After the world's first manned rocket returns to Earth with most of the crew missing, Professor Quatermass (Reginald Tate), head of the British Experimental Rocket Group and all-around boffin, finds himself embroiled in a 'closed-room mystery' that could lead to the extirpation of life on Earth as we know it. The series was the first original British sci-fi television program made for adults (adaptations of Capek's 'RUR' and Well's 'The Time Machine' had been made earlier) and set the standard for the generally excellent British sci-fi programming released over the next decade. The six part series, written by Nigel Kneale was broadcast live to an enthusiastic viewership at a time when less than 15% of British households had 'tellys', only two months after the televised coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (which also climaxed at Westminster Abbey) marked the debut of television as a major mass medium. BBC's plan was to record the broadcasts on 35mm film for rebroadcast and sale (a deal had been made with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) but the process was unsatisfactory and discontinued after the second episode (just as Quatermass gets his first real clue as to the whereabouts of the missing astronauts). Fortunately, Kneale's story was later made into a feature film by Hammer Film Productions (as 'The Quatermass Xperiment') so the resolution of the mystery can be watched (although I remain disappointed at not being to watch the original, as I preferred the BBC's two subsequent Quatermass series to their Hammer film incarnations). The story was also remade by the BBC in 2004 and, as the original was, broadcast live. The entire series had a budget of only 3500 £ but while frugalness is on display, the production is quite well done. The acting is great, especially Tate as the tetchy hard-driven Quatermass (unfortunately the talented actor died before he could reprise the role in 1955's Quatermass II). Too bad the last four chapters were never recorded, as Kneale's story was an excellent example of early 'realist sci-fi' and was one of the first teleplays to portray what was in fact an actual concern: what if a dangerous pathogen 'hitchhiked' back to Earth on a returning rocket. The show was made not long after the end of WW2, when the USA was eclipsing the U. K. as world's most powerful and influential democratic power, and British audiences would have appreciated the scene where the reporter announces that "This atomic rocket, the very first of its kind, is a tremendous technical advance...designed and built entirely by British brains and muscle". Even in its abruptly truncated form, Quatermass' first outing is well worth watching by sci-fi fans who can then follow the story to its conclusion though the Hammer version and wonder what the original was like. My rating is based on my impression of the original two episodes of the teleplay, what I have read about the series, and on Kneale's story as presented in the film version.
