Into the Unknown: the Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale

Headpress, 191 pages

My first exposure to Nigel Kneale's imagination was when I saw the Hammer film FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH, based on Kneale's BBC TV serial QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, as a kid. I didn't like. For one thing, the damned thing actually frightened me. For another, the aliens in the film--insect-like creatures found in a spaceship discovered beneath the streets of London by workers digging a subway tunnel--never came back to life. For another, the film posited that bad human behavior was more frightening than the fantastic monsters I enjoyed. And finally, the film had an ambiguous, yet clearly apocalyptic ending. In other words, it deeply disturbed me.

As I absorbed more and more film history, I learned that Hammer had previously produced two other Quatermass films, THE CREEPING UNKNOWN (British title: THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT) and ENEMY FROM SPACE (QUATERMASS II: ENEMY FROM SPACE) based on Kneale scripted TV serials. Several years later, in the wake of STAR WARS, a final production, THE QUATERMASS CONCLUSION, was produced as a TV serial which was edited into feature released on VHS in the States. I further became aware of Kneale due to his involvement with two John Carpenter projects, an unproduced remake of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, and an early screenplay for HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH.

Into the Unknown was written by Andy Murray before Kneale's death in 2006. Kneale had already retired and consented to be interviewed at length for the book, which provides a fascinating look at the early days of the BBC and live television a s well as Kneale's respected career as a writer and early advocate for creator rights.

Kneale created Dr. Bernard Quatermass, a scientist who frequently found himself earth's greatest defender against alien menaces. Kneale turned down a chance to write for DOCTOR WHO, which he decries as a children's show that was too frightening for its target audience. Many of the developments in Kneale's career parallel those on WHO, and it's funny to read his observations on the similarities. WHO's UNIT was lifted from Quatermass, and the seasons featuring Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor situated him on earth specifically to ape the Quatermass formula.

Kneale also wrote the screenplays for THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, and THE WITCHES, as well as several dramas, such as LOOK BACK IN ANGER and THE ENTERTAINER, starring Sir Laurence Olivier and directed by Tony Richardson, as well as several lesser know supernatural TV movies and comedies. He was a well rounded writer with varied interests, and it's interesting to read his accounts of his battles with the BBC. He was pragmatic about his relationship with Carpenter, who respected him but, apparently, not what he wrote for him. It's funny that Carpenter, who clearly understood Kneal's predilection for rational and intellectual characters, thought he would be a good fit for his slasher series. It will come as no surprise that the most interesting concepts in HALLOWEEN III survived the rewrites of Kneale's draft.

One of my favorite anecdotes involves the live production of the first Quatermass serial. SF, Fantasy and Horror received even less respect than they do now, and Kneale found the BBC crew to be remarkably un-supportive. There was no special effects artist, let alone a department, and the set designer refused to help him. So he designed and executed the effect of a giant, protoplasmic creature climbing up the side of a London building!

Murray allows Kneale to tell his own story, supported by his wife, also a writer, and several of his collaborators and peers, as well as UK creators who were inspired by him. Kneale comes off as a gentle human being who humorously regards those who interfered with the integrity of his work as "creatures." If he never received his just accolades while he was alive, he certainly gets then in this well researched book, which contains dozens of stills from Kneale's body of work. It's a fitting epitaph for a remarkable and influential career.