THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT for the 1953 BBC TV mini series, QUATERMASS AND THE PIT for the 1958-9 BBC TV series and QUATERMASS for the 1979 BBC mini series, all of which were made into movie versions.

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip from this British TV series, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the vintage space helmet, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... QUATERMASS II!

Here's the rocket built by Professor Quatermass and his crew, he's trying to perfect a dangerously unstable nuclear-powered rocket engine.

John Robinson plays Professor Quatermass, aka, The Rocket Man! Take that, Elton John!!

While visiting the Professor, Captain Dillon draws attention to strange meteorite fragments that fell during an Army training exercise.

Quatermass and Dillon decide to investigate and discover the Professor's Moon Project facility being built in full scale. After coming in contact with noxious gas contained inside a meteorite, Dillon is taken away by the plant's security guards.

Quatermass finds this nearly complete meteorite and asks his men to come up with the original design of the thing before it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

Then, while visiting the facility, which is supposed to be manufacturing synthetic food, Mr. Broadhead accidently falls into a vat of the corrosive slime!

This great looking logo for the BBC pops up in the middle of the show, nice little bonus!

Quatermass dresses in a guard's uniform to escape detection and catches a glimpse of one of the freaky alien blob creatures inside a dome!

In order to save Earth, the Professor has to convince this infected soldier to let him and Dr. Pugh board the rocket and launch it into space, and... It works!

Quatermass and Pugh plan on going to the asteroid where the creatures are coming from and destroy it before things get worse!

But, the doctor decides to sabotage the plan and Quatermass destroys his gravity device, sending him spiraling into space!!

Quatermass barely escapes in the nose cone as the creatures try and cover the rocket. The Professor makes it safely back to Earth for more sci-fi adventures, so, worry not... Check in Wednesday to see what Eegah!! has brewing!
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6 comments:

  1. iainJuly 7, 2014 at 9:45 PM

    Marvelous screen caps! Thank you! I had never seen those final moments before.
    And of course the movie version (AKA Enemy from Space) is one of the Great British Movies - a post-war anxiety parable that Director Val Guest interprets in a wonderfully moody, oppressive, sinister monochrome (the Professor finally went into color with Quatermass & the Pit - AKA Five Million Years to Earth); Quatermass 2 was filmed not far from where I was born and raised, on the coast of Essex UK.

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  2. TABONGA!July 8, 2014 at 8:54 AM

    iain - we value your commentary, thanks..

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  3. Randall LandersJuly 8, 2014 at 1:15 PM

    I always love Quatermass because he's, well, a bit of a dick. Here we have a scientist who's convinced he's always right...and he is. :)

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  4. Half ArseJuly 11, 2014 at 9:09 PM

    Half my life I thought it was Quartermass, and I thought so like what's the big deal, Halfmass or Threequartermass both gave you more bang for your buck!

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  5. Douglas McEwanJuly 12, 2014 at 10:39 PM

    I have this serial, and I really like it. Though the movie Enemy From Space has a bigger budget and better production values, at twice the running time, Quatermass II is able to take the story farther. That said, John Robinson, who plays Quatermass, is a bit of a stiff.

    Two actors in it who are well worth mentioning are, first off, the great Hugh Griffith as Dr. Pugh. A tremendously famous actor, yet you left out his name even from the caption of his photo. You don't expect an actor of his stature to pop up in a cheapie sci-fi TV serial.

    Also of interest is Roger Delgado, the original The Master on Doctor Who, in the role of the heroic reporter who is killed, a role played by the legendary Sidney James in the movie version. It is very, very rare to see Roger Delgado play a good guy.

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  6. TABONGA!July 12, 2014 at 11:57 PM

    You're right Douglas, I definitely should have mentioned Hugh Griffith - Thanks for the excellent info..

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