Quatermass And The Pit (1958) s01e02 Episode Script

In a builders' excavation at Knightsbridge, London, a fossilised skull is found.
This and other bone fragments are put under scientific examination.
Dr Matthew Roney, an eminent Canadian palaeontologist, with his assistant, Barbara Judd, attempts a reconstruction of the creature.
"An ape-like hominid" he pronounces it to be, five million years old.
But Roney's work on the site is interrupted by the discovery of what appears to be an unexploded bomb.
When Captain Potter of the bomb-disposal squad is mystified by the thing's appearance, Roney goes impatiently to seek help from an old acquaintance.
Professor Bernard Quatermass is at the War Office, vainly resisting a plan to use his Rocket Group for military purposes.
Colonel James Breen, a guided-missile expert, takes over ostensibly as his deputy.
But when Roney arrives with his frantic appeal, Quatermass employs this forced relationship to enlist Breen's aid.
Roney, where did you say the skull was from? Where exactly? Well, in the earth that's been dug away, two or three feet above this level.
That's right? Yes.
It was here.
- You said "above"? - Why, what's wrong? Well if it was above this thing Roney, tell me again.
How long did you estimate that skull had been there? Something like five million years.
Five million years? What are you trying to suggest? That this thing's been here? Well Feel it.
It's hardly corroded.
- It's not corroded at all, sir.
- Oh? - Might be an experimental alloy.
- But is it metal, sir? I believe he's right.
It may not be.
There's something about its character.
- What are you doing? - I'll be careful.
No mark.
It's harder than diamond.
Hello! What have we got here? It looks like the horn of a sea mine.
Watch what you're doing, sir.
Let me get at that.
Sergeant! It joins the surface of the thing quite smoothly.
Please, sir! Quite featureless.
An elaborate sort of knob, that's all.
Oh, test for strikers and fuses, by all means.
I don't suppose you'll find anything.
I think it was used to support some sort of external mechanism that was shed in flight or I shouldn't wonder if you find more of those.
- You think I ought to carry on, sir? - For the moment, yes.
- Right, carry on, Sergeant.
- Carry on, lads! Well, Breen Are you taking over? Well, I can offer my advice.
They can hardly refuse it from the principal expert.
- We're due at the Rocket Group in the morning.
- They can spare us for a day or two.
This is a problem and I enjoy problems.
- Captain Potter! - Sir? - I'd like to sit in on this case.
- I'd be very relieved, sir.
- Good.
Let your people know.
- Yes, sir.
Just a minute.
Have you seen the civil defence records for this area? - I've got copies.
- Have you? Good man.
Nothing fell on this street but a few incendiaries.
Well, records can be mistaken.
- Ask the people who live round here.
- It would save time.
- The street's empty, what's left of it.
- Sure? I thought I saw an elderly couple.
I'll find out.
- You go with her.
This isn't a game.
- Yes, sir.
She knows that.
Well Any guesses? Perhaps a V-weapon? A V-2 bomb, a flying rocket? It's not either of those.
The Germans cooked up some pretty queer things, much more than we ever knew about.
Sir! Sir! There's a place here.
A kind of hole.
Hurry up.
You'll get us into trouble! I couldn't find his long woollies, you know, his clean ones.
He'd put 'em down somewhere in all the Oh, I've got to lock up! - Well, quick, then! - Hold that.
Oh, for Pete's sake! Getting you two evacuated is like trying to drive wild horses! He had to have his long woollies.
He may have to wear two pairs at once.
It's cold.
- Come on! - Just a minute! - Sorry, sir.
They shouldn't be here.
- It's all right.
I want to speak to them.
- YOU do? You hadn't thought of it.
- Go ahead, then.
- You've lived here some time? - We have.
We're the rightful occupiers and we don't leave here for builders or bombs until we've got to! - You were here during the war? - Yes, and the other one, too, the first one.
You want to ask about this bomb? Well, there's no one here knows anything of it.
There was nothing but a couple of them little fire things.
Didn't do hardly any damage.
We'd have heard the thump unless it had been a small one.
- It isn't small.
- What about that house next door? It looks as if something hit it.
No, it's just been let fall down.
Oh, that roof, it's a disgrace.
And the trouble we have with creeping damp, haven't we? Well, how long's it been like that? Donkey's years.
Ever since You tell him.
Oh, about 30 years, I reckon, sir.
People won't live in it.
- Why? - Oh, a lot of Some tale about it being haunted.
- Haunted? - Oh, not just a tale! It was quite a commotion at the time.
We had reporters here daily.
We'd better be getting home.
You'll want your supper, won't you? - Oh, thank you for your help.
- Oh, yes, thanks.
Can't find anything here, sir.
Only clay.
- Is it hard? - Beginning to loosen up, sir.
Looks like some sort of hatch, you know.
For servicing or fuelling.
Burst inwards when this thing fell and got rammed full of earth.
In that case, there should be a mechanism there, fuel pumps and so on.
- Did you find them? - They don't remember anything.
The old man's senile, the old woman round the bend.
She started telling him a ghost story.
Still, she was right about the incendiaries.
- Stand back, Gibson.
- On to something? I'm not sure, sir.
Just bring that lamp in, will you? I think it It might just be a stone, sir.
It's hard and rough.
Here, let me have a look.
- It's one of them.
Another one! - Go gently with it.
They're so fragile.
- It's another skull.
- Careful! Let me go! Yes.
Yes, it is one.
Let me do this, please.
Barbara, get the things.
- Inside it? - What's odd about that? It was here in the clay.
When that thing fell, it got forced there by pressure.
It's almost out.
Quick! Oh, magnificent! A beauty! We've found nothing like this.
It's almost intact.
Here, Barbara, you take it a moment.
- Intact? - If you strike anything else, tell me at once.
I'll take it.
It's pure chance it wasn't smashed.
It must have been forced in there.
Dr Roney! - There's another bit of fossil.
- I'll take it to him.
We were right.
We were right.
They can't say now you were guessing.
- Quatermass! - They found another piece.
Oh, Barbara, would you? This proves everything.
Just look at that cranium! This past week I've been accused of everything from gross ignorance to falsification.
- Roney - One eminent colleague went so far as to say that if I reconstructed the bones of a boiled fowl, I'd produce a monster.
Got to get all this mud away.
This is no freak, nothing freakish about it.
A consistent but unknown species.
- It's remarkably preserved.
- Yes, isn't it? Far better than the first.
- How? - Huh? - What protected it? - Well, obviously, it was inside the Inside it? Good heavens! Well, it couldn't have been, of course.
Not for very long.
It just couldn't.
Well, if that's some sort of a bomb Miss Judd, that woman you questioned, was she so unreliable? She was chattering about a haunted house.
- Oh! Which house? - The end one.
It must be straight above us.
It certainly looks the part.
Professor, will you come, please? The colonel would like a word.
You'd better pack everything up, if you will.
Why? - Geiger counter? - Yes, I just thought I'd check.
Listen to it.
- What's your reading? - A very low level, sir.
Yeah, but there is some.
It's concentrated round that end of the missile.
Seems to be in the clay.
Do you think the Germans were on to nuclear propulsion in 1940? Clever fellows, the Hun! - Quatermass, he's ordering us out.
- That clay is radioactive.
- What? - It seems very mild, but we must make sure.
- How about a lab test? - All right.
Captain Potter! Get me a sample of earth.
There, where the sergeant's working.
Well, I'd better get packed up, then, get that new skull safely away.
Right, shut it, Gibson.
Let's get out of here.
Are you there, sir? - Good evening, Officer.
- You're one of them working on the bomb? That's right.
I thought a look round here might help.
- None of this is bomb damage, sir.
- Oh? I just told that young Engineers officer.
Been empty since 1927.
Worked it out.
Some kind of ghost scare, wasn't it? That's right, sir.
Nobody would live in it.
Shows how soft people can be, what with the housing shortage an' all.
- Did you live around here then? - Just a few streets away, sir.
I was only a nipper, but I remember all the fuss.
Us kids used to run and touch that front door, just for dares.
There were all sorts of tales.
About noises being heard.
Bangs and bumps.
Even things being seen.
Well, you know how it is, once they start.
Look, see here.
This used to be the bad place.
The old kitchen.
Look at those scratches! What could have caused them? Kids.
They must be bolder than in your young day.
Why shouldn't they be? It's all quiet now.
Er You yourself as a boy, I I suppose you never witnessed anything? - I'd better get back on duty now, sir.
- Oh, Constable, that old couple - Could you tell me where they've gone? - The Chilcots? Yes, I've got their address.
- Ssh! - What is it? I thought I heard I did hear! Oh, it was nothing.
Let's go.
Oh, this is a strange one.
- What do you see, Miss Groome? - Well, it's hard to say right out.
I shall have to consider.
There's a sea journey here.
Oh, no! How could I leave him? Ah.
Well, let's do his.
Sometimes they go together.
What's that? They'll disturb it all.
I suppose I'd better.
Good evening.
I'm looking for Mr and Mrs Chilcot.
- Oh, they're here.
Come in.
- Thank you.
Good evening.
My name is Quatermass.
I'm a scientist.
I'm concerned with the with the bomb.
- Oh, have you fixed it? - No, I'm afraid not.
- May I sit down? - I suppose so.
Want some tea? No.
No, thank you.
I, er I really want to ask you about the house next door to yours.
Oh? - Er, Mr Chilcot - No, ask me.
He's just a bit, you know, getting on.
Well, you remember the the disturbances? - Yes.
- When did they first break out? Well they was worse the year after the General Strike.
- 1927? - That's right.
But they didn't just stop, you know.
They got less and less gradual.
- What form did they take? - I thought all you scientists were sceptics.
Well, we're open-minded, most of us, or we try to be.
You certainly ought to be.
Did you Did you hear sounds? Yes.
Dreadful sounds.
People couldn't stop in the house with them.
They had to go.
Terrified.
There was a sort of tapping and knocking.
Just like some person wanting to come in.
Only there wasn't nobody there.
In the floors it come and in the walls.
We could hear it.
Made you feel quite queer, sick.
And things would move about all by theirselves in rooms that had nobody in 'em.
It's a fact! Chairs and tables and ornaments and even the bed was moved about.
They had the police in and a parson even, but it didn't do no good.
I remember one night.
Earnshaw come rushing in to us - the people was called Earnshaw.
Come rushing in to us, yelling like a maniac.
They'd seen something.
What had they seen? A figure.
Oh, give me some more tea! Well, I I'm sorry if this is upsetting.
- Those scratches on the kitchen wall - Have you seen them? - Were they made by children? - Children! Why are you asking all this, upsetting her? They used to come day after day, the reporters.
What had I heard, what had I seen? I got my picture in all the papers.
So had he.
But they didn't believe us really.
Just made us look silly.
Do you believe her? I only want to find out the truth.
I'm sure Mrs Chilcot Of course it's true! If you're no fool, you must believe in the whole world of spirits.
His future's in there.
His whole future, if we can but read it right.
Well, er thank you, Mrs Chilcot.
You ARE a sceptic! Thank you for your help.
I'm sorry to have disturbed you.
I'll let myself out.
Goodnight.
Come inside.
- You've got good company.
- Company? Oh, that's Charlie.
Oh, this delay! I just hope your colleague's quick with those radioactivity tests.
- Colleague? - Colonel Breen.
Huh, yes.
I'm sorry to say this, Quatermass, but he's the sort of man I don't take to at all.
- Good.
- Hmm? Well, I told you my Rocket Group's been taken over.
Well, he's the official receiver.
He's a career militarist of the worst type.
Cold, efficient, just biding his time.
That's my colleague.
- What have you got here? - Just a nonsense thing.
Doesn't really work.
- Oh.
Did you make it? - Mm-hm.
I didn't know you had a mechanical streak.
Oh, I don't go grubbing in the dirt all the time, you know.
Oh, it does me for a hobby.
Or a vice.
I like to fiddle with it.
Or used to when I had time.
It looks like a space helmet, a popular version.
No, far from it.
Oh, it's an idea I've been chasing for quite a while.
Connected with my work in a way - the study of savage peoples, their beliefs, their customs.
- What does it do? - As a matter of fact, it doesn't do anything.
Properly, that is.
The principle of it Well, you know the old business of catching electrical discharges from the brain.
I'm trying to go further, to focus in there on the optical centres, interpret subjective impressions, see what the subject sees in the mind's eye.
Oh, I've even got a name for it - optic encephalograph.
Grand enough for the Royal Society.
If only it would work! Well, when Breen boots me out of the Rocket Group, I'll come and help you develop it.
I'm not laughing! To business.
What are these questions of yours? Oh, yes.
Last night, I lay thinking for hours.
Then you'll need coffee in that case.
What about? - Coincidence.
- Yes, it's a troubling thing.
A breeder of false theories.
- Here.
- Thank you.
These man-apes of yours - you put their age at between three and five million years? Well, dating's very difficult.
I'd say nearer five.
How do you work it out? Condition of the soil? No, their place in the evolutionary line.
Oh, we know of ape-like creatures older than these, others less old, both accurately dated.
But you said that this was an unknown species.
If the thought's occurring to you that they weren't of this Earth, put it out of your mind.
You've spent too much time with rockets, Quatermass.
No, these hominids, these man-apes, are new to us, but they fit into the known scheme of things.
You know, they've a line of ancestry as far back as 30 million years and I believe a clear line of descent right down to ourselves.
The oddest thing about them is the shape of the skull.
I've got it all charted - points of similarity to known species.
That damn girl's put them away somewhere! - Your Miss Judd? - Yes.
Said she wanted a couple of hours to have her hair done or something! Answer that, would you, please? - Roney's office.
- I want to speak to Professor Quatermass.
- Speaking.
- Colonel Breen wants to talk to you.
Right.
It's Breen.
Thank you, Sergeant.
Hello? Quatermass? I'm at Hobbs Lane.
I've had work restarted here with mechanical excavators.
I'm taking the level down eight to ten feet all around the missile.
It's a risk, but I thought I'd take it to get at the thing properly.
We're getting on fine.
Uncovered a lot more knobs and bumps.
All seem to be harmless.
- So if you care to come over here - Care to? Why didn't you let me know? - Couldn't find you.
- You could.
I left messages! - Mechanical excavators will ruin everything! - Have you had the result of the soil test? Yes.
It's negative.
Harwell shot the report through.
I've got it here.
There's a whole lot of irrelevant stuff in it, but that radioactivity is harmless.
- What do you mean, "irrelevant"? - I mean irrelevant! Well, tell me what it says, man! Well, for instance, there's a lot about the presence of beryllium and artificial isotopes of thorium.
Artificial isotopes? - That radioactivity is man-made! - Go on, Breen.
"These would suggest the presence of a nuclear reactor.
" Reactor? "But calculations based on the half lives of such isotopes give an apparent age which is absurd.
"Please submit further samples.
" Do you see? Their own word for it - "absurd"! Never mind the absurdity.
Tell me what it says.
Damn you, Breen.
Tell me what's written there! Oh.
All right, I'll be along.
Well? The apparent age of that radioactivity is five million years.
Still no sign of any mechanism? No, sir.
Those other pieces of bone, that's all there's been.
Just a smooth mass of, what is it, ceramic? No jets, nozzles, fuel pumps, pipes.
I don't understand it.
- You still think it's a German V-weapon? - Well, what else is there? Colonel Breen, why didn't you send for me? Allowing these to be washed out of the clay! - We had to carry on.
- It was criminal! You've got them, haven't you? Falling to bits because of exposure! Their position in the clay is so important.
Pieces of thigh bone, ribs, vertebrae, all flung together! - Isn't that rust? - Yes.
- Be careful.
- Traces of copper salts.
Everywhere! Breen! I think perhaps I've found your mechanism.
You see those green streaks and the red? Suppose those are your fuel pumps, nozzles, jets, corroded out of existence? In a few years? Not in a few years.
Decaying as the radioactivity decayed.
- Hey, Westie, they're stuck! - Eh? - They haven't got a clue.
- Well, have YOU? They're the experts.
This Quatermass, he's big stuff - rockets! So? Look, if he's in a bewilderment, I won't wait to say ta-ta to this lot.
Wait! - Where have you been? Here! - Is Professor Quatermass here? Quatermass! We've got to get these into the hut.
- I've got some information.
- Inside, inside! Get your coat off.
We've got to try and save these.
Yeah? - Have a look.
- Photocopies? I've been doing some research.
They're from newspaper files, year 1927.
"The Knightsbridge Spook, May 18th, 1927.
" "Figure that walked through the bedroom wall.
" - Why did you do this? - Get your notebook! I thought you seemed curious the other night.
"My night of terror by Mrs Anne Chilcot.
" And there she is, 30 years younger.
No, I've had enough of that.
We'd do well to make sense of the known facts like that thing out there without dragging in the supernatural.
- "Spooks" and "my night of terror"! - Sorry.
I tried to help.
- It's my fault.
- One complete femur, 32 centimetres long.
Diameter, 8 centimetres.
"Crowds around the house in Hobbs Lane became so dense that traffic was obstructed.
"Lorries were unable to proceed to work being carried out nearby on the new Tube extension.
" Tube extension Hello! What's all the excitement? Well, there's still no ticking.
Right.
- It's solid.
I can't find any way through.
- Let me see.
Corporal, give me that lamp.
Yes, sir.
- What's going on? - We're up against a solid bulkhead.
Here, take a look for yourself.
Wash it down in case there's a sign of an opening.
Sergeant, water jets! You see, Quatermass, there's all this to be accounted for.
It's not very likely to be solid.
- A sealed compartment? - It could be a number of things.
- A warhead, for example.
- For a German V-weapon? Well, that's a little more likely now, don't you think? We'll assume that's what it is, take routine precautions and get on with cracking the nut.
Quite a nut! It's filling up.
Sergeant! - Bring a pump! - Very good, sir.
Come on, lads.
We'll get the pump.
I could've sworn there was another scapula.
I see they've cleared it.
Don't stand there looking, Gibson.
Get a hose! Gibson! No, West, get inside with that hose! - Go and make it beautiful, Westie.
- Here, take this, Corporal.
Right, get all this water out, will you? - There's no way in.
Only some markings.
- Markings? Yes, all over the surface.
Come on, hurry it, laddie! Quatermass! It's a pentacle.
- Pentacle? - Those marks.
One of the ancient cabbalistic signs.
They were used in black magic.
Potter, give me a hand inside.
Hold on, sir.
It's as slippery as glass.
West! It it was It was a kind of figure.
It went through the wall!