New 'War of the Worlds' TV miniseries

[RJDiogenes]

I wish they would show (or release on DVD) the TV-movie where the War of the Worlds takes place during WWI. It was done in a documentary style and shown on History Channel in the US, but it was only shown once, as far as I can tell, and has never been heard from again.

 

[thribs]

With the music or not? That’s the question.

 

[Mudd]

If the Martians aren't invading hair styling salons to steal human brains, I'm not interested.

God this show was funny.

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"The fate of the world is in the hands of the phone company!" Okay, that's probably not as funny to young folks.

 

[Morpheus 02]

If the Martians aren't invading hair styling salons to steal human brains, I'm not interested.

God this show was funny.

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To Life Immortal....suckers

 

[Avro Arrow]

I wish they would show (or release on DVD) the TV-movie where the War of the Worlds takes place during WWI. It was done in a documentary style and shown on History Channel in the US, but it was only shown once, as far as I can tell, and has never been heard from again.

The Great Martian War? It's available in the iTunes store, if that's an option for you.

Well, it's available in the Canadian version, anyway... I'm not sure about the US store. It's listed for $9.99 in HD or $6.99 in SD.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The Great Martian War? It's available in the iTunes store, if that's an option for you.

Well, it's available in the Canadian version, anyway... I'm not sure about the US store. It's listed for $9.99 in HD or $6.99 in SD.

No kidding? Thanks for the info. I've never used iTunes, but I'll look into it. I wonder why it's available there and nowhere else.....

 

[Captain_Amasov]

It would appear that this is finally going to be shown early in October, should be the 5th in the UK:

https://blueantmedia.com/2019/09/ch...rrects-two-fan-favourite-series-this-october/

 

[JD]

Any word on if it'll be available in the US at all?
It seems like the kind of thing I could see on Masterpiece, or maybe Britbox or Netflix.

 

[Captain_Amasov]

I don't, sorry. The only confirmed markets it's been sold to so far are: France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Australia, and Canada. China was rumoured too, but like the US there hasn't been anything concrete.

 

[diankra]

There have been conflicting rumours about the reason for the delay, including a) more time to improve fx, b) too disturbing for tx during Brexit uncertainty and c) embarrassingly awful (an October 5th date makes a most likely).

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

...and in the You'll-love-it-or-hate-it Dept, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds, treasured by many of us here.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought that as a CD set and have played it like a ton of times. It's one of my favourite things.

 

[Tosk]

Same. Was introduced to it by my dad when I was a kid, and bought the 7 disc release years ago. And just finished listening to the recent audio drama release starring Michael Sheen.

 

[diankra]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought that as a CD set and have played it like a ton of times. It's one of my favourite things.

Interviewed Jeff at the Tavern once.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I love how "Forever Autumn" is on one of the Moody Blues best of albums.

 

[Redfern]

The best part of that series was the opening credit score of the first season, which itself may have been inspired by "Mars, the Bringer of War" by Holst.

Finally found a decently crisp clip with that music.

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[Gingerbread Demon]

Coma, they fell into a coma?? No they died.....Lovely retcon.

Surely someone scooped up the bodies and disposed of them in 1953. Dumb humans

 

[Christopher]

Coma, they fell into a coma?? No they died.....Lovely retcon.

Surely someone scooped up the bodies and disposed of them in 1953. Dumb humans

Well, yes, that's exactly what happened in the TV show. The dormant bodies were stuck in storage drums and treated like hazardous waste, stored in a dump where nuclear waste barrels also ended up being stored. When a band of generic TV terrorists tried to steal some nuclear waste in support of their ill-defined cause, the resulting gunfight punctured some barrels and spilled some of the waste on the aliens, and the radiation killed the Earthly bacteria that kept them dormant and allowed them to revive.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Well, yes, that's exactly what happened in the TV show. The dormant bodies were stuck in storage drums and treated like hazardous waste, stored in a dump where nuclear waste barrels also ended up being stored. When a band of generic TV terrorists tried to steal some nuclear waste in support of their ill-defined cause, the resulting gunfight punctured some barrels and spilled some of the waste on the aliens, and the radiation killed the Earthly bacteria that kept them dormant and allowed them to revive.

That's just stupid

 

[Christopher]

That's just stupid

Why? It's understandable that they'd be loath to risk contaminating the environment with potentially hazardous extraterrestrial biological remains. After all, if Earthly germs killed the aliens, that implies that the aliens' biology would be similarly toxic to Earthly life, so you don't want to bury the bodies or toss them in the ocean or something -- not when the planet's been devastated by a global invasion and the ecology's already damaged enough as it is. Same for incineration -- there would've been enough toxic smoke in the air already from the global fires and such. Treating the alien bodies like toxic waste seems entirely sensible.

There were quite a lot of things about War of the Worlds: The Series that were indeed stupid. This was not one of them.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Any word on if it'll be available in the US at all?
It seems like the kind of thing I could see on Masterpiece, or maybe Britbox or Netflix.

A BBC period adaptation of a work of literature... yes, totally appropriate for Masterpiece, but somehow I don't see it happening. Not enough people in sitting rooms talking about entails and that sort of thing.

I'm really curious about it, because I'd like to see a good period adaptation. I've heard good period adaptations, but one on screen? Ah, no... The Pendragon Pictures period adaptation is a textbook example of how not to adapt a book and how not to edit a film. Just because Wells wrote it on the page, just because you shot a man walking past a wall, doesn't mean you need it in your film. (I have not seen any of their re-edits -- the shorter two hour version, not the documentary in the style of The Great Martian War.)