BBC War of the Worlds
Discussion
One thing that really jarred with me, oddly, is why if being unmarried and living in sin was so scandalous and shocking, was it perfectly ok for them to be showing public displays of affection, kissing and smooching in public, etc. Or had attitudes towards this relaxed somewhat in Edwardian times compared to the more up-tight Victorian times?
Clockwork Cupcake said:
One thing that really jarred with me, oddly, is why if being unmarried and living in sin was so scandalous and shocking, was it perfectly ok for them to be showing public displays of affection, kissing and smooching in public, etc. Or had attitudes towards this relaxed somewhat in Edwardian times compared to the more up-tight Victorian times?
Some searching of family history has shown that it was probably not the heinous crime that we today think it was.I mean, ones monocle nearly fell out when she rode the horse. On her own even.
(anyone clock the teas maid?)
CrutyRammers said:
I could probably ignore the usual BBC sledgehammering their political views home. The gay astronomer, the progressive socialist leading man, the intelligent leading lady held back by an evil patriarchy, every man in a position of power being a bad'un. But the comical piles of rubber rubble next to pristine houses, the actors supposedly running for their lives at the pace of a gentle Sunday morning jog, the supposed labourers who have clearly never handled a spade or pickaxe in their lives, the alien scenes with zero sense of threat or danger...abysmal. Too much effort making a backstory which nobody needed and not enough on doing the basics right.
Credit for at least trying to make the heat ray true to the book, and looks like the black smoke makes an appearance in E2.
This in spades.Credit for at least trying to make the heat ray true to the book, and looks like the black smoke makes an appearance in E2.
It's so so bad. I do love the book and Jeff Wayne's version so I'm probably the worse person for this version. Series link cancelled. Awful.
El stovey said:
The last paragraph sounds like the last part of a Dangermouse episode! Was this maybe a Cosgrove Hall production?Zirconia said:
Some searching of family history has shown that it was probably not the heinous crime that we today think it was.
I mean, ones monocle nearly fell out when she rode the horse. On her own even.
(anyone clock the teas maid?)
I mean, ones monocle nearly fell out when she rode the horse. On her own even.
(anyone clock the teas maid?)
We've done a little bit of family tree stuff across a couple of families, and it seems to crop up with surprising regularity.S6PNJ said:
The last paragraph sounds like the last part of a Dangermouse episode! Was this maybe a Cosgrove Hall production?
I rofled.That review is pretty much bang on though, you've got three hours to do the story, so don't piss it up the wall on subplots or character development, it pales utterly into insignificance compared to the terrifying existential threat of Martian killing machines on our turf.
warch said:
S6PNJ said:
The last paragraph sounds like the last part of a Dangermouse episode! Was this maybe a Cosgrove Hall production?
I rofled.That review is pretty much bang on though, you've got three hours to do the story, so don't piss it up the wall on subplots or character development, it pales utterly into insignificance compared to the terrifying existential threat of Martian killing machines on our turf.
marksx said:
'contains some scenes viewers may find upsetting'
Yeah. All that waffle with George and Mildred. Nobody cares.
I'm more interested than many PHers in the subject of womens' empowerment and comment on the patriarchy etc., but even I found this subplot to be somewhat shoehorned in and superfluous. For such a short mini-series, it felt unnecessary. Yeah. All that waffle with George and Mildred. Nobody cares.
If this was a full-on series then yes, fine, go for it. But for a short 3-part mini-series, with the Martians about to destroy the very fabric of society, and the flash-forwards implying that the Earth is going to be left in a post-apocalyptic state, it seems rather pointless.
Johnnytheboy said:
james_TW said:
- The Russia/trawler story just didn't make sense and seemed pointless
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_Bank_incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
Halmyre said:
Johnnytheboy said:
james_TW said:
- The Russia/trawler story just didn't make sense and seemed pointless
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_Bank_incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
Halmyre said:
Slightly OT but I followed up on this - the Russians were heading off on an 18,000 mile trip to the Pacific to try and quash Japanese intentions in Manchuria. They got an absolute shoeing instead:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
It is in one of my great ship battles type of book I had as a kid (1974). Amazingly I remembered that bit.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
warch said:
It is always amazing to me that the Russians thought they were being ambushed by Japanese gunboats in the English channel. .....
The Russian fleet went all the way around the world to Japan(just in time to get sent to the bottom of the sea 
) so they probably thought the Japanese had done the same. They also attacked innocent ships off the coast of Morocco...I suspect they were not very good at looking at stuff 
Fundoreen said:
Its some bbc twonk trying to be really clever clever with the script and weaving bits of HG Wells own life into the WOTW story.
Trouble is HG Wells life was pretty much thundorously boring in his early days and its amazing he wrote so much of interest later.
Yeah, he looks like a bank clerk but went on to be one of the most influential and successful English writers in history, pretty darn amazing really. Then you get this doctor who twaddle from his vision.Trouble is HG Wells life was pretty much thundorously boring in his early days and its amazing he wrote so much of interest later.
Don't worry, you've still got the anti-colonialism and environmentalism / climate change insinuations to come!
It is a dire series, the show that some of us were discussing some weeks ago when it was shown in New Zealand was two ninety minute episodes, and the BBC have made it into three sixty minute shows to fit in with their schedule. Those of us waiting for the key moments from the book or Jeff Wayne are going to be disappointed.
The period setting is good (although the book is set in the late 1890's rather than the early 1900-teens) but the changes to the martians, their noises, heat rays, 'balls' etc annoyed the die-hard fan of the book and Jeff Wayne's musical that I am. Initially I thought the addition of the woman would be so we could see the events of the book from another person's perspective, as much of the book was the narrator relaying second-hand accounts, but it quickly becomes a tiresome and irrelevant sub-plot.
Overall a waste of an attempt in my opinion, it just don't really see why the director changed it so much, even down to putting the martians in balls instead of cylinders, how has that improved things over the original?
It is a dire series, the show that some of us were discussing some weeks ago when it was shown in New Zealand was two ninety minute episodes, and the BBC have made it into three sixty minute shows to fit in with their schedule. Those of us waiting for the key moments from the book or Jeff Wayne are going to be disappointed.
The period setting is good (although the book is set in the late 1890's rather than the early 1900-teens) but the changes to the martians, their noises, heat rays, 'balls' etc annoyed the die-hard fan of the book and Jeff Wayne's musical that I am. Initially I thought the addition of the woman would be so we could see the events of the book from another person's perspective, as much of the book was the narrator relaying second-hand accounts, but it quickly becomes a tiresome and irrelevant sub-plot.
Overall a waste of an attempt in my opinion, it just don't really see why the director changed it so much, even down to putting the martians in balls instead of cylinders, how has that improved things over the original?
Fundoreen said:
Its some bbc twonk trying to be really clever clever with the script and weaving bits of HG Wells own life into the WOTW story.
Indeed. I have read that HG (Herbert George) Wells was married to his cousin, and they agreed to separate because he had fallen in love with Amy Catherine Robbins, and with whom he moved to Woking. During that time he wrote War of the Worlds, which he set in and around Woking.
The fact that the protagonists in this BBC series are George and Amy is without doubt not a coincidence.
(In the book, the protagonists are unnamed)
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