Having recently come by a pirated copy of this on VCR recently, I can honestly say after several viewings that this has to be the best of the Quatermass seriels made by the BBC in the 1950s. Broadcast live on UK TV in 1955, this is an altogether more together piece than the remade Hammer film of a few years later and has a much more involving plot. One of the main diferences in the story has Professor Quatermass actually travel to the alien asteroid with his assistant Leo Pugh to destroy the ammonid things before more of them reach the earth.
Another plot addition is the introduction of little metallic cases to contain the aliens in and make them more readily available for transportation to one victim to another, a side plot sadly missing from the afformentioned Hammer film. The story is slow to build up, but once it gets going there is no stopping it and you soon become deeply involved in the plot. The character Broadhead from the film version is called Ward here and it is only a 3 man expedition that enters the Synthetic Food plant at Winnerden Flats, during this visit Ward dies covered in black slime and Quatermass and a character called Fowler discover to their horror that a nearby picnicking family have been gunned down by the impossing Zombie guards. Altogether a fantastic serial in all 6 parts (complete for those that are still hanging onto the belief that all or some of the episodes are missing). News is doing the rounds that the serial may be making it's way onto DVD this year and hopefully it will make it.
Another plot addition is the introduction of little metallic cases to contain the aliens in and make them more readily available for transportation to one victim to another, a side plot sadly missing from the afformentioned Hammer film. The story is slow to build up, but once it gets going there is no stopping it and you soon become deeply involved in the plot. The character Broadhead from the film version is called Ward here and it is only a 3 man expedition that enters the Synthetic Food plant at Winnerden Flats, during this visit Ward dies covered in black slime and Quatermass and a character called Fowler discover to their horror that a nearby picnicking family have been gunned down by the impossing Zombie guards. Altogether a fantastic serial in all 6 parts (complete for those that are still hanging onto the belief that all or some of the episodes are missing). News is doing the rounds that the serial may be making it's way onto DVD this year and hopefully it will make it.