The_War_of_the_Worlds

the War of the Worlds has entered popular culture, with a vast number of books, films, TV series and comic books using themes from this book, whether acknowledged or not. Adaptations have tended to move the date of the invasion but the basic theme has remained the same. Three of its manifestations are described below (feel free to add any other interesting ones)

The Book

The original novel by H.G. Wells, describing the invasion of earth from Mars. Mars having become progressively more uninhabitable to life, the Martians are desperate to colonise Earth, and have no compunctions about using their vastly superior weaponry (poison gas, and a heat ray bearing a strong resemblance to a high-power infra-red laser)

The most advanced human weaponry of the time (1895) is utterly powerless to resist, and the rule of the Martians seems inevitable until they fall foul of microbiology...

The Radio play and the panic

For Halloween in (1938? 1939?), Orson Welles made a radio adaption. The time was the present day, the invasion relocated to (New Jersey?), and the story presented as an apparently ordinary music programme, interrupted by news flashes. The news reports grew more frequent and increasingly ominous, ending with a lone reporter talking from the top of a building, above the poison gas, asking if there was anyone out there. In the atmosphere of growing tension and anxiety in the days leading up to WW II, many people missed or ignored the opening credits of the programme, and took it to be an actual news broadcast. Panic ensued, with people fleeing the area, and others thinking they could smell the poison gas or could see the flashes of the fighting in the distance. Possibly the most successful radio dramatic production in history.

The Film

Made by George Pal in (1958?) Moved forward in time again for this film, the Martians face more impressive weaponry, including nuclear bombs, but as ever, the human defences have no effect on the Martian fighting machines. All is lost, with humanity defeated, until the Martians succumb to the smallest and humblest of Earth's living creatures.