The Quatermass Experiment
State of Emergency
TV Flash files “State of Emergency” as a desk essential hour — The Quatermass Experiment (1953) on BBC, season 1, episode 6, aired 1953-08-22, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E06: listed hour 6 of 6 in the The Quatermass Experiment guide, last listed hour of season 1. It aired 1953-08-22 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “An Unidentified Species” (S01E05). No later hour is listed in this guide.
Essential hour: “State of Emergency”. State of Emergency closes the six-part dare: last titled night, shoestring BBC dread packing away as the serial that taught television fear.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A state of emergency is declared and the army is brought in. Quatermass plays the creature the rocket tapes and appeals to the last vestiges of humanity left in Carroon to fight what he has become. The creature finally dies, just before it is due to spore.
Viewer FAQ
Where does State of Emergency sit in the The Quatermass Experiment guide?
S01E06 is listed hour 6 of 6 — last listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 6.
When did The Quatermass Experiment S01E06 air?
State of Emergency aired 1953-08-22 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the two surviving 1953 episodes. Live BBC rocket horror; the gaps are part of the legend, not a failure of your queue.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The Quatermass Experiment is British rocket horror on a shoestring: a 1953 BBC serial that terrified a nation and taught television to do dread. Adult sci-fi, culturally massive, some live episodes wiped. Watch it now as lost-media legend with teeth — the serial that proved the living room could be a frightened theater.
The rocket comes back wrong and the living room cannot pause. The Quatermass Experiment, Nigel Kneale's live BBC serial (July–August 1953, directed by Rudolph Cartier), gripped the UK: Professor Bernard Quatermass — Reginald Tate — facing an alien horror unfolding in London, Isabel Dean as Judith Carroon, Hugh Kelly as John Paterson. Six parts. Adult sci-fi, culturally massive. Only the first two episodes survive complete; later ones wiped. Lost-media legend with teeth. British rocket horror on a shoestring. The…
Filed against
- Reginald Tate as Prof. Bernard Quatermass
Reginald Tate played Prof. Bernard Quatermass on The Quatermass Experiment, 1953 BBC rocket horror on a shoestring — a serial that terrified a nation and taught television to do dread. Adult sci-fi, culturally massive, some live episodes…
- Isabel Dean as Judith Carroon
Isabel Dean played Judith Carroon on The Quatermass Experiment — British rocket horror on a shoestring, 1953 BBC serial that terrified a nation, adult sci-fi, some live episodes wiped. Lost-media legend with teeth. TV Flash files her as…
- Hugh Kelly as John Paterson
Hugh Kelly played John Paterson on The Quatermass Experiment — 1953 BBC rocket horror on a shoestring, a serial that terrified a nation and taught television to do dread. Adult sci-fi, culturally massive, some live episodes wiped. TV…