A Quality BBC Production of a Familiar Story
I'm a huge fan of the "Quatermass" feature film trilogy. "The Quatermass Xperiment" (a.k.a. "The Creeping Unknown,") "Quatermass 2" (a.k.a. "Enemy from Space") and "Quatermass & The Pit" (a.k.a. "Five Million Years to Earth") chronicle the deductive exploits of British scientist Professor Bernard Quatermass as he investigates inexplicable goings-on in London and in the English countryside. I first saw these films in my younger days as theatrical releases (the scene of the man staggering down the steps of a storage tank covered with smoldering alien sludge in "Quatermass 2" gave me nightmares for weeks), and I still enjoy re-watching them from time to time. Imagine my excitement, then, when I learned that these films were actually remakes of television programs that had...
It's an alien invasion!
This Quatermass serial is a bit like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Strange meteors start falling on an English town. Those that come in contact with these meteors experience exhibit a personality change. Rocket scientist Quatermass is called upon to examine the meteor fragments. His investigations lead him to a strange top secret government complex that, he is told, in manufacturing synthetic food.However, something far more sinister is actually happening at this complex.Quatermass' attempts to get official cooperation gets him nowhere. It's only after he sneaks into the complex he discovers the truth. It's all part of an alien plot. Anyway,, I thought this was a well acted and believable science fiction serial.
Bootleg, But Better Than Nothing
This DVD is probably a bootleg. The entire three-hour-plus serial is on one single-layer DVD-R,
so expect some compression artifacts in addition to the 1955-TV-show picture quality. The disc's
packaging is best described as slapdash. Little manufacturer information is given, there is no
indication that the BBC has licensed this release, and the graphics were clearly handled by
someone without one iota of design sense or even decent software. The printed sheet inside the
package merely copies the exterior graphics, is totally unnecessary, and adds to the price.
That said, the DVD is surprisingly watchable and enjoyable. I never thought that I'd be able to
see any of the Quatermass serials, so it's quite a treat. John Robinson as Professor Quatermass
reminds me of Fox's Bill O'Reilly, and I could not get that out of my mind as I watched. The
story itself is nearly identical to the far better-known movie version, known in the USA as...
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