The Quatermass Collection - The Quatermass Experiment / Quatermass 2 / Quatermass And The Pit

Customer Reviews:

A message to the unconvinced........2007-10-05

How can an early television production of this era still deserve the sort of critical acclaim and all the time and money spent on it's restoration? Younger people will probably see this as a nostalgia-fest for the elderly and so I felt that it was worth adding some comments from someone who was only a few months old when the last of these was first shown on British television. I grew up with my parents repeating (ad nauseaum) glowing reminiscences of returning home from work to see each episode in a sociable buzz of anticipation as the entire viewing population made for the nearest available TV. The (fascinating) booklet included here tells how one north London telephone exchange did not connect a single call during the broadcast of the last episode of Quatermass and the Pit. The estimated viewing figures (between 11 and 13 million for that last episode) are astounding when you think of how many households actually had a television set at this time. So what makes them so special and are they still worth seeing?
The first two productions are primitive but ingenious. The acting is sometimes awkward but never poor and the main characters are often outstanding. I was very frustrated that the last four episodes of the first series have been lost because it is clear that Reggie Tate was a superb Quatermass and the storyline is strong.
I find Quatermass II fine but weakened by the primitive production and a rather stiff and unsympathetic Quatermass from John Robinson. (I know many other reviewers disagree with me here).
However, I feel that absolutely no apologies need be made for the "...Pit". Here everything comes together in a way that I found completely absorbing. By this stage, the production was about the best that TV could offer and there were none of those "cardboard" moments to undermine the atmosphere for me (as happened in the last episode of "II"). The script is superb and the acting from a large cast (that seemed to include every British character actor available) was brilliant. I found the hair standing up on the back of my neck. The story is plausible and chilling and the pacing from episode to episode wonderfully well judged. I watched the first four episodes on successive nights but lost the discipline and just had to watch the last two back to back. How the British public coped with the suspense, I will never know.
Instead of the ludicrous gore-fests that pass for horror these days, try these thought-provoking and very creepy chillers. Absolutely brilliant and congratulations to the superb job done by the restoration team.

A wonderful slice of 50s science fiction drama!.......2005-09-26

This marvellous box set brings together all of the existing episodes of the BBCs deservedly lauded 50s phenomenon. The two existing parts of "The Quatermass Experiment" (1953) allow us a rare glimpse of how a BBC drama of the period of British TV's first explosion in ownership was staged. This serial gripped the viewers and it's easy to see why as it's totally unlike anything else aired up to this point. Reginald Tate makes a comelling Quatermass and it's a shame that the rest was never recorded for posterity. All three serials were broadcast live, with filmed inserts used where necessary.

Quatermass II (1955) takes advantage of a further two years of technological development in TV and is a more accomplished production than the first, with ambitious and effective location filming and pioneering visual effects work from Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie. Quatermass himself is less memorable, played this time by John Robinson, who was drafted in at short notice after the sad death of Reginald Tate during the serial's pre-production. There are strong turns from Hugh Griffith and future Master, Roger Delgado. The story is an exceptionally strong one, with Quatermass dealing with aliens who have already landed and begun to infiltrate humanity - a clasic 50s scenario.

The last of the three serials is also the best. "Quatermass and the Pit" certainly does not disappoint both in terms of story and production, which for the time was lavish and extremely imaginative. Quatermass is this time played by Andre Morell, who could have been made for the part, and he is given excellent support by Cec Linder, Anthony Bushell, John Stratton and Christine Finn.

All of these stories, particularly the last, benefit greatly from a superb restoration job undertaken as a labour of love by the BBC's Dr. Who Restoration Team. The films have been lovingly cleaned, sound significantly sharpened and the film prints of "The Pit" have also been put through the VidFIRE process, which restores their original appearance as live video transmissions. The film sequences are of particular note, with many being sourced from the original 35mm prints.

This DVD set is a must for fans of the science fiction genre and of classic tv drama in general and if you have any interest in eother of these you won't be disappointed. Last, but not least, the discs are accompanied by an exhaustively researched booklet courtesy of walking TV encylopedia Andrew Pixley. This covers anything you'd want to know about the three serials.

Quatermass Extravaganza.......2005-09-08

It's nice going back to my childhood when things like Quatermass and Dr.Who were quite wonderful and frightening to a young child.At that time everything on TV was in glorious black and white. Seeing them now on DVD such nostalgia is a double-edged sword. Firstly everthing was so studio bound with dodgy sets and lo-fi Special effects which are quite laughable now. The acting was old-fashioned yet quaint, and done mostly in received pronounciation.Maybe this part of the appeal of the set
You also have to be tolerant with the low quality picture but remember TV was very basic then and with the best clean-up procedures available wouldn't make them any better. Apart from that the two TV serials are quite entertaining and the "Pit" film is probably the best of the three on this trip down to clasic SCi-Fi drama.

Pure delight.......2005-05-02

These are the television series that gripped a generation - or would have if we'd all had a telly. Millions watched, tormented by the need to know what happened next. There were no other TV stations to distract or compete. There was only the BBC and they only had one station and were, themselves still learning how to make good programmes for the small screen. Then Nigel Kneal (writer) and Rudolph Cartier (producer) came along and showed how it could be done: how to get a lot of image onto the small television screens of the 1950s, how to get an audience hooked and eager to tune in again for the next episode, how to tap into an audience's imagination and set it a-going.

These DVDs were delivered only a couple of days ago and I've watched them all twice so far. It's very rare that I will watch a modern film through twice within a few days. What makes this old Quatermass series so compelling? It's not just nostalgia (though that plays a part). I believe it's the way they force you to use your imagination. Fans of the modern films that employ all sorts of computer generated tricks and have access to enormous budgets may not appreciate this. After all, it's all in black and white and the special effects, although ingenious, might seem crude by today's standards. The acting, at least from the main characters is pretty good - if a bit melodramatic. The picture and sound quality of 'Quatermass II' and 'Quatermass and the Pit' are fairly good, but only two episodes of the first series, 'The Quatermass Experiment' still exist and some of the images are showing their age (and you may find that you're glad of the subtitle facility when watching those two episodes first time). It was a good idea to include the scripts of the missing episodes, but they are photocopied from old type-written documents, about 40 pages each missing episode - you'd need to be a very determined fan to attempt to decipher them.

Despite the disadvantages, these three Quatermass series still make a wonderful viewing experience. The limitations of the technology actually help by requiring the audience to use their imagination. The human imagination is exponentially more powerful than any CGI special effects. In the time before brilliant special effects, the filmmakers colluded with the viewers to ratchet up the fear and tension using the viewers' imagination as the seed bed to grow suspense, excitement, awe. I enjoy modern films and the special effects impress me, but once the film maker has shown me everything, leaving my imagination more or less redundant, there's no reason to watch the film again very soon. But shows like these, that don't reveal everything, make it possible for you to form your own image of the monster/scene/action, and thereby engaged you at a deeper level, so the programmes can grip you again and again as your imagination reawakens the old monster and adds to it. That's how the Quatermass series works for me. They feed the parts of my mind that the clever, modern films don't reach.

I recommend these series to all whose imagination is in good working order.

This isn't the Pits.......2005-04-26

As pure and as entertaining as sci-fi gets. Black and white, with rather primitive special effects, this BBC series from the sixties nevertheless hits so many nails on the head that it's close to being a masterpiece. The atmosphere and the undercurrents gave me the shivvers for days....this is a delightful example of when telly was exciting without being drowned by big budgets. It's the thinking man's Dr.Who.

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