Great Britain

• The Creeping Unknown

When experimental Rocket-ship Q.1. crash-lands on a small Berkshire village, the operation of saving the rocket crew is supervised by its creator, scientist Bernard Quatermass, helped by Doctor Gordon Briscoe. The rocket being white-hot from friction with the air, fire-brigades have to be called to hose it down before the massive door can be opened by remote radio-control. Time is precious if the crew are to be saved from being burned alive. As soon as is humanly possible, Quatermass orders the door to be unsealed. A bizarre figure staggers out and rolls, half dead, to the ground. It is Victor Carroon, the youngest member of the crew. Of the other crew men there is no sign; their space suits are still there, linked and sealed, but the men have vanished - disintegrated. Quatermass finds a jelly-like substance in the crevice of the rocket. Analysis proves it to be broken down tissue - human tissue. A film taken by the rocket-men reveals that some THING got into the rocket while in Space - some THING that dissolved the other members of the crew. In spite of a warning by Scotland Yard's Inspector Lomax, Quatermass has Carroon taken back to his research laboratory where Dr. Briscoe gives treatment for shock. But Carroon does not respond - he just lies and stares into void - his only speech, broken and distorted, is a cry like an animal - a cry for help. A terrible fear assails the experimenters - is there some form of life out in space? A life force with its own strange intelligence that could have entered the rocket? And has this force taken over the body of Carroon? Their dread is only too soon confirmed.