 Nigel Kneale explained in a 1990s interview the background that had led him to formulate Quatermass and the other characters of the original serial in 1953 . " I wanted to write some strong characters , but I didn 't want them to be like those horrible people in those awful American science fiction films , chewing gum and stating the obvious . Not that I wanted to do something terribly ' British ' , but I didn 't like all the flag @-@ waving you got in those films . I tried to get real human interest in the stories , and some good humour . " 
