Introduction

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that a young man would become one of the most celebrated sci-fi authors of all time. Okay, that opening is cheesy — it’s a direct reference to the opening line of the iconic novel The War of the Worlds by HG Wells, but I honestly couldn’t resist.

Born in Kent, England in 1866, Herbert George Wells became a talented and imaginative writer. Often dubbed ‘The Grandfather of Science Fiction’, he would weave a myriad of thought-provoking and often disturbing tales that speak deeply to the human psyche. While his writings are products of their time and tap into the deep-rooted cultural fears that Victorian society had, they still ring true to this day. From the pioneering disaster of The First Men In The Moon to the underlying unease about a utopian society becoming too complacent to care for itself in The Time Machine, his works are masterful exercises in tapping into that primal fear that we all feel as a society.

Today we’re going to look at his most prolific and terrifying novel, The War of the Worlds. It’s often thought of as one of, if not the most influential, alien invasion novel and it captured the hearts (and nightmares) of the masses.

I was aware of the story for most of my life, but I didn’t sit down with a paperback copy of the novel until I was in S5 at school. We had to do a personal study of any novel of our choice and I couldn’t resist. I ended up writing pages upon pages, exploring the horrors of colonialism and the parallels of the tripods invasion with how humanity has treated each other in the past. From that point on, I reckon I’ve read the book cover to cover at least ten times and every time, I still feel the white-hot grip of dread and unease, even though I know what’s coming.

I’ll be completely honest here: I came across his work as a child when I found my parents’ vinyl copy of the Jeff Wayne musical adaption. It scarred me and even as an adult, I still get nightmares about the fighting machines wreaking havoc on the world.

I’m not the only one either. A quick search of any HG Wells related subreddit will show many people whose dreams are haunted by the alien machines. Some even think the tripods have manifested as their anxiety as the dreams seem to occur whenever there’s something troubling them in their daily lives.

To me, that just shows how masterful Wells was at tapping into the fears and unease that exists in us as a species.

I want to explore this novel today and some of the most popular adaptations. I won’t be exploring them all because I could gush about this story all day, so I’ve selected my favourites.

The Novel Itself (1897/98)

Set in the late 19th century, The War of the Worlds takes place in England. Most of the novel is set in Woking, Surrey, and follows the journey of an unnamed protagonist known as The Narrator, who details his experiences during the invasion as a harrowing first-hand account.

The novel begins with mentions of green flashes noticed by astronomers, which results in the arrival of a large mysterious metallic cylinder at Horsell Common. Initially, people are curious and confused, believing there are men trapped inside the cylinder. No one stops to wonder why men would be living on Mars in the first place, but it shows the egotism of humanity, to assume that other planets are populated by themselves.

The carnage begins as soon as the cylinder finally unscrews itself and the people realise there are no men in the metal. Instead, they face leathery, glistening blobs with beaks and tentacles. Their horror turns to morbid curiosity and again, they circle the metal craft, only for the iconic heat-ray machine to rise and sweep them out of existence in the blink of an eye with a white hot, ghostly flame.

When people flee, the Martians get to work, constructing their gigantic machines, known as the ‘Fighting Machines’ or ‘tripods’ and the metal monoliths begin their assault on the earth, wiping out everything in their paths. They have no sympathy, no empathy, only an intelligence far superior and colder than our own. We’re ants to be smashed under their metal feet, as the creatures themselves sit on-high, encased in their mechanical protection.

The novel follows The Narrator’s desperate bid to survive the invasion. It’s a harrowing account of deep-rooted dread and unease. There’s nary a break of tension, no respite, no time to pause and breathe and rethink what we’ve just experienced. It’s an ongoing assault. He must keep moving. His only choice is to run.

The Martians seem utterly undefeatable, even with the full might of the British Army against them. Soldiers are snapped like twigs and the heat-ray, now mounted on each of these mechanical nightmares, makes quick work of cannons and gunships. Occasionally, there are glimmers of hope when one tripod is downed by well-placed cannon shots, but the joy never lasts. The fallen Martian is carried back to safety by his brothers, and their wrath returns threefold.

There’s nowhere to hide. Those who thought they might have escaped are choked to death by a strange, poisonous gas released by the creatures, and probes explore ruined buildings, searching for any survivors. Nowhere is safe.

The Martians meet their match, however, in a most unexpected way: Earth’s bacteria. The microscopic organisms that have plagued humanity for millennia end up being our only ally, destroying the Martian’s frail immune systems.

When all is said and done, there’s no great huzzah as humanity triumphs. Our victory lay on a knife’s edge. It’s not our victory. We just got lucky. Very lucky. And with the Martians defeat remains the ever-looming threat that they will return with their new-found knowledge of our bacteria and resume their conquest.

This exact scenario happens in the officially licensed sequel, The Massacre of Mankind, written by Stephen Baxter. It’s a harrowing tale that maintains the despair of the first novel, but on a global scale this time.

There are clear parallels in Wells’ work to the colonialist attitudes of the time. He looked at how imperialism affected other people, how genocides were committed without so much as a modicum of humanity, and he wondered what if that happened to us? What if the great and powerful Victorian Britain got a taste of its own medicine? What then? What would happen if a vastly superior race arrived and eradicated you so that it could claim your home as its own?

He also delves into the mysteries of evolution. How did the same bacteria that made us resilient lead to the downfall of an immensely superior race with all their technological advancements? How did they not foresee this possibility? It’s a nod to the arrogance that comes with power, a stark warning that we must always be mindful of our roots when we set our sights on other stars.

Wells was a well-educated student of science. He knew what he was talking about. He also subverted the expectations of literature at the time by destroying notions of human superiority and dominance. Many novels of this period were exotic adventures to far-away lands where man would conquer and uncover riches. They were sheer escapist adventure to take the minds of the masses to unknown places. Wells brought the unknown directly to their doorsteps and left them with terrifying questions.

It’s little wonder that the novel remains popular to this day. The scathing critique of colonialism is timeless, and every human has felt that unshakeable fear of the unknown and the questions that come with our constant advancement and whether it will one day lead to our downfall. It’s a harrowing social commentary that will leave anyone who picks it up with food for thought.

The Jeff Wayne Musical (1978)

This was the first time I ever stumbled across The War of the Worlds and my god, what an impression it left. To say it was nightmare fuel for my childish mind is an understatement. Everything from the synths to the sound effects to the prim and proper narration of Richard Burton is perfect. Jeff Wayne captured the emotion and fear of each moment in his compositions, from the iconic opening notes of The Eve of War and the uncomfortable bass line as you hear the cylinder unscrew. It’s a dark rollercoaster of a ride.

The entire thing from start to finish is a whirlwind of progressive-rock genius with spacey synthesisers and unforgettable tracks. It goes from punchy and dramatic to tense and brooding in a heartbeat but it never feels out of place. Forever Autumn and Thunder Child are two of my favourite moments, but let’s not forget the eerie hellscape that’s conjured in your mind by The Red Weed.

If you’ve never done so before, I highly recommend lying down in a dark room, putting some headphones on, loading the album up on Spotify and losing yourself to the uncomfortable terror the musical creates.

While the musical adaptation is mostly true to the original plot, Jeff Wayne did take some creative liberties with the plot. There’s an entirely new character in the form of the preacher’s wife, Beth, and the main cast are given more in-depth characterisation than in the original novel. Wayne also emphasises the emotional journey alongside the survival story. It works incredibly well.

Released in 1978 as a concept album, it featured a cast of talent, including the previously mentioned Richard Burton, the popular actor and musician David Essex, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and Just Hayward of Moody Blues. The voice cast are excellent in their roles.

Through the chaos of Martian attacks, Richard Burton remains commanding and gripping in his narration. David Essex shows the hopelessness (and later the manic hopefulness) of humanity in his voice and you can hear every inch of the desperate madness in Phil Lynott’s voice as his character clings to his faith in the face of an unspeakable foe.

The soundscapes created are perfectly alien and unnatural. The sound effects are well-timed for action scenes and dramatic moments, and the use of crescendo to escalate moments of tension is masterful. Even if you’re not a fan of musicals (I’m not a fan myself), I highly recommend experiencing this album at least once.

It’s an experience all of its own. It’s as true to the original as it can be while adding its own creative flairs, but it never takes the focus away from Wells’ work.

The Spielberg Movie (2005)

This film changed how I viewed CGI forever. If you’ve read my other pieces, you’ll know I graduated last year (2022) with a first class honours degree in 3D Art & Animation. This movie was a game changer for me. I wanted to see how it worked, how it was created, how everything was composited and how the utter horror was unleashed on unsuspecting audiences.

I remember going to the cinema to see it, excited and terrified because I knew how scary the musical was. I hadn’t read the book at this point, so I only had some idea of what I was in for, but dear God, it was exhilarating.

The moment that tripod rose high above the crowd and blared that horn, I swear the cinema staff had turned the volume up just for that moment. It was palpable. The theatre went dead silent. You could feel the audience bristle in their seats. You could taste the tension in the air as we waited to see what would happen. Those of us who had read the books or (as in my case at the time) heard the musical knew what was coming: the heat-ray.

The moment the heat-ray began firing off, the audience were shocked. I don’t know what they were expecting. Maybe another generic alien invasion movie where there’s a consistent theme of hope throughout?

Well, there’s no hope to be found in this movie. Not until the ending, anyway.

The film was released in 2005. I was only fourteen, but I saved up my pocket money and I went to see that movie at least four times in the cinema. I was obsessed.

One of my favourite things about this movie other than the CGI is the sound design. It’s not the first time I’ve listened to hour-long loops of the tripods marching and the horns blaring in the distance to get myself in the right headspace for writing the more horrific war scenes in my vampire novel, when I need to get that feeling of despair just right.

It’s also worth noting that Spielberg’s vision of the tripods is my personal favourite interpretation of them. They’re massive, terrifying and eerily organic in their movements and how they interact with each other via their horn blasts and how they hunt down their prey.

Spielberg stays true to most of the story, but he’s added his own creative touches too. Iconic chapters return: the Thunder Child is present in the form of a ferry sequence where the degeneracy of humanity is on full display. The preacher and the basement are here too, with a tense section where the preacher has been replaced by a mad survivalist. It’s easy to follow and fast-paced.

The family drama between the main character, Ray Ferrier (played by Tom Cruise) and his dysfunctional kids takes centre stage. Many fans dislike this approach and I can understand why. It detracts from the core survival themes.

Though, I think it also adds another layer to it. After all, a single dad trying his best to guide his kids through the invasion and keep them alive is sympathetic. You want Ray to come out the other end unscathed. You’re scared for his kids, and even though the son, Robbie, makes some very bad decisions (he believes humanity can take down the tripods through might alone), you can empathise with him.

The movie is set in modern day America instead of Victorian England, yet Spielberg stayed true to the book in the sense that, even with all our modern weapons and technological advancements, we simply cannot fell this foe, no matter what Robbie thinks. The might of the American military is nothing in the face of the Martian invasion. They swat aside tanks like flies. They shoot planes down out of the sky with ease.

There’s a particularly chilling scene where a rogue Amtrak train rockets through a crossing, completely engulfed in fire from the heat-ray. It’s a horrific eye-opening movie that really makes you wonder ‘What if…?’.

I recently rewatched the movie in the dark and was stunned to realise that the CGI still holds up to this very day. I loved every moment, but I’ll be honest — I had to skip through the basement part.

In a nod to the original novel, Ray and his daughter meet a survivalist who descends into madness, alerting the attention of the Martians. This leads to a tense and uncomfortable scene where a probe comes down from the tripod and hunts for them in the basement. I remember how tense and anxiety-inducing this sequence was when I saw the movie in the cinema, and with my heart already racing, I just had to skip through this part.

The ending is unceremonious, but it ends exactly like the novel, with the invaders suddenly succumbing to our bacteria. This disappointed a lot of sci-fi fans unfamiliar with the novel. I think they expected a dramatic battle and a triumphant military, but all we get is the realisation that we only survived by merit of our own biology. If you’ve read the book, it’s a satisfying ending, but some parts are a little cheesy. It ends on a greatly hopeful note, whereas the novel ends with ambiguity, leaving the reader wondering if the threat is really gone.

It’s a hell of a movie, but it loses steam pretty fast after the basement sequence with the probe. It’s not a case of letting the audience breathe after a crescendo of chaos. It’s more like dropping the audience off a cliff. It’s so abrupt. We go from one of the most uncomfortable moments in sci-fi movie history to the tripods suddenly being defeated. In the novel, the decline of the tripods is slower, more organic — the Narrator even approaches one of the fighting machines, determined to just end it all and escape the bowels of Hell, only to realise the tripod was becoming unresponsive.

Over all, though, it’s as true to the original as it can be, while putting a modern twist on the plot.

The FOX TV Series (2019)

I first came across this show when I was idly browsing Disney+ after another binge of The X-Files. I was itching for something new to watch, something to spook me, and the moment I saw it, I dived right in. It was released in 2019.

I won’t spoil anything, but let’s just say the Martian threat isn’t what you expect. It’s not true to the novel at all. To be honest, the only two themes it maintains from the source material are the alien invasion idea and the use of bacteria to weaken the threat. Everything else is entirely original but, to be honest, it works. I just wish they hadn’t put The War of the Worlds name to it because I don’t think this show deserves half the criticism it receives from angry fans in places like Reddit. It takes the core components of the novel and runs with them.

I quite liked the show for what it is, but the one thing that killed it for me was simple: no tripods. In my mind, you can’t have The War of the Worlds without the iconic threat. The show takes the rest of the story and puts its own unique spin on it, however, and it’s absolutely enjoyable in its own right as a sci-fi show.

The story is split into three seasons, each with eight episodes. This format allows for a more in-depth and slow-paced story than would be normally seen in a movie, such as the Spielberg adaptation. It’s split between France and England with a diverse cast of acting talent and the actors played their roles well.

I absolutely despised the characters I was supposed to dislike. I cheered on the ones I was meant to be sympathetic to. There’s one character in particular, Sasha, that I’ve seen many fans criticising because they simply found him irritating and irrational. That’s sort of the whole point of how he was written though.

If I had to choose a favourite character, it would be both Bill and Catherine. Bill is a modern reimagining of The Narrator — he’s a man of science, learned and well-educated, and he’s seeking to reunite his family much like the original Narrator. Catherine has some parallels to Miss Elphinstone from the original novel, the Narrator’s sister-in-law, whom he met fleeing London. In the novel, Miss Elphinstone is obsessed with finding her husband. In the TV show, Catherine must find Bill.

I can’t say any more without risking giving inadvertent spoilers, but it’s essential that these two cross paths in the series to piece everything together and work out how to survive.

I binged all three seasons in the space of a week, juggling it alongside work commitments and personal projects. I cried at two episodes. I had a legitimate spike of anxiety during the first few episodes as it slowly worked to build up the tension.

Yet, I can see why fans often joke about this show. After all, how can you go from Spielberg’s monumental nightmare death machines to Boston Dynamics robot dogs? Let’s be honest, the enemies in this adaption are scary in their own right. I’d get nervous whenever I heard the shunting movements of the robots off in the distance, but they simply can’t hold a candle to the real deal. They’re able to be downed with a few well-placed shots. Try that on a tripod and you’re in for a bad time.

See, there’s a massive difference between inspiring mild anxiety and unleashing downright unsettling terror on your audience. I can almost guarantee that no one is walking away from that show having nightmares about robot dogs the way many people do about the fighting machines.

The show ends on an ambiguous note, much like the novel itself, and there are already rumours of a fourth season in the works.

Comparing and Contrasting

Every aforementioned adaptation has its strength and weaknesses. We’ll go through them one by one and see how they hold up compared to the original source material.

The Novel

The original book was utterly ground-breaking for its time. It’s the source material that ignited the imaginations of the masses for decades to come.

Jeff Wayne’s Musical

This was also monumental in its own right. Of course, musicals are often adapted from novels and plays, but nothing like this had ever been done in this genre of literature before. It excels in capturing the imagination, and its use of soundscapes and musical score to evoke emotion is masterful. The vocal tracks are memorable too and it’s not the first time I’ve been sitting idly trying to drum up inspiration and some of the slower background music begins to play in my head.

However, because it’s a musical, there’s a lot that had to be cut out or reimagined for the capabilities of the stage. It’ll give you a good overview of the plot, but you won’t get the full picture. It relies fully on your imagination — all it gives you is the artwork. The rest is up to you.

I’d honestly say that from all the adaptations of the novel, this one is my favourite. It lets my imagination run wild and I’ve conjured up some horrifically frightening scenes in my mind’s eye just from the music alone. It’s got a good balance of narration and vocal tracks and it’s as true to the original as possible, given the format.

Spielberg’s Movie

This one excels on visuals and expertly crafted CGI to bring the tripods to life in terrifying detail. It’s pacing is fast and exciting and I generally enjoyed the character development shown on screen. As I mentioned earlier, it adds a sympathetic layer to the survival story by focusing on a father and his two children. This gives an extra layer to the delicate nature of survival — after all, an adult can make decisions but the children must rely on Ray’s instructions to make it out alive.

It falls down by almost entirely missing Wells’ social commentary, however. The only time I had the feeling that society was being critiqued was in the lead up to the ferry scene. It’s excellently portrayed, showing how brutal and ruthless humanity can be to each other in the face of adversity, but I wish we’d seen more of that side of the story. The ending also feels a little too cheerful for my tastes and it removes all ambiguity. There’s no question of whether the Martians are truly gone.

A lot of fans point out that the modern setting takes away from the original material too much, but I like that aspect of it. It shows how, even in modern day, we’re still never safe from what might lie beyond our planet.

The FOX TV Show

The first thing that comes to mind is the slow, suffocating tension this show builds masterfully. We don’t even see the threat until episode three, if my memory serves me well. It’s a bleak, depressing story, but it’s got enough intrigue and mystery to keep you invested as it slowly reveals what’s hiding up its sleeves.

The character dynamics and relationships are explored well and I genuinely ended up caring about the characters. Some of the episodes seem to focus on the character dynamics a little too much though, taking the focus away from the survival elements.

I also quite enjoyed the unique spin it takes on the core elements of the plot. It really takes the basic concept of the invasion and the bacterial saviour and runs with it. This is also a detriment, however, because if the show didn’t have The War of the Worlds as its title, I would never have guessed it was based on Wells’ work.

The clear weakness for me is the lack of tripods. In the final episode, they had a perfect opportunity to reveal a tripod — maybe arriving when everything seems to be over and safe, or even rising from the ground as a renewed offensive by the invaders — but there’s nothing. There are no references to the weaponry of the tripods either. No iconic heat-ray, no black gas, no gargantuan metal legs crushing fleeing survivors or crashing through buildings.

There’s a threat, but it doesn’t inspire that same feeling of absolute despair that the source material does. However, it does a great job of exploring the psychological terror that would come with an invasion scenario and how survivors would act as a unit. It shows how dynamics can break down when fear gets the better of us.

Comparison Thoughts

Every adaptation has its own artistic spin on the novel and while some are more successful than others, it’s good to see that H.G. Wells’ work is still enduring to this day. It’s no wonder the novel has such appeal — I mentioned previously that the book is a scathing critique of colonialism, the horrors of war and how technology could well lead to our downfall. These are timeless themes that will never lose relevance in our society.

Every modern adaptation maintains the deep fear factor that the novel presented to Victorian society, and it’s incredible that even over a hundred years later, modern man still feels that same uncertainty about his place in the universe’s hierarchy, perhaps even more so as we learn more about space. The fear of the unknown is a core component of the human condition. It’s what has kept us safe from predators throughout our evolution and that lingering fear that maybe, just maybe, we’re not on top of the evolutionary chain has haunted us throughout our time on earth.

Since the dawn of time, as soon as mankind could open his eyes and cast his gaze towards the heavens, we have wondered if we’re truly alone. Maybe it’s a question we’ll never receive an answer to. After all, that may be for the best.

The War of the Worlds is a testament to our societal fears, our probable eventual downfall as hubris and arrogance blinds us, and a searing eye-opener on how we treat those we view as ‘inferior’ to ourselves.

Conclusion

In the novel, the astronomer Ogilvy reassured the Narrator by claiming that ‘the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one’. He was adamant, so assured by his knowledge and his education. He had no reason to even consider the possibility that our science and dominion over the universe were fragile.

The Jeff Wayne musical puts it perfectly. ‘The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, but still they come.’

References

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