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War of the Worlds


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Anyone here a fan of the campy 80's television series War of the Worlds, which tied in with the 1953 George Pal movie? Just noticed it was on sale today and managed to pick it up with some other goodies. Pretty excited too, as I have never seen this series outside of its original run. I am looking foward to some downtime this weekend to watch all 23 episodes. As for season 2 of this show, it can stay in the trash heap for all I care, as I did not like the way they took the show. Kind of the same thing I hated about the second season of Space: 1999 when they killed off main characters for no reason and redesigned everything.

So, what do you think? What were your likes and dislikes of this show? Or are most of you out there too young to even remember it?

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I remember watching it years after the eighties in re-runs on late night TV. I never saw it in '88 when it came out... I guess it came out some time when I was in boot camp.

From what I loosely remember I remember liking it but getting angry that I first caught it somewhere in the middle and then as a few episodes went on I wanted to see more but it stoped and started over from the first episode and then the UHF station that was airing the reruns replaced it with something else before it got to the spot I started watching it.

My problem is that at the same time (UHF station and local Public TV in Chicago) I was watching Dr. Who and Red Dwarf so what I remember of the WotW show might be corrupted by what I remember from Who eps.

I distincly remember that when they shot the aliens (who looked like humans) they melted (?) and I also clearly remember one episode when the aliens tried to take over the teens with hypnotic rock music.

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Oh yeah I remember this show pretty fondly. The first season was great, mainly because of the dark shows and that it was a welcome change from Trek 'PC' world. But I agree the 2nd season stunk so bad, yet their pulling off the same garbage shows now and they are getting a good following.

I'm sooooo gonna add this to my shows libary!

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The only things I liked about it.

1. My favorite Canadian band, Platinum Blonde played a rock band or aliens or something in one episode.

2. Adrian Paul - His crappy TV role before assuming the mantle of Duncan McLeod THE HIGHLANDER - which he followed up with the crappy TV role of Tracker.

3. Theme Song is cool.

Edited by ComicKaze
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Only episode of this show I remember is the one where they found a Martian War Machine like the ones from the 50's film.  Other than that it sucked.

341589[/snapback]

Dude this show rocked when I was a Wee Smeg. It was Dark and Gorry as hell. Dismemberment and Mutaliations....

The Second season sucked I agree.. Im kind pissed cause I bought a Boot legg copy of Season 1 from Comic Con then this comes out on DVD a few months later :lol:

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Only episode of this show I remember is the one where they found a Martian War Machine like the ones from the 50's film.  Other than that it sucked.

341589[/snapback]

If I remember right, that was the very first episode.

I really like the show the first season, though it went down hill after that.

BTW, who did Adrian Paul play on the show? I remember the guy who was one of Arnold's commandos in Predator being the military guy who was involved in the counter alien opeartion... he ended up being controlled by them and ended up blowing his brains out.

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Only episode of this show I remember is the one where they found a Martian War Machine like the ones from the 50's film.   Other than that it sucked.

341589[/snapback]

If I remember right, that was the very first episode.

I really like the show the first season, though it went down hill after that.

BTW, who did Adrian Paul play on the show? I remember the guy who was one of Arnold's commandos in Predator being the military guy who was involved in the counter alien opeartion... he ended up being controlled by them and ended up blowing his brains out.

341636[/snapback]

Duncan Mcloud played The Replacement for That Predator dude after he was killed of. Adrian was in season 2

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I just finished watching all of season one and I have to say that I did enjoy it very much. Although it did have its cheesy parts, a lot of it is pretty gruesome for its day and quite dark. It is a shame the producers of this show took it in a different direction and f'ed it all up. All in all, if you were a fan of the series when it originally aired, I'd recommend buying this series.

One note of complaint: After the opening music was finished, there was an introduction which featured a Martian hand reaching over to grasp the Earth, followed by a line from that week's episode. They removed the hand, but left the quote. I felt that was unnecessary, as it signified what Earth was up against to some degree with the aliens trying gain control. And have you noticed that all the episode titles are Biblical references?

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I want both, there is none yet for the new Tripod, but the original Alien ship from the original can be found on ebay i believe they are all resin kits but they look good though. most fetch around $40.00 to $60.00 if i recall.

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I remember a disturbing scene where they had captured some cute blonde girl and had her bound and gagged to a platform of some sort, and one of the leader aliens told the lesser ones to "take her away for live dissection..."

I loved the series, and was sad that the Native American/Special Forces guy had to die...

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i don't know if there is any, but you could search for the alien "tripod" in half-life 2, i wonder if one copied other.

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The original Alien Tripod from War of the World has been around since the novel was released so it definetly had it first. as for half Life 2 it was probably just a similar idea. is there a toy for that one do you know?

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right now there is a huge 4 foot wide very well painted prop 1950 style martian war machine on ebay. (Edit) I found the link, i would love to own this but i have no room in my house :(

http://cgi.ebay.com/classic-War-of-the-Wor...1QQcmdZViewItem

chris

Edited by zeo-mare
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Wasn't......Dyson? from T2 in the show too? I think he was in a wheelchair? I'm also kinda curious to see this series again, it's been so long!

Chris

347096[/snapback]

The actor who played Drake in the series was named Philip Akin. Dyson from T2 was played by Joe Morton.

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Wasn't......Dyson? from T2 in the show too? I think he was in a wheelchair? I'm also kinda curious to see this series again, it's been so long!

Chris

347096[/snapback]

The actor who played Drake in the series was named Philip Akin. Dyson from T2 was played by Joe Morton.

347104[/snapback]

Don't worry, happens to me all the time. Token minority characters all look the same to me...

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Well you see he...........oh nevermind. I'd answer your question but then I'd get heat for spoiling the story, while simultaneously raping someone's childhood memories...

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The avatar will be my wife, if I can help it. I snag pictures of women all of the time, unfortunately she didn't have a name, just her...presence..

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Spoiler Alert! If you want to know the answer to the Drake question, just highlight.

At the end of the first episode for season 2, the new aliens known as the Morthren have exterminated the original aliens and are now plotting their take over. They want to gain access to the Cottage, so they kidnap Colonel Ironhorse and clone him. Using the clone, the Morthren manage to infiltrate the Cottage. Drake is killed by the clone before the real Ironhorse can stop him, but in a bid to save the lives of his other friends, Ironhorse kills himself therefore destroying the clone.

And there you have it.

Edit: Strictly speaking of course, the first episode of the new season is also the last time I watched the show as it disenfranchised me to see that Paramount thought more about its pocketbook than what the fans thought. Which is why season two tanked and the series was cancelled. And why I also stopped watching Star Trek.

Edited by Noriko Takaya
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