BBC War of the Worlds
Discussion
tvrolet said:
Doofus said:
Nope, that’s their machines. The aliens themselves are never revealed. The closest you get is crows eating some flesh. 
Fairly sure its a jackdaw too
tvrolet said:
..but I can't believe that 3-legged crab/ant/spiders can even fashion stone tools. let alone master space travel. Better just not to show them and do shadows/fleeting glimpses like the earlier movies.
For one answer to this (and it is a criticism that can be levelled at HG's novel as well) read The Space Machine by Christopher Priest... its a lovely lash up of the WotW and the Time Machine.
timbo999 said:
For one answer to this (and it is a criticism that can be levelled at HG's novel as well) read The Space Machine by Christopher Priest... its a lovely lash up of the WotW and the Time Machine.
Sounds rather goodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Machine
this is rather good too
tvrolet said:
...and...and...
In the earlier films we barely got a glimpse of the martians, and even the Jeff Wayne artwork doesn't reveal their form. And in the first movie they chopped the 'head' off a camera thingy so in terms of suspension of belief it was possible they had minds immeasurably superior to ours. But by showing 3 legged crab/ant/spider things they looks about the same intelligence level as any other carnivorous wild animal. And with just pointy/stabby things for limbs how in the hell did they construct anything? Not saying opposable thumbs are the only answer, but try doing any sort of construction when all you can use is 3 chopsticks. I can suspend belief and accept we can beam folks down from a starship, travel at warp speed, all alien life forms speak English and a flux capacitor enables time travel...but I can't believe that 3-legged crab/ant/spiders can even fashion stone tools. let alone master space travel. Better just not to show them and do shadows/fleeting glimpses like the earlier movies.
But a small gripe compared to the total crapness of the whole thing.
He does in the stage show though:In the earlier films we barely got a glimpse of the martians, and even the Jeff Wayne artwork doesn't reveal their form. And in the first movie they chopped the 'head' off a camera thingy so in terms of suspension of belief it was possible they had minds immeasurably superior to ours. But by showing 3 legged crab/ant/spider things they looks about the same intelligence level as any other carnivorous wild animal. And with just pointy/stabby things for limbs how in the hell did they construct anything? Not saying opposable thumbs are the only answer, but try doing any sort of construction when all you can use is 3 chopsticks. I can suspend belief and accept we can beam folks down from a starship, travel at warp speed, all alien life forms speak English and a flux capacitor enables time travel...but I can't believe that 3-legged crab/ant/spiders can even fashion stone tools. let alone master space travel. Better just not to show them and do shadows/fleeting glimpses like the earlier movies.
But a small gripe compared to the total crapness of the whole thing.
Also from the video game:
As for the BBC Series, turgid crap, all the side / back story was unnecessary and the time jumps annoying and pointless.
Wow, that stage show pic is excellent, this is from the comic above
What? The book didn't have Mr Hyde, Captain Nemo or Dracula's bint either?!
Clockwork Cupcake said:
SpudLink said:
I’m not the biggest fan of Kevin O'Neill’s artwork, but that’s a better heat ray effect than they managed in the TV adaption.
Visually, perhaps, but not as true to the book.
Evangelion said:
Noticed the advert in the music mags at the time but never saw one in the flesh! Did they actually go on sale to the public?
No idea, I just recalled the synth trivia from an interview in one of the music production mags with JW a few years ago, when he was promoting the stage show version of WOTW.Leylandeye said:
Can someone explain how tripods walk?
SF writers are obsessed with tripedal aliens, but I've never yet seen a convincing explanation of how they get around. I can't recall if Wells describes how his war machines move. Iain Banks doesn't address the matter at all regarding the Idirans from Consider Phlebas. In Rendezvous with Rama, Clark at least attempts to describe the motion of the tripod robot things, where they pivot on one leg at a time, occasionally reversing the direction of spin, presumably so that they don't get dizzy and fall over.AFAIK, three-legged creatures didn't even get a toe-hold in the evolutionary scheme of things on earth. Maybe there's a good reason.
Wells outsmarted himself when he thought of the tripod thing for his aliens.
My guess is he was an avid reader and observer and this fired his imagination.
He probably saw many tripods with a camera or theodolite attached and didn't think that it was just for static stability.
If he had actually used one he would have seen how stupid it was lol.
My guess is he was an avid reader and observer and this fired his imagination.
He probably saw many tripods with a camera or theodolite attached and didn't think that it was just for static stability.
If he had actually used one he would have seen how stupid it was lol.
Halmyre said:
AFAIK, three-legged creatures didn't even get a toe-hold in the evolutionary scheme of things on earth. Maybe there's a good reason.
The three legs thing is less an issue than no means of manipulating tools for me. I guess the main evolutionary benefit of quadipedal motion is that there is an element of redundancy, break one leg or even lose one and as mentioned with dogs many animals can get along reasonably well. A tripedal animal is foo-barred if it breaks a leg. But more importantly this was supposed to be an advanced technological species capable of interplanetary travel yet three legs and a stabby proboscis were its lot in life (and death). How had they evolved to be (presumably) the dominant species on Mars and construct murderous walking death machines without being able to weild a screwdriver (let alone make one)?Willing suspension of belief is required with Sci Fi, we know it is made up guff but once the story has slacked off them the world that we are asked to believe in has to have an internal logic. This was just cobblers.
Halb said:
THe aliens are like big slugs with mandibles/Maxilla/tenclaes? for doing stuff. It's their cars that have three legs.
In the BBC version just now, the aliens we saw also had three legs, didn't they? I'd lost interest a bit by the time we saw them, but it's not all that clear how the alien with it's big tripod legs fitted into the machines we saw, unless the top bit of the machine legs is hollow.Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff