Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, david tennant, doctor who, indira varma, jason flemyng, mark gatiss, russell t davies, The Quatermass Experiment

Doctor Who, David Tennant & Their Ties to The Quatermass Experiment

A look at Doctor Who & David Tennant's ties to 2005's live broadcast of Nigel Kneale's classic Sci-Fi thriller, The Quatermass Experiment.

Before Doctor Who, there was The Quatermass Experiment, created by pioneering screenwriter Nigel Kneale. The first adult Science Fiction TV series in the UK, the original six-part serial was only ever broadcast once on the BBC in 1953. Nobody had really seen anything like it on television in 1953 – the story of an astronaut who returns as the sole survivor of the first British space launch who brings brought back an alien invader in his body that threatens to eat the world; it was shot and broadcast live. Only two episodes survive as the BBC, in their infinite wisdom, erased the rest.

In 2005, Science Fiction returned to the BBC and British Television in general after being largely absent in the 1990s, while reality shows and grim cop dramas dominated the airwaves with Doctor Who and a new live 90-minute broadcast of The Quatermass Experiment. It starred Jason Flemyng as Bernard Quatermass with Mark Gatiss, Indira Varma, and David Tennant and was shown on BBC4 to half a million viewers. Russell T. Davies' first season of Doctor Who had also premiered on BBC One that year.

"Filmed live with a fantastic ensemble cast, The Quatermass Experiment takes a sci-fi cult classic into the 21st Century, leaving none of the original's chilling horror or nail-biting tension behind. Highly respected, visionary scientist Bernard Quatermass heads the futuristic Experimental Rocket Group, whose greatest voyage is coming to an end. The completion of the journey will be not only Quatermass's finest achievement but also that of mankind. However, as the final hours pass and the rocket approaches Earth, it becomes clear that something is horribly wrong. After a dramatic crash landing, the spacecraft's only surviving crewmember, Victor Carroon, begins to metamorphose into a strange, deadly alien."

The Quartermass Experiment started Science Fiction on BBC Television ten years before the premiere of Doctor Who. Nigel Kneale hated Doctor Who, believing the series ripped off a lot of his ideas, which might be true since the series always lifted ideas and entire plots from elsewhere. The 2005 live broadcast had more direct ties to Doctor Who – Mark Gatiss and Tennant were not only in it, but it was during the night of the live broadcast while waiting for his next scenes, that Tennant got the call that told him he had been cast as The Doctor. At the time, the public didn't know Christopher Eccleston had quit the show.

Since we're having a "full circle" moment with Tennant returning to Doctor Who for the 60th Anniversary, like everything old is new again, it's worth revisiting the remake of another British Science Fiction milestone.

The Quatermass Experiment 2005 is streaming on Britbox in the US.

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