Doctor Who Vs. The Quatermass Experiment, Part 2: 2005

The contemporary remake of

Nigel Kneale's seminal series

of 1953 was transmitted live

(like the original) for BBC

Four's TV on Trial season in
April 2005.
Jason Flemyng (son of Amicus

film director, Gordon Flemyng)

became the seventh actor to

portray Professor Bernard

Quatermass, head of BERG -

the British Experimental

Rocket Group. It was during rehearsals that David Tennant (cast as

Dr. Briscoe) was offered the role of the Tenth Doctor, but his casting

was only announced two weeks after transmission. 

In the live broadcast, Flemyng even changed Quatermass' first line to
Briscoe to "Good to have you back Doctor" from the scripted "Gordon,"

Adapted by Richard Fell, the thriller was faithful to the source until the
climax, with the alien threat now confronted at the Tate Modern.

The serial (last repeated in 2008) featured Mark Gatiss, Andrew

Scott, and fourteen other Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Fell was also the executive producer of Death Comes to Time and Real Time
• Flemyng voiced the Captain for Big Finish's The Long Despair (2023)
• Adrian Dunbar (DI Lomax) voiced McCarthy for Brave New Town (2008)
• Torchwood regular Indira [Anne] Varma (Judith) was cast as the Duchess for Series 14
• Andrew Tiernan (Caroon) was Jim Purcell in Night Terrors
• Adrian Bower (Fullalove) voiced Steffen/the Authority for Survival of the Fittest (2010)
• Isla Blair (Blaker) was Lady Isabella Fitzwilliam in The King's Demons, then voiced Paula Taylor for Exotron (2007), Marge for Kidnapped! (2019), Charn for Palindrome (2020), and Older Mary Mortimer for Friend of the Family (2023)
• Kerry Godliman (Mrs. Matthews) voiced Karen Coltrane for The Eight Truths and Worldwide Web (2009)
• Paul Broughton (Editor) was Neville Lewis in War of the Sontarans
• Greg Bennett (Journalist) was a Guard in Dalek, Sycorax Warrior/ UNIT Soldier in The Christmas Invasion, and Guest in The Lazarus Experiment
• Debbi Slater was also production manager on Blink, Planet of the Ood, The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead, then was associate producer on Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood
• Bill Whiston was sound supervisor on The Mysterious Planet too
• camera supervisor Robin Sutherland was an operator on Remembrance of the Daleks
• Julie Mann was vision mixer on The Greatest Show in the Galaxy too