What would life be without old sci-fi miniseries? Less full I should think, but possibly higher quality.
At any rate, as I was browsing the racks at the Appleton Public Library, the title Quatermass jumped out at me, and when I examined the DVD case further I saw that the cover dubbed it "the legendary '70s sci-fi classic" and claimed it was "a rip-roaring adventure". And the whole serial appeared to revolve around an old, rather Einsteinian-looking gentleman pictured on the front of the box.
The movie is set in a world that is going mad--specifically an England that is going mad. Criminals roam the streets, threatening violence to any they come across. Resources are growing scarce, the infrastructure is collapsing, and hoards of young people are joining a crazy hippy cult.
Boiled down to its essence, Quatermass is the paranoia-induced fantasy of the old trying to make sense of a changing world and the younger generations. When viewed as such it suddenly becomes overwhelmingly ridiculous.
From the earliest days mankind walked the earth, older generations have looked down upon the young and felt that their society's standards declined as those young people started taking over the reins, but Quatermass is the first t.v. series I've watched that blames that perceived societal shift on an ancient, invisible alien machine somewhere up in space that is systematically harvesting humans for their musk.
...Okay, okay, to be entirely honest, the makers of Quatermass never stated outright what the aliens were collecting us for, but they did, at least, imply it was for our musk. At any rate, thousands of years ago, an alien force placed devices beneath the surface of the earth that somehow cause suitably influenced people to gather over them at which point they are "collected" for the aliens' nefarious purposes. Then, for reasons never explained, the aliens stopped their harvesting, but now, in the latter half of the 20th century, they're back.
For the last several decades they've been influencing the minds of the young, preparing them for the gathering and harvesting, and it is this psychological conditioning by the aliens that accounts for the tendency of young people to gather in large, emotional masses such as rock concerts.
I'm not making that up. This movie claims that young people attend concerts because aliens tell them to. Am I the only one who finds this bizarre?
And am I the only one who finds it ironic--given that the movie highly praises both science and rational thought and does not seem to look that favorably upon religion? Yes, within the movie itself, the premise of an alien influence is true, but if you divorce it from the movie does it not become indiscernible from the paranoid fantasy of a lunatic? What would you take to be the more rational belief?
Professor Quatermass apparently goes with the latter, and that, I think, leads up to what is possibly the largest plot hole in a story simply riddled with plot holes. Simply put, there is absolutely no evidence that would lead to Quatermass' wild conclusions. Given the circumstances, a person might be able to reasonably hypothesize that some sort of alien force is attacking earth, and a person might also be able to reasonably hypothesize that there are alien beacons buried under the earth at certain locations. But there is absolutely nothing that would make a logical person conclude that (a) the aggressive entity above the earth is not sentient but merely a machine, (b) that machine is in the form of an undetectable energy cloud located somewhere between earth and the moon which completely surrounds the earth, and (c) that machine is being used to harvest humans--probably for our glandular secretions.
Quatermass has absolutely no proof to back up these wild claims and yet he seems to look down upon the various attempts others make to deal with this new and terrifying threat that do not line up with his suggestions and opinions. For example, the Russians and the Americans send a joint team into space with the intention of trying to establish communication with the unseen alien force. This seems like a reasonable course of action to me. Quatermass may be convinced earth is being threatened by a non-sentient device, but that does not change the fact he has not a shred of evidence. However, none of that prevents him from pooh-poohing the desire of others to go up there, scope things out, and, hopefully, establish some sort of contact with their enemy.
Of course, that is only one plot hole, and, as I mentioned earlier, there are several others....
What kind of an irresponsible, unintelligent woman must Joe Kapp be married to? Only a day earlier, she had seen a bunch of cult members gather at a Stonehenge-esque area known as Ringstone Round, and only a day earlier she had, from a distance, seen those cult members struck by a giant flash of light, and only a day earlier she had seen the devastation caused by said flash of light.
After witnessing an event like that, how will a woman in her right mind respond when she sees a bunch of cult members gathering at the Stonehenge-esque area directly next to her house?
If you answered "She'll gather up her children as fast as she can and run as far and as fast as she possibly can away from the stone monument and the cult members gather there," then you have passed this test. Would that Joe Kapp's wife possessed your sharp intellect.
Given the circumstances, there's no reason for him to assume they're dead. Yes, the dog skeleton is there for him to see (which, if not a plot hole, is at least very convenient), but there's nothing that definitively tells him his wife and children are dead. The mere fact that his house is destroyed does not mean his family did not get to safety. In that situation, I think it would be normal to, if not assume then at least, hope they are alive.
But, maybe he knows his wife is irresponsible and unintelligent.
Technically, it's not a "plot hole", but it is really weird. Near the end of the movie, when Quatermass and his team are setting up their trap, a forklift operator suddenly starts driving very erratically and ends up killing another man. I don't know what the purpose of this scene is. Neither of the men involved were important to the plot, and the death did not effect any of Quatermass' plans. I can only assume it is meant to highlight the point that old people shouldn't drive.
The Fact That Kickalong And His Gang Of Cultists Didn't Die Until The Very End
Throughout the entire miniseries, this group is actively seeking out alien harvesting points, and yet they continue to miss them. The first miss is understandable because Kickalong is arrested before the moment of harvesting occurs. However, he is rescued shortly thereafter, and they are very close to the harvesting point outside Joe Kapp's house. By all rights, they ought to be killed along with Mrs. Kapp and and offspring, but they inexplicably miss that occurrence also. It's true, the third occurrence does take place in London, but I get the impression that thousands of people braved long distances to reach that location, so what's up with Kickalong's group?
If I were one if his followers I'd be demanding a new cult leader--someone who could competently guide me to my death.
He scoffs at the idea of sending up a spaceship to scope things out and yet he's convinced a nuclear blast directed toward space will destroy an enemy they can't even see. Oooo-kay.
Massive plot holes aside, I found Quatermass enjoyable enough fare. It's comprised of four sixty-minute episodes all of which I watched in one afternoon, so I obviously didn't think it dragged too much, although I do admit, I did miss the support of brother Paul, my usual bad-sci-fi-watching buddy (especially when they started chanting nursery rhymes). At any rate, it's 70s British sci-fi so you basically know what you're getting yourself into, and if you don't you will after watching Quatermass.
Copyright 2007 Jessica Menn