skelton knaggs wrote:
I've revived this thread because........
Well because I can. No, seriously I thought our newest member and friend Stephen Reed might add some of his thoughts to the discussion. And then again, maybe we can use this thread as bait, and lure our colleague Ted Newsom out of his hibernating bottomless pit !

Thanks Skelton! I agree in part to what some have said about Nazi imagery being used in Quatermass II/2, I think this is certainly possible being as the serial/film were made not too long after the end of the Second World War. A lot of people tried to put the Nazi's and the horrors of what they did behind them, particularly Jewish people (My own family included). Quatermass II/2 is a very tough little story, it isn't like the other 2 stories at all, both the others being set in London for one thing. Secondly it's the least remembered, probably due to it having a lot of horrifying imagery within the framework of the story - the pipes blocked with pulped bodies, the merciless gunning down of those that dare defy them, those that are taken over and de-humanised (Which is pretty much what Hitler did to the German people by brainwashing them with an onslaught of propaganda). I like the fact that the film shows a 'Zombie' guard recovering at the finale - which I suppose can be used as an allegory for the Nazi line of 'We were only following orders!'. The Guard recovers and has little, or no recollection of any previous events, or why he is even there.
Inccidentally I know it has been mentioned here in a previous post, but Nigel Kneale's wife Judith Kerr fled from the Nazis before the war, her father being killed by the Nazi's, I don't know either if I buy into that being Kneale's main influence on Quatermass II/2, but some elements must have filtered through from his wife I suppose. I think really to get a full picture of Kneale's influences the best place to start would be The Quatermass Memoirs, the 5 part BBC radio serial from 1996, with Andrew Keir again playing Quatermass. Kneale gives a lot of pointers to his influences, the A-Bomb being a large influence, also the UK spies, the introduction of secret radar bases, which started to dot the British coastline - you could add in the Hungarian uprising of 1956, but Kneale claims presience on that - not influence. I would add into the equation the BBC as well, Kneale had been very badly treated by the BBC over rights sales of The Quatermass Experiment to Hammer, and had recieved no money for it's sale - henceforth he called the BBC - The Bastards, there certainly could be a link from the faceless BBC beaurocracy of the 1950s and the Zombiehood of Quatermass II/2.


Last Edited By: Stephen Reed May 23 08 1:25 PM. Edited 1 times.