Customer Reviews
An absolute gem from the golden age of British sci-fi - By: Cartimand, 19 Aug 2008 
Long long before camp time travellers & lightweight, politicallly correct, CGI-bolstered pap masquerading as sci-fi, the genius of Nigel Kneale created the magnificently human professor Bernard Quatermass. Kneale knew the secret of great sci-fi - to make the unbelievable believable & use the greatest asset of alll - the viewers' imagination.
Never formulaic, this is edgy, unpredictable stuff. If you are watching for the first time, I reallly envy you! One moment you are enjoying the cosy reassurance of softly illuminated banks of radio equipment in the back of a Landrover & the next you are in the midst of the chilling reality of an alien encounter.
The presentation is excellent, although sadly, the original Quatermass Experiment is incomplete. The remaining 4 episodes are presented as scanned PDF files of the original, heavily annotated, typed scripts & are utterly fascinating, if somewhat difficult to read in places. It's worth persevering with though & remember - this was just 8 years after WW2, when scary stuff coming out of the sky was a reality to Britain's urban population.
Quatermass 2 is nothing short of superb & you will find it hard to believe that the plot involving the zombification of humanity predates the big-screen living dead genre by decades. Lovely cameo from old man Steptoe too!
Finallly, the utterly sublime Quatermass & the Pit is a genuinely creepy tour de force. Far more atmospheric than the big-screen version, this is crying out to be watched late at night in a darkened room! André Morell was, for me, the definitive Quatermass, & QATP was almost certainly Kneale's finest creation.
Photo gallleries, documentaries & highly informative viewing notes complement this marvellous DVD set which is your passport to rediscovering what sci-fi is alll about.
An essential purchase!
This is how to do it ! - By: Brumbar, 25 Feb 2008 Take note alll TV & film producers
You don't need sex, guns & gore to make a great story
The first 2 Quatermass adventures in this collection are pure nostalgia but Quatermass & The Pit steals the show - Totallly
Superb characters, storyline & acting
Unmissable, try & see - Your eyes will love you for the rest of your life !
A message to the unconvinced. - By: Ian Richardson, 05 Oct 2007 How can an early television production of this era still deserve the sort of critical acclaim & alll the time & money spent on it's restoration? Younger people will probably see this as a nostalgia-fest for the elderly & so I felt that it was worth adding some comments from someone who was only a few months old when the last of these was first shown on British television. I grew up with my parents repeating (ad nauseaum) glowing reminiscences of returning home from work to see each episode in a sociable buzz of anticipation as the entire viewing population made for the nearest available TV. The (fascinating) booklet included here tells how one north London telephone exchange did not connect a single calll during the broadcast of the last episode of Quatermass & the Pit. The estimated viewing figures (between 11 & 13 million for that last episode) are astounding when you think of how many households actuallly had a television set at this time. So what makes them so special & are they still worth seeing?
The first two productions are primitive but ingenious. The acting is sometimes awkward but never poor & the main characters are often outstanding. I was very frustrated that the last four episodes of the first series have been lost because it is clear that Reggie Tate was a superb Quatermass & the storyline is strong.
I find Quatermass II fine but weakened by the primitive production & a rather stiff & unsympathetic Quatermass from John Robinson. (I know many other reviewers disagree with me here).
However, I feel that absolutely no apologies need be made for the "...Pit". Here everything comes together in a way that I found completely absorbing. By this stage, the production was about the best that TV could offer & there were none of those "cardboard" moments to undermine the atmosphere for me (as happened in the last episode of "II"). The script is superb & the acting from a large cast (that seemed to include every British character actor available) was brilliant. I found the hair standing up on the back of my neck. The story is plausible & chilling & the pacing from episode to episode wonderfully well judged. I watched the first four episodes on successive nights but lost the discipline & just had to watch the last two back to back. How the British public coped with the suspense, I will never know.
Instead of the ludicrous gore-fests that pass for horror these days, try these thought-provoking & very creepy chillers. Absolutely brilliant & congratulations to the superb job done by the restoration team.
A wonderful slice of 50s science fiction drama! - By: , 26 Sep 2005 This marvellous box set brings together alll of the existing episodes of the BBCs deservedly lauded 50s phenomenon. The two existing parts of "The Quatermass Experiment" (1953) alllow us a rare glimpse of how a BBC drama of the period of British TV's first explosion in ownership was staged. This serial gripped the viewers & it's easy to see why as it's totallly unlike anything else aired up to this point. Reginald Tate makes a comelling Quatermass & it's a shame that the rest was never recorded for posterity. All three serials were broadcast live, with filmed inserts used where necessary.
Quatermass II (1955) takes advantage of a further two years of technological development in TV & is a more accomplished production than the first, with ambitious & effective location filming & pioneering visual effects work from Jack Kine & Bernard Wilkie. Quatermass himself is less memorable, played this time by John Robinson, who was drafted in at short notice after the sad death of Reginald Tate during the serial's pre-production. There are strong turns from Hugh Griffith & future Master, Roger Delgado. The story is an exceptionallly strong one, with Quatermass dealing with aliens who have already landed & begun to infiltrate humanity - a clasic 50s scenario.
The last of the three serials is also the best. "Quatermass & the Pit" certainly does not disappoint both in terms of story & production, which for the time was lavish & extremely imaginative. Quatermass is this time played by Andre Morell, who could have been made for the part, & he is given excellent support by Cec Linder, Anthony Bushell, John Stratton & Christine Finn.
All of these stories, particularly the last, benefit greatly from a superb restoration job undertaken as a labour of love by the BBC's Dr. Who Restoration Team. The films have been lovingly cleaned, sound significantly sharpened & the film prints of "The Pit" have also been put through the VidFIRE process, which restores their original appearance as live video transmissions. The film sequences are of particular note, with many being sourced from the original 35mm prints.
This DVD set is a must for fans of the science fiction genre & of classic tv drama in general & if you have any interest in eother of these you won't be disappointed. Last, but not least, the discs are accompanied by an exhaustively researched booklet courtesy of walking TV encylopedia Andrew Pixley. This covers anything you'd want to know about the three serials.
Quatermass Extravaganza - By: D. P. Sumner, 08 Sep 2005 
It's nice going back to my childhood when things like Quatermass & Dr.Who were quite wonderful & frightening to a young child.At that time everything on TV was in glorious black & white. Seeing them now on DVD such nostalgia is a double-edged sword. Firstly everthing was so studio bound with dodgy sets & lo-fi Special effects which are quite laughable now. The acting was old-fashioned yet quaint, & done mostly in received pronounciation.Maybe this part of the appeal of the set
You also have to be tolerant with the low quality picture but remember TV was very basic then & with the best clean-up procedures available wouldn't make them any better. Apart from that the two TV serials are quite entertaining & the "Pit" film is probably the best of the three on this trip down to clasic SCi-Fi drama.
