Streaming Sci Fi TV: Tracking down sci fi and fantasy shows of interest on the streaming services. Note that streaming availability can change with little to no notice.
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What Is It?
This is the third serial in the Quatermass series, and it follows Professor Bernard Quatermass as he investigates a mysterious discovery made during the excavation of a new London Underground station. What initially appears to be an unexploded bomb turns out to be an ancient alien spacecraft buried deep beneath the city.
Aired: BBC, 1958-59, 1 Season Totaling 6 Episodes
Starring: André Morell, Cec Linder, Anthony Bushell, John Stratton, Christine Finn
Created By: Nigel Kneale
Why Watch It?
While sci fi TV in the United States in the 1950s was dominated by kiddie space operas like Captain Video and His Video Rangers and Space Patrol, across the pond the BBC was taking a more serious stab at the genre. Created by Nigel Kneale, the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass was first introduced in the 1953 serial The Quatermass Experiment, which dealt with a spaceship returning to Earth that was infected by an alien life form. That was followed in 1955 by Quatermass II, which delivered an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-type story. Then, in 1958, Quatermass and the Pit arrived, which many (including myself) consider to be the best serial of the three. Once again, Quatermass is investigating what appears to be an alien presence on Earth, and he discovers that it is linked to humanity’s distant past as well as mythologies involving the devil.
This is a piece of sci fi TV history and is certainly worth seeking out. Quatermass and the Pit can be slow and stilted at times, and it was produced on a 1950s BBC budget. But the production team did some rather inventive work with the special effects that amps up the creepiness (particularly the scenes where the ground is rippling), and it stands as a very early example of hard sci fi on television. As is typical with British genre entries, it also weaves in horror elements, and those can be particularly gripping. U.S. audiences may be more familiar with the 1967 Hammer film adaptation (known as Five Million Years to Earth in the States), but the original serial is certainly worth a look as a notable work in the genre. And at six episodes of thirty minutes each, it is a pretty quick watch.
Where Is It Streaming?
The serial is streaming on the free, ad-supported services Darkroom and Fawesome. These are smaller streaming services, but both have some interesting titles in their lineups like this that you will not find on other platforms (you can see more of Fawesome’s genre selections at this link). The first two serials in this franchise are not available on any streaming services at the moment, and unfortunately only two episodes still exist from The Quatermass Experiment. But hopefully the second serial will get added at some point, because it is worth a look as well. The first entry was also remade as a movie in 2005 with David Tennant involved (though not as Quatermass), which you can watch on BritBox. And note that I do not believe the version of Quatermass and the Pit streaming on Darkroom and Fawesome is the recent remastered version put out by the BBC. That appears to only be available in Britain at the moment.
Stream Quatermass and the Pit on the Following Services:
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