Conference noted::sf

    This is a novelization from an upcoming tv show produced by
    Paramount. I haven't read it though I've seen it.
    
    Incidentally, there have been sequels and pastiches to Wells'
    novel before. Two I can think of off-hand are Manly Wade Wellman
    & Wade Wellman's SHERLOCK HOLMES' WAR OF THE WORLDS and George
    H. Smith's THE SECOND WAR OF THE WORLDS. There was even a comic
    series from Marvel back in the 70's that dealt with the Martians
    returning in the year 2000.
    
    --- jerry

    
    While I haven't read the original, this one is more like a sequel
    to the movie version.  I'm still not finished with it (maybe I won't
    finish it), but...
    
    (spoiler)
    
    
    It takes place in 1988, starting in California, and either has the
    movie characters or their kids, aunts, uncles, etc.  Of course there's
    the paranoid scientist, kid of parents who were scientists and killed
    the first time around, who just KNOWS the aliens aren't really dead
    and will be back.  And they are, breaking out of a nuclear waste
    dump where they've been stored for 35 years, taking over human bodies.
    
    If this is really a novelization of what's upcoming for the tube,
    we should be seeing Gene Barry as the now elderly, and still know
    it all, scientist who tried to warn the world the first time trying
    to do it again with the new generation.  And of course for that
    TV audience that just has to have some hint of sex, there are
    relationships between the scientists, the aliens, and more I'm sure
    will be brought out on the tube.
    
    This thing sounds worse than alot of 1950's movies I've seen.  My
    opinion is that somebody's just out to make a buck.  Can TV really
    take this AND 'There is Something Out There' at the same time? 
    Makes you wish for 'Quark' to come back.
    
    	Klaes
    

    hmm...doesen't sound like it will get off the ground, you would
    think 30 years after the first invasion we would be ready for them
    again, more so since we would have had time to learn about there
    technology they had left.
    	from a sf english course i took we were taught that the martians
    were doomed to lose after they fried that kindly, saintly, a touch
    naive, minister.  maybe in the sequel we can get a teleevanglist
    to go in and preach to them about the sins of adultery, i can see
    it now. "if you commit adultery your gonna burn in...(sound of martian
    death ray) buzzzzzzzz." ah to dream ;')
    pete, who is always on the lookout for the anti-elvis.

    Re .1 (Jerry):
    
    One of the best was Garrett P. Servis' novel, _Edison's nConquest
    of Mars_, which was written as a sort of sequel.  The ideav was
    that after the Martians had been conquered, the nations of Earth
    thought it only fit and proper to strike back -- so they appealed
    to the only inventive genius capable of doing something about it
    -- Thomas Alva Edison -- who (in the book) develops electric-powered
    spaceships.  The Earth's nations build an armada that goes to Mars
    and Shows Them Not to Mess With Us.  In the process, there's a sort
    of creaky "sense of wonder" where some of the spacemen find a solid
    gold chunk of matter that they "push towards Earth," one supposes
    so that it will enter the atmosphere as a meteor and give some
    prospectors a little wealth.  Anyway, Edison carries the day, as
    one would suspect.
    
    Pasople are touchier about having their names used these days ...
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    There was also a sequel from Christopher Priest, I believe, but its
    name escapes me.  All that I remember of it was that the humans 
    win through some kind of anti-gravity device.
    
    A lot of these sequels seem to miss the point, though.  The Martians
    are SUPPOSED to be invincible.  They are supposed to do to us what
    we've been doing to all the primitive peoples on our planet.  The
    Martian invasion is supposed to be a lesson in humility.  We may 
    think we're smart and tough, but there are "intellects vast and 
    cool" out there that would go through our armies and navies like
    a heat-ray through butter.  If we battle the Martian's technology 
    with some of our own, the whole lesson is lost.
    After all, the Australian aborigines never did learn how 
    to build trans-oceanic ships and rifles.  They had no defense 
    against Wells' culture.  A race with a few centuries of 
    technological progress on us would be equally unbeatable.
    That was the nice thing about "The War of the Worlds" - it wasn't 
    merely a depiction of future war, but had this deeper theme.

    /jlr

    I find it very difficult to beleive that anyone can try to begin
    to write a sequel  to such a masterpeice, Wells's forsight into
    the future and humanity is second to none {take the time machine}
    WAR OF THE WORLDS was a lesson to humanity stating things like;-
    
    	man is too complacent
    
    	man destroys without feeling
    
    	man can be humbled by the simplest creatures on earth (the bacteria
    	that destroyed the martians)
    
    	Wells human man did not destroy the martians so any sequel diverses
    so far from the original storey that the author should sell it with
    no connection to the masterpiece...
    
    
     Whats your views 
              regards 
    		Ken Garlick (fs london)....

    I've read the sequel, and in my opinion the book is absolute drivel!
    Talk about beating a dead dog!. I'm sick of the awful sequels. They
    only show the lack of imagination of the Screenwriters Guild. Can't
    they think up anything new?
    
                                Angry
    

    Well, I think the blame may not lie entirely with the Screen Writers'
    Guild.  As someone who has occasionally struggled with the publishing
    industry, I can tell you that most publishers really admire fresh ideas
    as long as they're tried-and-true.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

                 <<< MIVC::$1$DUA13:[NOTES$LIBRARY]SF.NOTE;3 >>>
                             -< Arcana Caelestia >-
================================================================================
Note 710.0                 Martians are comming again                 No replies
HPSTEK::XIA                                           5 lines   8-OCT-1988 22:27
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I thought there are no Martians, but NBC just put on a series of
    _War of the Worlds_ (suppose to be sequals to the H.G. Well's
    novel).  Any way, why don't they put the aliens on other planets since
    we all know there are no Martians?
    Eugene

    First off, it wasn't NBC that put it on. WAR OF THE WORLDS is
    a syndicated rather than network show. It just happens that the
    station that is your NBC affiliate (I assume you're talking
    about Providence Channel 10) was the local station to show it.
    Boston's NBC affiliate, Channel 4, did not show it, but Boston
    independent station Channel 38 will be showing it tomorrow.
    
    Secondly, it's supposed to be a sequel to the *movie* version
    of WAR OF THE WORLDS, not Wells' book. It's specifically said
    that the Martians had first invaded 35 years ago, which is
    when the movie took place. The book was written and set in the
    turn of the century.
    
    Thirdly, yes, we know there aren't any real Martians, but so
    what? It is designed to be a sequel to a story about Martians,
    so they call them Martians. If Ray Bradbury decided tomorrow
    to write more "Martian chronicles", should he change his setting
    to a totally different planet just because we know that there
    aren't any real Martians? If someone decided tomorrow to create
    a tv series based on Orwell's 1984, should he change the title
    to "1994", just because we know the world wasn't like that four
    years ago?
    
    --- jerry

    re: .-1
    
    Well, they could update the show if they wanted to.  Who says that
    all those probes saw the real Mars?  It wouldn't be hard to
    substitute your own data stream for the radio signals coming back.
    Even we could do it, and the Martians are supposed to be far
    advanced over us.  The Viking landers could be hanging in the
    Marsopolis Primitive Art Museum for all we know.  Earth-based
    telescopes can't resolve all that detail on planetary surfaces;
    most of our new knowledge comes from spacecraft, and they could be
    fooled. Now the Hubble space telescope will be another matter.
    That may be why the Martians have decided to attack now instead of waiting
    until their deception is revealed.  The people of the Earth will be
    uncontrollable once they realize what really happened to Elvis.
    
    /jlr
    
    PS How was the show?

    The show was pretty lame. Pretty much a retread of THE INVADERS
    and "V".
    
    Basic premise:
    
    The Martians didn't die from the germs, but went into a state of
    suspended animation. Apparently (I missed the first 45 minutes or
    so), they revived when the bodies became exposed to some nuclear
    material. In addition, they have this previously unrevealed
    ability to take over the bodies of humans (needless to say, this
    just enables the producers to get away with using regular actors
    for the Martians). They get in contact with their superiors on
    Mars (who, in the last 35 years, never tried to re-invade).
    
    Meanwhile, a scientist who who orphaned as a child during the
    original invasion and was adopted by the movie's protagonist,
    Dr. Clayton Forrester, suspects that the Martians are around
    and alive. He eventually manages to convince the Army about
    this, and he, his co-workers, and an Army Colonel form a sort
    of guerilla unit to search for the Martians and destroy them.
    In this pilot film, they determine that the Martians are going
    to attempt to recapture three of the war machines that are in
    storage at an Air Force base. The guerillas manage to destroy
    the machines, though.
    
    One of the things that was never satisfactorily explained: some
    of the characters talk about not believing in the existence of
    aliens. How they cannot believe this in the face of worldwide
    destruction by the Martians in 1953 is beyond me. But the general
    rank and file of humanity seems to have forgotten all about the
    original invasion.
    
    --- jerry

    	What would all the evil mutant SF monsters do without radiation?
    
    	:^)
    

< Note 684.13 by AKOV11::BOYAJIAN "That was Zen; this is Dao" >

<    One of the things that was never satisfactorily explained: some
<    of the characters talk about not believing in the existence of
<    aliens. How they cannot believe this in the face of worldwide
<    destruction by the Martians in 1953 is beyond me. 

How can you be surprised at this when there are people going around today 
claiming that The Holocaust never happened. With human nature what it is, 
people will go around believing what they damn well want to, even astrology
(AAARRRrrrgggghhhhh!).

Dave

    RE: .13
    
    Thanks for reminding me, I'd almost forgotten where that huge crater
    in my back yard came from...  ;-)
    

    For those who haven't seen it yet (including myself), it's on tonight
    October 13th at 8:00 PM EST on WPIX.
    
    Mike_L

    WOTW is one of my favorite SF movies, and it was thrilling to see
    the Martians war machines rise again into the night, shooting the
    fearsome death ray towards anything that moves.  Unfortunately,
    they were quickly dispatched within about 45 seconds, and it sounds
    like those were the last machines on the planet.  Those machines
    are a testament to Harryhausens's effects, which still stand up
    today.
    
    But, I'm afraid I have to agree with Jerry's complaint about the
    foolish attitude expressed by the populace regarding the Martians.
    It seems the producers want it both ways, with the inane bleatings
    of the scientist trying to convince everyone that 'They're back!',
    while at the same time exposing a Hangar-18 cover-up of the fact
    that they were never here in the first place.  If that keeps up
    through the rest of the series, it will ruin what could be an
    interesting romp through total planetary destruction.  I missed
    the 2nd episode, but, from the previews, it looks like we may be
    in for more of an Invaders/The Fugitive/V/Body Snatchers rehash
    than a real WOTW desperate struggle for interplanetary dominance.
    
    -Brian

It seems that they are working the amnesiac effect into the plot.
There was reference to people being unable to remember what happened
after being near the aliens.  So why does the professor remember?
And isn't anybody curious as to why the Eiffel Tower is lying in ruins?

This was in the same episode where the Martians were stealing liquid nitrogen
from the rocket fuel plant.  Liquid nitrogen as a propellant?

About the radioactivity, I thought the bacteria put the Martians
into suspended animation, but the radioactivity eventually killed the
bacteria and the Martians revived.  Was it coincidental with the 
terrorist raid, or did the terrorists release radiation and revive
the Martians (so fast?). 
Now we find that too much radiation is bad, so they need the coolant.

Alas, the fiction content is rising and the science content falls.

More Invaders, Something.., Body Snatchers, indeed.

- tom]

>    If someone decided tomorrow to create
>    a tv series based on Orwell's 1984, should he change the title
>    to "1994", just because we know the world wasn't like that four
>    years ago?

You hit a nerve ..

That's right; four years ago, Russia was the 'evil empire', SDI was the
magic umbrella that would protect us from nuclear attack instead of an ABM
system, and Iran was a terrorist nation with whom we could never do business.

Don't fool yourself; we live in an age of 'credible deniability' and
carefully programmed disinformation.  We are much more dependent on, and
controlled by our government(s) and multinational corporations than 
ever in the history of mankind.   We're missing invasive monitoring, you say ?
controlled lifestyles ?  Mass produced viewpoints ?  Look around.  And stay
tuned for further developments.

    
    
    also see THEY LIVE.
    
    			;)
    

    re:.21
    
    But...we are not at war with East Asia... :-)
    
    --- jerry

>    But...we are not at war with East Asia... :-)

Well, you've got a point there; actually we're allies with them ..
or was that last week ? I can't remember; I'll have to check the
tube :-).

    has anyone been keeping up with the series? i think i've seen at
    least 10 epsiodes since they started. alot of gore...i guess i'm
    getting old but the last episode showed two humans with their 
    limbs ripped off and two human where "a few extra hole were created
    in their heads. the martians have no scruples, in perivous shows
    they massacared a hair boutique (loped off 12 or 13 skulls to use
    the brains for reasearch), started doing medical experiments(this
    one was rude, they took over an ambulance and would pickup already
    injuryed people instead of taking them to the hospital they would
    do their own experiments), and of course kidnapping children.
    they pulled out all the stops for evil aliens that's for sure.
    one positive thing i enjoyed was one show where they did their
    homework and made the alien encounter's appear very similar to
    people who claim to be abducted in real life. yup this show for
    me has become a guilty pleasure...To Life Immortal!
    pete

re .25
I've been watching the series.  I set the VCR to record that particular
episode you just mentioned and got around to watching it just last night.
It had to be the most bloodiest show yet.  Since the show is syndicated,
it appears on television during all hours of the day.  The one I recorded
was 6:00 on Sunday on Boston channel 38.  When the series first started,
we let the kids watch it.  However, after the graphic viewings of the last 
few episodes, this show is off limits to the kids.  Next week's show is
going to be a repeat.

Mike_L

Yeah, it is getting more gorey, but I also have to admit that its basic
premise has improved and the show itself is getting better.
On the down side, the aliens seem generally incompetent.  They always lose,
and they seem to have no sense of self preservation.  They keep engaging
in suicide missions.  
The advocacy should be taking better care of its fighters.

We know they're not Martians now.  In the episode with  the renegade alien
(trapped in a particular human body), he explains to Harrison that they are 
from the planet Mortex, in a different solar system entirely.
I'm guessing he (was his name Quinn?) will be back in a recurring role.

- tom]

Some of the local stations have moved the show off into the Late-Nite
slot.  Channel 10 in Providence,RI moved it to Sunday Nights @ 12:35am,
due to protests about some of the episodes.

They broadcast the 1st two episodes last week and the week before, and
tonight starts a brand new episode.

One "flaw" I've noticed that in some of thew early episodes, the aliens
could be detected via Geiger counters, now one needs a blood test to
determine who is who.

What's the plot shift in the show this season?
Did I miss the opening episode?  In the first one I saw (and I turned
it on a couple of minutes into the show) Harrison and Suzaane and her daughter
were running away from something, and somehow they had this guy Kincaid with 
them.  They were talking about how Ironhorse and Norton had gotten it.

What's the deal with society?  Have the aliens made some great leap
in the offensive that has devastated things?  The whole show looks
like they got a cheap deal on leftover sets from Blade Runner.
No more direct body takeovers?
What's with the new "cloning" and crystals and stuff.

This is like a whole new show, and I can't figure it out.

- tom]

    Yeah, sounds like you did  miss the shift...
    
    Synopsis of the plot shift:
    
    The earthlings are losing the war BIG TIME and as a result, society as
    a whole is crumbling. The aliens are now more into cloning as opposed
    to assimilation. During the season opener, they clone Ironhorse and
    the duplicate returns to the safe house in order to destroy it. In
    the attempt, he offs Norton and takes Suzanne's daughter hostage.
    Harrison and Kincaid, having just rescued the real Ironhorse, try
    to negotiate with Ironhorse's double. After failing to get anywhere,
    the  real Ironhorse commits suicide which causes the double to die
    as well.  All in all, a pretty gruesome show.
    
    Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the invaders are now in contact with 
    a kind of alien 'supreme being' who gives them some kind of spiritual/
    military guidance. 
    
    					-Steve

    
   > Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the invaders are now in contact with 
   > a kind of alien 'supreme being' who gives them some kind of spiritual/
   > military guidance. 
    
    
      The alien is a synth who is trying to secure mankind as a future
    food source for her people.  Of course, our heros don't know why she
    is helping them . . . 
    

    Does anyone know if this show is still on the air.  I haven't noticed
    it on TV for a awhile.  Though I don't think its really that good, some
    of the episodes are OK.  I still prefer the movie with Gene Barry and
    HG Wells original novel.
    
    ktlam- -YY-

    This show is on Sunday nights on Channel 38, and in my opinion, the
    newer season stinks.
    
    K.C.

WSBK (Channel 38 in Boston) is available through some cable services.
We used it to watch Bruins games up in the Albany area.

B.

    
    
     re: .34
    
       I'm in NYC also and all I can say is..thank god it's history.
    
    
    
    RichC
    

    I believe that Paramount has stopped production on the show.
    
    --- jerry

I live in teh Boston area.  Our cable system gets WPIX from NYC, and I recall
that they had been showing the program, but I've stopped looking for it.
Right, this past season's shows sucked.
The transition from covert-strike-team-against-disadvantaged-but-powerful-aliens
to Blade-Runner-like-collapsed-civilisation-and-well-entranced-aliens-with-
magic-like-powers was done VERY badly, and the premise and its dramatic
presentation just don't work.

Too bad - for TV, the show had some (small) promise....

- tom]

   I saw some of the eariler episodes, where the society was normal-ish, and
they (the team) was working with a military commander who knew that the
aliens were infiltrating the armed forces, and making a subversive come-back.

   Then I turn on the show recently (well, I guess this season), and it's
cyberpunk.  I like cyberpunk, and they don't do a bad job with it (although
Max Headroom was much better), but what the heck happened?  Was there a
transition, or just when one season started, the society/premise thing had
changed?

					-mjg

    Here in the U.K they have started to show WOTW at a god-earthly hour ,
    no pun intended .
    anyway I think so far the series is quite good, better then V in the
    gore dept. and some stories .
    
    Where we have goten up to is. When Ironhorse shoots a hostage by
    accident and that the aliens need to get some serious bucks to by
    some gems .
    
    how far do we have befor it goes down hill .
    
    
      ED.......