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1. an Unidentified Species: Horror

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1. an Unidentified Species: Horror 1. An Unid entified Sp ecies: Horror, The Body and Early Television Drama Mark Ja ncovich (1) As w e saw in the introd uction, horror and television a re often seen as virtually incompatib le with one a nother, a nd it ha s b een cla imed tha t ‘there a re few, if a ny, una cknow led ged ma sterworks or cultural milestones to b e found in the sp raw ling and often monotonous land scap e of mad e for television horror’ (Waller 1987: 147). How ever, Nig el Knea le’s The Quaterma ss Exp eriment is not only a n acknow ledg ed cla ssic of horror television but is often cited a s one of the d efining moments in the history of British television, a moment that is second only in importance to the televised C oronation of Queen Eliz ab eth II. Ind eed , the seria l wa s the British Broa d ca sting Corp ora tion’s response to its critics, a nd pa rticula rly those w ho had b een ca mpa igning for the establishment of a commercia l comp etitor to the BBC, a ca mpaign tha t in 1954 resulted in the pa ssing of the Television Act tha t w ould lea d to the introd uction of a second channel in 1955. Fa ced w ith the threat of comp etition, it is often claimed tha t the BBC wa s sha ken out of its comp la cency a nd, for the first time, established a Scrip t Unit to produce orig ina l p rojects. As a result, Lez C ooke a rgues tha t the Quaterma ss seria l ‘ma y b e seen to ma rk the moment at w hich television d ra ma in Britain finally b roke free from the shadows of cinema, rad io a nd thea tre to offer its first truly origina l prod uction.’ (Cooke 2003: 20) (2) Institutiona lly, then, The Qua termass Exp eriment wa s pivota l in the attemp t to develop works original to television, a nd it is hig hly significa nt tha t the first fruit of this new initiative wa s a science- fiction-horror story ab out an a lien inva sion, in w hich an a stronaut muta tes into a monstrous human- veg eta ble hyb rid after his return from outer spa ce. F urthermore, if the series w a s a milestone for the ind ustry, it w as a lso, a s Cha rles Ba rr ha s a rgued, ‘a land ma rk … in intensity of a udience response’ (Barr( a) 1896: 215), a ccounts of which ha ve b ecome leg enda ry, and p robab ly exagg era ted, w ith stories of pub s and streets streets b eing d eserted as a udiences sta yed home to ca tch the next insta lment. If exagg era ted, the impa ct of the series w as none the less excep tiona l a nd, a s Ca therine Johnson ha s shown, b y the time of Qua terma ss and the Pit in 1958, ‘the Quaterma ss p rog ra mmes had b ecome a cultural event w ith Va riety reporting ‘a motion a t one loca l council tha t business shouldn’t sta rt until a fter the Quaterma ss transmission had end ed’, adding tha t ‘cinema exhib s testify to the pull of the p rog ram b y sa ying tha t they had one of the worst evening ’s b iz in a long, long time’ (J ohnson 2005: 20) . (3) The follow ing a rticle will therefore look a t The Qua terma ss Exp eriment a s an exa mple of television horror a nd, in the p rocess, it will d emonstra te that, fa r from b eing ma rg ina l to television history, horror w as a ctually crucia l to the d evelopment of British television dra ma, a nd pa rticularly the seria l forma t. As a result, the first section focuses on the wa ys in w hich horror and television w ere not seen a s funda menta lly opposed to one another b y the BBC b ut, on the contra ry, a s w ell suited to one another; and the wa ys in which horror’s associa tion w ith susp ense wa s pa rticula rly useful to the d evelop ment of the serial forma t through w hich the BBC sought to estab lish ha bits of a ud ience view ing. The second section then moves on to exa mine The Quaterma ss Exp eriment itself and its sp ecific na rra tive focus on a process of b odily tra nsformation. In the process, it w ill b e a rg ued tha t, ra ther tha n shying aw ay from g rap hic d epictions of the bod y, ea rly British horror television ma d e the b od y centra l, a techniq ue that d id not cha lleng e the a esthetics of the ‘intimate d rama ’ but both intensified a nd expand ed this a esthetic. Fina lly, the a rticle w ill turn to the later Quaterma ss seria ls of the 1950s to examine how the focus on the body d evelop ed in these later serials. Horror, Suspense and the BBC (4) Ra ther tha n b eing seen a s inapp rop riate to television, the BBC clea rly saw horror a s a key ma teria l d uring the early yea rs of British television p rog ramming . As Johnson p oints out, The Qua terma ss Exp eriment wa s used b y Controller of Prog rammes, C ecil M cGiven, ‘a s an illustra tion of the kind s of television dra ma tha t the BBC should b e producing w ith the a rriva l of comp etition.’ (J ohnson 2005: 20) In other word s, horror wa s seen a s a form of pop ula r story telling that could attra ct audiences a t a time when the BBC knew it could no long er simp ly a ssume an a udience. Soon to loose its monopoly a s the sole provid er of p rogramming , the BBC rea lised tha t it would ha ve to sta rt build ing a udience loyalty in p repa ra tion for the introd uction of ITV, and then fight to keep tha t a udience therea fter. (5) How ever, horror a lso ha d a more sp ecific app ea l over other typ es of p opula r story telling . The Qua terma ss Exp eriment wa s not just a n exercise in popula r storytelling , but crucially used a serial forma t, a form tha t wa s central to ind ustrial strateg ies to standa rdise viewing patterns. W hile one-off events such a s the Corona tion could d eliver astonishing numb ers of view ers, the serial format w as used to ritua lise viewing: it wa s used to encourag e hab its and loya lty in view ers ( Ja cob s 2003: 71). How ever, this sta nda rd isation of view ing w as d ep end ent on the ab ility of the serial to g enuinely convince aud iences to follow the na rrative a cross a series of episod es and this d ep end ed , at lea st until the habits of television view ing had b een estab lished, on the ab ility of the series to g enerate na rrative susp ense b etw een ep isod es. Horror was therefore pa rticula rly significa nt g iven the importance of susp ense within the g enre, an imp ortance tha t ha s mad e it central to the emerg ence of a numb er of seria l forms. For exa mp le, the Gothic novel was orig inally a seria l form, to the extent tha t it wa s larg ely consumed throug h tra velling lib ra ries a nd wa s a va ilab le to read ers throug h a series of volumes ra ther tha n a s one complete and bound ed na rrative. Furthermore, a s Da vid Punter ha s pointed out, it ha s b een a rgued tha t ‘w e ow e the entire a ppa ra tus of novelistic susp ense’ to the Gothic novel, p rior to w hich fiction ‘wa s sub sta ntially w ithout p lot’ (Punter 1980: 16). (6) If the p re-Gothic novel wa s ‘a series of loosely linked ep isod es and events, connected only b y their common b ea ring on a centra l moral arg ument’, it wa s the Gothic novel that established ‘complexity of plotting’ (Punter 1980: 16) . If na rrative susp ense tied events tog ether, it a lso enabled one of the key d evices of the seria l format, the cliff- hang er, through w hich b rea ks in the na rra tive b etw een volumes w ere turned from p roblems, w hich threa tened to lose aud iences, into virtues, which crea ted anticipa tion for the next instalment.
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