User Reviews

Q.E.D. was a brilliant TV series and it truly was one of the very few worth scheduling for! I suspect that in this era of TIVO and recording devices that it would fare much better than it did in 1982. I am eagerly awaiting its availability on DVD!

While it is true that it has some in common with other television shows like The Wild, Wild West, The Bearcats and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., all of which I am a huge fan of,Q.E.D. had a much more intellectual quality to it. It did not suffer for that, however - the dialog was witty and the action was high. The show ran in the UK as Mastermind, and it did have something of the BBC feel to it, but with better production values than BBC typically had in that era.

I was a nineteen year old lad when this series ran initially, and had much too much to do in my life to make time for television. I remember my dear mother, however, calling me to remind me that Q.E.D. was on, and we would sit on the phone and watch it together. Wonderful memories.

Truly, Q.E.D. is a sad loss and, if it could be done with the same quality and values today, I would love to see it make a return.

For anyone interested in seeing QED all six episodes are available on YouTube. Not great transfers, but beggars can't be choosers.

I Began watching this on a portable TV in my bedroom way back in 1982 and i had just acquired a rented vcr from radio rentals so i used to tape everything i watched being a 100% TV freak back then and i still have the six episodes that was made and have watched them each year and never get tired of watching them because the series was so good.

The person for me who made the series was George Innes who played the Professors man servant Phipps and of course Sam Waterson who was Quentin E Deverell.

The reason i think that only six episodes was ever made was because finance for the show was funded by a well known British bank and the show was never shown on prime time TV instead it was shown on Sunday afternoons which is such a pity because in my eyes it was one of the best and still is.

In 1982, I saw a commercial advertising the program "Q.E.D.," an upcoming new series about an adventurer scientist which took place in 1912 and was aired on the CBS network.

Not only was "Q.E.D." a great series, but it was worth staying home to catch each episode. Considering that at the time, I was a single 27 year old man who just finished nearly five years of active duty in the U.S.Navy, that says a lot about a TV program! To this day, I can't understand how or why Joanie Loves Chachi, which was aired on ABC at the same time, fared better in the ratings.

Within a year of returning to the U.S.Navy, and a tour of duty in Scotland's Holy Loch, I managed to catch "Q.E.D." on British television.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who would gladly buy a complete box set of episodes of "Q.E.D."

I can't remember many details about the show, but i remember how passionate i was about it and how i was determined not to miss any episodes. Unfortunately at the time we had no VCR, so i haven't ever seen the series again. However i can remember strongly how i felt while watching it and how thrilled i was every time it came on. Sam Waterstone was my favorite actor these days (i think i was almost in love) and he remains one of my favorite actors to the day, mostly due to his appearance in the series. I would gladly buy/steal/download this series, i think i would go to great lengths in order to see it again and revisit a childhood long gone... Any ideas? Does anybody knows of a site devoted to the series or has the episodes on tape from their first airing?

This was one of those wonderful rare moments in T.V. that I wished I'd captured forever on VHS. Won't it ever air again?

It was so creative and I remember it was aired once a week and the wait for the next episode was excruciating. I want to see it all again. I want to buy it. I want what I can't have. Not even on EBAY.

So, having ranted enough it was, by far, one of the best series the 80's put out. It should be considered a classic but is lost in space. At least this website and Wikipedia mention it. Sob.

It was utterly appealing, funny, flirtatious, and original. Maybe not like Sherlock Holmes original, I actually think Quintin is far more attractive and has a better chance with his leading lady than the stiff and chalky Holmes ever could.

Everything I remember about it was excellent... great cast with Sam Waterston & George Innes (before he became more familiar to US audiences).... excellent scripts as only the English can do - Edwardian Sherlock Holmes/Lord Peter Wimsey/Albert Campion type mysteries, but with a Jules Verne twist. Sort of like MacGyver would have been had it been in England 80 years earlier... right at the beginning of the scientific/technological revolution of the 20th century.

I've often wondered if the creators of MacGyver saw these shows. MacGyver first aired about 3 years later.

I still have 1 episode on a much deteriorated tape.

This is a great series I just found some of the episodes on YouTube and I'm sorry I missed them when they came out. He's like a Sherlock Holmes type character but an inventor. Even has his own Moriarty. And his own Boswell. Was really done well. Watch it if you get a chance.

Some TV shows are immediately recognized as hits while others fade into obscurity. Sadly, this show falls under the second category. Bad scheduling and the standard TV audience simply "not getting it" are the only reasons I can see as to why this show didn't survive its 6-episode run. Anyone who's interested in seeing this unusual yet very entertaining "steampunk-themed" show can find it on YouTube through its poster, Howard Carson.

I haven't seen this since it was originally broadcast, but I do know my mother and I watched faithfully and often laughed out loud. I am still fond of Sam Waterston based on this series. I hope it would still hold up, but probably won't get the chance to find out.

Q. E. D. Was a really groundbreaking series. Steampunk before anyone knew what steampunk was. Like other groundbreaking series, it was given short shrift.

It was the first time I saw Sam Waterston in the lead. I had seen him earlier in Capricorn One, and thought he was a good actor. But this proved he was a leading man. He had such presence, and it felt like he was having fun making the series. Later that year I saw him in Oppenheimer on PBS, and was totally blown away. Such versatility.

The supporting characters were great, especially George Innes and Julian Glover. Mr. Glover exudes such self-importance smugness, you just hate it. He does it very well.

This series is #1 on my top 20 list of shows that ended too soon. You can seen all 6 episodes on YouTube.

John Hawkesworth was one of the handful of geniuses the TV medium has produced. Together with Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, he fashioned one of the greatest TV dramas of all time, the ORIGINAL Upstairs/Downstairs. He also created some other terrific shows: theFlame Trees of Tika, The Dutchess OF Duke StreetBy The Sword Divided, and , of course, the superb Granada Sherlock Holmes.This is one of his best, and it is now almost forgotten and totally unavailable on DVD. Like The Wild Wild West and The Adventures of Brisco County Junior, it was that rarity, a "steampunk" Fantasy/adventure drama. Hawkesworth created it as a kind of Jules Verne/H.G. Wells flavored detective show. Sam Waterson was wonderful as the brilliant, eccentric, unlikable, "scientific detective" Quentin Edward Deverill, an American expatriate living in late Edwardian/Early Georgian England. Another influence on the show, which apparently no-one has mentioned, were the wonderful "Thinking Machine detective stories of Jacques Futrelle, with their brilliant, arrogant hero, Professor S.F.X Van Dusen. It sis truly sad that this series only lasted six episodes, and we never got to see him battle German spies during World War One.

QED was shown on daytime ITV or Channel Four (Ulster Television area) and I remember that episode plots revolved around Deverill thwarting the untimely use of anachronistic inventions: one of the stories saw him trying to stop the use of an atomic missile in 1912! I can only think of 'Wild Wild West' being anywhere like this series in content, but QED had a decidedly British flavour and humour to it, even with the American actor Sam Waterston in the lead. His was a thoroughly enjoyable, frenetic presentation of a not altogether appealing character. Exciting and funny, 'QED' was cult viewing and is long overdue reappraisal. Perhaps it was scheduling, or the then current trend for 'A-Team' pseudo-violence that left this series on the shelf? Either way, it was a real showcase for Sam Waterston, whose performance might surprise those more acquainted with him in 'I'll Fly Away' or 'Law and Order.' Very definitely on my 'must get' DVD list - when that is possible - and a 'must see' if you like 'Wild Wild West' or 'Doctor Who.'

I loved this series. I got the last episode on tape before I realized the series was long gone. I have regretted not taping the whole series so many times. I'd love to see it revived and get a chance to relive the plots over again. Where can I get a Boxed Set?? This was one program that would stand the test of time. It's a shame to let it go without giving the next generation a chance to see it. It had meat! Some series on TV now are so much air........QED was meat! It's hard to realize that Sam Waterston was the lead. Seeing him in his role of Jack McCoy is so different from the professor. Sam is one of my favorite actors and anything he does is something special.

I recall this running as a very limited series in my youth. It still seems magical, and in my memory the production values were spectacular. I've enjoyed a lot of the other work by the director. Interestingly enough, if you search for the tapes by their "Mastermind" title, you can sometimes find them on ebay. I hope to get a copy soon and provide a review based a on a viewing from the 21st century.

I remember watching this show. Sam Waterston was recognizable as he'd played Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer in a PBS mini-series about the physicist which had aired before QED.

What I recall today are certain scenes - in the first episode, Waterston's character is trying to convey the idea for television, and in a later episode, he invented a safety glass for automobile windshields. Such things appealed to me at the time, since it established that a person with ideas outside of the mainstream could still be a positive force. (Coming from a background of Dr. Who watching, this attitude should not be a surprise!) I was finishing 8th grade when this series was on, and don't recall much of the end of it. In looking on the web, there are very few web sites that even mention the series, let alone describe the episodes, or why the series was canceled. My memories are positive, and I wish there was more to find.

I Loved this show as a child, It was different in many ways at the time, very Spielbergian in it's feel, Quenten E. Deverill,(played by Sam Waterston) is a scientist ahead of his time, using his skills as a scientist to solve mysteries.if you liked shows like the ones mentioned in my title you will definately love Q.E.Q.