The end of civilisation as TV knows it

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 18

The end of civilisation as TV knows it

F

Douglas McKenzie

If civilisation does have to break down through some unimaginable process the version of consequent events given in "Quatermass" (Two, . Monday) seem as handily suitable as any to be getting on .with for the time being. Hardly anything more horri- ■ lying could be imagined. It was bad enough on earth . as itwas without introducing > ‘"an evil alien power” from «' .outside. The issue then invited comparison with "Star '.Wars,” “Star Trek.” and “Battlestar Galactica,” and throwing in “Six Million Dollar Man,” “The. Guardians,” /‘The Survivors? and even “The Day of the Triffids”; but nothing came up to “Quatermass,” which is less a science fiction thriller than a science fiction nightmare. And there’s still next week. The steps are quite easy. First, anarchy; then the emergence of the mystics, followed by insanity and obliteration. During this, the one class who could at least explain what is going on and perhaps suggest a way out — the scientists — are so dis-

credited by having provided the means to bring about the new world that no-one will listen to them. In fact, it's probably safer for them not to identify themselves too readily.

What, indeed, has brought about this new world? The Bomb, aerosol' cans, too many smelters? The programme notes do not say — or, perhaps, dare not.

The highly regarded Sir John Mills, once so suave in impeccable suits, is the throughly harassed and untidy professor who is so convincing as sanity’s court of appeal that he makes the show look like a documentary where he is the spokesman, for the television company which made it. This, naturally, only adds to the horror.

What viewers could be seeing is “Life in a Remarkably Strange Country.” introduced by David Attenborough, where resemblance to living beings is fleeting and quite distasteful.

The balance for undisturbing viewing came first in the evening, and this was "Robin's Nest." Unfortunately, it was altogether on the light side and seemed to have lost 60 per cent of the impetus known from earlier series of the same name.

The original idea with this show was that Robin and Vicky, with the utmost daring. would both try to start a restaurant and succeed in sleeping together (unmarried) while Vicky's father showed an intense distrust of both enterprises and a fundamental dislike of Robin to the point where he found it quite impossible to look at him. even when he was talking to him, and suffered from persistent amnesia about his name.

This has all gone by the board now. The pair are not only married but they have twins, the restaurant hardly comes into it, Vicky’s father has achieved an oppressive raport with Robin, and all the laugh-provoking tension

of the past has gone out the air extractor.

Albert, the one-armed Irishman, made up the original quartet. This time there were two extra women and the whole show was grossly over-populated. A burst from one of the machine-guns in “Quatermass" would have come in usefully.

The superfluous cast may go in time, but "Robin's Nest" has the distressing appearance, to its old friends, that it has fully explored its potential. Tony Britton does not have a comic gift for over-statement and should never have been expected to change to it.