Quatermass – Series
Four (1979/A&E)
aka The Quatermass
Conclusion
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film/Episodes: B-
Before The X-Files, Dr. Who and Kolchak:
The Night Stalker, Professor Bernard Quatermass made his debut back in 1955
on the BBC. The brilliant professor was
taking on unreal, unusual phenomenon when few were familiar with what that
concept was. Three mini-series were
made by the BBC in the 1950s and Hammer Films did theatrical remakes of the
first two as well. In 1979, he returned
one more time and on his 50th Anniversary, A&E is issuing the
final Quatermass adventure in this new Quatermass set. This time, John Mills took over the role,
the fourth of four actors to play him on TV.
Thames took over producing this time, as an elder
Quatermass searches for his missing granddaughter. It is the late 20th Century and England, running out
of oil, has become a quasi-military state with gangs all over the streets. He meets scientist Joe Capp (Simon
MacCorkindale, later the lead in the disastrous American TV series Manimal)
who is on his way to a TV station.
Quatermass follows, in time to witness a U.S./Russian outer space
link-up. He is not happy with either
country and his critiques turn prophetic when something goes wrong. Then things get worse.
The mini-series imagines The Soviet Union still existing,
but they were off by about a decade.
Peter Hyams and Arthur C. Clarke would make the same mistake on a larger
scale with their ambitious, plodding, and doomed-to-failure 2010 five
years later. Like that film, the idea
of a higher power is also suggested, as was the case in the first Star Trek:
The Motion Picture also in 1979, which still had its own Cold war going
on. So did Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A
Space Odyssey in 1968, something none of these works had touched.
In line with the unusual phenomenon cycle of the 1970s,
Stonehenge is thrown in as a factor in the story, with some of the shots and
graphics looking like they came out of the original In Search Of… series
with Leonard Nimoy. As a four-hour
mini-series, the story drags, while the gangs are nearly Mad Max (also
1979, coincidentally) and then there are the lost children who look like they
came out of a production of Hair or Godspell.
This was ambitious and the intents were good, while the
script by Nigel Kneale has some good moments, but the show cannot help its age
and the noting of The Soviets is unfortunate.
Director Piers Haggard handles the project as best he can, but at full
length, this gets a bit muddled. It starts
many things it does not wrap up, but there is an interesting alternative in
this set.
The four episodes are on DVD 1, but DVD 2 has added a
shorter theatrical film version that is much tighter, moves much better and is
much more watchable. The print is a bit
darker, but the color is at least as consistent. Purists might not agree with this view, but cutting the
commercial breaks, breaks between the four shows and getting to the point of
the story is much better. This also
cuts out the run-on problem with the lost children segments that are the weak
point of the mini-series. This cut runs
102 minutes and makes for a fun comparison; something we hope to see in future
such releases. This was a cut known as The
Quatermass Conclusion.
The 1.33 X 1 images in both cases is fine for their age,
both shot by cinematographer Ian Wilson, B.S.C., with a somewhat
post-apocalyptic feel. You get grays
and browns, plus slightly underlit shooting throughout that gives this all a
subtle atmosphere. The nighttime shot
that are here also work, though they all look like they are set bound. The color is sometimes a bit faded-looking
in the mini-series, versus the feature film version, but the two are a draw. Film fans should see both for study
purposes. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is
simple stereo for the mini-series and clear mono for the film. They are both just fine and about equal,
though the mini-series is a bit louder, but the mono on the film is not bad. The only extra, give or take if you consider
the feature version a bonus, is a History Channel In Search Of History
installment entitled Enduring Mystery Of Stonehenge, which makes much
more of the famous British location than either cut of Quatermass.
The previous mini-series have yet to find their way on
DVD, though the feature films have been issued in so many versions that we are
still working on the best versions to cover for this site. Any serious science-fiction fan will want to
check out this fine set and get to know Quatermass better. We’ll come back with more as soon as we can.
- Nicholas Sheffo