Quatermass (1979)

Quatermass (also known as The Quatermass Conclusion or Quatermass IV) is a British television science-fiction serial, the fourth and final instalment in the famous Quatermass series. Written by Nigel Kneale, it was produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and broadcast on the ITV network in the autumn of 1979.

Plot

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At the beginning of the story, Quatermass has been living in retreat in the Scottish Highlands for some years, since his retirement from the British Experimental Rocket Group, where he worked during his previously-seen adventures. At the start of the opening episode he arrives in London, in search of his missing granddaughter for whom he has been caring since her parents (presumably - though never explicitly - Paula Quatermass and John Dillon from Quatermass II) were killed in a road accident in Germany.

Related Topics:
Scottish Highlands - London - Quatermass II - Germany

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Quatermass has also come to the city to appear as an invited guest on a television programme covering a meeting in space between Russian and American spacecraft. He is shocked to find the anarchy into which the city has descended, and the whole of the UK appears to have degenerated into a dystopic state.

Related Topics:
Russia - American - UK - Dystopic

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During the television programme on which he appears, Quatermass speaks out against the state of the space programmes, and is then shocked to see the two spacecraft destroyed by some unknown alien force. The astronomer Joe Kapp, a guest on the programme alongside Quatermass, takes him to his observatory in the country, away from the malice he is receiving for his comments on the programme.

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Quatermass is intrigued by the behaviour of a group of hippie-like youngsters known as the 'Planet People', who are gathering from across the country at various neolithic sites, led by the taciturn 'Kickalong'. Quatermass and Kapp observe a huge gathering of Planet People being destroyed at a local stone circle, Ringstone Round, although Kickalong and the other Planet People believe them to have been 'transported' to a better place.

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Slowly, as more and more people are killed and the alien influence increases the nihilistic, bleak outlook of the country and the world, Quatermass realises that the alien presence is attracted to a certain type of large gathering, which could be simulated to lead the force into a trap.

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Together with a group of elderly scientists who are immune from the destructive aura of the alien presence, with assistance from the army Quatermass constructs a lure for the alien menace at Kapp's laboratory. Using signals transmitted by his radio telescopes they plan to simulate the presence of a large crowd and then detonate a nuclear device as the alien arrives, hoping to warn it off returning to Earth.

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Quatermass volunteers to stay at the central point and detonate the bomb himself, and Kapp - whose family have been killed in one of the previous gatherings - stays with him. However, just as the alien presence is arriving, Kickalong and a group of Planet People arrive, attracted by the small stone circle near Kapp's house. Kapp tries to warn them off but is shot dead by Kickalong. Just at the moment when the presence has arrived and the nuclear device needs to be detonated, Quatermass suffers a massive stroke and finds himself unable to reach for the button: however, his granddaughter, one of the gathering Planet People, suddenly arrives at his side and guides his hand to it. The device successfully detonated, the alien presence is seemingly shaken off, and the serial ends on an optimistic coda, with the suggestion that life will gradually return to normal.

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