The Quatermass Experiment
1953 · BBC One · 30 min · 1 season
S01E06 · State of Emergency
Sun, 23 Aug, 5:45 am
A state of emergency is declared and the army is brought in. Quatermass plays the creature the rocket tapes and appeals to the last vestiges of humanity left in Carroon to fight what he has become. The creature finally dies, just before it is due to spore.
About
The Quatermass Experiment is a British science-fiction serial broadcast by BBC Television during the summer of 1953 and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005.
Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, it tells the story of the first manned flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third is behaving strangely. It becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world.
Episodes
- E01
Contact Has Been Established
Sun, 19 July· 30 minA British experimental rocket orbits the earth the capsule crashes back to Earth in Wimbledon, London. When the capsule is opened, only one member of the three-man crew emerges, Victor Carroon.
- E02
Persons Reported Missing
Sun, 26 July· 30 minVictor Carroon is subjected to various tests which indicate that he has taken on the identities of the other two men. Quatermass and Paterson find a gelatinous substance spread around the capsule's interior.
- E03
Very Special Knowledge
Sun, 2 Aug· 30 minCarron is taken back to the crash site and a recording of what happened during the orbit is played back to him, with disturbing results. A group of journalists try to kidnap him, but he, in turn, attacks one of them as he begins to change.
- E04
Believed to Be Suffering
Sun, 9 Aug· 30 minCarroon takes refuge inside a cinema (where a spoof film 'Planet of the Dragons', is on screen). He then goes to a chemist where he appears to in pain and his hand is seen to be badly mutated.
- E05
An Unidentified Species
Sun, 16 Aug· 30 minQuatermass picks up Carroon's trail and believes that the mixture of chemicals he has taken will accelerate his metamorphosis. Meanwhile, the killing starts - and Westminster Abbey a pulsating mass is revealed clinging to the building.
- E06
State of Emergency
Sun, 23 Aug· 30 minA state of emergency is declared and the army is brought in. Quatermass plays the creature the rocket tapes and appeals to the last vestiges of humanity left in Carroon to fight what he has become. The creature finally dies, just before it is due to spore.
Cast
Reginald Tate
Professor Bernard Quatermass
Isabel Dean
Judith Carroon
Hugh Kelly
John Paterson
Paul Whitsun-Jones
James Fullalove
Duncan Lamont
Victor Carroon
John Glen
Dr. Gordon Briscoe
Ian Colin
Detective-Inspector Lomax
Frank Hawkins
Detective-Sergeant Best