Nerds That Geek TV Rewind: 'War of the Worlds'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

One of the fondest memories I have of my childhood, was getting the opportunity to listen to Orson Welles' radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in its entirety on vinyl. The fact that so many people found themselves terrorized by this simple broadcast and the fact that it has such lasting power fascinated me and does to this day, but when I was younger, the powerful societal  implications were a touch lost on me.

Instead my initial response was curious obsession. I had to know more about this world, and this incredible story and the notion that aliens could invade our world fired up my imagination like no other and of course, getting to hear the radio show eventually led to watching the incredible movie and man, did I rent that thing weekend after weekend. So it goes without saying that when a sequel to the movie was announced by way of a weekly television series, I was a tad bit excited.  

The night the show arrived on the air, my little brother and I were glued to the television set as the martians returned and man was it incredible. It turns out that after the original story, the martians didn't die, they slipped into a sickly coma and were sealed in canisters and hidden away. But they  awakened from their slumber ready to resurrect their plans to conquer mankind and it would fall to a special task of force of scientists and soldiers to make sure that those evil plans were never successful.

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It was an awesome concept, and well we were certainly hooked and I honestly liked the changes that were made to the aliens. They were no longer martians, they were from a planet called Mor-Tax which quite frankly only enriched the story since they were faceless invaders in the original tale, and this little twist gave them depth and new purpose. I was also a big fan of the fact that they could now possess human beings and use their flesh to blend in. It was a great touch and a sound homage to science fiction and horror films of the fifties.

But truthfully it was just awesome to see the aliens of yesteryear in an era of modern special effects.  Of course those look dated today but to see those iconic war ships fly again in the pilot episode was the stuff of dreams. Not to mention the cast was fun to watch and week in and week out the stories were pretty interesting. My brother and I made a point to be in front of our family television set every single week when it was time for the show to air and it seemed like the sky was the limit for this series.  

But the good times would not last.  While the first season put together some lovely twists and turns that should have carried into season two...the second season was well...weird. Everything changed.  Suddenly the world was this dark and disturbing place where war was everywhere and heck in the season two premiere a ton of the principle cast was killed off. The Mor-Taxians were quickly replaced by a new enemy...it was just ugly, in fact I've left you with some video samples so you can see the difference, and while season two left us with a lot of unresolved issues, for a time this was some kick ass science fiction and it's a shame it took such a wild turn for no good reason.  ​

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