The Quatermass Experiment

The Quatermass Experiment is a British television science-fiction serial, transmitted by BBC Television in the summer of 1953, and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. Originally comprised of six half-hour episodes, it was the first science-fiction production to be written especially for an adult television audience. Previous written-for-television efforts such as Stranger from Space (1951–52) had been aimed at children, whereas adult sci-fi dramas had been adapted from literary sources, such as R.U.R. (1938 and again in 1948) and The Time Machine (1949). It was the first of four Quatermass serials to be screened on British television between 1953 and 1979.

Plot

The story revolves around Professor Bernard Quatermass, head of the British Experimental Rocket Group, and begins with him anxiously awaiting the return to Earth of his experimental rocket ship and its crew, who have become the first humans to travel into space. The rocket is at first thought lost, having dramatically overshot its planned orbit, but eventually is picked up on radar and returns to Earth, crash-landing in Wimbledon, London.

Related Topics:
Bernard Quatermass - Radar - Wimbledon, London

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When Quatermass and his team reach the crash area and succeed in opening the rocket, they discover that only one of the three crewmen, Victor Carroon, remains inside. Quatermass and his chief assistant Paterson (Hugh Kelly) investigate the interior of the rocket, but are baffled by what they find. The space suits of the others are present, and the instruments on board indicate that the door was never opened in flight, but of the other two there is no sign.

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Carroon is gravely ill, being looked after by the Rocket Group's doctor, Briscoe (John Glen), who unknown to him has been having an affair with his wife, Judith (Isebel Dean). It is not just Quatermass who is interested in what happened to Carroon: the newspapers and Scotland Yard's Inspector Lomax are also keen to hear his story. Carroon is abducted by a group of foreign agents whose government wants the information they believe he has obtained about travelling in space, but it is clear that there is something very wrong. He seems to have somehow absorbed the consciousnesses of the other two crewmembers, and is himself slowly mutating into some hideous creature.

Related Topics:
John Glen - Isebel Dean - Scotland Yard

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Quatermass and his allies have to chase the rapidly transforming Carroon across London before he can wreak havoc, and corner him in Westminster Abbey as he fully transforms into a terrifying creature that will destroy the world...

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