WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:02.320 Fusion Patrol is a listener-supported podcast. 00:00:03.220 --> 00:00:08.300 Find out how you can help support us at patreon.com slash fusion patrol. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:20.460 This is the Fusion Patrol podcast. 00:00:21.340 --> 00:00:25.280 Each week, we look at a different science fiction TV episode or movie 00:00:25.840 --> 00:00:29.280 and overanalyze it to within an inch of its life. 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:32.500 Welcome to the discussion. 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:08.120 A question the writer of this adaptation no doubt asked himself many a time, but like him, let's be precursory and get it over with so we can move on to what we really want to say. 00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:23.560 Martians come to Earth and land on Horsal Common, where they cross paths with a pair of cohabitating unmarried fornicating socialists and also the secretary of the Ministry of War, who happens to be the estranged brother of one of the aforementioned cohabitating unmarried fornicating socialists. 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:27.440 They get separated, they travel, they come back together, 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:31.440 and travel some more as the Martian colonial war machine 00:01:31.740 --> 00:01:34.640 tramples the might of the British Empire under its spiky boots. 00:01:35.520 --> 00:01:36.680 Then the truth comes out. 00:01:37.130 --> 00:01:41.160 The Martians are eating humans, but it gives them a tummy ache, and they die. 00:01:41.580 --> 00:01:45.800 But not before everyone in our largely uninteresting band of fellow travelers is killed and eaten. 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:49.040 Except for Amy and her unborn child, George Jr. 00:01:49.660 --> 00:01:54.540 Ears in the future, Amy roams the wastelands of an earth turned into a Martian surrogate. 00:01:54.870 --> 00:02:01.320 It is a world of infertile red earth, Martian weeds, red skies, and a sun that is mysteriously 00:02:01.490 --> 00:02:07.040 millions of miles further distant than it should be. Amy and her son are searching for her missing 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:12.060 husband. And when I say husband, I actually mean her cohabitating unmarried fornicating socialist 00:02:12.190 --> 00:02:17.300 partner, who's actually been dead the entire time and she's known it all along, but her sad, 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:23.280 pathetic existence has no point but to keep looking. When word comes through the grapevine 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:28.060 that her husband has been found and is returning, she dares hope despite the fact that she knows him 00:02:28.060 --> 00:02:33.040 to be dead for years. It turns out it's Ogilvy, a minor character from the early part of the story 00:02:33.090 --> 00:02:39.120 who for probably plot and economic reasons is both the chemist that this ruined world needs right now 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:44.919 and the astronomer that discovered the Martian launches and the first Martian landing. The Earth 00:02:44.940 --> 00:02:51.280 is dying. George Jr. is dying. The village is dying. Babies aren't happening. Crops won't grow 00:02:51.620 --> 00:02:56.380 except in graveyards, and the remnants of humanity are falling into jingoistic, patriotic, and 00:02:56.520 --> 00:03:02.240 religious mindsets to explain the world around them. But Amy's got an idea. Maybe it's the typhoid 00:03:02.260 --> 00:03:06.640 that killed the Martians, and maybe old Gulli can make a serum, which they can use as a Martian 00:03:06.780 --> 00:03:14.900 weed killer, which he does, and it works. But the village leader won't hear of such nonsense. That's 00:03:14.920 --> 00:03:15.880 Tommy defeated the aliens. 00:03:16.760 --> 00:03:18.300 That night, she smashes it all up, 00:03:18.420 --> 00:03:20.480 but then sees a green plant and gets religion. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:25.180 The end of the BBC's adaptation 00:03:25.540 --> 00:03:28.540 of something vaguely associated with the world. 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:31.460 I'm going to start this with a question. 00:03:32.060 --> 00:03:35.820 What is the worst episode of Doctor Who ever produced, 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:36.940 in your opinion? 00:03:37.620 --> 00:03:38.580 Probably the web planet. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:39.780 Well, the web planet. 00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:41.440 I know what you're gunning for. 00:03:41.620 --> 00:03:42.980 You know where I'm going, though, don't you? 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:45.340 Kill the freaking moon. 00:03:47.820 --> 00:03:48.340 Absolutely. 00:03:49.010 --> 00:03:51.600 I don't know that it is the worst episode of Doctor Who ever written, 00:03:51.650 --> 00:03:53.600 but it's got to be in the bottom three, 00:03:53.940 --> 00:03:57.820 along with In the Forest of the Night and possibly Twin Dilemma. 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:00.440 I can... 00:04:00.490 --> 00:04:01.120 I don't know. 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:09.340 So anyway, we have this War of the Worlds, 00:04:11.019 --> 00:04:13.140 which, why did they do this? 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:20.120 I mean did you like it I guess I guess I should preface this by saying 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:27.540 where I'm coming from on War of the Worlds because I get the impression that you're quite an 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:32.620 aficionado are you going to tell me you've never heard of war read or seen I'm not saying I've 00:04:32.700 --> 00:04:39.320 never heard of War of the Worlds I have in fact heard of War of the Worlds and I could probably 00:04:39.340 --> 00:04:46.020 just about hum along to parts of the Jeff Wayne album but beyond that I know that there are some 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:53.700 tripods in it I haven't actually read it I haven't incredibly I haven't seen or heard any other 00:04:53.940 --> 00:04:59.300 adaptations there was a film of it it seems like only the other day but I looked it up and it turns 00:04:59.400 --> 00:05:07.520 out to be over a decade ago the uh there was a Sherwood Studios audio adaptation two years ago 00:05:08.200 --> 00:05:13.880 Big Finish did an adaptation one year ago Fox have done an adaptation this year 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:20.920 as well as the BBC doing this and this is the one that I seem to have ended up watching 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:22.600 okay 00:05:26.140 --> 00:05:34.139 okay well then then we well what of my points okay but that didn't answer the question did you enjoy 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:44.040 this then i'm sorry did it did i enjoy this this was a this was a pretty painful thing to watch i 00:05:44.100 --> 00:05:51.020 thought i mean i i knew all the way through because it's it's it's written by the guy who 00:05:51.200 --> 00:05:56.580 wrote kill the moon i knew that you would be gunning for the writer in this and because i like 00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:02.399 because because i i well i was going to say i like the zygon inversion slash invasion and the you 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:12.320 You know, the kind of themes of colonialism and the effects of war and refugees and so forth, 00:06:12.510 --> 00:06:15.440 probably closer in that than they are to this. 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:25.860 I was actually, through most of this, I was much more offended by the appalling, appalling direction. 00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:27.180 Oh, it's terrible. 00:06:27.880 --> 00:06:32.840 And the casting, because this is such a waste. 00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:36.820 I mean, I've no idea who Eleanor Tomlinson is, I'm afraid. 00:06:36.960 --> 00:06:38.100 I've not seen her in anything else. 00:06:38.580 --> 00:06:39.460 And maybe she's terrific. 00:06:39.880 --> 00:06:42.940 But I know for a fact that Rafe Spall is terrific. 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:51.420 They cast him in the kind of straight chiseled-jawed lead role. 00:06:51.660 --> 00:06:53.800 I mean, they got him and Rupert Graves the wrong way around. 00:06:53.960 --> 00:06:55.100 That was a stupid mistake. 00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:55.640 Yes, they did. 00:06:58.100 --> 00:07:06.860 And, yeah, the kind of endless, ponderous shots of Amy looking, 00:07:07.400 --> 00:07:08.700 I don't know what. 00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:12.720 I mean, I wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to be registering at times. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:13.100 Good point. 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:16.380 And the unsupply grading. 00:07:18.080 --> 00:07:19.260 Arbitrary slow motion. 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:20.620 Yeah. 00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:27.720 Yeah, because it did feel a bit kind of neither fish nor fowl in terms of 00:07:27.740 --> 00:07:30.280 They obviously decided, and my understanding, 00:07:31.460 --> 00:07:33.660 I've listed a few recent adaptations of it. 00:07:33.660 --> 00:07:38.180 The famous adaptation of which I'm aware is the 1938 radio adaptation. 00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:45.360 But I think the film in the 50s as well as the film in the last 10 years, 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:47.100 we were all set in the present day. 00:07:47.950 --> 00:07:52.300 But this has gone back almost to when it was written, 00:07:52.520 --> 00:07:54.080 but apparently not quite. 00:07:55.260 --> 00:08:00.060 And it's got that, in the way it's shot, 00:08:00.180 --> 00:08:04.620 it's got that kind of chocolate boxy look of a period piece. 00:08:05.080 --> 00:08:05.200 Yeah. 00:08:05.380 --> 00:08:09.940 And, you know, all the kind of Red Planet stuff 00:08:10.540 --> 00:08:14.820 is painfully obvious how studio bound it all is. 00:08:16.100 --> 00:08:19.880 And yet it's supposed to be this kind of super duper visual spectacle 00:08:19.880 --> 00:08:22.860 that we're all tuning in to watch the special effects for. 00:08:24.020 --> 00:08:24.100 Yeah. 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:33.120 Yeah, I did not think much of the directorial choices in this episode. 00:08:33.289 --> 00:08:37.719 And I think some of them are downright deceptive in an unfair way. 00:08:38.010 --> 00:08:39.460 And I alluded to one of them. 00:08:40.060 --> 00:08:44.560 When we see all those first shots of the red, dusty world, 00:08:45.190 --> 00:08:49.620 we keep getting a shot of a sun that is way too far away from the Earth. 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:53.000 That is a sun about the size you'd see it from Mars. 00:08:54.060 --> 00:08:58.740 And it's intended for you to believe that when it is not Mars, it's Earth. 00:08:59.380 --> 00:09:00.720 There's no explanation of that. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:04.460 That's just the director wanted to do that to fool the audience. 00:09:05.280 --> 00:09:14.240 There's a lot in this story that's about fooling the audience for stuff that is not drama or not interesting for that matter. 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:23.700 So if you know enough about War of the Worlds to know that it ends with the aliens dying. 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:25.120 We did nothing. 00:09:25.540 --> 00:09:26.100 That's the end. 00:09:26.540 --> 00:09:28.460 The aliens died of a bug, the cold. 00:09:28.630 --> 00:09:28.960 Who knows? 00:09:29.090 --> 00:09:29.660 We don't even know. 00:09:29.780 --> 00:09:31.540 It's not about eating flesh or anything like that. 00:09:31.640 --> 00:09:32.680 It's they came here. 00:09:32.890 --> 00:09:33.520 They got a cold. 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:34.520 They died. 00:09:35.020 --> 00:09:35.800 They had no resistance. 00:09:36.330 --> 00:09:36.780 They died. 00:09:36.950 --> 00:09:38.120 End of story, right? 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:39.020 We get out of it. 00:09:39.100 --> 00:09:41.080 There is no post-apocalyptic nightmare. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:48.320 And I think that what happened when they sat down to do this is they said, there is war of the worlds. 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:55.720 And that's what people want to see because, you know, it's got name appeal and it's got tripods and it's got aliens. 00:09:56.430 --> 00:09:58.040 But that's not the story I want to tell. 00:09:58.730 --> 00:10:08.460 So I'm going to have to tell a kind of fluff through it, spending most of my time on a story nobody cares about, about George and Amy at all. 00:10:09.920 --> 00:10:16.180 and their their domestic problems and his divorce and his estrangement from his brother and all of 00:10:16.260 --> 00:10:23.320 that but i was i was i was ready to care about a bit of kitchen sink faff as you put it i i could 00:10:23.320 --> 00:10:29.100 have coped with that if it hadn't been if it hadn't been so i mean they just didn't commit to it 00:10:29.910 --> 00:10:35.359 it was like it was just going through the motions of it there's literally a line where 00:10:35.820 --> 00:10:41.280 George says he's in the middle of he's in the middle of um some explanation about what's been 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:46.060 going on to him said you know about how the second one's landed at Byfleet and he says I have to tell 00:10:46.060 --> 00:10:50.860 you something I met my wife yesterday it's like she won't give us a divorce are we being selfish 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:58.919 this is literally just here to to kind of give you give an excuse of why the you know why the 00:10:58.940 --> 00:11:06.400 full explanations or pad it out or yeah yes and and but but where i was going with that was that 00:11:06.820 --> 00:11:09.340 i don't think that i mean everyone 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:18.020 i i now have to clarify that comment possibly not you uh but everyone knows that war of the 00:11:18.060 --> 00:11:24.339 worlds ends with the aliens dying not of mankind's involvement but of because of a freak accident we'd 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:33.000 have been wiped out if it hadn't been for just dumb luck and that's that's the story that's it's 00:11:33.040 --> 00:11:39.000 it's as famous an ending as you know soylent green is people or that film with bruce willis 00:11:39.180 --> 00:11:45.160 where he's dead or whatever it is everyone stop stop you're gonna hit something i don't know 00:11:45.400 --> 00:11:50.199 that was as many i was gonna go but you know they they everyone knows that there's no suspense 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:55.360 in that. We know where this story has to go. And it ends there. And then it doesn't, because 00:11:56.120 --> 00:12:01.720 what they wanted to tell us was the story about War of the Worlds is about colonialism. And I think 00:12:01.880 --> 00:12:07.800 what Harness wanted to tell us was about post-colonialism and post-industrialism. He didn't 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:12.140 want to talk about how we go in and we kill the natives. He wanted to talk about how we go in and 00:12:12.340 --> 00:12:15.900 after we've killed the natives, we built all the trains and polluted their jungles and stuff. 00:12:16.780 --> 00:12:20.100 And, okay, that's a different story. Tell that story. 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:26.960 There are books out there, I've read them, that people picked up post-H.G. Wells' War of the World and said, 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:31.360 here's what happened after the invasion, or of interest or not interest. 00:12:32.400 --> 00:12:35.480 Why not do that? That's the story he really wanted to tell. 00:12:36.400 --> 00:12:43.880 And the whole bit about George being dead, you know, throughout the whole thing, we're throughout the whole bit where we're in the future, 00:12:44.040 --> 00:12:47.920 And this story is not told in the linear logical order that I laid it out. 00:12:48.420 --> 00:12:49.780 It's told interspersed. 00:12:50.400 --> 00:12:55.140 And the whole time in the red planet Earth, Amy is searching for George. 00:12:55.420 --> 00:12:56.580 Amy's searching for George. 00:12:56.690 --> 00:12:58.340 I haven't seen him since the thing. 00:12:58.420 --> 00:12:59.540 And I'm searching for George. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.780 And then when we get to the end of it, she knew he was dead all along. 00:13:03.130 --> 00:13:06.860 If not dead from typhoid, then dead from a Martian sticking him in the chest. 00:13:07.580 --> 00:13:08.140 She knew that. 00:13:08.340 --> 00:13:15.880 That was completely designed to fool the audience into having some false sense of, oh, what's going to happen? 00:13:15.970 --> 00:13:18.840 Are they going to escape and be happily reunited? No. 00:13:19.380 --> 00:13:26.380 Well, that would all be very well if when the revelation came that George was dead, anyone actually cared about it, which I doubt, sincerely. 00:13:26.630 --> 00:13:26.760 No. 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:31.040 I mean, I think you make an excellent point there. 00:13:31.580 --> 00:13:38.660 The only thing is that if you took away the kind of post-industrial, post-colonialist story from this, 00:13:38.680 --> 00:13:44.960 you'd probably be left with about an hour and a half still of the story of the invasion itself. 00:13:46.160 --> 00:13:52.000 And so I think it might not be that it was the story he wanted to tell, 00:13:52.020 --> 00:13:56.579 but it might be that he couldn't find a way, he couldn't find sufficient interest himself 00:13:56.600 --> 00:14:01.920 in the events of the book to get three hours out of it. 00:14:01.920 --> 00:14:04.920 And in fairness, a lot of adaptations are a lot shorter than that. 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:11.220 To be fair, the book War of the Worlds, like many H.G. Wells books, 00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:19.460 has a completely unnamed protagonist who is telling this from a first-person narrative. 00:14:20.300 --> 00:14:24.200 And apart from the fact that he has a wife that he's trying to get back to, 00:14:25.300 --> 00:14:31.820 We don't need to know anything about this fellow, except he lives somewhere near Horsal Common. 00:14:32.680 --> 00:14:38.260 And so a lot of times when they come into adapt War of the Worlds, they can't do that. 00:14:38.820 --> 00:14:40.680 They have to create characters. 00:14:40.930 --> 00:14:49.380 And I have recently heard the Big Finish adaptation, which was quite good and was set back in the time of the thing. 00:14:49.540 --> 00:15:02.080 And they had to create basically a series of characters who had to go through the various events and, you know, bring in a female to have some parody there. 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:08.500 And, you know, all of the things that you have to do in a modern adaptation like they've done here. 00:15:08.850 --> 00:15:16.940 But for a show that does not concentrate on the actual War of the Worlds that much or doesn't seem interested in the War of the Worlds that much. 00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:23.660 It's 16 minutes before they even bother to drop a Martian on the planet. 00:15:25.160 --> 00:15:39.680 So if they cut out the post-apocalyptic stuff, then they would still, however much time they had left, they could still cut 50% of that for the, well, let's pick out the wallpaper for the baby's nursery. 00:15:40.520 --> 00:15:42.780 And let's talk about the wife. 00:15:43.020 --> 00:15:47.700 Although there are some themes there that may be intentional. 00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:53.420 But yeah, it just feels like you didn't want to be doing this. 00:15:53.670 --> 00:15:54.780 You wanted to do something else. 00:15:55.220 --> 00:15:56.780 And they said, now, come on, man. 00:15:57.460 --> 00:15:58.420 We've got to have a war of the worlds. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:15:59.680 Everybody's got one. 00:15:59.760 --> 00:16:00.240 We need one too. 00:16:02.340 --> 00:16:03.060 I don't know. 00:16:03.580 --> 00:16:04.100 I don't know. 00:16:04.180 --> 00:16:10.460 So if you're wondering about where Peter Harness came up with the characters then, 00:16:10.920 --> 00:16:14.060 this chap who was known by everyone as George, 00:16:14.370 --> 00:16:15.720 who married his first cousin, 00:16:15.940 --> 00:16:18.160 but ended up leaving her for a woman called Amy. 00:16:18.820 --> 00:16:20.820 It usually is H.G. Wells. 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:21.820 Indeed. 00:16:22.740 --> 00:16:25.820 They usually pattern this character after H.G. Wells. 00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:31.240 That's a very common thing they do in adaptations of Wells' stuff. 00:16:31.300 --> 00:16:32.700 I think I've seen it in The Time Machine. 00:16:33.430 --> 00:16:35.700 I think I've seen it in a couple... 00:16:35.800 --> 00:16:37.460 It's just a thing that the writers do 00:16:37.640 --> 00:16:39.320 because it's first person and it's H.G. Wells. 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:44.780 But yeah, there is definitely some H.G. Wells there, 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:47.700 who was a huge advocate of free love and a socialist 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:51.960 and all of those things that this character was. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.200 Except, of course, H.G. Wells didn't die in the Martian invasion. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:01.480 But yeah, it's just... 00:17:02.660 --> 00:17:06.480 I've seen an adaptation of H.G. Wells' life 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:08.579 that was far more interesting than this. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:10.000 And I think it was done by the BBC. 00:17:11.180 --> 00:17:12.220 I've seen paint drying. 00:17:12.459 --> 00:17:13.020 No, I won't get it. 00:17:13.300 --> 00:17:13.459 Yeah. 00:17:15.780 --> 00:17:16.819 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:18.240 Okay. 00:17:19.339 --> 00:17:26.000 Yes, I was out to defend Peter Harness right up until the end, actually, 00:17:26.260 --> 00:17:28.740 in terms of saying he wasn't the problem with this. 00:17:30.159 --> 00:17:35.360 It was the speech about the happy but poor brown people that did it for me. 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:36.400 Oh, yeah. 00:17:37.020 --> 00:17:40.120 Yeah, that was pretty bad. 00:17:41.060 --> 00:17:42.000 And that ending. 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:47.120 I mean, so was that her? 00:17:47.300 --> 00:17:49.240 I don't even understand what happened there at the end. 00:17:49.420 --> 00:17:50.260 So we had the- 00:17:50.260 --> 00:17:50.980 No idea. 00:17:51.520 --> 00:17:55.100 First off, I think those little glass things that she smashed, 00:17:55.100 --> 00:17:56.500 are those like mini greenhouses? 00:17:56.500 --> 00:17:57.280 Is that a thing they do? 00:17:57.280 --> 00:17:59.240 They're cloches, cloches. 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:00.940 I've never heard of that before. 00:18:00.940 --> 00:18:04.200 Is it like to protect a plant in bad weather or something? 00:18:04.280 --> 00:18:06.100 Well, it's to protect a plant from frost normally. 00:18:06.340 --> 00:18:12.360 There was no sign of frost because we don't understand what the post-invasion weather system is like. 00:18:12.760 --> 00:18:17.200 I would recommend using the tops of lemonade bottles, plastic lemonade bottles. 00:18:17.320 --> 00:18:20.940 But I think they probably didn't have those in Edwardian times. 00:18:22.320 --> 00:18:26.040 And probably post-Edwardian times because I imagine the king got killed. 00:18:26.600 --> 00:18:28.640 So it's a whole new area. 00:18:28.780 --> 00:18:30.820 Yes, he quite possibly may have done it. 00:18:31.420 --> 00:18:31.520 Yeah. 00:18:32.120 --> 00:18:32.420 Or eaten. 00:18:32.940 --> 00:18:34.400 Well, and then that would be killed as well. 00:18:35.500 --> 00:18:45.460 But so she goes and she tells a story about the happy brown people where she used to come from and how they were poor, but they were happy and had bright colors and did a lot of dancing and stuff, which is all very. 00:18:47.660 --> 00:18:59.720 And then she goes up and smashes the galoshes or the galoshes or things, which is she saying she's trying to destroy our world because she's found the way to solve the problem. 00:18:59.840 --> 00:19:02.040 But now she's going to wreck it because we don't deserve. 00:19:02.760 --> 00:19:05.160 Is this that whole we don't deserve to live nonsense? 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:09.760 and then and then she sees the little green plant the happy little green plant 00:19:10.540 --> 00:19:16.300 and suddenly she's looking to the heavens that seem to part for her with a light in the sky it's 00:19:16.340 --> 00:19:23.800 like well is that is it is she having a god moment there i don't have no idea what's going on there 00:19:24.340 --> 00:19:27.760 i don't know why she went out and smashed the things but i think it was supposed to be a 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:34.459 hopeful ending probably because you know her potatoes had sprouted and stuff was that a 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:41.320 potato well it was potato tomatoes probably something in the nightshade i don't know i 00:19:41.340 --> 00:19:47.780 would believe that you could identify a potato by its leaves i'm not i could not but i i know you 00:19:47.980 --> 00:19:56.420 have more of a garden thumb than i do but i just i just thought of it frankly now that you mentioned 00:19:56.540 --> 00:20:00.599 it probably was some sort of a food crop i was just thinking it was something they'd planted 00:20:00.660 --> 00:20:01.600 to see if it would grow. 00:20:01.940 --> 00:20:05.420 It does make perfect sense that it would be food. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:07.820 And potatoes would make a very good choice. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:10.240 In fact, that's what you do on Mars 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:15.080 if you're stranded up there with Matt Damon. 00:20:15.140 --> 00:20:15.820 You plant potatoes. 00:20:16.060 --> 00:20:17.440 Yes, you plant potatoes. 00:20:18.780 --> 00:20:19.820 You're right, it was probably potatoes. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:25.379 But it was probably the most egregious example 00:20:25.380 --> 00:20:32.640 of amy doing something that was just completely inexplicable i don't know if we were meant to 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:40.120 have some kind of self question oneself about what the deep meaning of this but i really wasn't 00:20:40.190 --> 00:20:44.140 having i wasn't having this thing setting me homework at the end of three hours of living 00:20:44.230 --> 00:20:51.999 through it and there were there were other instances where it just seemed like he hadn't 00:20:52.020 --> 00:21:02.380 he hadn't bothered to write in anything about her character. As you say, this is not really, 00:21:03.080 --> 00:21:10.100 the narrator in the book has a wife. There is nothing much for the actress here to go on. 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:19.959 So there are some moments where you would think she is developing in terms of her reaction and 00:21:20.360 --> 00:21:28.960 therefore our our kind of understanding of how humans might people might react in situations 00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:35.160 where they are being invaded by colonists who are massively massively more technologically 00:21:35.230 --> 00:21:41.680 advanced than they are and one such key one is where she and Rupert Graves are running away from 00:21:41.950 --> 00:21:49.239 the black stuff and Nicholas Lepervo's down the end of the alleyway and they start shutting the 00:21:49.260 --> 00:21:57.760 doors yep and amy says no no don't open them again and and uh brother frederick says i you 00:21:57.760 --> 00:22:04.940 know i can't possibly live with myself if i don't and he opens the door and lets nicholas leprevaux 00:22:05.480 --> 00:22:10.720 whoever he's supposed to be the minister of war the minister of whatever and there's a and there's 00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:18.559 a moment there where so and in and in fact both amy and frederick are are unaffected by the gas 00:22:18.580 --> 00:22:25.060 cloud it doesn't the opening the door costs them nothing it transpires and there's a moment there 00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:32.180 where it actually appears that nicholas perot has had survived and clearly he would not have done 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:39.420 had he been shut outside i want to know how amy feels about that okay now wait a minute wait a 00:22:39.420 --> 00:22:43.359 minute wait wait wait wait wait this is one of the themes that comes up in this thing over and over 00:22:43.380 --> 00:22:50.720 and over again uh george tries to save the baby but ultimately has to leave the baby behind 00:22:51.580 --> 00:22:56.560 amy has to leave george on the horse and there's that whole scene with frederick was like well 00:22:56.680 --> 00:23:03.520 when he told you to leave what did you do did you actually leave like well well yeah i i did 00:23:04.230 --> 00:23:12.239 then there's she leaves she lets george go out and kill himself um she leaves the guy behind in the 00:23:12.260 --> 00:23:18.760 george leaves the guy behind in the pond yes um i mean this this comes up uh i'm sure they left 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:24.080 some people behind on the beach the old lady in the house i mean for crying out loud but i was 00:23:24.170 --> 00:23:29.580 a theme in the story with george with george it's less of a it it's a theme with amy it's a development 00:23:29.780 --> 00:23:34.440 with amy i think i mean i take your point about it it occurs george it happens to george a couple 00:23:34.500 --> 00:23:39.599 of times george looks pretty anguished about it and in fact when he has to leave the baby 00:23:39.620 --> 00:23:45.100 he you know you there's the dialogue with the soldier he's with at the time and then he's 00:23:45.220 --> 00:23:50.400 talking about it with amy afterwards it clearly has a big impact on him the there are there are 00:23:50.960 --> 00:23:57.260 there are there's a journey i think that amy is supposed to be going on here where she gets more 00:23:57.300 --> 00:24:03.559 and more kind of survival minded i you know another instance of it is where where she finds 00:24:03.580 --> 00:24:10.780 the water in the vase and says you know we're not giving or um rupert grave says we're not giving 00:24:10.940 --> 00:24:16.860 any to mrs what's her face and she thinks about it for a minute and then she just says well don't 00:24:16.860 --> 00:24:23.360 tell george because he'll want to he's a nice person you know he's a nice person exactly now 00:24:23.420 --> 00:24:28.539 i now i'm not she won't leave the maid remember the dead maid yeah that's true that that's true 00:24:28.660 --> 00:24:34.520 that's true so that's a good example of where she has come from where she has come from um i think 00:24:34.660 --> 00:24:40.740 leaving i think leaving leaving george when she's on the horse is a very difficult one for me to see 00:24:40.860 --> 00:24:47.280 as being in any way pivotable because it's so utterly utterly contrived you know it's like yeah 00:24:47.940 --> 00:24:56.959 get get on the horse um so where are we going uh the admiralty okay and if we get split up let's 00:24:56.980 --> 00:24:58.260 both go to the Admiralty. 00:24:59.460 --> 00:25:02.300 Okay, that seems a bit like unnecessary, 00:25:02.760 --> 00:25:04.720 given you've just said we're going to the Admiralty 00:25:04.820 --> 00:25:06.080 and that would be a reasonable assumption, 00:25:06.360 --> 00:25:08.100 but whatever, better safe than sorry. 00:25:08.320 --> 00:25:10.180 And oh, look, there's Benji or Benny 00:25:10.220 --> 00:25:11.460 or whatever he's called the dog. 00:25:12.100 --> 00:25:17.100 Let's leap off and standing sort of 20 feet apart 00:25:17.780 --> 00:25:19.940 over a pile of rubble that's, you know, 00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:21.740 that horse could have jumped over. 00:25:22.560 --> 00:25:26.940 Suddenly it's like, right, you head off to the Admiralty 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:30.360 and I'll stare out this Martian tripod. 00:25:31.580 --> 00:25:33.380 And speaking of piles of rubble, 00:25:33.890 --> 00:25:36.580 the pile of rubble that George found himself under, 00:25:37.220 --> 00:25:39.700 did you notice it was all like wood? 00:25:40.170 --> 00:25:43.780 It was all just sticks of lumber, 00:25:44.380 --> 00:25:47.180 no bricks or anything like that. 00:25:47.300 --> 00:25:51.060 All the buildings and everything are wrecked piles of rubble, 00:25:51.360 --> 00:25:53.040 brick and stone. 00:25:53.420 --> 00:26:01.380 And he is somehow under a completely unconvincing pile of lumber that's been piled up neatly on top of him, practically. 00:26:01.750 --> 00:26:02.960 It was terrible. 00:26:04.540 --> 00:26:10.900 And it was as unconvincing as the thing that they couldn't have climbed over to get on the horse to escape. 00:26:11.560 --> 00:26:13.460 It was terrible. 00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:16.000 Terrible, terrible. 00:26:20.100 --> 00:26:20.280 Yeah. 00:26:22.540 --> 00:26:25.880 I'm not super impressed with this story. 00:26:26.290 --> 00:26:34.460 The other theme that they had going on in this, which I wish I'd written down. 00:26:35.420 --> 00:26:36.780 I do have it written down here somewhere. 00:26:37.420 --> 00:26:38.560 I do have it written down here somewhere. 00:26:38.570 --> 00:26:39.000 I just don't. 00:26:39.060 --> 00:26:41.540 Oh, it's the whole stay and do the proper thing. 00:26:42.030 --> 00:26:42.460 The wife. 00:26:43.040 --> 00:26:50.180 It's like, well, if you do the right thing and buy us, you know, and the brother has 00:26:50.200 --> 00:26:56.700 a couple of examples of saying that and you know it's all very stereotypical british upper class 00:26:56.930 --> 00:27:04.800 stiff upper lip lord peter whimsy kind of kind of stuff and of course in the end that's exactly 00:27:04.810 --> 00:27:09.740 what george does oh another example is when they make him do it you're gonna volunteer we're looking 00:27:09.740 --> 00:27:14.860 for volunteers uh no i gotta find my wife yeah you're gonna volunteer you're gonna do the right 00:27:14.900 --> 00:27:20.640 thing here i need what i need is an untrained man working in artillery shell sure that's perfect 00:27:20.800 --> 00:27:27.800 that makes perfect sense um but you know it's it's got that sort of their i think they're 00:27:28.060 --> 00:27:33.040 obviously making fun of the british well they are making fun of the british they aren't this whole 00:27:33.080 --> 00:27:38.560 thing is making fun of the british at times um the the minister of war out there giving his speech 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:43.320 about you know you ask nine out of ten people in this world what nationality they'd like to be 00:27:43.340 --> 00:27:50.320 born in it's british and our war machine and we're the greatest and so it's all very heavy-handed 00:27:50.980 --> 00:27:56.260 but also very superficial because there is no there is no kind of self-examination about what 00:27:56.520 --> 00:28:03.740 these things mean what you know what at what point is this does this switch from a a code 00:28:04.100 --> 00:28:11.840 if you like to being actually the the moral imperative that you ought to follow and at what 00:28:11.860 --> 00:28:22.840 point do you just, under threat, do you actually become entirely selfish about your own survival? 00:28:23.460 --> 00:28:31.860 And to what extent is that ever justified? Is it like, please put on your own oxygen mask before 00:28:32.120 --> 00:28:38.740 helping others? Or is it just every man for himself? Well, now, if you think that's the 00:28:38.760 --> 00:28:45.300 good question remember george asks that question because lucy tells him oh you're just being 00:28:45.620 --> 00:28:49.660 selfish for not wanting to do the right thing and he turns around to amy and he says are we being 00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:58.460 selfish and then amy's like yes all life is selfish love even more so yes i guess i guess 00:28:58.580 --> 00:29:07.180 exact words bonk bonk on the head yep uh but i wouldn't i wouldn't count that as being a a 00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:15.580 it's not it's not what i'm looking for in terms of how that affects our our protagonists oh no 00:29:15.700 --> 00:29:22.120 no it's just if you can't show it speak it right if you can't dramatize it adequately speak it 00:29:22.420 --> 00:29:28.400 war of the worlds is a book about colonialism that's it's you can't read that book if you know 00:29:28.740 --> 00:29:33.240 anything at all about the history of britain which anyone would have when that book was written 00:29:33.260 --> 00:29:38.440 you can't not see it as an indictment of colonialism. 00:29:38.950 --> 00:29:44.740 And even to this day, I maintain that anyone watching War of the Worlds should at least, 00:29:45.370 --> 00:29:50.420 even an American, should understand that that is about going out and colonizing places 00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:52.600 and all the harm that comes from it. 00:29:52.850 --> 00:29:59.160 And yet, and yet, we still had to have that painful scene where George and Frederick get 00:29:59.180 --> 00:30:05.380 into a fight over this is exactly what we do isn't it we just go out there into the lands with all 00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:09.640 those happy dark-skinned people who dance a lot and are poor and we kill them all we don't go 00:30:09.760 --> 00:30:13.800 there and talk to them or we're not nice to them we just shoot them all up and we build our railroads 00:30:13.960 --> 00:30:23.100 and we smoke up the whole place and like it we shouldn't have needed that scene not only not 00:30:23.120 --> 00:30:29.880 only should we not have needed that scene well it's not it's not that that it's not that some 00:30:30.120 --> 00:30:37.020 kind of articulation of those ideas from george at some point would have been completely inappropriate 00:30:37.520 --> 00:30:44.000 it's that at that point at that point it's completely inappropriate because it almost 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:49.880 seemed like he was giving up well no it wasn't like that it was it wasn't clear what it was like 00:30:49.900 --> 00:30:54.880 I didn't get the sense that he was giving up. I didn't get the sense that there was any real 00:30:55.440 --> 00:31:02.420 purpose behind why he was saying these things at this time. I mean, it's not just that it wasn't 00:31:02.540 --> 00:31:07.420 constructive to the situation. It wasn't a pep talk that would galvanize everyone else into 00:31:07.620 --> 00:31:13.560 action. It's like, why did it even pop into his head at that point? It's just the writer needed 00:31:13.760 --> 00:31:19.460 to have someone say these words. Giving up isn't exactly what I meant there, but it is. 00:31:19.940 --> 00:31:27.700 At that point, George has now turned this around in his head and he's saying, this is justice. 00:31:28.180 --> 00:31:31.540 This is our payback for doing that. 00:31:31.800 --> 00:31:33.620 This is our penance. 00:31:34.180 --> 00:31:42.060 It's a very religious, Catholic notion there that I'm taking the guilt on. 00:31:42.060 --> 00:31:42.980 So I deserve this. 00:31:43.160 --> 00:31:44.780 I deserve what's happening to me. 00:31:44.900 --> 00:31:46.040 That's kind of giving up. 00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:47.840 That's like, no, I don't deserve it. 00:31:47.980 --> 00:31:48.880 We're going to fight back. 00:31:50.300 --> 00:31:58.980 I think there is a theme there because there is also, that's what Amy says to Frederick. 00:32:01.920 --> 00:32:09.640 The thing is, I don't understand how either of them feel about that at either of those moments. 00:32:09.980 --> 00:32:14.660 There's nothing there to tell me what they feel this means for them. 00:32:14.980 --> 00:32:30.680 So I get it. I get the idea that this is punishment. This is payback. Okay. Does that make you feel angry? Does that make you feel rebellious? Does that make you feel resigned? Does that make you feel guilty? 00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:38.620 You know, do you accept that you are in some way getting your just desserts? 00:32:39.659 --> 00:32:42.500 Or do you reject that whole idea? 00:32:42.610 --> 00:32:45.960 And do you feel that you want to fight back against how unfair life is? 00:32:46.040 --> 00:32:49.340 I have no idea what they actually think about it. 00:32:49.760 --> 00:32:53.480 All they're doing is saying, oh, look, here's this interesting parallel, isn't there? 00:32:54.100 --> 00:33:00.440 And I think one of the more interesting lines in the film, and that's saying a lot because there weren't any. 00:33:02.579 --> 00:33:04.600 was Frederick's response to that. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:07.060 Oh, this is what you always do. 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:10.000 Seeing things from the point of the other person. 00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:12.340 That's not an acceptable excuse 00:33:13.640 --> 00:33:15.080 when it's down to survival. 00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:17.160 And it's like, yeah, 00:33:17.620 --> 00:33:21.240 what you just said is that empathy is impractical. 00:33:21.900 --> 00:33:24.700 Like, I would argue empathy is... 00:33:24.700 --> 00:33:27.000 No, I know, but it's just... 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:30.440 He's not saying what he should have said. 00:33:31.060 --> 00:33:36.500 if he were being practical is george this isn't the time and the place to express these thoughts 00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:42.540 instead he he wants to get in some kind of philosophical argument about how it's not 00:33:42.730 --> 00:33:50.160 practical but he's not being practical by having that argument yeah yeah so um it's it's it's a 00:33:50.340 --> 00:33:57.120 weak argument at the best of times but you know if you if you if you want as a dramatist to explore 00:33:57.700 --> 00:34:03.940 and essentially to pick apart the arguments that you dislike, 00:34:04.690 --> 00:34:09.060 then it's your duty to express those arguments as strongly as you possibly can 00:34:09.700 --> 00:34:17.440 so that your argument can win by virtue of being stronger than the strongest opposing argument 00:34:17.950 --> 00:34:22.600 rather than by virtue of the fact that you have constructed a straw man and then just knocked it down. 00:34:23.480 --> 00:34:26.139 I was thinking that they were going for whoever was loudest. 00:34:26.840 --> 00:34:35.600 But speaking of the theme of Amy becoming someone who does what she needs to do, were we to survive? 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:45.020 Were we supposed to take from this that she put out sexually for that soldier who was catching her stealing the can of food? 00:34:45.700 --> 00:34:46.860 Because I kind of got that. 00:34:47.250 --> 00:34:50.000 I think I think we were supposed to take that was what he wanted. 00:34:50.780 --> 00:34:52.800 Well, then we get nothing more out of it. 00:34:53.020 --> 00:34:54.980 She just, then it's the end of the scene. 00:34:55.060 --> 00:34:56.820 And the next scene, she's got the can of food. 00:34:56.820 --> 00:34:58.780 And of course it turns out to be rotten. 00:34:59.280 --> 00:35:00.300 Ha, ha, ha. 00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:02.700 But, because of course it is. 00:35:03.799 --> 00:35:06.260 But I, and then we never see that character again. 00:35:06.310 --> 00:35:09.900 And I'm just like, we're, if that went somewhere, 00:35:10.780 --> 00:35:12.200 it would kind of fit with a theme. 00:35:12.370 --> 00:35:13.600 It's supposed to be another example 00:35:13.650 --> 00:35:14.900 of terrible things that happen. 00:35:15.110 --> 00:35:18.420 But again, how far would she go to survive for her child? 00:35:18.580 --> 00:35:19.100 What would she do? 00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:22.840 I mean, that is an interesting moral question. 00:35:23.240 --> 00:35:28.880 it is an interesting moral question but the dramatic question is what's the psychological 00:35:29.220 --> 00:35:35.800 effect that it has on her that too and we don't get that too no none whatsoever except it makes 00:35:35.840 --> 00:35:38.480 you smash up the window clashes or whatever yeah 00:35:42.660 --> 00:35:47.320 oh let's you know something in a with with the exception of that bit where rupert is 00:35:47.620 --> 00:35:52.080 is complaining about george is always seeing things from the other guy's point of view which 00:35:52.100 --> 00:35:53.940 is terrible. 00:35:54.340 --> 00:35:55.380 It's just a terrible 00:35:57.000 --> 00:35:58.400 point of view to have 00:35:58.400 --> 00:35:59.040 and to hold. 00:36:00.220 --> 00:36:02.400 But, okay. Apart from that, 00:36:02.980 --> 00:36:04.060 Frederick's character 00:36:04.260 --> 00:36:05.940 pretty much through this thing, 00:36:06.380 --> 00:36:08.440 I liked better than almost 00:36:08.740 --> 00:36:09.700 everyone else in the show. 00:36:10.260 --> 00:36:12.120 He wants to go back for the minister. 00:36:13.339 --> 00:36:14.500 Even though he doesn't 00:36:14.640 --> 00:36:16.500 really like Amy, as soon 00:36:16.580 --> 00:36:18.360 as he finds out she's with child, 00:36:18.720 --> 00:36:20.620 he's there to try 00:36:20.640 --> 00:36:25.400 to protect in its family but still i would have much preferred him to be the star of the show 00:36:26.200 --> 00:36:32.040 whether that in fact i would have much preferred him to be as as the character he was to be the 00:36:32.220 --> 00:36:38.240 primary star of the show which you know to some degree uh i would almost argue he was second bill 00:36:38.380 --> 00:36:45.180 after amy but um because george was just nothing through the course of this through the course of 00:36:45.200 --> 00:36:51.540 thing but uh what about the character of ogilvy the convenient chemist astronomer character of 00:36:52.140 --> 00:36:57.920 ogilvy well the one thing the one thing the one good thing i have to say about this whole production 00:36:58.200 --> 00:37:02.640 it's not really about the character it's just i thought robert carlyle was really good 00:37:03.640 --> 00:37:09.660 despite everything now i'll i'll agree with that he he was probably the better better performance 00:37:09.680 --> 00:37:12.580 He and Rupert Graves were the ones that... 00:37:12.580 --> 00:37:13.880 He gave the best performance in this. 00:37:14.020 --> 00:37:17.320 And I've seen Rupert Graves and I've seen Rafe Spall 00:37:17.540 --> 00:37:19.880 both give absolutely top-notch performances. 00:37:20.400 --> 00:37:24.860 So it's not a question of that. 00:37:25.020 --> 00:37:28.960 It's just, I thought he was really good in this. 00:37:29.600 --> 00:37:33.720 And given how bad some of the other good people were, 00:37:34.300 --> 00:37:35.660 that's probably quite an achievement. 00:37:38.019 --> 00:37:39.140 Yeah, yeah. 00:37:39.600 --> 00:37:45.680 Um, I, you know, we have the whole bit of cottage drama at the beginning about them being unmarried 00:37:45.680 --> 00:37:48.300 and the town doesn't like them because they're an unmarried couple. 00:37:48.840 --> 00:37:57.740 And apparently no one is welcoming to them except for Ogilvy, who is, as he puts it, 00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:05.880 the aging gentleman or the gentleman bachelor of advancing years who likes to keep himself 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:12.800 well turned out which if that doesn't sound like he's saying they all think i'm gay i don't know 00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:20.900 oh yes what doesn't go anywhere doesn't inform the character doesn't nothing no just just lines 00:38:21.500 --> 00:38:27.880 just lines to be it's it sad to say but it's like they're ticking off a box why are they ticking 00:38:28.020 --> 00:38:35.860 the box got a gay character go he's not gay is he not that's the point about the line is it i don't 00:38:35.880 --> 00:38:39.740 because that was delivered in such a way that was what i took from it i thought it was i thought it 00:38:39.740 --> 00:38:45.600 was a nice line it didn't go anywhere you're right but yeah just it was absolutely there we go 00:38:46.420 --> 00:38:50.640 i just threw that out there that's why the rest of the village doesn't thinks i'm a pariah i don't 00:38:50.640 --> 00:38:55.700 know they didn't even really say he was a pariah too he just said they say things about me in the 00:38:55.880 --> 00:39:03.260 village and and it was such a stereotype as well that he's describing well i'm the stereotype so 00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:09.120 there you go i don't know it just just like well there was there was a few more minutes we ticked 00:39:09.120 --> 00:39:15.960 off until we got to the martians arriving and and that was was in the first 16 minutes and i was 00:39:16.140 --> 00:39:25.160 already thinking at that point this is mighty slow this whole show it's like huh yeah all right 00:39:25.560 --> 00:39:31.460 i hope it gets better what about the special effects let's let's let's try to turn something 00:39:32.040 --> 00:39:38.080 into uh i'm not gonna say a positive but uh the martians the martian war machines 00:39:39.440 --> 00:39:42.140 any thoughts they were fine they were right 00:39:44.600 --> 00:39:54.680 i i admit i liked i i liked the weirdly segmented leg arrangement i think of all the tripod 00:39:54.760 --> 00:40:03.520 imitations or implementations I've seen in movies. You know, the worst being the George 00:40:03.800 --> 00:40:11.600 Powell 1950s version, which they didn't have legs. And, but all the others, those were the 00:40:11.700 --> 00:40:16.960 most alien looking legs because they just didn't, it didn't bend like man. They didn't bend like 00:40:17.180 --> 00:40:23.560 spider. They didn't bend like dog. They just were different. And I thought that was an interesting 00:40:24.180 --> 00:40:27.280 interpretation of it the martians themselves 00:40:32.260 --> 00:40:38.440 kind of muscly they've been working out they're buff you could really see those toned muscles in 00:40:38.440 --> 00:40:47.680 their backs but um i i overall they were competent but but that was that was the best i mean uninspired 00:40:47.720 --> 00:40:56.140 design even there i guess they're okay is the best best we can say which by the way i absolutely 00:40:56.300 --> 00:41:04.020 think we should we should on a future uh future podcast we should do the tv series bbc also uh 00:41:04.080 --> 00:41:11.740 the tripods ah which i was i was gonna say bbc tv series the tripods yes this is the first this is 00:41:11.740 --> 00:41:15.760 the first no i mean i thought you meant to be another war of the worlds but this is the first 00:41:15.780 --> 00:41:21.680 bbc adaptation of war of the worlds i think it is not it is not it is not it is an adaptation 00:41:22.130 --> 00:41:28.420 it is sadly only two of three books but it's an adaptation of uh some books by a guy whose name 00:41:28.420 --> 00:41:31.740 i can't remember at the minute they're on my bookshelf but i can't see them because my glasses 00:41:32.020 --> 00:41:39.080 aren't on um the city of gold and lead and the the white mountains and um uh there's one other 00:41:39.740 --> 00:41:44.420 but it's three stories and you know where i was talking about earlier if you want to tell a story 00:41:44.440 --> 00:41:46.060 what happens after the Martian invasion. 00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:48.660 That's kind of what this series is. 00:41:49.340 --> 00:41:51.700 I mean, they don't specifically state 00:41:51.980 --> 00:41:54.200 that it's a War of the Worlds sequel. 00:41:54.920 --> 00:41:57.580 And obviously the aliens were never wiped out by diseases, 00:41:58.280 --> 00:42:02.060 but it is the world after the Martians have taken over 00:42:02.300 --> 00:42:04.960 and their giant tripods rule over the world. 00:42:05.620 --> 00:42:08.640 And it was great. 00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:10.420 We should definitely do that. 00:42:10.860 --> 00:42:12.180 Pretty sure I've got it somewhere. 00:42:13.200 --> 00:42:14.000 Or we can find it. 00:42:14.920 --> 00:42:24.120 anyway that was a detour i don't know that i have anything else to to say or pick on um i i i have 00:42:24.180 --> 00:42:29.520 nothing really more to say about this i'm i'm going to mention the titles purely because i 00:42:29.550 --> 00:42:36.400 thought there was a kind of promising combination of imperialism and entomology there but it didn't 00:42:36.400 --> 00:42:44.060 really lead to anything in terms of what we saw in i think it's a fair fair comment the um all the 00:42:44.080 --> 00:42:50.620 insectoid life and the ants mostly mostly ants but not entirely ants i didn't really get that 00:42:50.760 --> 00:42:56.860 out of these creatures no exactly and they're not a colony of ants i thought because right at the 00:42:56.920 --> 00:43:04.240 very start one of the opening shots is i think of some ants yeah that's it that's it it seems like 00:43:04.240 --> 00:43:09.920 that was that was just to link in with the titles rather than the titles actually foreshadowing 00:43:09.940 --> 00:43:15.760 something that was going to be an exploration. Yeah, there's no, I mean, I guess you could, 00:43:16.120 --> 00:43:23.280 okay, I guess you could make a very tortured argument. I'll try. I'll try. Because there 00:43:23.440 --> 00:43:29.740 have been science fiction stories where we talk about insectoid creatures coming in and swarming, 00:43:29.980 --> 00:43:34.700 even if they're intelligent insectoid creatures. And that's much more obvious here. We don't get 00:43:34.720 --> 00:43:43.000 that but you could make the argument that the british empire swarmed across the planet like 00:43:43.110 --> 00:43:50.800 army ants destroying everything in their path and so the the colonialism is a metaphor not for the 00:43:50.900 --> 00:43:57.660 martians but for the british or the the answer the metaphor for the british uh colonialism uh and 00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:01.340 destroying everything in their path and eating everything all the resources and destroying our 00:44:01.360 --> 00:44:08.280 planet and then the martians are just doing that to us so again really tortured but i that could 00:44:08.280 --> 00:44:12.280 be what they were going for but they didn't go for it i mean that was the point what it there's 00:44:12.420 --> 00:44:18.380 there is there's i don't know there's some there are ideas and imagery that you could 00:44:19.100 --> 00:44:26.460 mine from those parallels that they just really didn't explore so i don't i don't understand what 00:44:26.640 --> 00:44:31.320 was going on in those titles i wonder if that even had anything to do with the writer no that 00:44:31.340 --> 00:44:36.160 could just strictly be the director or the art director or someone who's like yeah hey let's do 00:44:36.280 --> 00:44:41.860 that yeah you know it's like there's nothing about it in the story but i like it i like the 00:44:42.080 --> 00:44:53.380 visuals so let's go yeah all right i was so i gotta say i was so looking forward to this i was 00:44:53.420 --> 00:45:02.680 really looking forward to this story and i will say that i wasn't spoiled on it but apparently 00:45:02.860 --> 00:45:10.300 new zealand got this before britain did and so we had a new zealand we were we were we were not 00:45:10.580 --> 00:45:15.260 getting the first transmission other countries got it before us oh i'd say new zealand had it a 00:45:15.380 --> 00:45:20.920 month ago quite a while because i got a note from from somebody who saw the first episode of it 00:45:21.480 --> 00:45:26.240 and fortunately they weren't being spoilery but they did kind of warn me that it might not be 00:45:27.020 --> 00:45:34.940 as good as as we all hoped uh i think i think it was due to air earlier and that 00:45:35.390 --> 00:45:41.000 that may not be not unconnected with the fact that it's not very good 00:45:42.300 --> 00:45:46.700 let's push it back uh we've got some more strictly come dancing we can watch instead or anything 00:45:47.200 --> 00:45:54.520 but yeah um but you know i was i was looking forward to i was hugely pumped for it i got that 00:45:54.680 --> 00:46:00.940 and i was kind of like i'm gonna i'm gonna go in with an open mind war of the worlds by peter 00:46:01.080 --> 00:46:09.120 harness like oh no no no no no no no no no no and i still tried to turn i still tried to turn 00:46:09.220 --> 00:46:17.020 of positive to it but i watched the first episode with five other people and we all just kind of 00:46:17.440 --> 00:46:25.700 shook our heads after part one it's like wow hope it gets better hope it gets better none of them 00:46:25.860 --> 00:46:31.060 watched the other two parts with me they didn't hope it got much better because they didn't care 00:46:31.400 --> 00:46:37.700 anyway oh well if that's it simon thank you for joining me well it's a pleasure as always 00:46:39.160 --> 00:46:39.520 and listeners 00:46:40.210 --> 00:46:41.920 I do hope you'll join us all again 00:46:42.180 --> 00:46:44.260 next time on Fusion Patrol 00:46:46.160 --> 00:46:47.740 you've been listening to Fusion Patrol 00:46:47.970 --> 00:46:49.260 a listener supported podcast 00:46:50.100 --> 00:46:52.180 find out how you can be a sponsor and get early access 00:46:52.270 --> 00:46:53.680 to all episodes and more 00:46:54.240 --> 00:46:55.620 at patreon.com 00:46:55.950 --> 00:46:56.860 slash fusion patrol 00:47:00.460 --> 00:47:02.140 come join the conversation on Facebook 00:47:02.390 --> 00:47:02.840 or Twitter 00:47:05.020 --> 00:47:06.160 all episodes are 00:47:06.180 --> 00:47:07.940 available at fusion patrol.com. 00:47:11.160 --> 00:47:13.520 Our music is fight the future by Amber Wolf. 00:47:16.580 --> 00:47:19.080 This has been a lone locust production.