Quatermass II

Quatermass #2

by Nigel Kneale

For some time, Professor Quatermass has been aware that a series of inexplicable events are the subject of a Whitehall cover-up. Reports of UFO sightings have been suppressed; no explanation has been given for the extraordinarily high incidence of meteorite strikes on the earth; and an entire village has been razed to the ground to make way for a clandestine Government project. Quatermass determines to penetrate the web of secrecy - and is soon involved in a desperate race to preserve life on earth.

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Fiction

173 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter. He is best known for being the creator of Professor Bernard Quatermass. Kneale wrote four Quatermass TV serials in total between 1953 and 1979 as well as BBC radio docudrama retrospective "The Quatermass Memoirs" that was first broadcast in 1995. Kneale also wrote such programs as The Year Of The Sex Olympics, The Stone Tape and the 1989 adaptation of Susan Hill's novel The Woman in Black.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nigel Kneale is a master of his art. Even on bad days he has always been better than his rivals.
A beatifully crafted story of subtle alien invasion.

Please read these books an watch the original BBC productions, you will not be disappointed, I can assure you.

[James Hold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the script for the teleplay which I never saw. I have seen the movie made from it. The movie is better. As in THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, the ending is unsatisfactory. It's drawn out to 6 chapters where 4 would have done. Chris Carter ripped off the plot for his X-FILES show.

[Timothy Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second screenplay publication of the Quatermass series, first broadcast in 1955 as a 6 part BBC series. It was later adapted for film as The Enemy From Space (1957). Although Quatermass II didn’t make the KEW list, it’s still an excellent teleplay. Once again, Neal understood the need to create tension to keep the audience enthralled.

In the first section, “The Bolts”, we learn that Quatermass’ Experimental Rocket Group has had a disaster in Australia: an experimental nuclear engine exploded during a test. There is another rocket-ship ready for testing in England, but the disaster has put its future on hiatus. While Quatermass ponders the long-term effects of this failure(he’s planned to use the nuclear rocket to colonize the moon), strange meteorites begin falling all over the earth. They seem to be centered in particular parts of the world, remote parts of England being a prime target. The meteorites cause little damage, but anyone coming in contact with them starts acting very strange. When Quatermass and a soldier named Dillion visit one of the areas where the meteorites have fallen, they are shocked to see a huge production facility under construction. Dillion finds a freshly fallen meteorite and becomes sick.

The second episode, “The Mark” has Quatermass trying to find out what the plant is doing which is so secret and how the meteorites are connected. As Quatermass helps Dillion back to the car, armed guards storm out of the plant and haul Dillion away. Later, Quatermass begins to notice groups of people who have a strange black mark on their face. An official commission on the plant produces nothing and Quatermass decides to investigate further.

By episode three, “The Food”, Quatermass has decided to take a trip out to the town where the mysterious plant is located. There’s an amusing note in the teleplay which shows how careful Kneale was in capturing local color:

Dissolve…to interior of tea shop. In a backwater not far from Whitehall, its genteel poverty is more suggestive of a small provincial town. Dead flies lie among hardening home-made cakes on paper doilies. The age of plastics has passed it by.

Episodes four, “The Coming” and five, “The Frenzy” is where Quatermass confronts the horror in the plant. An alien invader has converted the plant to its own use, creating ideal conditions for its survival in the large processing tanks. Quatermass is able to get the plant workers on his side and seize control of it. By now, his colleges at the Experimental Rocket Group have figured out the aliens are using an asteroid approaching the earth as a base of operations for their attack.

Everything comes to a climax in the final episode, “The Destroyers”. Quatermass pilots the other nuclear powered rocket with Dr. Pugh, his second in command, to destroy the asteroid before it can unleash the full bombardment of meteorites on earth.However, Dr. Pugh, a mathematical genius, is starting to act funny shortly after take-off.

Quatermass II is an excellent follow-up to the first Quatermass serial. Since you can watch it on YouTube, it’s possible to use the teleplay book to follow along with the serial. The effects show their budget, but it’s obvious Kneal understood his limitations when writing the script. It’s still impressive.

[Ian Duerden · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Penguin Books complied these scripts of the television series for print Nigel Kneale added explanations or descriptions for gaps that the visualization would have shown. These add immensely to the story. And that chilling dialogue... When examining the strange shape of a meteor that's fallen to earth..."If something like this (shape) approached at the right angle, and not too fast... skim the Earth's atmosphere, gradually in breaking ellipses... The same principle as rocket descent. But that's the result of knowledge, mathematics... precise planning... Sum it up. Say the frightening word. Say INTELLIGENCE!" And on examining a sample of what the government calls synthetic food... QUATERMASS : "A corrosive poison. Deadly to almost any living thing... on the Earth." FOWLER : "Then it could never have made synthetic food?" QUATERMASS : "Food... on the contrary, I think it may be... But for what?" Kneale had the ability to chill the spine with the power of the spoken word... worth a hundred special effects.

[Ross Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the actual script for the second Quatermass story. This is not as well known as the third Quatermass and the Pit but it is still quite a good program. Quatermass stumbles upon an alien base that resembles his own diagrams for extraterrestrial habitation. The aliens are inhabiting the locals, Body Snatcher style, to work and build the plant with the ultimate goal of terraforming Earth to their conditions.

The thing about this is that it predates Invasion of the Body Snatchers by two years.

Turned into a film by Hammer.

[Mike Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

These Quatermass TV scripts need to be released in hardcover editions. The quality is far superior to most other offerings, so to only have them in paperback format is pretty poor in this day and age.

[Alasdair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging and influential stuff. Keeps up the pace, with solid cliffhangers at the end of each episode, though the ending risks being a little bit anticlimactic. The dialogue is tight and well crafted throughout - I especially enjoyed all the ominous foreshadowing from the various locals who could have easily walked right out of some Gothic village. Very readable as a script too - the (edited, according to an author's note) directions and sound and camera cues are really evocative.

Ashamed to say that this is the only Nigel Kneale I've read/watched so far - given that this is supposedly one of the weaker Quatermass serials, I'm keen to see/read more, as this one was excellent!

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never seen this Quatermass adventure. It holds up. There's a theme here about anti-socialism or perhaps anti-collectivism, which one should have natural felt in post-WWII England.

It's always a pleasure when a) the SF adventure trope of "we will make saving the world less likely by saving an individual" is ignored, and b) scientists in an SF book think, "we should probably nuke the aliens, just to be sure."

[Michaela Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having only seen the film version with Brian Donlevy, which Kneale purportedly hated, I can see some of the reasons why.

The ending has been changed substantially and some of the grimmer subject matter removed.

I would love to read the first one as the TV version doesn't exist in completion, which would leave the book the best version of it.

[Timothy Keable · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very exciting teleplay. Nigel Kneale was a master of his craft. This is my favourite of all the Quatermass tales. A very subtle invasion from space!

[Deshan Tennekoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Significantly better than watching Donlevy and Robinson murder the role. This an excellent script and it shows a master at work in creating a believable world around his protagonist.

[Chuck McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This script book of the original tv serial from Nigel Kneale is a cracking read, and certainly a classic of modern science-fiction horror. In this second of the Quatermass tales, the titular Professor finds himself uncovering far more than expected when he investigates strange goings-on in a small village where a large-scale government operation is being conducted. It's a great read that keeps the tension on high from start to finish.

[Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non so perché l'edizione italiana di questo romanzo in realtà riporta un doppione del primo (o del 4°?). Ad ogni modo qui è serializzata, in forma di sceneggiatura semplificata, la seconda avventura del prof. Quatermass, che deve affrontare, suo malgrado, una invasione aliena di parassiti mentali che ricorda in parte quella de "L'Invasione degli Ultracorpi".