War of the Worlds: Season 2

There has always been a highly permeable membrane separating the world of films with is humbler cousin, television. Popular TV shows wind up as big movies and occasionally the tide flows in the opposite direction and a popular film is turned into a weekly television series. Historically neither direction produces many hits although there are some notable exceptions. M*A*S*H* as a series far surpassed the movie by Robert Altman and most fans would agree that the television incarnation of the fantasy staple, ‘Highlander’ fared much better than any of the original film’s sequels. One TV series following up from a movie that did not find much success was the short lived 1988 show, ‘War of the Worlds’. The series was based on the 1953 classic starring Gene Barry and in the spirit of full disclosure I admit it has always been one of my al time favorite Sci-Fi movies. I even used it to help introduce my daughter to the genre many years ago. Around that same time this series came on the air and naturally it caught my eye. Since the novel and movie were so influential in my life time enjoyment of science fiction I had as pretty high bar when it came to viewing this series. Ultimately, it only lasted two seasons so it is eligible for the dreaded ‘cancelled before its time list. The series had its flaws but if provided more time to develop it could have been a contender. CBS Paramount has included this series in their ongoing commitment to releasing their extensive catalogue of TV series filling in those blanks in your collection. With this release of season two the existing saga of this Martian invasion is now at your finger tips to enjoy when the mood strikes you. Even though this is a production that exhibits some difficulties both the second season DVD set under consideration here and the first season set are worthy of inclusion in any serious collection of Sci-Fi.

The original novel that started this all was written by one of the founding fathers of modern science fiction, H.G. Well and published in 1898. Like many true literary classics the story is subject to interpretation and customization adapting to each generation. Just as the 1953 and 2005 remake took different elements of the original story to relate to the times, the TV series also had to make several concessions to adapt the story to s weekly adventure series format. Making a major contribution to the early demise of this series is a major over haul made when entering into the second season. Most fans of the series point to this as why the full potential inherent in the underlying premise of the story was never approached. It is not so much that there was a lack of continuity with the novel or movie; there was an inability to retain consistency from the first season to the second. Although continuity is extremely important in a sequel in the world of the hard core science fiction buff any change or deviation no matter how infinitesimal will become a source of heated debate and judgment. Just look at how any hits a web search will garner for something like ‘Greedo shot first’.

Dr. Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin) was introduced in the first season as an unorthodox research scientist who was trained by Dr. Clayton Forrester from the original movie. The bodies of the Martian invasion force were interred in metal drums kept at an old military base. It turns out that the bacterial that halted the invasion didn’t kill the Martians. Due to the residual radiation from weapons tests the Martians were able to regenerate and take over human bodies. Blackwood is joined by Biologist Suzanne McCullough (Lynda Mason Green) and in the first season by Colonel Paul Ironhorse (Richard Chaves) try to tell the people and the government about the renewed threat. By the second season the story line has jumped ahead in time an undisclosed number of years to a point when the Martians have all but destroyed human civilization and the humans still alive in this post-apocalyptic nightmare are mounting a resistance movement to stop the new wave of invaders from wiping out all life on earth in order to rebuild it to support their type of life. This resulted in the replacement of the military man with the rugged freedom fighter John Kincaid (Adrian Paul). The ratings for the first season were among the best Paramount syndicated television ever achieved but some studio executive decided to mess with a working formula. They started the refit by changing out the original creative team with Frank Mancuso, Jr. Most of his experience was with the Friday the 13^th franchise with some of the film sequels and the short lived television series. The modifications in the creative quarters then extended to a different team of writers. Even when a series keeps the people that made the freshman season a success the second season is always a difficult hurdle to mount. This is exponentially more difficult in the exceptionally detail oriented and meticulous Sci-Fi crowd. For these fans one of the worse infractions committed in this season is removing the Martians from the mix replaced by the Morthrai. It is not even made clear if this was a different alien threat or a rival faction of the original. Perhaps they would have cleared up this issue had the show continued. It is a shame that the story lasted since 1898 only to fizzle here. Ultimately many loose ends were left at the end of this season. Those needing to be complete will want this but others should take a look at the first season.

Posted 10/18/2010