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| "I am the Master, you will obey me!" |
QUATERMASS II
Episode Four: The Coming
12 November 1955
It's really hits the fan this time.
Pr Quatermass realizes that the "synthetic food" produced by the plant is actually a deadly compound. Furthermore he has come to the conclusion that the meteorites are carrying some sort of alien life-form who immediately possess anyone it comes in contact with. Therefore it becomes clear that aliens are trying to invade Earth (i.e. Britain) and remodel it as their own world.
(One of these days someone ought to closely examine the plans of alien invaders; so far very of them make any sense. If you have to completely terraform a planet to invade it, then wouldn't it be easier to just select a world
closer in surface conditions to the one you're leaving behind? Let's look at a human perspective: if we're going to colonize another world one day, then we'll certainly select one nearest to Earth in terms of gravity, atmosphere etc. That's why, of all the planets in this here solar system, Mars would be more suitable than, say, Venus. We've been looking at those exoplanets lately, trying to find one with suitable conditions for life. We're not going out of our way to find a planet we'll have to completely change in order to live there. One has got to believe that alien invaders really have it in for humanity, because their invasion plans are
not practical in the very least.)
Anyway, things are getting very serious indeed. Quatermass props one of his rockets with an atomic warhead "just in case". He also enlists the help of a journalist named Conrad to spread the truth around. They locate the workers of the Winnderden Flats plant to a local pub when one of those damned meteorites fall in (a normal occurrence, one local says) and, faster than you can say "zombified army unit", one of them rolls around to take the meteorite away. However, Conrad gets infected. Meanwhile, Quatermass disguises himself as a zombie soldier to try and find out more. In his dying breath, Conrad phones his newspaper with news of an alien invasion.
- This is more like it. Episode 3 was rather slow moving, but here the pace is brisk, moving along faster as things get more...difficult.
- Wouldn't you know it, Conrad is played by Roger Delgado, better known as the original Master in Doctor Who.
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"Conrad, you idiot! You're supposed
to phone the papers, not me!"
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- Quatermass certainly has clout in some quarters, as he is able to commandeer a nuclear warhead for his rocket. Bear in mind that two of those blew up at the beginning of the serial, something that could get any old space agency severe budget cuts (bah! that's for the next fiscal year, they apparently still have got some money left around...somewhere).
- Good thing they've told us that Paul and Quatermass are related. Their complete lack of parental rapport certainly do not help cement their relationship.
