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| Author | Topic: The War of the Worlds TV series |
| Yul Tolbert |
posted 9/8/04 3:03 PM
"In 1953, Earth experienced a War of the Worlds. Common bacteria stopped the aliens, but it didn't kill them. Instead, the aliens lapsed into a state of deep hibernation. Now the aliens have been resurrected, more terrifying than before. In 1953, aliens started taking over the world. Today, they're taking over our bodies." I thoroughly remember the War of the World's TV series. And as I recall, the premise of the show was that it followed up where the War of the Wars movie left off. It turns out that the aliens who that attacked Earth in 1953 were not from Mars after all. More startling, it also happened that they didn't die from exposure to terrestrial germs. Instead, the aliens entered a state of hibernation of sorts. Shortly after the War of the Worlds ended, many of the dormant aliens were dumped into 55 gallon drums. And some of those drums ended up in radioactive waste dumps. Thus, 35 years later, a member of a group of terrorists planning to blow up one radioactive waste dump accidentally shoots a drum containing a dormant alien and one containing radioactive waste. Since the two drums were next to each other, the radiation from one drum killed the germs in the body of the alien in the other. Soon thereafter, the alien escaped, yanked out a few of his (hers or its?) compatriots from other drums, then "possessed" the bodies of the terrorists. If you think that's far-fetched, here comes the real absurdity. Though the aliens caused billions of dollars in property damage and killed millions of people, very few people actually remember the War of the Worlds. The claim here is that the War of the Worlds was so traumtic that most of those who lived through it couldn't bare to remember it or some such thing. But now back to the main plot. The U.S. military (at least those in the military who remember the War of the Worlds -- primarily the bigshots) eventually figured out that the aliens were on the loose. They then hired scientist Harrison Blackwood (an expert on the aliens and one of the few who remember the War of the Worlds) to oversee the secret government program established to stop the aliens. Hence your average War of the Worlds episode went like this: Aliens would "possess" or more accurately, "merge" with unsuspecting humans and take total control of said humans for the purpose of continuing their plan to destroy humanity and colonize the Earth. The so-called "Blackwood Project" would then locate these aliens and stop them. Since more and more aliens were freed from captivity as time went on, the Blackwood Project was always a step or two behind the hostile aliens. And there's this thing about the merging process that you gotta know. The aliens can merge from person to person. But when they leave a host body, the process kills the host -- disovling the person in an "exothermic reation" as one of the Blackwood project scienitsts calls it. The second and final season of War of the Worlds had a different tone than the first. As such, the Blackwood Project facilities had been destroyed by the aliens, and Blackwood and a handful of other survivors had to take refuge in some secret underground bomb shelter. With their government connections gone, Blackwood and his cohorts had to stop the aliens on their own. So what's my view of the War of the Worlds TV series? Overall, I liked it despite the numerous credibility problems I had with it. I loved its combination of action-adventure with scientific reserach and discovery. But that was how the first season went. The second season had more action-adventure and less scientific reserach and discovery, and so I wasn't as impresed with it as the first season. But I do have to admit I loved the second season episode where they went back in time to 1953. It was like The Wizard of Oz in reverse. When they entered 1953, everything went black and white. But when they got back to future, it went back to color again. Needless to say, the biggest problem I have with the show is its claim that few people remember the War of the Worlds. If that were actually possible, that means that all evidence of the War of the Worlds had to have been eliminated. I don't claim to be an expert in this area, but I think it would at least be damn-near impossible to eliminate all evidence of the War of the Worlds (if it did actually happen). For example, the aliens blew up the Eifel Tower. So to eliminate the evidence that the Eifel Tower had been destroyed, the tower would have to have been rebuilt EXACTLY the way it was before the War of the Worlds happened. And I ask you, how likely would that be? But more to the point, how do you explain away all those deaths? What about all those military personal and equipment that got wiped out by the aliens? As one Starlog reader so accurately put it, forgetting the War of the Worlds ever happened is like forgetting that World War II ever happened. And as we know, there's tons of evidence to show that World War II happened. Of course War of the Worlds was a TV show, so they're not obligated to duplicate reality exactly. But more realistic (not necessary totally realistic) shows tend to entertain me more. In any event, War of the Worlds worked for me. |
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