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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Farquhar" data-source="post: 9715204" data-attributes="member: 6906155">Some random thoughts on the War of the Worlds novel, and the many adaptations:The main theme of the novel is invasion by technologically superior aliens. This is generally considered to be an anti-colonialist allegory. It has become a standard science fiction plot, but it will be interesting to compare it to the upcoming Chief of War, and see if it tells a similar story without allegory.The aliens in WotW are presented as so far above and alien that I consider it to be the original cosmic horror novel. Their actual physical appearance is made to seem scary, but just looks silly in visual media. I don't think there has ever been a novel-faithful adaptation: Large shapeless grey blobs with tentacles. I think Wells just meant this to sound alien and unpleasant, but its interesting comparing it with recent research on intelligence in octopus. If sentient tool using life were to emerge in an aquatic environment, it could well look like this. Several moons in the outer solar system have oceans under an ice surface, what if the aliens came from there, rather than Mars? Then the would want to colonise the oceans, that make up over two thirds of the Earth's surface. This novel has already been written, the sadly under-adapted The Kraken Wakes, by John Wyndham. These aliens largely ignore the humans until they start to become a nuisance.The towering tripod war machines are an iconic image, but are very impractical. A tripod is a very stable structure, but as soon as it lifts a leg to walk it is going to topple over. Star Wars followed nature and made it's walkers bipeds and quadrupeds.The novel is told from the point of view of an unnamed journalist, and is really a series of evocatively described vignettes. The narrator is just an observer, the novel does not have a protagonist as such. Another factor which makes it difficult to adapt faithfully to Film or TV, although it works very well on radio.The weird thing about adaptations is that films that don't use the title, such as Independence Day often seem to stick more closely to the plot than those that don't, such as the one in the OP, and the Tom Cruise film. I have particular issues with that one. Why do the aliens come from underground? How did they get there? Are they supposed to be allegorical demons from Hell? Why do they eat humans? There is more meat on a cow. If they can eat terrestrial life, why do the want to terraform the Earth to be like their homeworld? This is an even bigger issue in the 2019 TV version, which leans heavily into the transformation of the Earth, whilst also having the aliens catching the disease that kills them come from them chowing down on sick humans. Also, the CGI aliens look terrible.It's curious that one of my favourite adaptations of WotW was Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV version). This probably gives the invaders the doppiest motivation of all: drain the Iron core from the Earth and use the hollow planet as a mobile battlestation. But it used London locations damaged in the Blitz, and was made by people who had lived through it.</blockquote>

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