deletewindowson I was lucky enough to find this on YouTube and have rewatched it a couple of times. Definitely IMO as well, it's the best of all the Quatermass offerings. I know that most people will disagree. Oh well. What makes this work is precisely what some would complain about: it's clunky. Very clunky. Funky and clunky. But I like that. Why I don't know. The main actor is.. let's say it: he's terrible. This was live television back when. Maybe that's the charm: they make mistakes. I like that. The man slotted for the part died and this fellow was brought in. Supposedly he "had trouble" with the "technical parts" of his lines. Hmm. I don't know. I just think he was a bad actor. But, as I said, I like that. Don't know why. The space trip is a riot. Really enjoyed it. Especially when they're walking around on the "asteroid". It's wonderfully ridiculous. They wear spacesuits that make them look like giant dildos. No kidding. And yet the series is actually frightening. As clunky as it is it still manages to provide a chill. Don't forget.. this was just after WW2.. after Naziism and Fascism in Europe and the rise of absolutist Communism in Eastern Europe. Therefore you could see the series as metaphor for the fascist or communist usurpation of power in the UK. That's where the chill comes from. Normal people easily corrupted and turned into grim fascist goons working for hideous monsters. That is a metaphor that still resonates and somehow the clunkiness amplifies the effect. For me anyway. You probably wouldn't see it that way. Oh well.

Theo Robertson I have to passsionately disagree with people who have come onto this page claiming this is the best of the QUATERMASS serials . I`ve not seen the original BBC QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT but both QUATERMASS AND THE PIT and the 1979 ITV serial are far better than this .!!!! POSSIBLE SPOILERS !!!!The script as you would expect from Nigel Kneale is fairly good but far from his best and there is a slight problem watching this in 2004 and that is the basic plot of mankind being infiltrated by pods taking over human beings has been done to death over the years . We`ve seen three versions of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS , alongside THE PUPPET MASTERS , THE INVADERS etc the plot is rather stale now though to be fair the aliens in this are totally apolitical as compared to being communist . Another thing you`ll notice if you`re watching this on a pirate video tape is that the story itself is very episodic ie when character A is killed off after their use to the plot is finished character B is introduced to push the story forward and after they die character C comes along . Obviously people didn`t notice this when the episodes were broadcast in 1955 but it`s strange when Kneale wrote THE PIT he included a radio report in the first episode which ties in with Quatermass`s TV speech in the final scene . Here there`s no such cohesive flourishBut what more or less ruins the serial are the technical aspects . The acting is to put it kindly patchy at best with only Roger Delgado , Rupert Davies and Hugh Griffith putting in any type of convincing performance . John Robinson was cast at very short notice in the title role and it`s painfully obvious he`s not had enough time to learn the lines never mind get into character which does bring the proceedings down and the rest of the cast give either laughably over emphatic performances , are totally wooden or sound like Dick Van Dyke in MARY POPPINS . To be fair no one from a working class background became actors in the 1950s so maybe I shouldn`t criticise a bunch of RADA trained thespians trying to portray the proles but it`s difficult not to notice the manual workers don`t sound like manual workers , and Monica Grey who plays Paula Quatermass gives probably the most annoyingly stagey performance in the serialDirector Rudolph Cartier work is also patchy . When he`s good like in the classic scene where Quatermass looks into an inspection hatch and sees the alien pods hatching he`s excellent but since I`ve complained about the acting the director should bare some blame for that and there`s too many jarring scenes where it`s obvious location film footage cuts to a studio interior , but again because television was a fledgeling media I shouldn`t criticise too much . Alas Cartier`s biggest mistake is as producer where the serial`s climax takes place on an alien asteroid out in space . Considering the show was broadcast live with severe technical limitations it seems a bad idea from the outset on having the climax take place here as the final result shows , and am I alone thinking the Hammer film version took a more sensible approachSorry if I give the impression I disliked QUATERMASS 2 . I don`t but it`s a severe disappointment especially when I consider QUATERMASS AND THE PIT to be the greatest telefantasy series ever broadcast

uds3 By far the most frightening serial ever shown on British TV and in 1955 the Beeb took the unprecedented step of warning viewers before each episode that under no circumstances should children view this film and anyone of a nervous disposition would be best advised not watching. My own father, a man one would view as strongly masculine to the core was absolutely terrified at the concepts here and deeply disturbed by the music - Holst's Planet Suite: Mars: The Bringer of War. For years after and until his death in fact, he could never listen to that piece of music without leaving the room. I begged mum to let me watch it (I was 10) - she knew me well enough to let me thank God! The story by scifi specialist Nigel Kneale was hi-tech stuff then. Alien spores infiltrated the earth's atmosphere crashing to earth in small rock-size meteorites. On contact by individuals, the smallest stream of vapor would escape and enter the victim who became "one of them" - looking unchanged, but "taken over" body-snatcher style! As always, a major Government cover-up allowed an enormous domed plant to be built - quite impenetrable and unaccountable seemingly to anyone. Of course, once Bernard Quatermass was on the case, things moved along. The first real horror came at the end of episode 2 I think when Quatermass stumbles across some poor worker who has tumbled down a flight of metal steps having tried to get into the dome. He is covered with a black shiny resin burning him to death. Might sound a cack now, but in 1955 it was gruesome and horrific. As the extent of the "takeover" becomes apparent, Quatermass and his small team of assistants realise they must break into the dome at all costs. What they find is seared on my mind for all time. The dome is full of boiling slimy protoplasmic shapes which rear up as the camera pans closer..thats the only way to describe them, existing in an artificially created environment which is a replication of the conditions upon their own asteroid. As the credits rolled on that episode, not too many people in Britain would have been saying much! Ultimately, the dome is destroyed despite the "thing's" valiant attempts to defend their earth-base. The concluding episode saw the locating of the asteroid and Quatermass's final flight there to destroy the alien threat. One would today laugh at both the rocket and the alien life-forms as they all but crushed the ship in the dying seconds. You wouldn't have laughed in 1955!Val Guest's big screen remake: ENEMY FROM SPACE many years later, was certainly OK but could never hold a candle to this original work which as many have commented is just about impossible to find. I actually have a softcover book of this great film series, complete with the entire dialog and several plates from the old black and white serial. It is one of my favorite possessions.

Vigilante-407 Unfortunately, at the current time Quatermass II is really only available in bootlegs of varying quality. That's how I saw it, though the copy I found is of pretty good quality considering the rarity of the material. Like most folks, I watched all the movie versions of the Quatermass saga before seeing any of the hard-to-find BBC television serials. The effects are, of course better in the silver screen treatments, but the television serials let a lot more exposition and explanations get out, so things make even more sense and characters and situations get fleshed out in some rather interesting ways...the movie (Enemy From Space) has an unmanned rocket being launched at the aliens, while the serial has Quatermass and a fellow scientist taking the rocket up to face the aliens.John Robinson makes a great Quatermass...very arrogant and domineering, but at the same time you can sense some concern for humanity in the man. He's no quite as good as John Mills in the last installment of the series (The Quatermass Conclusion), but he does make the serial much more enjoyable than the movie (nothing against Brian Donlevy in that particular production).It's also fun to see Roger Delgado (best known as The Master on Doctor Who) in the role of the reporter who comes with Quatermass to the strange little town of Wynnerton Flats.Unless you frequent the newsgroups and video-trading circles, you don't have much chance of finding this little gem...but if you do, remember that it is definitely worth the four hours to watch.