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 Bernard
Quatermass is the creation of screenwriter Nigel Kneale (1922-2006 ) for
what was to be the first great sci-fi television serial The
Quatermass Experiment (1953) and changed the fortunes of the
struggling Hammer studios when it was adapted for the big screen as The Quatermass Xperiment to emphasise its X certificate rating in
1955.
Bernard Quatermass, founder and head of the British Experimental
Rocket Group, was a man ahead of his time. Where the Americans
and Soviets were piddling about with chemical rockets and satellites
the size of grapefruits, Quatermass was launching men into space
aboard atomic-powered rockets that were so over-engineered that you
could prang one straight into the ground and scarcely dent it. Not that this did Prof. Quatermass any good, because every time he got
involved he wound up confronting some invasion from outer space of the
singularly nasty variety that left him more embittered about his
stalled career and the fate of humanity.
In the four Quatermass stories, we see a perfect example of the dark
side of Future Past. Quatermass is a pioneer who is dedicated to
the conquest of space. He is also lucky enough to be in on
events that provide him with earth-shaking discoveries that shed new
light on the nature of man and our place in the universe. You
could almost be describing Star Trek here, but the fly in the ointment
is that Quatermass's efforts produce as much tragedy as triumph and
what he discovers are things that he would rather not know. That's because he learns that our little Earth and our supremacy on it
are a brief spring moment in a universe that is supremely indifferent
to man and if we probe too far away from home or too closely into our
origins, we can expect to find nothing but death and horror as our
wages.
Granted, it's a remarkably pessimistic view, but it is one that stands
in the shadow of Future Past. The optimism of Future Past is
based upon having unlimited horizons before us, but if you posit a
universe that has infinite possibilities without some overarching plan
or purpose (God, if you like) to keep things in check, you eventually
reach the frontier where order breaks down, the line between the
natural and supernatural blurs, and chaos comes into its
own. Quatermass found that frontier right outside his front
door. | 
