Doctor Who Vs. Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

Professor Bernard Quatermass

was introduced to television

audiences over seventy years

ago by Cumbrian-born screen-

writer Thomas Nigel Kneale in

The Quatermass Experiment 

(1953). Quatermass II followed

in 1955, and both serials were

quickly acquired by Hammer

studios. The subsequent features,

The Quatermass Xperiment and

Quatermass 2, were released in

1955 and 1957, and starred Irish

born Hollywood actor Brian Donlevy

(1901-1972) as the Professor - he succeeded Reginald Tate (1896-1955) and John Robinson (1908-1979). Kneale (1922-2006), wrote a third instalment for the BBC -

Quatermass and the Pit debuted in late 1958 - and had adapted a film

script by 1961.

Hammer's version however, only entered production six years later.

Kneale had always been critical of Donlevy's interpretation of the lead

role and requested the part be recast. When Andre Morell (1909-1978)

declined to return as Quatermass, Scottish actor, Andrew Keir (1926-

1997) was cast, and even reprised the role for BBC Radio 3's The 

Quatermass Memoirs in 1996. Sir John Mills (1908-2005) became the 

sixth actor to portray the rocket scientist for Thames TV's Quatermass

 in 1979) - distributed outside the UK by Euston Films as The Quater-

mass Conclusion. A remake of The Quatermass Experiment was shown

 live on BBC Four in 2005, with Jason Flemyng now (born 1966) in the

 title role.

The film (largely faithful to the original) was shown on Legend last

night - it featured twenty-seven Doctor Who cast/crew connections:

• Keir (pictured left), Keith Marsh (Johnson), Roger Avon (Electrician), Eddie Powell and Sheila [Frances] Steafel (Journalists) all appeared in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD (as Wyler, Conway, Wells, Thompson and Old Woman respectively) the year before - Avon also played Saphadin in The Crusade, and Daxtar in (episode 4 of) The Daleks' Master Plan
• Barbara [Teresa] Shelley [born Kowin]  (Barbara Judd) was Sorasta in Planet of Fire
• Julian [Wyatt] Glover (Colonel Breen, right) was King Richard (also in The Crusade), then Count [Carlos] Scarlioni/Scaroth in City of Death
• Duncan [William Ferguson] Lamont (Sladden) was Dan Galloway in Death to the Daleks
• Peter [Francis Gabain] Copley (Howell) was Dr. Warlock in Pyramids of Mars
• Edwin [Ronald] Richfield (Minister) and [David] Hugh Futcher (West) both starred in The Sea Devils, as Captain Hart and Hickman, whilst Richfield was also Mestor in The Twin Dilemma
• Maurice Good (Cleghorn) was Phineas Clanton in The Gunfighters
• Eric Kent (Sapper) and Hugh Morton [Eden] (Journalist) both starred in The Seeds of Death, as Technician and Sir James Gregson - Kent was also Roundhead in The Time Monster (3)
• [Albert] James Culliford (Corporal Gibson) was Stewart in Frontier in Space
• Brian Peck (Officer) was Dervish in The Space Pirates
• Peter [Egerton] Bennett (Official) was a Guard in The Enemy of the World
• David Saville (Officer) was Lieutenant Carstairs in The War Games, Winser in The Claws of Axos, and Colonel Crichton in The Five Doctors
• John Bown (Interviewer) was Antodus in Dr. Who and the Daleks
• Harry Fielder (Possessed Man) was a Guard (in serials PP, ZZZ, 4L, 4P, 5A, 5F, 5Z), Crewman (SS, 4T), Vogan (4D), Assassin (4Q), Tigellan in Meglos, and Krarg in Shada 
• Joseph Grieg (Customer) was a titular alien in The Sensorites
• [Roy George] Elroy Josephs (Workman) was Jamaica in The Smugglers
• Gareth [Daniel Noake] Thomas (Workman) voiced Lord Tamworth for Big Finish's Storm Warning, Kalendorf for Dalek Empire 1 (both 2001), Dalek Empire 2 (2002) and Return of the Daleks (2006), and Morax for Last of the Colophon (2014)
• Mike Reid (Man) was Soldier in The Myth Makers (3) and The War Machines, and Guard in The Massacre (4)
• Tristram Cary (1925-2008) was also composer on The Daleks, Marco Polo, The Rescue, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Ark, The Gunfighters, The Power of the Daleks, The Underwater Menace (4) and The Mutants
• Kenneth Ryan was also the art director on the first Dalek film
• SFX assistant Ian Scoones (1940-2010) also provided VFX on twenty-five editions of the classic series (from An Unearthly Child to City of Death)