Quatermass And The Pit (1958) s01e05 Episode Script

In the pit at Knightsbridge, three dead creatures, like huge insects, are removed from the sealed compartment of the hull and are treated with preservative fluids against corruption that has been delayed for five million years.
They are transferred to the museum where Dr Roney and Professor Bernard Quatermass guess their place of origin as ancient Mars.
Later, called to the War Office to account for his activities, Quatermass has to make another guess - that they have stumbled on one single instance of a vast Martian colonisation of the Earth, back in the Pliocene Age, using Earthly apes, changed by biological techniques.
And we are the descendants of those apes.
At Hobbs Lane, the bomb-disposal squad quits the excavation, leaving the drill operator Sladden to pack up the last of his gear.
The whole place was shaking and things were flying about.
- Earth and stones and metal! - Yes, that's when you got hurt.
It was in there.
I heard it when I was coming down.
Sounds and screams and then - And then he came running! - He ran past us up there.
Here, Sergeant.
You saw that it was Sladden? Yes, I suppose it was him, but - But what? - Well, it was the way he moved, sir.
Look after Miss Judd.
No! - I knew something was going to happen.
- What are you driving at? Just before we packed up here, it got deadly cold.
- It still is! - It's the time of the year.
- Why doesn't he hurry up? - All right, he heard you! All the lamps are smashed and the cables torn.
Do you know the breaking strength of that stuff? - Yes, sir.
- Where's Quatermass? - He was called to a conference.
- Could you find him? I'll try, but first I'll get what I came for - those notes in the hut.
Stick with her.
Take her wherever she wants to go.
Use the Land Rover.
- And you, sir? - I'm going to look out for for Sladden.
Roney! Roney! He wouldn't listen.
- Who? - The Minister, of course.
Behind that smooth front, he's scared stiff.
Scared of the press, scared of being blamed for something, scared of his colleagues.
- All he wants are easy answers.
- Easy answers? About these? - Well, did you try to explain? - Yes, of course I did.
Every word rang hollow.
Martians.
Biological experiments on apes in the Pliocene Age.
Huh! "You realise what you're implying?" he said.
"That we owe our human condition to the intervention of insects.
" Outraged! His dignity affronted! At that moment I knew the sort of thing that Darwin faced.
- Some coffee? - No.
- So he wasn't satisfied? - On the contrary, he was! With Colonel Breen's theory.
You may not have realised it, but that hull we dug up was a German propaganda weapon launched in 1944 and those are fakes! If you look closely, you'll find a little swastika on it somewhere! He swallowed that? It appealed to his common sense.
So Breen's busy on an official statement.
Meanwhile, all precautions are cancelled, the barrier's down.
Well, I suppose there's no actual harm in that.
- Barbara! - Professor Thank heavens you're here! - You went to the excavation? - Yes, when I got there A drop of No, not coffee.
What's the matter with your head? - Something hit me.
- Here, try some of this.
Thanks.
The entire place seemed to come alive.
Planks, cables, the earth itself being flung about.
And there were sounds.
Such sounds.
Then out of the hull I saw this It was the drill operator.
They said it was and it must have been, but it looked like that Running and running! What happened to him? Where is he now? Captain Potter went to look for him.
This outbreak, it quietened down? - After he'd gone, yes.
- This ought to make 'em think again.
I wonder! Who's in charge there now? Hello? - Hello.
Have you found him? Where? - Is that Potter? A church? I see.
Yes, all right.
In about ten minutes.
- I'll go now.
Potter's waiting? - Yes, let's go.
- You? - I want to see Sladden.
- See what he looks like now.
I must! - But look, you can't Roney, you wait here in case anyone else tries to get in touch.
Hello, miss.
Sladden.
Hello, Professor.
- My name is Quatermass.
- Mine's Gilpin.
I understand that you are this man's employer.
Well, I was today.
Do you know what caused this this condition of his? We were having a choir practice tonight and I went out for a breath of fresh air and I saw him.
He was lying on the path.
He was in evident terror.
It occurred to me that he looked as if As if what? As if he was seeking sanctuary.
So I called Mr Edwards, our choirmaster, and together we brought him in here.
He was quite exhausted, but agitated in a dreadful way.
- Did you send for a doctor? - No.
When I saw those and heard those sounds I asked Mr Edwards to go to dismiss the choir.
I knew I had to stay with this man.
I was sure that he'd been in contact with spiritual evil.
But you were able to quieten him? I think I helped him and then, after a time, this officer came.
- I'll have to question him.
- Must you? - Yes, he was alone when it happened.
- Perhaps tomorrow? No, there may be danger in waiting, danger to others.
More cocoa, Sladden? Sladden Can you remember what happened in the excavation tonight? Do you remember being there? You stayed behind to dismantle some equipment.
Did you see her there, that girl? She was hurt by something that moved.
Did you see things flying about through the air? I ran and ran to get away! - They were coming! - What were? Stones? Pieces of metal? They! They! - Sladden, what? - No more! I remember.
It started and then then I couldn't see anything but them! Like you took out of the hull.
With eyes and horns! - He saw the creatures.
- They were alive! Alive? Hopping and running.
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.
They knew I was one! - They ran? - Jumping, leaping - Leave him alone! - Where? In and out of them big places.
In and out of them Huge, right up into the sky.
The sky? What colour is it? Blue? No.
Dark.
Dark purple.
It was like that down there.
But far louder.
- What fell? - These.
- I saw them jump out.
- It was cold there like this? Yes.
You should have left him alone.
He's not free of it yet! - Perhaps it was always in him.
- What do you mean? Perhaps it's a faculty that's dormant in all of us.
- An inheritance, if you like.
- I'd have expected that from you, a scientist.
Are you going to explain this away in fashionable terms, call it suggestion, hysteria? On the contrary, I agree with you.
You agree? What has been uncovered is evil.
It's as anciently diabolic as anything ever recorded.
I'm afraid I I don't understand.
I believe that what he has just told us was a vision of life on Mars five million years ago.
- I'll have to take this further.
- No.
All right, not now.
Sladden I want to make an experiment.
Soon I want you to come to the excavation with me and show me exactly what you did tonight.
- For what purpose? - I'll have apparatus to record what happens.
Even though it means putting this man in peril? Sladden, will you? Hey, guv, it's a queer do, isn't it? But you're right.
It is me.
I can feel it.
- When? - Tomorrow.
I'll be careful.
I promise you.
- Would you come? - Yes, of course, if you want me.
- But I must advise you - OK, Prof.
- Where does this door lead? - To the church.
Why? There's somebody in there.
- Fullalove, what brought you here? - What brought YOU? To assist in identifying the machine, the West German Federal Government has agreed to make new searches Colonel, the news agencies are asking will there be a further statement? No, there will not.
Until tomorrow.
They have that short denial which has turned the trick.
First editions supplied by courtesy.
"Space Machine War Hoax.
" "German Fakes" You can't come in here just now! I'm sorry, sir.
I have something to tell you.
I wonder what Captain Potter's chances are of getting them to retract? - Zero.
- You're probably right.
- Once they've put out a denial.
Did you read it? - No.
As flat and bald as the Minister himself.
That set me on the trail again.
This thing was never properly completed.
It's still experimental.
- Can you get it working? - Goodness knows! When did we run it last? About six months ago, we made some tests.
I remember.
Some tests! Hardly showed a thing! Are these correct? - What is it? - He calls it an optic encephalograph.
Good word.
Sort of suggests all that tangle of What does it do? Nothing.
It's designed to locate visual impressions inside the brain.
What the eye sees or hallucination, whichever dominates at the time.
The original aim was to use it on primitive types, the trance conditions they fall into so easily.
It'll take a couple of minutes.
Barbara, clear that junk off the table, please.
Are you going to use it down there tomorrow? On a subject? That hull or missile or whatever you call it, have you any idea how it works? It's not inert, it does work? Oh, yes.
Yes, it works.
I think it's activated by vibrations.
Perhaps electricity, any source of energy.
Then it has these effects on people? - How long have you been a journalist? - Reporter, please.
- All right, a reporter.
How long? - 12 years, come Michaelmas.
You must have often noticed reports of mysterious movements of objects.
Yes.
"Lead flung through roof.
Boy denies he did it.
Mysterious sounds continue.
" It's the same as at Hobbs Lane - poltergeist story.
Telekinesis.
It's an odd faculty.
- Faculty? - Mm-hm.
You may have it.
We may all.
The dormant ability to twist our energies into super-normal channels outside ourselves.
Do you want to know where it came from? Plus another old, strange talent.
Second sight.
Clairvoyance.
That filled Sladden's brain tonight with a vision of ancient Mars.
I've felt things in my head when I've been near the hull.
So have I.
It may be that there are vestiges of it remaining in all of us from the time when they colonised this Earth at second hand.
Oh, their experiment must have failed, collapsed, got lost in a reversion to savagery, but something remained.
The occasional poltergeist outbreak that alarms a street, myths.
Perhaps even witchcraft itself.
- Those signs in the hull.
- That's right.
So as far as anybody is well, we're the Martians now.
That just about does it.
Now we need a subject.
Well, Fullalove, you'll be able to write about the experience.
Here, sit here.
- Is that all right? - Is this safe? Look at that lamp there.
Now, Quatermass! Damn! There, that's better.
The lamp through his eyes! It works! By God, it does! Roney, you're a genius! It's rough, rough as can be.
And that was an easy test.
Maybe if we go over the circuits, we can make something of it.
Let's do that.
Well, Mr Gilpin? It all seems quiet and harmless.
But there are the occult signs.
There's no doubt about them.
May I ask what you've got there? I thought if perhaps it seemed wise to attempt exorcism Bell, book and candle, eh? Yes, that was tried.
In 1341.
What can you see? The house up there.
Steady Now close your eyes.
Good.
Good, that's it.
I think we'll do.
Now, Sladden, the first thing you did was cut the generator, right? - That's right.
- When I signal, you do it.
We've got our own batteries.
- Do I have to go in there? - No.
I'm going to try to do roughly what you did.
If I go wrong, you shout.
OK, Prof.
The current from the generator must supply the energy.
And then when it's cut, the hull reacts.
The recording gear's all set up.
Right.
Let's begin.
Nothing.
Not a damn thing.
Roney! Roney, I I'm not getting any impression.
Only Only a kind of confusion.
Roney Roney, it's not working through me.
I'm not the one.
It's not operating through me.
Barbara, get away from there! Get away! Come back! - I can see! I can see! - Roney, come here quickly! - Let me do it! - All right, get this thing off me! - It's getting something now! - We can't let them do this.
They're madmen! Don't leave me! Hold on to me! Hold on! Hold Aagh! Aaaagh! Get her out of it! Quatermass! Barbara, you're all right.
Oh, my dear! - What she must have seen! - I saw them, too.
What you've made these two people endure.
You'll be answerable.
It was different this time, doing different things to what I seen last night.
All that killing! What's happened to her? What have you done? Well, Quatermass, what HAVE you done? Potter told me about some insane experiment.
Let's get out of here.
I think I've got something to show you.
Roney! What you're about to see is a memory.
A memory stored for millions of years in that hull.
A machine at whose complexity we can only guess.
And now picked up by the susceptible brain of a young woman.
You'll have to excuse the technical quality.
Our apparatus is less subtle than that thing in the pit, if you don't mind my saying so, Roney.
What do you claim it shows? - The Wild Hunt.
- The what? The Wild Hunt.
It appears in legends the world over.
The phantom ride of witches or devils.
- Really, gentlemen! - That is the legend.
What you're about to see is the fact.
You're going to see a race purge, a cleansing of the hives.
Videotape ready.
Please, carry on.
Most curious.
Yes, those insect creatures.
Arthropods like those we found.
Notice that they were killing and being killed.
I think that what we've seen is a ritual slaughter to preserve a fixed society, rid it of mutations.
You find the same sort of thing on Earth among termites and wasps.
Now, my concern is that this stored memory of killing should be coupled with another power that that thing in the pit seems to have.
The power to redirect human energy.
- Power to redirect human energy? - Yes.
Into force beyond control.
- You mean that commotion down there today? - Not only today.
This young woman turned out to be highly susceptible, so did Sladden, but we've all felt it.
- Nonsense.
A few vibration effects.
- How can you say that? - Because I - Gentlemen, please! There's really no need for this.
We're looking for rational explanations and I think there is one.
Dr Roney, this truly amazing apparatus of yours was designed to detect, was it not, hallucination? - Well, originally, yes, but we - Hallucination? Exactly, sir, I think you've hit it! - It wasn't hallucination! - Let's call it a mental image.
The lady clearly has imagination and she's overwrought.
She had seen these creatures which Colonel Breen insists are fakes, so what more natural You can't dismiss it like that! - I should dismiss Colonel Breen's theory? - If you'd witnessed what had happened! Professor Quatermass, I believe that you are wrong in this matter.
Ridiculously wrong.
You'll admit people to that excavation? Tonight.
The press, radio and television personnel.
But you must not! We all have a duty to relieve the public mind which has been wantonly alarmed.
And I demand of you, as a loyal government officer, complete co-operation.
Is the generator ready? Set up in the street.
Lot of stuff here.
All these lamps and cameras.
Don't worry.
Our genny will take all that load.
Well, can you run an extra cable over there to the hull? - What, inside? - Yes, the TV boys want some shots inside.
Well, we'll do our best.
Come on, Ted.
Last three weeks, I've done floods, frogmen and down a sewer.
- When do they switch the juice on? - Soon.
When's the programme? - Seven o'clock.
- You'll be all right.
I hope so.
Leaving everything till the last! This place won't do my bad leg any good! Hey, isn't that, you know, what's-his-name, Quatermass? My, the juice! That'll warm it up a bit.
The West German Federal Government has agreed to institute new searches of existing wartime material in order to assist in identifying the machine.
Thank you.
Copies of the statement.
Any questions, gentlemen? Yes.
Yes.
What convinces you that your V-weapon theory is correct? My experience.
Madam? Don't you agree that this propaganda plan you've uncovered shows the Nazis had no idea of the true British spirit during the Blitz? - Er, well - Colonel, I made some enquiries of my own.
Do you know that officials of German wartime rocket research deny any such weapon existed? - You must allow time - Let him answer.
Mr Fullalove, a day or two ago, you were enquiring into the activities of ghosts and demons.
Did you get their opinions, too? I demand an answer! This is too serious a matter - Next question, please.
- I've got a question! - Quatermass! - Is Colonel Breen an imbecile or a coward? - Go on, give it to him! - What do you mean by that? How dare you! Wait! Professor Quatermass, I thought it was I'll ask the question! Is Colonel Breen afraid of something, so afraid that he resorts to the thinnest rationalisations? I say what I know and what I believe to be the truth.
Tell them what you've seen here and heard.
Tell them what happened to West and Sladden.
Potter, you were a witness.
You tell them what happened.
Cut the power, for God's sake! Cut it, cut it! My mate, he's still in there.
- Potter, be careful! - The current's off.
What happened? Quick! He had the live cable.
He must have slipped.
- Is he dead? - Yes.
Potter, did you see anything else in there? No, nothing.