Professor Bernard Quatermass, head of the British Rocket Group, is pissed-off because his MoonBase project budget is being slashed by government pennypinchers.
Meanwhile, his assistants have examined several meteorites that fell nearby, and can't identify the composition of the eerily-symmetrical (and hollow) projectiles from space.
Quatermass and his aide, Marsh, drive to the nearby town where the meteorites were found and discover a top-secret government facility that duplicates the Rocket Group's design for the MoonBase inch-for-inch!
The duo also see the ground around the complex covered with meteorites!
When Marsh picks up an undamaged one, it cracks open and something leaps onto his face!
Before Quatermass can examine his wounded friend, armed guards from the facility order him to leave and take his dazed aide away.
Quatermass goes to Whitehall and learns from Member of Parliament Vincent Broadhead that the secret site is supposedly a synthetic food production facility, but despite millions of pounds in funding, has yet to show any results!
Broadhead, who opposes funding the facility, takes Quatermass along for an inspection tour of the plant.
During the tightly-supervised tour, MP Broadhead manages to sneak away from the group to examine one of the domes.
The MP reappears, burned by the contents of the dome, then collapses and dies in front of the tour group!
When guards try to restrain the panicked group, Quatermass manages to get to a car and smash through a gate and head back to London...
If the whole film has an X-Files vibe, it's not surprising, since there's a
popular theory among sf cinephiles that Chris Carter "borrowed" plot elements from the entire
Quatermass series for the X-Files mytharc and that the feature film
X-Files: Fight the Future "appropriates"
Quatermass II almost
entirely, even down to matching cinematography of the 1950s film!
You can read the article
HERE.
This comic strip was published in Hammer's
Halls of Horror #23 (1978), a British b/w magazine that, along with
articles about Hammer Films, was also running comic
adaptations of both early and (then) current movies.
Written by Steve Parkhouse and illustrated
by David Lloyd (who would later co-create
V for Vendetta), this
story has
never been reprinted.
Enter the Captain's Theatre for some kool Quatermass (movie and tv) clips!
Here's a sample!
While we catch our breath, a word
from our sponsor
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that's us!)
