Bernard Quatermass

Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional character, created by the writer Nigel Kneale originally for BBC Television, who appeared in three influential BBC science fiction serials of the 1950s, and made his swansong in a final serial for Thames Television in 1979. A re-make of the first serial appeared on BBC Four in 2005. The character has also appeared in films, on the radio and in print over a fifty-year period. Kneale picked the character's unusual surname from a London telephone directory when stuck for an interesting name for the leading character in the script he was writing. Quatermass is an intelligent and highly moral British scientist, who continually finds himself confronting sinister alien forces that threaten to destroy humanity. In the initial three serials, he is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading up the British Experimental Rocket Group.

Influence

Quatermass became an iconic television hero during the 1950s, becoming a well-remembered part of British popular culture for many years afterwards. At the time of Quatermass and the Pit, the character's reach was such that the two most popular comedy programmes of the day, radio's The Goon Show and television's Hancock's Half Hour, both parodied the serial in episodes of their programmes.

Related Topics:
1950s - The Goon Show - Hancock's Half Hour

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The Quatermass themes of alien take-over of the human body, an alien invasion by stealth and conspiracy and alien influences dragging the human race into a dystopic future have influenced generations of science-fiction productions on television. The most popular British television science-fiction programme ever screened, Doctor Who, often produced serials that appeared to be heavily influenced by the Quatermass serials, much to Kneale's distaste as he was always a harsh critic of that particular programme.

Related Topics:
Dystopic - Doctor Who

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In particular, the 1971 Doctor Who serial The Dæmons uses concepts remarkably similar to Quatermass and the Pit. Also, in the 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks, in the midst of the storyline (set in 1963) the military scientific advisor Dr Rachel Jensen remarks to her colleague Alison, "I wish Bernard was here." Alison replies, "British Rocket Group's got its own problems..."

Related Topics:
1971 - The Dæmons - 1988 - Remembrance of the Daleks - 1963

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The previous year, 1987, the film director John Carpenter had released the film Prince of Darkness. Carpenter was a long-established Quatermass fan, and had previously commissioned Kneale to write the screenplays for the films ' (which Kneale had his name removed from as he was displeased at the almost total re-writing of the script by Carpenter) and a re-make of Creature from the Black Lagoon (which was never made). In Prince of Darkness, Carpenter not only features a 'Kneale University', but also credits his screenplay to 'Martin Quatermass'. The film's press and publicity information took the joke even further, claiming that Martin was the brother of the famous scientist Bernard Quatermass of the British Rocket Group. Kneale did not appreciate the joke, however: he was concerned that the Quatermass name may lead audiences to believe that he had some connection with the making of the film.

Related Topics:
1987 - John Carpenter - Prince of Darkness - Creature from the Black Lagoon

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Overall, Quatermass has either directly or indirectly influenced many science-fiction and horror films and television programmes, particularly in the UK but also in the USA and other parts of the world as well.

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