Did anyone see the live Quatermass last night

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Well? BBC4 and all. If I remember I will watch it when repeated on Wednesday, but were there any fuckups? Was it any good?

― Pete (Pete), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:35 (twenty years ago)

sad to say i TAPED it. which lessens the impact some. i plan to see it as soon as emma gives up on the flamin' 'ollyoaks omnibus. saw a bit last night 4 i went to sleep - there was a bearded gatiss, and (oh no) David Tennant playing a DOCTOR. hem hem

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:39 (twenty years ago)

Blog it live...

The live Fail Safe they did in the states three years ago was pretty good. Bring back live drama.

― Pete (Pete), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

right, hollyoaks done with. 'slater

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

laters (even)

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

I watched it, and I didn't even know beforehand that Tennant was going to be in it. It was rather good, although I thought Gatiss seemed to be overacting a bit at some points.

(am now getting worried that David Tennant is getting a bit overexposed, after not being on the telly for *years*)

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 3 April 2005 09:05 (twenty years ago)

Other thoughts: the production design was a strange mix of the 50s and the 2000s - modern cars, monitors, medical kit, but a newspaper office (and characters) straight out of the 50s. Quatermass's khaki wardrobe seemed rather 50s, too.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 3 April 2005 09:07 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to watch it on Wednesday.

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 3 April 2005 09:09 (twenty years ago)

I'll shut up, then.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 3 April 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

We watched it, they ran through it quite quickly and fuxored up BBC4's scheduling so they had to put on another short film straight after it.

I won't comment any more on the actual show if no-one but me and Caitlin (the ILX cheerleaders for David Tennant, it would seem) have seen it yet.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 3 April 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

"Caitlin and I". It's early.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 3 April 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

"me and caitlin" is perfectly ok! maybe has instead of have tho

ANYWAY :-)

Yes i liked the odd 50s/2000s thing. Did they wuss out of the final "money shot"? istr that the original ended on a model fx shot that Kneale himself (and wife) animated with twig covered gloves? also, did original end on Westminster Abbey?

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 10:30 (twenty years ago)

"yes" to my questions. http://users.metronet.co.uk/cultv/quatermassexp.htm

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 10:31 (twenty years ago)

it was very slick i thought all in all. when they cut between ppl on live news there's always an "am i on" pause, but here it was always smooth. only once did someone genuinely fluff their lines, and some of the shots were done very well considering the constraints they were all working under. there was the odd bit of "acting by whispering" that got drowned out (tho could have been our rub old VCR). I am v much in the school of thought that not showing can be powerful, but still think the climax lacked that visual punctuation. it just went "shouty acting" and then "the world is saved".

the whole "what hath science wrought?!?" doom was not entirely lost, but it felt like that was soft pedalled more than the original would have been done. we are so blase about nucular war now, eh

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 10:39 (twenty years ago)

I didn't spot the line-fluff, but did notice that the sound levels seemed a bit off at one point. There did seem to be plenty of video inserts to give the actors chance to get to their next mark - like the grainy shots of developing cells. I assume that all the "studio" scenes must have been done at temporary OB studios at the "climax location" - if you watch it a second time you realise that the scenes of the rocket's crash-landing at the start are filmed at the same location, but carefully shot so that you don't recognise it.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 3 April 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

Thinking about it, this version had *more* constraints in that regard than the original, because of it being a single two-hour performance rather than a six-episode series. There seems to have been a lot less fuss made over the Quatermass remake than there was over the filming of Russian Ark a few years ago.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 3 April 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

it wasn't the real actual T*** M*d*r* but they did a good job of finding a place that looked like the T*r*i*e R**m

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 12:49 (twenty years ago)

All done live != One take (though one take imples all done live obv).

― Pete (Pete), Sunday, 3 April 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

Having now read the piece in yesterday's Guardian about it, bah, yes, it wasn't the real actual place was it. It was convincingly like it, though.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 3 April 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

I saw it on saturday, was a bit disappointed when it finished 20mins earlier than scheduled. Did anyone see David Tennant do 'Look back in anger' at the Lyceum? He's very charismatic in the flesh.

― leigh (leigh), Monday, 4 April 2005 07:27 (twenty years ago)

I THOUGHT THIS THREAD WAS ABOUT THE POPE'S FUNERAL

― LeCoq (LeCoq), Monday, 4 April 2005 07:31 (twenty years ago)

Two errors that I noticed, the first was in the newspaper office where the young guy forgot Caroo's name and Him That Used To Be In Brookie just went "yeah... yeah..." until he found his place and the second was in the very next scene where Mrs Caroo is speaking and Quatermass says "it's a virus" twice because he put the first one in the wrong place.

But it was very, very good. Yes, the costumes were a little anachronistic (especially Quatermass in his khaki clothes and braces) but all the leads were bluddy good I thought - even Gatiss (I take the point about him overacting a bit), who rather suits a beard. Nice to see Andy de la Tour still getting work as well.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Monday, 4 April 2005 07:36 (twenty years ago)

was good, and a lot more complex at times than things done with takes (ie a lot of the initial dialogue was intermingled, several people talking at the same time, interrupting etc)

the Fake Tate was tiny compared with the real thing, which they covered up by only shooting bits of it.

was cool the way that, at the denouemnt you could see a camera crew rushing towards the action and then see the shot from that camera.

during the congratulations, 'phew we've defeated the aliens bit' at the end you could hear them talking about their performance / mistakes.

they should've slipped a line in about the Pope, just to emphasise the L!ve ness

ER did this a couple of seasons ago, twice in fact, once for each coast.

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 4 April 2005 08:15 (twenty years ago)

I couldn't work out whether the group hugging at the end was part of the story or the luvvies congratulating each other on getting through it.

― leigh (leigh), Monday, 4 April 2005 08:59 (twenty years ago)

Heh, neither could I. I assume it must have been a mixture of both.

― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 4 April 2005 10:16 (twenty years ago)

Was it wrong to watch this purely because i fancy two of the actors?

― leigh (leigh), Thursday, 7 April 2005 07:56 (twenty years ago)

I saw it last night. Was good until they got to the "Tate Modern". Then it was outstandingly rubbish .Do You See post coming soon.

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 7 April 2005 08:32 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

itv4 is showing the 70s series starring john mills on sunday nights (first one was last night i think - Ringstone Round). first time i'd seen it. very bleak. sound recording not up to much either.

― My Koogy Weighs A Ton (koogs), Monday, 8 January 2007 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

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