Quatermass: State Of Emergency

The BBC airs the sixth episode of Nigel Kneale’s trend-setting science fiction series The Quatermass Experiment, bringing the six-part story to a close. The success of the series prompts the BBC to request a sequel series from Kneale. This episode was not archived and does not exist in the BBC’s archives.

Westminster Abbey and the area around it are evacuated as the creature progresses toward the stage at which it will release its spores. Quatermass’ lab experiments reveal that being touched by even a single spore would fully mutate any life form on Earth within minutes; if the being that was once Victor Carroon releases its spores, it is the end of all life on the planet. As preparations are made for military strikes and other frontal attacks on the creature, Quatermass gambles on appealing to the last remaining fragments of the consciousness of the three astronauts to resist the alien life form and tear it apart from the inside.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Tony Van Bridge (Producer), Josphine Crombie (Secretary), Neal Arden (Commentator), John Kidd (Sir Vernon Dodds), Keith Pyott (Cabinet Minister), Andrew Laurence (Major O’Neill), Peter Franklin (Sergeant), Kenneth Midwood (Policeman), Arnold Diamond (Man in Crowd), Rex Graham (Crowd), Cyril Saxon (Crowd), Lloyd Shirley (Crowd), Kobie Westone (Crowd), Langton Jones (Crowd), Nickola Starne (Crowd), Grace Webb (Crowd), Michele Clement (Crowd), Violet Perry (Crowd), Raymond Rollet (Crowd), Sheldon Allen (Crowd), Richard Hugget (Crowd), Charles Horsee (Crowd), Allan Cosley (Crowd)

Notes: Unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, the BBC only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green