1: Contact Has Been Established.

Prof. Bernard Quatermass is standing in the control room of The British Experimental Rocket Group, with his assistants Marsh, John Paterson and Judith Carroon. Their test rocket and it's three man crew has been missing for over fifty seven hours.  Judith's husband Victor is one of the crew.  A govt. minister called Blaker wants to issue a press statement saying the mission is a failure and will hamper future missions.  They are contacted by a tracking base in Australia before Blaker can issue his statement, they've picked up the ship on radar and it's heading back to Earth.  Soon the rocket group's ground technicians manage to guide the ship to re-entry, and all this time they have not made contact with the crew.  The ship crashes into an old lady's house near Wimbledon Common, the locals mistake it for a bomb.  The Daily Gazette dispatch reporter James Fullalove to investigate the news.  On arrival to the crash site, Quatermass makes a statement to Fullalove and other reporters.  Judith interrupts him, she can hear tapping from inside the ship.  When a BBC bulletin is broadcast it explains that the ship went off course by over 900,000 miles before returning to Earth.  Later the ship has cooled enough for the hatch to come off, and when it opens a single space suited figure staggers out, Victor Carroon.  When Quatermass and Marsh enter the ship  it is empty except for the two crumpled empty suits of  Victor's companions.  As they question Victor as to what happened, he collapses.

2: Persons Reported Missing

Victor is led to an ambulance, exhausted and suffering from shock.  Quatermass tells the reporters that the other Astronauts are missing, and then he, Paterson  and Marsh look inside the space craft, Paterson claims that there is evidence to suggest that the hatch has remained shut throughout the whole mission, Quatermass dismisses this, as he is trying to mislead the police.  At the hospital Victor is questioned by  Chief. Insp. Lomax and Judith, he is unnaturally cold, an his replies make little sense.  Judith explains to Lomax that the suit undergarment cannot be removed in one piece, Lomax leaves as Quatermass arrives, and Judith tells him that she had planned to divorce Victor on his arrival back from the mission,  and although she'd had an affair she couldn't leave her husband now. Quatermass discovers that the police had fingerprinted Victor and decides to get him away from any police involvement.  He goes to Lomax's office and protests at the police's treatment of Victor, and Lomax tells him of the other astronaut's space suits, the undergarments were in one piece.  When Carroon's fingerprints return, they find that one of the prints matches one of the other astronauts.  One of the missing astronaut's wife, Mrs. Greene, and Gordon Briscoe (Judith's lover) fly to London.  When Gordon checks Victor he has low blood pressure, coarsened skin, and his bone structure has changed. When Mrs Greene sees him he calls her by a  nickname only her husband called her.  Victor is show a tape of the rocket's take off in order to try to jog his memory, he replies by talking in German,  the native language of the crew member Reichenheim, and is asked questions that only  Reichenmein would know and are given the correct answers each time, Victor is asked his name and replies "Ludwig".  Paterson makes a discovery at the rocket site, inside the cabin there is a hard jelly  substance spread everywhere.

3: Special Knowledge

Briscoe and Lomax have taken samples of the jelly for examination. While back at Quatermass's office they listen to  a sound recording of the flight from inside the rocket, in it Victor has a seizure and starts to talk in German, a language he doesn't know. The recording finishes with a strange vibrating sound, of which Quatermass is certain that it's not the sound of the rockets. The jelly that Briscoe has checked turns out to be harmless dead cell tissue remains.  A scream from the sick bay makes Quatermass rush in to find Judith questioning her husband in German, Judith claims that Victor now has three different personalities.  Quatermass plays the sound recording to Victor, who while reliving the experience of when an unknown force hit the craft cries out as Reichenheim, and grabs Greene's empty space suit.  Victor breaks down in tears, and they then take him to a deserted house.  While Lomax calls for an ambulance, Quatermass wonders what it was that hit the craft.  Victor takes a sudden interest to a cactus plant, but it is taken away from him.  Victor tries to go to it, but is dragged away, Briscoe decides to leave him for a while, but when Judith goes to check on him a reporter breaks in intent on an exclusive photo, Victor sticks his hand into the cactus, then faces the reporter. Judith scrams on seeing his hand, the cacti and his hand are one, she pleads with the reporter to get back.  Briscoe breaks into the kitchen to find Judith standing over the dead reporter and Victor, and he pulls her out of the room. Suddenly, gunfire is heard and a car accelerates away.  They find the kitchen empty, Victor has been  kidnapped.

4: Believed To Be Suffering

Quatermass and Briscoe examine the reporters shrunken body, and also check the cactus remains, Quatermass believes that Caroon is undergoing a  biological change and urges Lomax to start a full extensive search for him.  Caroon is held at gunpoint in the car by Ramsay, and as Caroon starts to talk incoherently, he is asked to uncover his arm by Ramsay. Ramsay is horrified by Caroon's deformed limb and in panic he causes the car to swerve and then to crash.  Victor manages to escape the wreckage and takes shelter in an old ruined house in an old bombed site. Quatermass reads Briscoe's report on the examination of the reporters body, the energy was absorbed and the body was broken down into it's basic constituents.  Something from space had encountered the rocket, absorbed the two crew members then took over Victor Caroon.  Back at the house, a young boy finds Victor and he leads him to his favourite hideout, a cinema entered by a side entrance. Both the boy and Victor watch a Science Fiction movie, but then as a police message is shown seeking information about the missing Victor, Victor leaves.  When the boy is found to be without a ticket, he is taken to the manager where he tells his story. Realizing that the man with the boy and the missing man are one in the same, he calls the Police. Victor has entered a chemist shop, and the chemist realizes that he needs something for his arm, but when he sees the limb, the chemist screams and faints.

5: An Unidentified Species

Victor searches the jars in the dispensary and mixes the contents of some of the jars together and then drinks it.

Back at the cinema Lomax and Quatermass have arrived and hear the boy's story.  At the Rocket group. Paterson is resigning as he disagrees with Quatermass's methods and he tells Judith. The police ring and tell Briscoe that they have found the chemist shop after Victor's visit.  At the chemist, Quatermass is shown around and wonders what Caroon mixed together, the chemist tells him that it would be extremely poisonous. Although Lomax believes this to be an act of suicide, Briscoe believes this to be something to start a change in his body.  An analysis confirms the mixture to be enough to kill a man.   Quatermass thinks Victor used Greene's knowledge of chemistry to create the formula.  In St. James Park, Victor is crawling through the hedges half naked, his arm is now looking like a mass of vegetation. After a few hours, Victor's whole body has changed.  A report of dead birds in a lake in the park bring Lomax and Quatermass to investigate, the birds are deformed, Briscoe finds a moss like substance in the bushes.  Under examination, they can't tell if it's plant or animal, and they all realize that Victor is no longer a human form and these remains are what he was.  At Lomax's office while discussing a broadcast from Westminster Abbey, a drunk is brought in and tells a bizarre story, claiming to have seen a creature halfway up a wall.  While Quatermass examine the samples finding that they increase and show signs of sporing, Lomax heads to Westminster Abbey where on arriving he gives a warning of imminent danger. A camera reveals a form moving around in Poet's Corner in amongst the arches.

6: State Of Emergency

The building is evacuated, and the t.v cameras are used to observe the creature.  Briscoe discovers that the spores have infected laboratory animals, and it seems that nothing can withstand any infection. Lomax phones Quatermass about the discovery at Westminster, it seems that the creature hasn't reached a stage ready to spore yet.  Before Quatermass leaves he destroys the remaining samples by electricity.  As the creature grows they think that they have only two hours at most before until it has reached spore level. As the situation grows deeper, Quatermass broadcasts to the nation, informing them of all the past events, the rocket return, the creature inside the rocket and the danger the country finds itself in. He tells of his plan to destroy the creature and asks forgiveness if he fails.  Flame throwers are brought in by the Army, and Quatermass instructs of a quick plan to kill the creature. Paterson arrives and apologizes for his actions, he now wants to help and takes a flame thrower and starts to search the building with the soldiers.  Soon screaming is heard, and Quatermass finds the creature has found itself a secure point in the stonework, it is almost unreachable and the plan might not succeed.  Quatermass has a change of plan, and despite warning shouts he walks alone into the abbey till he stands in front of the creature.  He then proceeds to talk to the creature, appealing to the astronauts individually, calling on Victor Caroon, Charles Greene and Reichenman.  Judith Caroon brings the flight recording tape, realizing what his plan is.  The tape is played till it is heard throughout the Abbey.  The creature is quickly reaching sporing stage, as the tape reaches the point when the creature attacked the ship, Reichenman's voice is heard to cry " Try to fight against it ".  Quatermass urges the minds of the three astronauts to do the same.  The creature starts to shriek and thrash about, and the Abbey starts to shake.  The astronauts minds have turned against the creature, killing it, all that is left is a mass of dead tentacles and vegetation.  The panic is over.

Info

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 comprising 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 had been aimed at children, whereas adult sci-fi dramas had been adapted from literary sources, such as R.U.R. and The Time Machine. It was the first of four Quatermass serials to be screened on British television between 1953 and 1979.

The serial was written by BBC staff television drama writer Nigel Kneale, who had previously been an actor and an award-winning prose fiction writer before joining the staff of the BBC. He was interested in the idea of 'science going bad', and it was this interest in science and scientific concepts that led him to write The Quatermass Experiment. The serial was an expensive one: Head of Television Drama Michael Barry had to commit the majority of his original script budget for the year to the material. Kneale famously claimed to have picked his leading character's unusual-sounding name at random from a London telephone directory.

The serial was directed by Rudolph Cartier, one of the BBC's most highly regarded directors, and transmitted live with only a few pre-filmed inserts from Studio A of the BBC's original television studios at Alexandra Palace in London. It was one of the last major dramas to be broadcast from the Palace, as the majority of television production was soon to transfer to Lime Grove Studios.

The Quatermass Experiment was transmitted weekly on Saturday nights from July 18 to August 22, 1953. Episode one (Contact Has Been Established) was scheduled from 8.15 to 8.45 p.m., episode two (Persons Reported Missing) 8.25–8.55 p.m., episodes three and four (Very Special Knowledge and Believed to be Suffering) 8.45–9.15 p.m., and the final two episodes (An Unidentified Species and State of Emergency) from 9.00 to 9.30 p.m. In practice, however, due to the live transmissions each episode overran its slot slightly, from between two (episode four) and six (episode six) minutes. The long overrun of the final episode was caused by a temporary break in transmission necessitated by a failing microphone which needed to be replaced. The dramatic theme music for the serial was provided by Mars, Bringer of War from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite.

It was intended by the BBC that each episode should be telerecorded onto 35mm film, a relatively new process that allowed for the preservation of live television broadcasts. Sale of the serial had even been provisionally agreed with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In the event, however, only poor-quality copies of the first two episodes would be recorded before the idea was abandoned, although the first of these was indeed later shown in Canada. These two episodes are the oldest surviving examples of a multi-episodic British drama production and some of the earliest extant examples of British television drama at all, with only a few one-off plays surviving from beforehand.

Nigel Kneale went on to become one of the most highly regarded scriptwriters in the history of British television following the success of The Quatermass Experiment. As well as the various Quatermass spin-offs and sequels, he penned such acclaimed productions as Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Stone Tape. Kneale also appeared on-screen, in a sense, in the final episode of the serial: he 'played' the monster seen in Westminster Abbey at the climax, his hands operating the 'creature' stuck through a photographic blow-up of the interior of the Abbey. The monster was actually made up of gloves covered in various pieces of plant and other material, prepared by Kneale and his girlfriend, later wife, Judith Kerr.

Rudolph Cartier had emigrated from Germany in the 1930s to escape the Nazi regime there, and was already one of the BBC's top television directors, once described as "the man largely responsible for the genre as we know it". He went on to collaborate with Kneale on several further productions, and became a major figure in the British television industry, directing such important productions as Kneale's Nineteen Eighty-Four adaptation, the two further BBC Quatermass serials, and one-off plays such as Lee Oswald: Assassin.

Of the cast, Quatermass himself was played by the experienced Reginald Tate, who had appeared in various films including The Way Ahead. Sadly, he was to die just two years later, while preparing to take the role of the Professor again in Quatermass II. Victor Carroon was played by Scottish actor Duncan Lamont, who later appeared in the film Mutiny on the Bounty and as a different character in the film adaptation of Quatermass and the Pit. Appearing briefly as a drunk was Wilfrid Brambell, who would later appear as a tramp in Quatermass II.

The Quatermass Experiment gained very favourable viewing figures for 1953, opening with an estimated audience of 3.4 million people for the first episode, building to 5 million for the sixth and final episode, with an overall average of 3.9 million for the entire serial.

As well as the ratings, the serial gained a very positive response from those who had watched, with several letters praising the production being sent to the BBC's listings magazine, the Radio Times. The writer and producer were also praised for their work by readers of TV News magazine, by which they were nominated for one of the publication's 'TV Bouquet' awards.

The popularity of The Quatermass Experiment did not go unnoticed in the film world, and Hammer Films quickly purchased the rights to make a feature film adaptation, which was released in 1955 and starred the American actor Brian Donlevy. It was directed by Val Guest, who also wrote the screenplay, and Nigel Kneale was very unhappy with the result—he had been unable to work on the project himself due to his BBC staff contract.

For the cinema, the film had been titled The Quatermass Xperiment, to play up the film's X-certificate status. In America, the film was re-titled The Creeping Unknown.

The BBC was also very pleased with the success of The Quatermass Experiment, and in 1955 a sequel, Quatermass II appeared. This was followed in 1958 by Quatermass and the Pit, and both of these also had feature film versions made by Hammer. The character returned to television in a 1979 serial, simply titled Quatermass, for Thames Television.

A script book of The Quatermass Experiment, containing several production stills from the missing episodes, was published by Penguin Books in 1959, and re-published in 1979 with a new introduction by Kneale.

In April 2005, BBC Worldwide released a boxed set of all their existing Quatermass material on DVD, containing digitally restored versions of the two existing episodes of The Quatermass Experiment as well as the two subsequent BBC serials and various extra material. This includes PDF files of photocopies of the original scripts for episodes three through six. However, they range in quality from illegible to (in an extreme case in episode six) unreadable.

On Saturday 2 April 2005, the BBC's digital channel BBC Four broadcast a live remake of the serial, abridged to a single one-hour-forty-minute special from the original six thirty-minute episodes, although it was scheduled in a two-hour slot—underrunning whereas most of the original episodes had overrun. Adapted from the original scripts by Executive Producer Richard Fell, the new broadcast was directed by Sam Miller. Kneale acted as a consultant, and the production was the BBC's first live made-for-television drama broadcast for over twenty years.

Actor Jason Flemyng played Quatermass, with Mark Gatiss as Paterson, Andrew Tiernan as Carroon and David Tennant as Briscoe. The broadcast suffered only a few errors with some fluffed lines, several on- and off-camera stumbles, background sounds occasionally obscuring the dialogue, and, at the programme's end, a cameraman and sound man in shot. On two occasions near the middle of the broadcast a large on-screen graphic advising viewers that a major news story — the death of Pope John Paul II — was being covered on BBC News 24 was overlaid onto the action.

The story was basically identical to the original, although set in the present day. The climax was moved from Westminster Abbey to Tate Modern (as the latter was easier to replicate in studio) and there is no visible monster.

Although the broadcast was live, the colour and contrast were manipulated to make the picture look more like film—a common practice in modern videotaped drama, but one that could be seen as ironic in this case. Drawing an average audience of 482,000, The Quatermass Experiment became BBC Four's second-highest rated programme of all time, behind The Alan Clark Diaries. The production was released on DVD, with an audio commentary and various other extra features, in October 2005.

The effect of the monster inside Westminster Abbey was achieved by using a pair of gloves covered in fake foliage stuck through a blown-up picture of the Abbey interior.

Broadcast live, this was the first BBC Drama to be recorded onto film via the 'telerecording' or 'kinoscope' process. Telerecordings were made by filming the image off a specially designed TV screen with a film camera (either 16mm or 35mm.) Unfortunately, the results were judged to be unsatisfactory, and only the first two episodes were recorded, the rest being broadcast live. Because of this, only the first two episodes were preserved.

Commissioned by the BBC to fill a gap in its programming schedule.

Nigel Kneale was still writing the final episodes when the first episode was broadcast, and had only a vague idea how it would end.

Was to have been repeated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, but this never occurred since the final four episodes were either never recorded or were not kept by the BBC.

When BBC research revealed that 75% of the audience for the final episode had viewed all previous episodes, scepticism about the viability of a TV drama serial for adults was overcome, and the format went on to become a staple of TV programming in the UK and elsewhere.

Nigel Kneale picked the name Quatermass out of a contemporary London phone directory. The professor's first name was a reference to astronomer Bernard Lovell, the creator of the Jodrell Bank observatory.

André Morell was favored to play the lead.

In an unusual illustration of the problems encountered with early live broadcasts, the telerecording of the second episode ("Persons Reported Missing") is obscured by an insect which landed on one of the cameras during the broadcast.

During the scene in the Daily Gazette office at the start of Episode Two, the image collapses and turns negative before returning to normal. This was a fault during transmission preserved by the telerecording process.