Quatermass And The Pit (1958) s01e04 Episode Script

While the mysterious hull found in the pit at Knightsbridge is being investigated by Professor Quatermass and his colleagues, a black-magic pentacle is discovered inside it.
And a terrified sapper sees a dwarf-like figure pass through the wall.
When an attempt is made to pierce a sealed compartment with a borazon drill, frightful sounds break out, demoralising and shocking the drilling party and sending Quatermass with Dr Roney on a search for early records of the place.
As far as these go back, Hobbs Lane has been periodically haunted by sounds and hideous small shapes.
Meanwhile, Colonel Breen finds a hole has appeared, as if melted in the closed bulkhead and through it an eye can be seen.
With the hole to provide a purchase, the inner port is turned opened.
The demons! It's all right.
They're dead.
They've been dead for a long time.
Roney! - What are they? - Whatever they are, they're decomposing fast.
- Roney, I think this is a job for you.
- Yes.
Yes.
Barbara, phone the museum and tell Klein to bring supports and sprays quickly.
Give me a hand here.
What's in there, miss? She's got the wind up.
I think I can Got it.
What in heaven's name? Like a colossal insect! In some ways more like a crab.
- Yes, that's the smell.
Like rotting fish! - Or locusts.
- Quatermass, do you mind here? - I can't guarantee my stomach! You can almost see it decomposing.
I'm sorry, sir.
I think I'd better go out All right, go on, get out.
There seem to be legs.
Three of them.
It's a tripod.
That's a strange formation.
Antennae like a beetle's.
Where is that girl? Look out for her, will you? - What do you mean, insects? - What sort of insects? - I don't know.
They were big.
- But you say they were dead? Sarge you mean they've been dead a long time? - I don't know.
- But we we dug that thing up.
- I don't know, Gibson! - Sir, what's in there? What are they? - Let me help.
He's yelling for that stuff.
- Take these.
Give me that tray.
Quickly! - Keep it level.
It's leaking.
- Yes.
- Use number four's plating fluid.
- Is it safe? We've got to take a chance.
Camera! I want to use that in there before I get the others out.
- You're going in there? - There's no time to lose.
Be careful of those those membranes.
They may be some sort of instrument.
Instruments? Your imagination's running wild! Yes.
Isn't yours? This one's lying in some kind of a frame.
If they were human, I'd call that a bunk.
Dr Roney! - How long have these things been dead? - I told you.
I'm asking him! Pass me another tray.
lf If they'd been dead more than a few years, they'd have decomposed completely? All the decomposition has been in the last hour.
- That makes no sense! - Don't bother me now, please! That compartment was sealed.
If the things inside were completely sterile, without bacteria, they'd be free from corruption.
- Even if they were dead? - Yes.
They could be in there for a million years.
Remain as they are unchanged until our atmosphere got in.
Filthy London air.
- Then they'd rot as they have done.
- Quatermass! Dr Klein, this way, sir, please.
All right, but they should have been here now.
These things are disintegrating! They're here now.
Klein, I'm glad to see you! Look here.
- What are they? How did you get hold of? - No questions now.
Get those boxes ready! - How is that one? - Not good.
If you can just try to save the horny shell.
Keep the body fluids separate and correctly described.
Klein, come here.
We've only got two of them.
- Professor? - Hmm? - Sorry to disturb you.
- Oh, Fullalove.
What's in there now? Those Those membranes and these.
- It goes to powder.
- Yes.
Seems to be some sort of mineral substance.
Do you, er Do you think it grew there like stalactites? No, I think it was put there.
These remind me of something, something I've seen, photographs.
- Of course, nerve endings! - What? Nerves? Yes, if you see them enormously magnified, then the fibres terminate in this way.
Those those creatures Could they Could they have belonged to this Earth? No.
Take external measurements, then compare them with the internal over the whole structure.
I want every single cubic inch of space accounted for.
Who's this? - Quatermass, who's this man? - James Fullalove, "Evening Gazette".
- How did he get in here? Did you bring? - Not exactly.
- He's got no business here! - I think I have.
Stop talking past me! The military has jurisdiction here.
There's no bomb.
We don't have to protect the public, just inform them.
Thanks.
Colonel Breen, I'd be glad of your expert opinion, too Get out! Potter, get him out of here! - Sir.
Sergeant! - Now look here, Breen I am in charge here and I want that man off this site immediately! Sergeant, take him and escort him to the barrier! Take him! - Take him! - Come along, sir.
That was a mistake.
A bad one, Breen.
Don't tell me what to do! I'm not gonna stand by while you feed wild theories to the gutter press! There's been enough nonsense talked about this thing already.
Dead millions of years! I know the smell of death and how long it lasts! - Have you got a theory? - Yes, I have! - Are you going to share it? - In my own time.
You won't be able to keep THOSE a secret for long.
Jacko, be tough about it.
You've got to get these pictures in.
Take it easy, James.
Yes, sir, which headline? Sam! I'll go and talk to him again.
Sure.
It's that small head.
"War Office Hushes It Up.
" I've still got the marks from being bounced through that barrier! Is he scared? - He thinks it's not strong enough! - Oh.
Well, what about "Terror Stalks Whitehall"? - These creatures are dead? - He was scared.
- Who? - This Colonel Breen.
"Blimp Blunders.
" - Too personal.
- I feel personal.
"Fullalove Beats Army Ban.
" How's that? Set it, Sam.
Oh, nice late edition! Apemen found! Monster insects! Get your "Gazette"! Thank you.
Monster insects found.
Get your "Gazette"! Read all about it! They've got them in the museum now.
You can't get in, but you can read all about it.
"Gazette"! I'm sorry, the museum is closed.
There's no statement to make.
This was the bad one? Yes.
That's why we set it up that way.
Seemed less danger of damaging the legs.
Very dry and brittle.
All soft parts and fluids were extracted.
- These are ready for analysis.
- Take them to Dr Klein.
The Insect Department is working on our two good specimens.
Insect? Is that how you classify it, then? - Call it an arthropod.
- Arthropod? Includes all insects, crabs, spiders.
Except that none of them have three legs.
These are interesting, too.
Antennae shaped like horns.
Yes.
The horned demons in those old prints and manuscripts.
Do you remember? As if that image were somehow projected into men's minds, that face.
- Rather pretty.
- It's like a gargoyle.
Roney, that's not just a simile.
Haven't you seen it before carved on walls in a dozen countries? Is it somewhere in the subconscious? A race memory? - How do you like our decor? - Oh, damn your decor! I agree, it is a bit chi-chi for a lab.
It confuses the eye when you're trying to read a measure.
They're copies of Palaeolithic cave paintings about 30,000 years old.
Look at that one.
A cave man in a ritual mask.
I wonder where the idea of it came from? You know, I think these are old friends that we haven't seen for a long time.
The mass and structure point to a low-gravity environment, a thin atmosphere.
Correct.
Perhaps a world that's dead now, but a few million years ago was teeming with life.
I wonder.
Roney, when I was a boy, it was the great burning topic.
Were there really canals there and who made them? I remember my disappointment when somebody proved that Martians couldn't exist.
It's a funny word.
Worn out before anything turned up to claim it.
Martians.
- Sorry, sir, I've got my orders.
- Don't keep on saying that! - Bet my editor's worse than your inspector! - Found more insects? - I don't know what you mean.
- He's the only man that doesn't! - Here's one.
Sergeant! - What's the row about? - Reporters.
- Sergeant, is there still any danger? - Why can't we go down there? - Did you see any insects? - What's happening? - It's secret, sir.
- Secret! Except from the "Gazette"! - They've got the whole story.
- Have they bought the exclusive rights? - Go on, let us through! I'll have to see about this, sir.
You get your officer up here right away! I said, "Did you see any of these insects?" All accounted for, sir.
No more sealed compartments.
Good.
Here, what's all this? Oh, I must've rubbed against it in there.
All this stuff's coming loose.
The professor seemed to think that it must be well, it might have been some sort of apparatus.
Does it look like that? Well, no, sir.
Besides, it doesn't connect with anything.
But even if there had been external propulsion units, I still don't see how Well, unless the hull itself did the thinking.
- Are you out of your mind? - Sir.
I've heard enough stark idiocy here today! You leave that to civilians.
Sir, have you finished with my gear? Oh, later.
- My gear in there, can I take it now? - It'll be all right.
I can't go without it, sir.
It belongs to my boss.
I'm the one that carries Look at this.
The work of Quatermass's friend, I suppose! "Army Impose Panic Censorship.
" Just because I chased their paid hack out of where he had no business to be! "Panic Censorship"? What are they implying? What are they trying to? Are you all right, sir? Yes, of course.
I'll show them what can happen when they start flinging implications! - Phone, sir, for you.
- Who is it? - Somebody at the War Office, sir.
- The War Office? The War Office.
It's that skull formation that's out of line.
Otherwise, the creatures fit in with known evolution.
Hmm.
An ape with an over-developed cranium.
Oh, huge, for its place in the family tree.
Over 1,000cc capacity.
- Intelligent? - Hard to say.
Mere size doesn't mean that.
But something had developed, some faculties.
Or had been developed.
Hmm? Roney, how many of these ape creatures were there in the pit? Seven.
Six at least.
Six or seven.
In the rear compartment.
- We don't know that for a fact.
- Let's suppose it.
And in the front compartment, there were these.
What's in your mind? The will to survive.
It's an odd phenomenon.
Roney Roney, if we found out, knew for certain that our Earth was doomed a thousand years from now or a hundred what would we do about it? Nothing.
Just go on fighting each other as usual.
Yes.
But if we weren't just men.
Oh, good, you're still here.
Is it possible to give out a statement of some kind? That crowd out there, it's getting huge.
And a bit ugly.
They're convinced there's something sinister going on.
Laboratory? Yes, he's here.
- Professor, it's for you.
- Hmm? Oh.
- Quatermass.
- Look at them! - Be a job getting through if this goes on.
- You'll get home.
- I've got to go back to Hobbs Lane first.
- Why? To get some notes.
My own fault.
I forgot them.
Yes? Yes.
All right, I'll come at once.
Well Back to the War Office.
We're in trouble.
I've told Breen what I think.
Perhaps he's taken more of the brunt of it than he should've done.
I don't know what shook me the most - this wild news story or you two being at the bottom of it! Hello? Oh, hello, Haynes.
I'm afraid he's still not Just a moment.
The PM's Private Secretary.
Sorry, the Minister is still not available.
Will you try again in about 20 minutes? You see? And the Home Office badgering me about cordons and emergency police action! Before they call a special Cabinet meeting, I want to get a few facts straight.
Oh, hell, kill it! As far as I was aware, you weren't still in London.
I thought you were going back to the Rocket Group for Breen to take up his new position.
Why didn't you? It was my fault.
I involved Breen in this.
Don't talk as if you've been scrumping apples! This is serious! You don't know how serious.
You'd better tell me.
I take it that you've an idea of the facts? Well, only these press reports.
And more from Breen before you came.
But I'm still at a loss to make any sense of it.
When I was last in this room, it was to discuss planting military bases on the moon - Let's keep to the subject.
- And on Mars.
What are you suggesting? You're demanding explanations that I can't prove.
All I can give you are guesses.
Better than nothing.
Tell them we're taking no more calls! Go on.
Dr Roney and I are convinced that those arthropods are not of this Earth.
Where, then? One possibility is Mars.
Mars is dead.
There's nothing there but a few scraps of lichen.
Five million years ago, it may have been very different.
Suppose at that time there were living beings there with advanced techniques.
There's no harm in supposing.
Techniques that enabled them to visit this Earth at a time when the most advanced creatures on it, our own ancestors, were still only a type of Pliocene ape.
Suppose that they had other techniques.
- Biological ones.
- Biological? Those Pliocene man-apes found at Knightsbridge are freaks.
Are you trying to make out there's a connection between those apes and your insects? YOUR insects.
I think you saw them first.
I suppose that they were unable to endure our atmosphere, the strong oxygen, the bacteria, so when they came, they stayed sealed in that compartment while in the other section were the ape mutations, the result of their own experiments, brought back to be released on Earth to take possession of it for them.
You believe that happened? I said it's a guess.
That apes were taken from this planet and? And altered, yes, yes.
By selective breeding, by surgical methods, perhaps both.
I suppose the aim would be to increase the intelligence.
I suppose It would have to be carried out on a huge scale.
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Yes, if I'm right, IF I'm right, we've come across just one single instance.
An accident, a landing that went wrong and they all died.
The Thames Valley was swamp then.
You realise what you're implying? That we owe our human condition to the intervention of insects? Yes.
I suppose I am.
Breen, do you accept any of this? No.
No, I don't.
Not a single word! Quatermass, you asked me a while ago if I had a theory of my own.
Well, I have and here it is.
And it does not involve Martians or obscene experiments.
- Go on, please.
- Only Germans.
And it goes back to 1944 and not millions of years.
You can't still be hanging on to that I suggest that once the Germans realised they were losing the war, they put out a propaganda scare.
They sent over an experimental V-weapon that would produce exactly the effect it has produced, thanks to you.
Except it was a little late for their purpose.
What about those creatures? Fakes! Put there as a circumstantial touch.
Like mermaids at a fair, made up of odds and ends of flesh and bone.
The oldest trick in the business! - Ingenious! - Except that it didn't happen.
- I say it did.
- Yes, yes.
It has that black Wagnerian imagination.
Methodical people, the Hun.
- You must hear the expert testimony.
- Experts! - I'm sure I'm right, sir.
- I'm sure you are.
I like the common sense of it.
We'll let the Home Secretary off his beat.
- Get him now? - Yes.
That mysterious missile, is it safe? - I've had it checked, sir.
- No danger to the public? - None.
I'm certain.
- Good.
We'll get things back to normal.
Have that barrier down, people back in their homes, let the press see it all.
- We'll prepare a short statement.
- Here he is, sir.
- Think what you're doing.
At least wait until - How dare you! Hello, John.
Sorry you've been led such a dance this evening.
It's all over now.
It's a gigantic false alarm.
- That's official.
There's no further danger.
- What about that thing down there? - There'll be a full statement in the morning.
- You mean it was a hoax? - I don't know, sir.
Open the barrier! - Excuse me, please.
- A hoax! - A hoax? Oh, we come here specially! Inspector, the bomb-disposal people.
They're still there.
I can see their truck.
They're just packing up.
Oh, come on! Let's get a wet! - Too late to go to the flicks now.
- Oh, come on.
Oh, cripes! Stuck here till the last! - You're only a civvy, son.
- "Leave the lamps till I'm through," he says.
I thought he had some delicate task on.
He's slinging out bloody sacks! - A wonder he didn't make US do it! - He wouldn't do that.
They haven't had us touch it since this morning.
- That's right.
Why? - Hands.
Look! Got me a bit.
Yeah.
That cream fixed it, though.
Well, it didn't fix him.
Nor Captain Potter.
I saw him when he took the bandages off.
Still, he's not a bad sergeant.
Gibson! Jones! Till he starts bawling.
Coming, Sarge! I'm glad this job's over.
- So was this a Jerry job? - That's what the man said.
Funny, though.
All them stories about this place.
That was before they had Jerries.
- Shove 'em down! - Do you reckon little Westie seen anything? Little Westie what? He lost his nerve, son.
Spent too long clearing beaches.
- As soon as you're ready, we'll pull out.
- Very good, sir.
Come on, jump to it! - Take my gear now, Sarge? - Yes, and knock off the generator.
- Have you got any gloves? - No.
- Take mine.
- All right, ta.
Are you cold? Well, pick up that stuff and move! Come on, at the double! Keep you warm.
- So long, boy! - See you again! If I let you go down there, they'd all want to go.
- But I must.
I've told you who I am.
- What's the trouble? I've got to get some notes.
They're valuable.
- Where from? - From the hut.
We were just leaving.
It'll all be shut down.
Sergeant, is anybody still below? Yes, Sladden, sir.
- There you are.
I'll be quick.
- Miss! No, it'll be all right I think.
Aaagh! Aagh! Aagh! Aaaagh! # Bring me my chariot of fire # I will not cease from mental fight # Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand # Till we have built #