1953 THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT (TV)
The name was everything. Commissioned to write a new Saturday night serial, Nigel Kneale nearly christened his hero Professor Charlton - but that was too mundane for the unsettling tale he had in mind. Scouring the London telephone directory the BBC staff writer pounced on Quatermass.
The surname belonged to an East End fruit seller, but it held a distinct magic: three syllables that suggested units of scientific measurement (quarter, mass) but in combination had a queasy, unknowable power, hinting at unearthly biologies. Fitting for a rational hero confronting alien forces - and perfect for a TV drama set to bring a shudder of the uncanny to post-war Britain. With one curious, inexplicable word, Quatermass defined itself.
The world was still four years away from the launch of Sputnik, the triumph of the Soviet space program, but Kneale's story was already electrified by the paranoia around mankind's next frontier. "It was... something that was just beginning to be talked about in sensible, serious newspapers," he recalled. In fact The Quatermass Experiment would be the first original science fiction production expressly written for an adult audience in Britain.
The six-part serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass investigate the fate of the first manned rocket into space. The craft crashes back to London, its sole survivor mutating into a monstrous extraterrestrial lifeform. Reginald Tate was cast as the pioneering boffin, head of the British Experimental Rocket Group, and defined the character as a principled moral force. "He was troubled and bothered and anxious and very energetic at the same time," Kneale remembered. "Absolutely super."
Denne historien er fra September 2023-utgaven av SFX UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra September 2023-utgaven av SFX UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
True Detective - The Only Way Is Essex for Jessica Jones in Lisa Jewell's first Marvel Crime novel
Known for bestselling psychological thrillers such as Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs, Jewell says she initially overemphasised the Marvel Universe’s fantastical elements before realising that she should simply trust her natural instincts. “I went too far on many occasions and had to keep cutting stuff out because I’d end up with stuff like a huge underground lab full of mad scientists,” she laughs.
Future Shock - Futurama's David X Cohen talks about what's in store for the show's ninth season
Futurama's David X Cohen talks about what's in store for the show's ninth season
Who Says
The Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz return - we're all ears
Parallel Doomsday
Terminator Zero creator Mattson Tomlin explains where the anime series fits within canon
Growing Your Hare
Daniel Kokotajlo talks about his '70s-set folk horror film Starve Acre
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
TRIPS INTO TREK HISTORY PROVIDE SOMETHING OLD AND SOMETHING NEW FOR STAR TREK: DISCOVERY COSTUME DESIGNER ANTHONY TRAN
DAY OF THE JACKAL
TALKING TIME, TECH AND MYSTERIES IN PART TWO OF OUR INTERVIEW WITH DOCTOR WHO SHOWRUNNER RUSSELL T DAVIES
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES IN VINTAGE STYLE IN BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER
BATMAN IS NOT FRIENDLY,\" insists Bruce Timm. \"He has to be weird. It's not just enough for him to dress up like a weirdo - he has to be a weirdo.
KAOS THEORY
THE LIVES OF GODS AND MEN ARE ENTWINED IN KAOS MEET THE TEAM BEHIND NETFLIX'S EPIC DARK COMEDY
POWER UP
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER SHOWRUNNERS JD PAYNE AND PATRICK MCKAY PROMISE PLENTY OF TOLKIEN TREATS IN SEASON TWO