Customer Reviews
If you lose your hat it will never be found - By: J. Edwards, 23 Mar 2008 
This series is very uneven, with some compelling sequences & fascinating concepts mixed in with one-dimensional characters & ludicrous situations. The quality of acting is inconsistent too, with often absurd dialogue. Having said that, it's still worth watching as an authentic taste of 70s TV sci-fi weirdness, the likes of which would never be made today, let alone shown in primetime.
Absolutely shocking! One I'll never forget! - By: , 11 Aug 2004 
Unlike most of the other reviewers for this, I did not see this when it was originallly transmitted, & when I received it for my seventeenth birthday, I expected it to be another monster flick from the sixties, produced as quickly as possible for a cold war paranoid audience.
Fact no. 1: This film is more than slightly depressing.
There; as obvious as that may seem to those who have seen it, it still has to be said.
In fact, it has an air of utter hopelessness in some parts. Nigel Kneale, instead of his usual way of slowly taking Quatermass from the normal world into the para-normal, starts us off in a post-Thatcher England (not reallly, as this was done in 79), yet so terrifying even by today's standards, that I can't imagine what effect it must have had back then.
Streets in London blocked by burnt-out cars, dead bodies, & endless trash effectively illustrate to state of urban decay. Most of the population is dead or in hiding. Though these aren't new ideas, it's the fact that these are only a backdrop for the story that makes them so effective.
After the inciting incident is set up in the form of a disastrous space flight, the opposing forces appear to us as the desire to run away, & the need to stand & fight. While the Planet People abandon reason, our heroes do not. Alas, it goes without saying, that the easy way is not the right one.
Quatermass' goal in thi story appears to be, believe it or not, the solemn search for his lost granddaughter. This is wonderful, because it serves to illustrate my favourite aspects of the Quatermass character, in that he isn't an action hero in the ordinary sense. The British Rocket group isn't a secret government spy agency (ok, it is reallly), but the point is that he is what just used to be known as a 'Good man', very much like Doctor Who, & this is how you can tell that this is the same Quatermass from the rest of the other films.
There is also a beautiful message in here about the generation gap, & this is carried through the film by a brilliant cast who reallly understand their roles.
On the more personal side, I found this an absolutely devastating blow to my mind. I suffered much grief because it meant so much; because I realised how little distance there is from this world & that world. I think something like this is meant to make you feel a bit guilty & weak; otherwise there would be little point. I hope you gain something from it like I did.
This set includes both the film & the television version, which, if nothing else, is interesting from a writer's point of view.
Recommended - By: Kenelm M. Averill, 29 Mar 2004 Well directed, well acted, some very impressive use of outdoor locations. Basicallly the plot is similar to the fifties Quatermass serials but injected with an added ingredient of youth counterculture & urban blight. The film version is worthy of a place next to the very best British genre material of the seventies. It also has the advantage of not being too over ambitious in the special effects department. What effects it does employ, such as the beam of light & yellow sky, are used very well.
More interesting than entertaining. - By: , 19 Feb 2004 A bit harsh maybe- after alll I shelled out a few £££'s on this merely on remembering it from childhood.
Having said that I found it very compelling towards the end though. Maybe that's Nigel Kneales writing- I've liked alll his Quatermass films........
Not to everyone's taste (my wife couldn't watch more than 10 minutes!).
I felt even the makers (actors, director & Kneale) had difficulty with this. Reading the background explains a lot of things- it was dogged with problems in production.
Definitely one for enthusiasts though good value overalll.
Huffity Puffity Ringstone Round - By: Neal Vincent, 15 May 2003 I was only a kid when I saw this mini-series, way back in 1979, but it was one of those programmes that stayed with you, its images etched into your brain... The dystopian near-future setting, the street gangs, the armoured taxi with "no cash carried" painted on the door, the mysterious beam of light from the sky striking the gathered crowds at the stone circle, the giant radio telescope dish... All etched indelibly - from one single viewing, 25 years previously. Unforgettable.
I'd been trying to track down a copy of this memorable series ever since, only having the paperback novel from the time as evidence it had ever existed ... so it was with great pleasure that I noted this long-overdue release.
So, how does it stand up today? Although unavoidably dated in places, it's still amazing - maybe even more so, as we're nearer to the future it predicted than we were back then... Nigel Kneale's interest in the links between folklore & sci-fi creates a unique atmosphere, as in alll his filmed works, & veteran director Piers Haggard maintains a sure hold over the unusual material, the fey tone of the work almost echoing that other great British nightmare-fairytale "The Wicker Man" in places. Other aspects are quite visionary, something I could only appreciate watching it again as an adult - the "pay-cops" (metropolitan contract police), the social decay due to no more oil, Britain described as a "third world country", the almost medieval pre-industrial populace eking out an existence amongst the rubble of society... And the scenes of armed riot police attempting to prevent the crowds of New Age Traveller-like "Planet People" from gathering at the stone circle are even more resonant now after the Tory era, & make you wonder if Nigel Kneale had a crystal balll next to his typewriter? I loved it then, & I love it even more now - if you're a fan of imaginative, thought-provoking, visionary British sci-fi then this unique work definitely deserves a place on your DVD shelf.
