The Great Martian War 1913 -1917.

[Guy Gardener]

http://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-great-martian-war

A History Channel what-if "historical" biopic positioning the Wellesian War Machines against the combined forces that should have fought World War One.

Historical accounts from "old people" who were there, and old grainy black and white footage, including the destruction of Big Ben, and input from Historians and pundits as they chew over what was done right and what was a complete cock up as the world commemorates the centennial of the Martian War.

Tommys vs. Tripods.

Bloody good watch.

 

[DarthTom]

Thanks for sharing Guy Gardner. I looked at the link - when does this air or has it already? Is it available on Comcast or ATT Uverse downloads?

 

[Lonemagpie]

It aired in the UK on December 8th. Dunno about the US.

I recorded it, but haven't watched it yet.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Better than the ridiculous fake dinoshark "show" on Animal Planet or wherever that thing aired. Surprisingly entertaining, this was.

Mark

 

[Owain Taggart]

They showed it in Canada a few weeks ago. It was actually rather brilliantly done. A really interesting interpretation of War of the Worlds, even though it never gave any credit to War of the Worlds.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I didn't watch the credits, but it's important to never break character when you're telling a really tall tale.

 

[Owain Taggart]

True, and I don't think I've seen anything quite like this. But I would have thought at the very least that credits would have mentioned the source of their inspiration as I think it's only fair to give credit where it's due. I loved all the little parallels throughout, particularly in the way that virus got delivered to the tripods. What a great way to re-imagine something. I thought the use of WW1 was a great setting.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I really Liked Kaiser Wilhelm's appeal to the world to save Germany.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

True, and I don't think I've seen anything quite like this.

There is one other. Pendragon Pictures, who made a period adaptation of The War of the Worlds about a decade ago, also made War of the Worlds: The True Story, a documentary-style adaptation. I've not seen that; their original War of the Worlds film was terrible and should be held up as an example in film school as to how not to adapt a book.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ The preview looks okay, what little there is of it.

I'm dying to see The Great Martian War. I know it's another example of History Channel doing not-history shows, but the program itself looks fantastic. Hopefully, we'll see it here soon, or it will be available on DVD. It would have been a good choice to air on Halloween.

 

[The Wormhole]

I remember seeing commercials for this earlier in the month. It looked interesting, but I had to miss it due to work commitments

 

[Owain Taggart]

True, and I don't think I've seen anything quite like this.

There is one other. Pendragon Pictures, who made a period adaptation of The War of the Worlds about a decade ago, also made War of the Worlds: The True Story, a documentary-style adaptation. I've not seen that; their original War of the Worlds film was terrible and should be held up as an example in film school as to how not to adapt a book.

Interesting. When I was looking things up, I saw references to it, but I couldn't tell if it was the same thing under a different title.

 

[TheSeeker]

Wow, how did I not know about this? Thanks for the link Guy! This kind of show is right up my alley.

 

[DarthTom]

It's extremely short sighted of the History Channel to not at least offer shows like this on iTunes for sale and vice versa when a show is original run in the US and not Europe.

 

[publiusr]

There is always this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Conquest_of_Mars

 

[Gryffindorian]

Sounds more epic than the Great Herring War between the Johanssons and the Lindstroms.

 

[Cutter John]

I managed to find it via "alternate means" and thought it was really brilliantly done.

It reminded me a lot of World War Z (the book) with huge traumatic events told through the memories of various survivors. You go away wanting to hear more of these war stories.

Only dissapointment I had is I wish they'd gone more into military tactics, analysis of the weapons used, and maybe a few more re-enactments of crutial battles with digital maps, that sort of thing. Still, I recomend it if you get a chance o watch. Its a good sci-fi tale.

 

[crookeddy]

Feels like a lot of you are missing the point. This wasn't a retelling of War of the Worlds with World War I as the setting. This was a retelling of World War I, with an alien invasion as the setting. With a twist ending that gives the whole thing a more potent meaning than "cool mockumentary".

 

[Tosk]

Feels like a lot of you are missing the point. This wasn't a retelling of War of the Worlds with World War I as the setting. This was a retelling of World War I, with an alien invasion as the setting.

It was both. If they truly didn't want people to see it as a riff on WOTW, they wouldn't have used Martian Tripods.

 

[Sindatur]

I just watched it yesterday, thought it was fantastic. Loved the twist ending

The Tripods in the black and white footage? Are those from an old movie I am unfamiliar with? The insertion of the Tripods into the Black and White footage was really well done, IMHO, totally looked like footage from a classic movie.