Quatermass: The Collection

Released: 4th April 2005. The three original and groundbreaking 1950s BBC television series, one of the very first regular sci-fi programmes on British television. In the first series, Reginald Tate plays Professor Bernard Quatermass, head of the British Rocket Group, an experimental research body. Awaiting the return of the first manned flight into space, Quatermass sees the rocket crash miles off course with two of its three-man crew having disappeared. Tests reveal the rocket was attacked, and in a London hospital the surviving crewman is undergoing a terrible metamorphosis. In 'Quatermass II' strange metallic meteorites rain down over Winnerden Flats, an eerie new town in the vicinity of a highly guarded chemical plant. Professor Quatermass (John Robinson) is intrigued to discover that contact with the meteorites causes an unusual infection, and is astonished to find that the chemical plant appears to be modelled after his own design for a moonbase - a design that enables life to thrive in an artificial atmosphere. Quatermass' investigation uncovers a sinister conspiracy that extends from government level to the zombie-like workers who will stop at nothing to protect the plant. In the third series, 'Quatermass and the Pit', Andre Morell stars as Quatermass, whose curiosity is aroused when ancient bones and a strange pod are dug up on a Knightsbridge building site. Closer inspection reveals the pod to be made of an unfeasibly strong material and to contain unidentifiable creatures inside it. Could this discovery begin to explain the string of disturbing events that have taken place in the area over the centuries, as well as the wave of sinister occurences that are now engulfing the entire city? A radical and controversial series at the time, 'Quatermass' developed many visual techniques that greatly influenced later BBC series like 'Doctor Who.' Includes the two surviving episodes of series one, as well as the complete six episodes of series two and three.