It’s no secret that the sci-fi genre is one of the most consistently popular in pop culture, both on the big and small screens and in various other media. It’s also well known that the genre’s roots date back more than a century, with many iconic early sci-fi stories still talked about among modern audiences. Some of the biggest names in the genre include John Carpenter, whose movies have explored many interesting sci-fi horror themes, and Stephen King, a massively successful horror writer whose works often feature elements of science fiction. One thing that both of those men have in common is that they were both inspired by the same little-known source.
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Quatermass and the Pit aired on the BBC between December 1958 and January 1959. Its story follows previous series concerning the titular character, Professor Bernard Quatermass, and chronicles the discovery of a buried spaceship connected to an ancient race of malevolent psychic extraterrestrials. Though it isn’t widely remembered by the wider sci-fi community, it has been directly attributed to inspiring Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers, and has also been suggested to have inspired the story of John Carpenter’s 1982 movie, The Thing.
How 1958’s Quatermass and the Pit Changed Sci-Fi
Despite having become a pretty obscure series, Quatermass and the Pit is often considered one of the most influential sci-fi serials ever made. Mark Gatiss, known for his work on wildly successful shows Sherlock and Doctor Who, wrote an article in 2006 for The Guardian that cited Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass and the Pit as a major inspiration for modern science fiction. Its story, which involves an ancient race of aliens tampering with human evolution, has indeed seen the series go down in history as a sci-fi show that changed the world, even if it hasn’t been widely remembered.
As well as inspiring Stephen King and John Carpenter, Quatermass and the Pit has been named as one of the main reasons behind a creative choice to explore new narrative avenues in Doctor Who‘s stories. Doctor Who itself then went on to inspire an entire generation of science fiction, meaning the whole genre owes a debt to Nigel Kneale’s 1958 series. Though it is hugely well-regarded by many sci-fi writers and creatives, it isn’t a name known by many of the genre’s fans.
Interestingly, Quatermass and the Pit‘s influence extends beyond just the science fiction stories of the decades that followed. Its story involving ancient aliens and their manipulation of human history also seems to have taken root in other areas of society, with there now being a widely spread theory about similar events happening for real throughout human history. While this was almost certainly not Nigel Kneale’s intention when creating the sci-fi series, its lasting legacy both on science fiction and on the wider world is sadly overlooked.
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