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100-493: The Quatermass Experiment is a British science fiction serial broadcast by BBC Television during the summer of 1953 and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme , it tells the story of the first crewed flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carries

200-674: A film studio , production company , TV network, or producer, they often have to continue networking, mainly with directors or executives, and push to have their projects "chosen" and turned into films or TV shows. If interest in a script begins to fade, a project can go dead. The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) is the international federation of screenwriters' and playwrights' unions, who recognize union membership across international borders. They have 14 different affiliates across various nations who collectively work to verify original authorship, fight for fair compensation, and enforce copyright. Most professional screenwriters in

300-536: A tramp in Quatermass II . Brambell, who also appeared in Cartier and Kneale's production of Nineteen Eighty-Four , later became widely known for his roles in the sitcom Steptoe and Son (1962–74) and the film A Hard Day's Night (1964). The 74-year-old actress Katie Johnson played a supporting part; she later became well known and won a British Film Award for her role as the landlady Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce in

400-457: A British adult television audience. The serial was the first of four Quatermass productions to be screened on British television between 1953 and 1979. It was transmitted live from the BBC's original television studios at Alexandra Palace in north London, one of the final productions before BBC television drama moved to west London. Despite its success and influence, only two episodes have survived,

500-465: A British tradition of science fiction television which runs in various forms from Quatermass to A for Andromeda to Blake's 7 , and from Doctor Who to Red Dwarf ". Kneale disliked Doctor Who - the most successful of the British science-fiction programmes - saying that it had stolen his ideas. An article for The Daily Telegraph in 2005 described Doctor Who as the "spiritual successor" to

600-452: A different character in the film adaptation of Quatermass and the Pit (1967). He enjoyed working on The Quatermass Experiment so much that, although he was not required for the final episode, he went to Alexandra Palace to lend moral support. While there, he helped Kneale and Kerr to prepare their 'monster' prop. Appearing in a small role as a drunk was Wilfrid Brambell , who later appeared as

700-528: A female superhero, wears traditional folkloric clothes and tries to save traditional elements of Dutch society against the factory owners. Italian TV shows include A come Andromeda (1972) which was a remake of 1962 BBC serial, A for Andromeda (from the novels of Hoyle and Elliott), Geminus (1968), Il segno del comando (1971), Gamma (1974) and La traccia verde (1975). French series are Highlander: The Series , French science-fiction/fantasy television series (both co-produced with Canada) and

800-561: A few pre-filmed 35mm film inserts shot before and during the rehearsal period—from Studio A of the BBC's original television studios at Alexandra Palace in London. It was one of the last major dramas to be broadcast from the Palace, as the majority of television production was soon to transfer to Lime Grove Studios , and it was made using the BBC's oldest television cameras, the Emitrons, installed with

900-409: A first draft. Multi-step deals, where the writer is signed on for more than the first draft (typically including a rewrite) can earn a screenwriter more, with experienced WGA members earning up to $ 5,000,000 for their work. Non-union screenwriters can also work for a salary, but will typically earn less than a unionized screenwriter. Pay can vary dramatically for a non-unionized screenwriter. Some of

1000-455: A gap formed in the BBC's schedules for a six-week serial to run on Saturday nights during the summer of 1953, and Kneale's idea was to fill it with "a mystifying, rather than horrific" storyline. Rudolph Cartier , one of the BBC's best-regarded directors, directed the serial. He and Kneale had collaborated on the play Arrow to the Heart , and worked closely on the initial storyline to make it suit

1100-449: A group of Dutch space explorers and their adventures, De duivelsgrot (The devil's cave), broadcast from 1963 to 1964, about a scientist who finds the map of a cave that leads to the center of the Earth and Treinreis naar de Toekomst (Train journey to the future) about two young children who are taken to the future by robots who try to recreate humanity, but are unable to give the cloned humans

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1200-426: A live script-reading production of The Quatermass Experiment was staged at Alexandra Palace in London, with Mark Gatiss playing the role of Quatermass. Science fiction on television The need to portray imaginary settings or characters with properties and abilities beyond the reach of current reality obliges producers to make extensive use of specialized techniques of television production. Through most of

1300-626: A man who becomes trapped in a telephone booth, while passersby seem unable to help him, won the 1973 International Emmy Award for Fiction. The series Plutón B.R.B. Nero (2008) was a brutal SF comedy by Álex de la Iglesia , in the line of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Red Dwarf , or Doctor Who , with 26 episodes of 35 minutes. Other series of the 2010s were Los protegidos (2010-2012), El barco (2011-2013), and El internado (2007-2010), all three inspired by North American productions, with minor SF elements. The latest success

1400-417: A negative impact on audiences' views of the serial; the audience felt that the climax had been spoiled. Despite such problems—and the existence of only the first two episodes in the archives— The Quatermass Experiment continued to earn critical praise in the decades following its transmission. The British Film Institute 's " Screenonline " website describes the serial as "one of the most influential series of

1500-415: A new range of gendered fears about Britain's postwar and post-colonial security. As a result, or perhaps simply because of Kneale and Cartier's effective combination of science fiction and poignant melodrama, audiences were captivated". The website also points to the programme's influence on the British science-fiction television productions that followed, claiming that "with [ The Quatermass Experiment ] began

1600-411: A new source of income for actors, who began to charge money for autographs that they had previously been doing for free. This became significant enough that lesser-known actors would come to conventions without requesting any appearance fee, simply to be allowed to sell their own autographs (commonly on publicity photos). Today most events with actor appearances are organized by commercial promoters, though

1700-464: A number of fan-run conventions still exist, such as Toronto Trek and Shore Leave . The 1985 series Robotech is most often credited as the catalyst for the Western interest in anime. The series inspired a few fanzines such as Protoculture Addicts and Animag both of which in turn promoted interest in the wide world of anime in general. Anime's first notable appearance at SF or comic book conventions

1800-428: A number of smaller fiction/fantasy television series, including Tang in 1971, about a secret organization that attempts to control the world with a new super weapon, "Les atomistes" and 1970 miniseries "La brigade des maléfices". Another French-produced science fiction series was the new age animated series Il était une fois... l'espace (English: Once upon a time...space ). Anime-influenced animation includes

1900-648: A position to further a project. Once the script is sold, the writer has only the rights that were agreed with the purchaser. A screenwriter becomes credible by having work that is recognized, which gives the writer the opportunity to earn a higher income. As more films are produced independently (outside the studio system), many up-and-coming screenwriters are turning to pitch fests, screenplay contests, and independent development services to gain access to established and credible independent producers. Many development executives are now working independently to incubate their own pet projects. Screenwriters are rarely involved in

2000-564: A representative of early British programming for the Festival of World Television at the National Film Theatre in London. The Quatermass Experiment achieved favourable viewing figures in 1953, opening with an estimated audience of 3.4 million for the first episode, increasing to 5 million for the sixth and final episode, and averaging 3.9 million for the entire serial. The Times estimated that one year before The Quatermass Experiment

2100-692: A science fiction television series based upon Zoran Živković's story, winner of a World Fantasy Award . Návštěvníci (The Visitors) was a Czechoslovak (and Federal German, Swiss and French) TV series produced in 1981 to 1983. The family show aired in a larger number of European countries. For a list of notable science fiction series and programs on television, see: List of science fiction television programs . People who have influenced science fiction on television include: [REDACTED] Media related to Science fiction television programmes at Wikimedia Commons Screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter , scribe , or scenarist )

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2200-439: A script to suit the desires of a director or studio . For instance, studio management may have a complaint that the motivations of the characters are unclear or that the dialogue is weak. Hollywood has shifted writers onto and off projects since its earliest days, and the assignment of credits is not always straightforward or complete, which poses a problem for film study. In his book Talking Pictures , Richard Corliss discussed

2300-399: A secret affair with Carroon's wife, Judith ( Isabel Dean ). It is not just Quatermass who is interested in what happened to Carroon and his crewmates; journalists such as James Fullalove ( Paul Whitsun-Jones ) and Scotland Yard 's Inspector Lomax ( Ian Colin ) are also keen to hear his story. Carroon is abducted by a group of local gangsters hoping to ransom him back to British Rocket Group. It

2400-407: A sense, virtually all animated series allow characters and objects to perform in unrealistic ways, so they are almost all considered to fit within the broadest category of speculative fiction (in the context of awards, criticism, marketing, etc.) The artistic affinity of animation to comic books has led to a large amount of superhero -themed animation, much of this adapted from comics series, while

2500-400: A series of French-Japanese cartoons / anime , including such titles as Ulysses 31 (1981), The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982), and Ōban Star-Racers (2006). The first Spanish SF series was Diego Valor , a 22 episode TV adaption of a radio show hero of the same name based on Dan Dare , aired weekly between 1958 and 1959. Nothing was survived of this series, not a single still; it

2600-456: A soul. All three of these television series were aimed mostly at children. Later television series were Professor Vreemdeling (1977) about a strange professor who wants to make plants speak and Zeeuws Meisje  [ nl ] (1997) a nationalistic post-apocalyptic series where the Netherlands has been built full of housing and the highways are filled with traffic jams. The protagonist,

2700-462: A wide array of software. Models have been an essential tool in science fiction television since the beginning, when Buck Rogers took flight in spark-scattering spaceships wheeling across a matte backdrop sky. The original Star Trek required a staggering array of models; the USS Enterprise had to be built in several different scales for different needs. Models fell out of use in filming in

2800-499: Is El ministerio del tiempo ( The ministry of time ), premiered on February 24, 2015 on TVE 's main channel La 1 . The series follows the exploits of a patrol of the fictional Ministry of Time, which deals with incidents caused by time travel. It has garnered several national prizes in 2015, like the Ondas Prize , and has a thick following on-line, called los ministéricos . Serbia produced The Collector ( Sakupljač ),

2900-663: Is amongst the greats—he is absolutely as important as Dennis Potter , as David Mercer , as Alan Bleasdale , as Alan Bennett ". Kneale's actions were represented on screen in the final episode of The Quatermass Experiment . He manipulated the monster seen in Westminster Abbey at the climax, with his hands stuck through a photographic blow-up of the interior of the Abbey. The monster actually consisted of gloves covered in various plant and other materials, prepared by Kneale and his girlfriend (and future wife) Judith Kerr . The couple kept

3000-470: Is clear that there is something critically wrong: he appears to have absorbed the consciousness of the other two crew members, and is slowly mutating into a plant-like alien organism . As the police chase the rapidly transforming Carroon across London, Quatermass analyses samples of the mutated creature in a laboratory, and realises that it has the ability to end all life on Earth should it spore . A television crew working on an architectural programme locates

3100-438: Is not known if the show was even recorded or just a live broadcast. The 60s were dominated by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador and Narciso Ibáñez Menta , who adapted SF works from Golden Age authors and others to a series titled Mañana puede ser verdad . Only 11 episodes were filmed. The 70s saw three important television films, Los pajaritos (1974), La Gioconda está triste (1977), and La cabina (1972), this last one, about

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3200-461: Is put out about a project that a film studio , production company , or producer wants done, they are referred to as "open" assignments. Open assignments are more competitive. If screenwriters are competing for an open assignment, more established writers usually win the assignments. A screenwriter can also be approached and personally offered a writing assignment. Many screenwriters also work as full- or part-time script doctors , attempting to better

3300-412: Is sold, it is called a spec script . Amateur screenwriters will often pursue this work as "writers in training," leading these spec scripts to often go uncredited or come from unknown screenwriters. Further separating professional and amateur screenwriters is that professionals are usually represented by a talent agency . These screenwriter-specific employment agencies work to handle the business side of

3400-503: Is someone who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting . These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television commercials, video games, and the growing area of online web series. In the silent era , screenwriters were denoted by terms such as photoplaywright , photoplay writer , photoplay dramatist , and screen playwright . Screenwriting historian Steven Maras notes that these early writers were often understood as being

3500-399: Is very unlikely that material from the third to sixth episodes of the serial will ever be recovered to the BBC's archives. The two existing episodes are the oldest surviving examples of a multi-episodic British drama production, and some of the earliest existing examples of British television drama at all, with only a few earlier one-off plays surviving. In November 1953, it was suggested that

3600-508: The Asgard characters are puppets in scenes where they are sitting, standing, or lying down. In Mystery Science Theater 3000 , the characters of Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo , two of the show's main (and most iconic) characters, are puppets constructed from random household items. As animation is completely free of the constraints of gravity, momentum, and physical reality, it is an ideal technique for science fiction and fantasy on television. In

3700-513: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Later series made in the 1960s included The Interpretaris (1966) Vega 4 (1967), and Phoenix Five (1970). The country's best known Science Fiction series was Farscape ; an American co-production, it ran from 1999 to 2003. A significant proportion of Australian produced Science Fiction programmes are made for the teens/young Adults market, including The Girl from Tomorrow ,

3800-539: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , and Cartier wanted the material available to use for trailers and recaps . Only poor-quality copies of the first two episodes were recorded before the idea was abandoned, although the first of these was later shown in Canada. During the telerecording of the second episode, an insect landed on the screen being filmed, and can be seen on the image for several minutes. It

3900-467: The Quatermass serials, and Mark Gatiss , a scriptwriter for Doctor Who , wrote of his admiration of Kneale in an article for The Guardian in 2006: "Kneale wrote that [1953] was 'an over-confident year' and he piloted his hugely influential tale like a rocket into the drab schedules of Austerity Britain… What sci-fi piece of the past 50 years doesn't owe Kneale a huge debt?" In 2007, Gatiss appeared as

4000-717: The Super Robots such as Mitsuteru Yokoyama 's Tetsujin 28-go ( Gigantor ) and Go Nagai 's Mazinger Z , and the Real Robots such as Yoshiyuki Tomino 's Gundam series and Shōji Kawamori 's Macross series. Other primary aspects of Japanese science fiction television are the superhero tokusatsu (a term literally meaning special effects ) series, pioneered by programs such as Moonlight Mask and Planet Prince . The suitmation technique has been used in long running franchises include Eiji Tsuburaya 's Ultra Series , Shotaro Ishinomori 's Kamen Rider Series , and

4100-610: The Super Sentai Series. In addition, several dramas utilize science fiction elements as framing devices, but are not labeled as "tokusatsu" as they do not utilize actors in full body suits and other special effects. Among the notable German language productions are: Danish television broadcast the children's TV-series Crash in 1984 about a boy who finds out that his room is a space ship. Early Dutch television series were Morgen gebeurt het  [ nl ] (Tomorrow it will happen), broadcast from 1957 to 1959, about

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4200-546: The digital television channel BBC Four remade the serial in 2005, the channel's controller, Janice Hadlow , described the original as "one of the first 'must-watch' TV experiences that inspired the water cooler chat of its day". Viewers' responses were generally positive. Letters praising the production were sent to the BBC's listings magazine , the Radio Times , while the writer and producer were also applauded by readers of TV News magazine, which nominated them for one of

4300-480: The 1950s", adding that "with its originality, mass appeal and dynamism, The Quatermass Experiment became a landmark of science fiction and the cornerstone of the genre on British television". The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications praises the serial's underlying themes as its most effective feature: " The Quatermass Experiment' s depiction of an Englishman's transformation into an alienated monster dramatized

4400-580: The 1950s". Doctor Who , which launched in 1963 and ran until 1989, then was revived in 2005, was listed in the Guinness World Records in 2006 as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world and as the "most successful" science fiction series of all time. Other cult British series in the science fiction genre include The Tomorrow People , Space: 1999 , Blake's 7 , Star Cops and Red Dwarf . Science fiction in Canada

4500-453: The 1970s. No other show attracted a large organized following until the 1990s, when Babylon 5 attracted both Star Trek fans and a large number of literary SF fans who previously had not been involved in media fandom. Other series began to attract a growing number of followers. The British series, Doctor Who , has similarly attracted a devoted following. In the late 1990s, a market for celebrity autographs emerged on eBay , which created

4600-472: The 1990s as CGI became more affordable and practical, but even today, designers sometimes construct scale models which are then digitized for use in animation software. Models of characters are puppets . Gerry Anderson created a series of shows using puppets living in a universe of models and miniature sets, notably Thunderbirds . ALF depicted an alien living in a family, while Farscape included two puppets as regular characters. In Stargate SG-1 ,

4700-418: The 20th century, many of these techniques were expensive and involved a small number of dedicated craft practitioners, while the reusability of props, models, effects, or animation techniques made it easier to keep using them. The combination of high initial cost and lower maintenance cost pushed producers into building these techniques into the basic concept of a series, influencing all the artistic choices. By

4800-416: The BBC's monopoly : "Had competitive television been in existence then, we would have killed it every Saturday night while The Quatermass Experiment lasted. We are going to need many more 'Quatermass Experiment' programmes". Following Kneale's death in 2006, film historian Robert Simpson said that the serial had been " event television , emptying the streets and pubs for the six weeks of its duration". When

4900-471: The British television industry. He directed important productions such as Kneale's Nineteen Eighty-Four adaptation, the two further BBC Quatermass serials, and one-off plays such as Cross of Iron (1961) and Lee Oswald: Assassin (1966). His 1994 obituary in The Times praised his contribution to 1950s television drama: "At a time when studio productions were usually as static as the conventional theatre, he

5000-602: The U.S. are unionized and are represented by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Although membership in the WGA is recommended, it is not required of a screenwriter to join. The WGA is the final arbiter on awarding writing credit for projects under its jurisdiction. The WGA also looks upon and verifies film copyright materials. Other notable screenwriters' unions include the Writers' Guild of Great Britain , representing screenwriters in

5100-564: The UK, and La Guilde Française des Scénaristes, representing screenwriters in France. Minimum salaries for union screenwriters in the US are set by the Writers Guild of America . The median compensation for a first draft from a first time screenwriter is $ 100,000, while the most experienced members have a median compensation of $ 450,000. The most experienced WGA members have reported up to $ 4,000,0000 compensation for

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5200-425: The air during one significant overrun, to which Cartier replied, "Just let them try!" Some BBC documentation suggests that at least one transmitter region did cut short the broadcast of the final episode. The BBC intended that each episode be telerecorded onto 35mm film, a relatively new process that allowed for the preservation of live television broadcasts. Sale of the serial had been provisionally agreed upon with

5300-684: The authors of the films as shown, and argues that they could not be precisely equated with present-day screenwriters because they were responsible for a technical product, a brief " scenario ", "treatment", or "synopsis" that is a written synopsis of what is to be filmed. Screenwriting is a contracted freelance profession, not a hired position. No education is required to be a professional screenwriter, but good storytelling abilities and imagination give aspiring screenwriters an advantage. Many screenwriters start their careers doing speculative work ("work on spec"), practicing their screenwriting with no guaranteed financial compensation. If one of these scripts

5400-489: The best-regarded screenwriters in the history of British television. In addition to the various Quatermass spin-offs and sequels, he wrote acclaimed productions such as Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) and The Stone Tape (1972). A tribute article by writer and admirer Mark Gatiss , published on the BBC News Online website shortly after Kneale's death in 2006, praised his contribution to British television history: "He

5500-492: The character Professor Lazarus in the Doctor Who episode " The Lazarus Experiment ". The Radio Times noted in its preview of the episode that "tonight's story is an enjoyable synthesis of She , The Fly and The Quatermass Experiment —even down to the final battle in a London cathedral". The popularity of The Quatermass Experiment gained the attention of the film industry, and Hammer Film Productions quickly purchased

5600-522: The creature in Westminster Abbey , and Quatermass and British Army troops rush in to destroy it in the hour just before it will bring about doomsday. Quatermass convinces the consciousness of the three crewmen buried deep inside the creature to turn against it and destroy it. This appeal to the remnants of their humanity, and Quatermass succeeds in defeating the organism. Following the success of The Quatermass Experiment , Nigel Kneale became one of

5700-529: The development of the Massive software application permits producers to include hordes of non-human characters to storm a city or space station. The robotic Cylons in the new version of Battlestar Galactica are usually animated characters, while the Asgard in Stargate SG-1 are animated when they are shown walking around or more than one is on screen at once. In general, science fiction series are subject to

5800-473: The domestic television market, most Canadian productions involve partnerships with production studios based in the United States and Europe. However, in recent years, new partnership arrangements are allowing Canadian investors a growing share of control of projects produced in Canada and elsewhere. Australia's first locally produced Science Fiction series was The Stranger (1964–65) produced and screened by

5900-546: The earliest forms of media fandom was Star Trek fandom . Fans of the series became known to each other through the science fiction fandom . In 1968, NBC decided to cancel Star Trek . Bjo Trimble wrote letters to contacts in the National Fantasy Fan Foundation, asking people to organize their local friends to write to the network to demand the show remain on the air. Network executives were overwhelmed by an unprecedented wave of correspondence, and they kept

6000-404: The effects of various rayguns , squibs of blood and gruesome prosthetics to simulate the monsters and victims in horror series, and the wire-flying entrances and exits of George Reeves as Superman . The broad term "special effects" includes all the techniques here, but more commonly there are two categories of effects. Visual effects ("VFX") involve photographic or digital manipulation of

6100-402: The existing two episodes could be combined and followed with a condensed live production of the latter part of the story for a special Christmas omnibus repeat of the serial. This idea was later abandoned. Although Cartier and star Reginald Tate were keen to make an all-film omnibus version for television, this also did not come to fruition. In 1963, one of the existing episodes was selected as

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6200-475: The film The Ladykillers (1955). The serial was written by BBC television drama writer Nigel Kneale , who had been an actor and an award-winning fiction writer before joining the BBC. The BBC's Head of Television Drama, Michael Barry , had committed most of his original script budget for the year to employing Kneale. An interest in science, particularly the idea of 'science going bad', led Kneale to write The Quatermass Experiment . The project originated when

6300-434: The final two episodes ("An Unidentified Species" and "State of Emergency") from 9.00 to 9.30 p.m. Due to the live performances, each episode overran its slot slightly, from two minutes (episode four) to six (episode six). The long overrun of the final episode was caused by a temporary break in transmission to replace a failing microphone. Kneale later claimed that the BBC's transmission controllers had threatened to take them off

6400-451: The first decade of the 21st century, changes in provincial tax legislation prompted many production companies to move from Toronto to Vancouver . Recent popular series produced in Vancouver include The Dead Zone , Smallville , Andromeda , Stargate Atlantis , Stargate Universe , The 4400 , Sanctuary and the reimagined Battlestar Galactica . Because of the small size of

6500-441: The first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third – Victor Carroon – is behaving strangely. It eventually becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the rocket during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world. Originally comprising six half-hour episodes, it was the first science fiction production to be written especially for

6600-402: The gloves as a memento, and still owned them fifty years later, when Kneale wore them again in a television documentary about his career. Rudolph Cartier had emigrated from Germany in the 1930s to escape its Nazi regime, and joined the staff of the BBC the year before The Quatermass Experiment was made. He collaborated with Kneale on several further productions, and became a major figure in

6700-475: The historian's dilemma: "A writer may be given screen credit for work he didn't do (as with Sidney Buchman on Holiday ), or be denied credit for work he did do (as with Sidney Buchman on The Awful Truth )." After a screenwriter finishes a project, they pair with an industry-based representative, such as a producer, director, literary agent , entertainment lawyer, or entertainment executive. The partnerships often pitch their project to investors or others in

6800-512: The impossible characters and settings allowed in animation made this a preferred medium for both fantasy and for series aimed at young audiences. Originally, animation was all hand-drawn by artists, though in the 1980s, beginning with Captain Power , computers began to automate the task of creating repeated images; by the 1990s, hand-drawn animation became defunct. In recent years as technology has improved, this has become more common, notably since

6900-480: The last half of [the twentieth] century, what the Great American Novel was for the first half. Closet writers who used to dream of the glory of getting into print now dream of seeing their story on the big or small screen." Every screenplay and teleplay begins with a thought or idea, and screenwriters use their ideas to write scripts, with the intention of selling them and having them produced. In some cases

7000-449: The late 1990s, improved technology and more training and cross-training within the industry made all of these techniques easier to use, so that directors of individual episodes could make decisions to use one or more methods, so such artistic choices no longer needed to be baked into the series concept. Special effects (or "SPFX") have been an essential tool throughout the history of science fiction on television: small explosives to simulate

7100-500: The long-running Mr. Squiggle , Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left , Ocean Girl , Crash Zone , Watch This Space and Spellbinder . Other series like Time Trax , Roar , and Space: Above and Beyond were filmed in Australia, but used mostly US crew and actors. Japan has a long history of producing science fiction series for television. Some of the most famous are anime such as Osamu Tezuka 's Astro Boy ,

7200-413: The majority of science fiction media fandom has been represented by males of all ages and for most of its modern existence, a fairly diverse racial demographic. The most highly publicized demographic for science fiction fans is the male adolescent; roughly the same demographic for American comic books . Female fans, while always present, were far fewer in number and less conspicuously present in fandom. With

7300-413: The making of the films or in playing the part. It was a case of take the money and run. Or in the case of Mr Donlevy, waddle". The film was titled The Quatermass Xperiment to emphasise its X-certificate status. In America the film was renamed The Creeping Unknown after the title Shock! was considered for that territory, and an alternative opening title sequence with that name was prepared. The BBC

7400-576: The missing episodes, was published by Penguin Books in 1959. To coincide with the broadcast of the Thames serial, it was republished in 1979 with a new introduction by Kneale. In April 2005, BBC Worldwide released a boxed set of all their Quatermass material on DVD , containing digitally restored versions of the two existing episodes of The Quatermass Experiment , the two subsequent BBC serials, and various extra material, including PDF files of photocopies of

7500-536: The onscreen image, usually done in post-production . Mechanical or physical effects involve props, pyrotechnics, and other physical methods used during principal photography itself. Some effects involved a combination of techniques; a ray gun might require a pyrotechnic during filming, and then an optical glowing line added to the film image in post-production. Stunts are another important category of physical effects. In general, all kinds of special effects must be carefully planned during pre-production . Babylon 5

7600-591: The opening of the Alexandra Palace studios in 1936. These cameras gave a (by modern standards) poor-quality picture, with areas of black and white shading across portions of the image. The Quatermass Experiment was transmitted weekly on Saturday night from 18 July to 22 August 1953. Episode one ("Contact Has Been Established") was scheduled from 8.15 to 8.45 p.m.; episode two ("Persons Reported Missing"), 8.25–8.55 p.m.; episodes three and four ("Very Special Knowledge" and "Believed to be Suffering"), 8.45–9.15 p.m.; and

7700-456: The original scripts for episodes three to six, but the quality of these photocopies is in some cases quite poor. The missing episodes were also semi-reconstructed using production stills, with subtitles to describe the actions depicted in the photographs. On 2 April 2005, the digital television channel BBC Four broadcast a live remake of the serial, abridged to a single special, also entitled The Quatermass Experiment . On 9 September 2023,

7800-582: The other four having never even been recorded on their live broadcast. As well as spawning various remakes and sequels, The Quatermass Experiment inspired much of the television science fiction that succeeded it, particularly in the United Kingdom, where it influenced successful series such as Doctor Who and Sapphire and Steel . It also influenced successful Hollywood films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien . Along with his laboratory assistants, Professor Bernard Quatermass anxiously awaits

7900-422: The production of a film. Sometimes they come on as advisors, or if they are established, as a producer. Some screenwriters also direct. Although many scripts are sold each year, many do not make it into production because the number of scripts that are purchased every year exceeds the number of professional directors that are working in the film and TV industry . When a screenwriter finishes a project and sells it to

8000-550: The publication's "TV Bouquet" awards. Looking back at The Quatermass Experiment in a 1981 article for The Times , journalist Geoffrey Wansell highlighted the finale: "Westminster Abbey undoubtedly dominated television during the summer of 1953 but it was not just the Coronation of the Queen that sticks in my mind now. It is also the memory of Professor Bernard Quatermass grappling with the pulsating giant plant that threatened to destroy

8100-471: The return to Earth of his new rocketship and its crew, who have become the first humans to travel into space. The rocket is at first thought to be lost, having dramatically overshot its planned orbit, but eventually it is detected by radar and returns to Earth, crash-landing in Wimbledon, London . When Quatermass and his team reach the crash area and succeed in opening the rocket, they discover that only one of

8200-533: The rights to make an adaptation. It was released in 1955, and starred the American actor Brian Donlevy , supported by the English actor Jack Warner , with Val Guest directing and co-writing the screenplay. Nigel Kneale was unhappy with the result, and was especially displeased with the casting of Donlevy as Quatermass: "[Donlevy] was then really on the skids and didn't care what he was doing. He took very little interest in

8300-404: The rising popularity of fanfiction , a large majority of which is categorized as slash fanfiction . Female fans comprise the majority of fanfiction writers. U.S. television science fiction has produced Lost In Space , Star Trek , The Twilight Zone , and The X-Files , among others. British television science fiction began in 1938 when the broadcast medium was in its infancy with

8400-424: The rising popularity of fanzines, female fans became increasingly vocal. Starting in the 2000s (decade), genre series began to offer more prominent female characters. Many series featured women as the main characters with males as supporting characters. True Blood is an example. Also, such shows premises moved away from heroic action-adventure and focused more on characters and their relationships. This has caused

8500-503: The role of the Professor again in Quatermass II . Tate was the second choice for the part; Cartier had previously offered it to André Morell , who declined the role. Morell did later play Quatermass in the third instalment of the series, Quatermass and the Pit . Victor Carroon was played by Scottish actor Duncan Lamont , who later appeared in the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and as

8600-403: The same financial constraints as other television shows. However, high production costs increase the financial risk, while limited audiences further complicate the business case for continuing production. Star Trek was the first television series to cost more than $ 100,000 per episode, while Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first to cost more than $ 1 million per episode. One of

8700-453: The screenwriting job, typically taking on legal, financial, and other important representative roles for the screenwriter. These professional screenwriters rarely work for free. There are a legion of would-be screenwriters who attempt to enter the film industry , but it often takes years of trial and error, failure, and gritty persistence to achieve success. In Writing Screenplays that Sell , Michael Hague writes, "Screenplays have become, for

8800-505: The script is based on an existing property, such as a book or person's life story, which is adapted by the screenwriter. In most cases, a film project is initiated by a screenwriter. The initiator of the project gets the exclusive writing assignment. They are referred to as "exclusive" assignments or "pitched" assignments. Screenwriters who often pitch new projects, whether original or an adaptation, often do not have to worry about competing for assignments and are often more successful. When word

8900-659: The serial's final two episodes before the first episode was broadcast. The production had an overall budget of just under £4000. The theme music used was the BBC Symphony Orchestra 's 1945 recording of "Mars, Bringer of War" from Gustav Holst 's The Planets , conducted by Adrian Boult . Each episode was rehearsed from Monday to Friday at the Student Movement House on Gower Street in London, with camera rehearsals taking place all day on Saturday before transmission. The episodes were then transmitted live —with

9000-482: The show on the air. Although the series continued to receive low ratings and was canceled a year later, the enduring popularity of the series resulted in Paramount creating a set of movies, and then a new series Star Trek: The Next Generation , which by the early 1990s had become one of the most popular dramas on American television. Star Trek fans continued to grow in number, and first began organizing conventions in

9100-441: The television production methods of the time. Kneale claimed to have picked his leading character's unusual last name at random from a London telephone directory . He chose the character's first name, Bernard, in honour of astronomer Bernard Lovell . The working titles for the production were The Unbegotten and Bring Something Back...! , the latter a line of dialogue spoken in the second episode. Kneale had not finished scripting

9200-509: The three crewmen, Victor Carroon, remains inside. Quatermass and his chief assistant Paterson (Hugh Kelly) investigate the rocket's interior and are baffled by what they find: the space suits of the others are present, and the instruments on board indicate that the door was never opened in flight, but there is no sign of the other two crewmen. Carroon, gravely ill, is cared for by the Rocket Group's doctor, Briscoe (John Glen), who has been having

9300-500: The transmission of a partial adaptation of Karel Čapek 's play R.U.R. . Despite an occasionally chequered history, programmes in the genre have been produced by both the BBC and the largest commercial channel, ITV . Nigel Kneale 's The Quatermass Experiment (1953) and its sequels have been called "one of BBC Television's earliest audience successes" and Kneale became "one of the most influential television and film writers to emerge in

9400-493: The world from its rooting place in the Abbey's nave… The Quatermass Experiment frightened the life out of a vast new generation of television viewers whose sets had been acquired in order to watch the Coronation… Quatermass was one of the first series on British television to make life seem potentially terrifying". Subsequent audience research showed that technical problems interrupting the final episode's broadcast had

9500-504: Was also pleased with the success of The Quatermass Experiment and in 1955 a sequel, Quatermass II , was broadcast, with John Robinson in the title role following Tate's death. This was followed in 1958 by Quatermass and the Pit , and both serials also had feature film versions made by Hammer. The character returned to television in a 1979 serial, simply titled Quatermass , for Thames Television . A script book of The Quatermass Experiment , containing several production stills from

9600-519: Was broadcast, in August 1952, the total television audience consisted of about 4 million people. In March of that year, the BBC estimated that an average of 2.25 million people watched BBC programmes each evening. In 1954 Cecil McGivern , the Controller of Programmes at BBC Television, referred to the success of the serial in a memo discussing the impending launch of a new commercial television channel, ending

9700-588: Was in the form of video showings of popular anime, untranslated and often low quality VHS bootlegs. Starting in the 1990s, anime fans began organizing conventions. These quickly grew to sizes much larger than other science fiction and media conventions in the same communities; many cities now have anime conventions attracting five to ten thousand attendees. Many anime conventions are a hybrid between non-profit and commercial events, with volunteer organizers handling large revenue streams and dealing with commercial suppliers and professional marketing campaigns. For decades,

9800-608: Was produced by the CBC as early as the 1950s. In the 1970s, CTV produced The Starlost . In the 1980s, Canadian animation studios including Nelvana , began producing a growing proportion of the world market in animation. In the 1990s, Canada became an important player in live action speculative fiction on television, with dozens of series like Forever Knight , Robocop , and most notably The X-Files and Stargate SG-1 . Many series have been produced for youth and children's markets, including Deepwater Black and MythQuest . In

9900-401: Was the first series to use computer-generated imagery , or "CGI", for all exterior space scenes, even those with characters in space suits. The technology has made this more practical, so that today models are rarely used. In the 1990s, CGI required expensive processors and customized applications, but by the 2000s (decade), computing power has pushed capabilities down to personal laptops running

10000-509: Was widely respected for a creative contribution to British television drama which gave it a new dimension". The same piece also named The Quatermass Experiment as a high point in his career, calling the serial "a landmark in British television drama as much for its visual imagination as for its ability to shock and disturb". Quatermass was played by the experienced Reginald Tate , who had appeared in various films, including The Way Ahead (1944). He died two years later, while preparing to take

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