 In contrast to Newman 's idea of Quatermass as the embodiment of humanity , writer and lecturer Peter Hutchings in his essay " We are the Martians " sees Quatermass as an isolated character . " In the 1950s Quatermass stories , Quatermass himself is someone who , while working to protect the nation , remains a curiously isolated figure , bereft of anything resembling a meaningful relationship . ( In the 1979 Quatermass , he has acquired a granddaughter ; possibly connected with this is the fact that here he seems a much weaker figure who can only defeat the aliens through the sacrifice of the lives of both himself and his granddaughter ) . " Hutchings also compared this to American productions of the era : " The standard , if not clichéd , figures of the clean @-@ cut square @-@ jawed hero and his girl , which are present in some form or other in most US sf films of this period ... are absent . " 
