Doctor Who Vs. Quatermass II

My first exposure to the work of Nigel Kneale

was viewing the rerun of the third episode of

this classic thriller. The Food was repeated as

part of BBC2's The Lime Grove Story in August

1991.

The second Quatermass serial is the earliest to
survive in its entirety in the BBC archives, and
was commissioned to directly challenge the

new ITV network - launched in September 

1955.

Here, Professor Bernard Quatermass (now
portrayed by John Robinson) investigates a

secret plant in Northern England - he uncovers

the alien infiltration of the highest levels of the

British government.

Kneale (1922-2006) was influenced by the

damaging effects of industrialisation and

government corruption by big business, foreshadowing globalisation.

The writer again collaborated with director Rudolph Cartier (1904-1994), and since The Quatermass Experiment in 1953, they had

adapted Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Kneale's own The

Creature (both starred Peter Cushing).

This location filming was the most ambitious ever undertaken for a

British TV drama, and the new production was transmitted live from

Studio G at Lime Grove. The six-part sci-fi epic was again shown on

Saturday nights in October and November 1955 - it featured Roger Delgado, and sixteen other Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Cyril [Leonard] Shaps (Assistant) was John Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen, Lennox in The Ambassadors of Death, Professor Herbert Clegg in (part 1 of) Planet of the Spiders, and the Archimandrite in The Androids of Tara
• [John] Brian Moorehead (Guard/Paratrooper) was Guard in State of Decay (3), Gundan in Warriors' Gate (3), and Guest in Snakedance
• [Robert] Michael Bilton and [George] Reginald Jessup (Technicians) both appeared in The Massacre, as Charles de Teligny and Servant respectively - Bilton was also Collins in Pyramids of Mars, and Time Lord in The Deadly Assassin, whilst Jessup was Lord Savar in The Invasion of Time
• Patrick Carter (Ambulance Man) was the Bosun in The Chase (3)
• Harry Brooks (Guard/Sergeant) was both Cybermen Krang and Talon in The Tenth Planet
• Melvyn Hayes [born Hyams] (Frankie) voiced Wilkin for Shada (2003), and the titular aliens for Big Finish's The Scorchies (2013)
• Michael [Brabazon] Rathbone (Worker) was a Taxi Driver in The War Machines (2)
• Denis [Joseph] McCarthy (Doctor) provided the voice of Controller Rinberg in The Moonbase (2)
• John Herrington (Riot Extra here, Stall Owner in Quatermass and the Pit) was Rhynmal in The Daleks' Master Plan (5), and Holden in Colony in Space (2)
• George [William] Tovey (Worker) was Ernie Clements in Pyramids of Mars
• for Malcolm Watson, Jack Kine, Bernard Wilkie and Michael Leeston Smith see The Quatermass Experiment
• design assistant Darrol Blake was director of The Stones of Blood