A spaceship sent into orbit by the British Experimental Rocket Group goes horribly out of control and loops over half a million miles out into space. All contact is lost. When the ship returns to Earth only one of the three astronauts remains alive, the other two having apparently disappeared. The project head, Professor Quatermass, tries to piece together what happened, but the survivor can't speak and most of what the investigation doesn't make sense. Then the astronaut goes on the run and it becomes clear that the whole future of mankind is at risk.

Nigel Kneale's classic 1953 serial was reduced down to a 100 minute storyline by Richard Fell and performed live on the BBC's satellite channel BBC 4. Despite the condensing of the story, the main heart of the story is kept intact and the sheer power of Kneale's original plotting and intent remain potent even so long after it was first written. Some of the dialogue does now seem a little bit clunky, especially where the journalists are concerned, but on the whole the updating of the scripts is done pretty well, using current concerns about terrorism and advances in biological and genetic science to make the story more, rather than less, relevant.

The resources behind the remake are obviously rather limited. The whole production takes place on a few indoor and outdoor sets and only the central laboratory where the astronaut is studied looks even remotely like a cutting edge facility. The main mission control room has two computer screens and a phone and that's about it, but then Kneale's shows were never about the trappings, but rather about the ideas and they are as strong and vibrant as ever.