Review for War of the Worlds: The Final Season Boxset

Introduction

When I was a lot younger, I loved watching War of the Worlds on late night television. For a sci-fi fan that at that point was only appeased by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Quantum Leap, it made for a welcome change. The thing is that it was Season 1 that I loved. For Season 2, the world went all post-apocalyptic, the cast changed, and so did the aliens. In fact, the whole premise of first season was dropped, as were the original creators, and it felt as if the series got a complete reboot. I was loyal to that first season, and dismissed the reboot out of hand, watching only a few episodes of its darker vision before trying to forget it even existed. Earlier this year, I let my nostalgia loose, and decided to revisit the first series for its UK DVD debut. I found it had aged badly, very much a product of its time. I’ve already thrown away the nostalgia goggles now that Season 2 arrives for review. Instead I’m hoping that I’ll have a reversal of opinion, that now after all this time, I may find that I enjoy season 2 more, whereas originally it was the first season that I preferred.


When we last left War of the Worlds, the battle against the aliens had reached a fever pitch. The aliens from the 1953 invasion had been resurrected by radiation, and now were trying to take over the world by more insidious means. But it looked like the Blackwood Project, the few scientists and military personnel in the know led by Harrison Blackwood, had made a crucial ally in the battle against the aliens. Well you can throw all that information away, as at the start of the second season, the aliens have been uncharacteristically quiescent, resulting in no little complacency from Earth’s erstwhile defenders. The fact that civilisation has collapsed in the meantime through rioting and a mysterious societal malady doesn’t help. The truth of the matter is that a second invasion has begun, with a new race of aliens arriving on Earth to colonise, and this alien invasion is just as insidious as the first, cloning subservient and loyal humans instead of just snatching their bodies. Their first move is to inflict an almost fatal blow to the Blackwood project. The survivors escape and join up with former soldier and freedom fighter John Kincaid, and once again resume the War of the Worlds.


The final twenty episodes of War of the Worlds are presented here across 5 discs by Revelation Films.

Disc 1
1. The Second Wave
2. No Direction Home
3. Doomsday
4. Terminal Rock

Disc 2
5. Breeding Ground
6. Seft of Emun
7. Loving the Alien
8. Night Moves


Disc 3
9. Synthetic Love
10. The Defector
11. Time to Reap
12. The Pied Piper

Disc 4
13. The Deadliest Disease
14. Path of Lies
15. Candle in the Night
16. Video Messiah

Disc 5
17. Totally Real
18. Max
19. The True Believer
20. The Obelisk

Picture

There’s not a lot of difference between this and the first series, with a 4:3 regular transfer which is very much of their era. Late eighties US television was mostly distributed on video, and the softness of the image, coupled with the NTSC-PAL standards conversion that we have here, results in an image quality that is little better than the current satellite broadcast of the show available on the Horror Channel. It’s watchable for fans of the series, but nothing to write home about. On a plus note, the colour bleed and smearing evident in the first season of the show is greatly diminished here, with skin tones at least appearing a little more natural.

Sound

The audio is DD 2.0 English, which is good enough for the most part. There is the odd moment of hiss, indicative of the tape source, but by and large the dialogue is clear throughout, which excuses the lack of subtitles up to a point. War of the Worlds comes from an era where the sci-fi music of choice was synthesised, and I’m surprised to hear just how badly it has dated.

Extras

Five discs come with animated menus with episode select screens. The only on-disc extras worth mentioning are the episode synopses accessible from a separate menu screen, two to a page. Since I received only the check discs, I cannot comment on what the packaging may be like.

Conclusion

I was right to expect Season 2 to have aged better. It turns out that twenty years on, I really do prefer this second season to the first, and I’m glad that I let my arm be twisted into reviewing it. The irony of it is that all those things that made me dislike it enough to drop it back in 1990, are still valid criticisms today, but in some way go a long way in actually making this show more palatable. The best part of it is that Season 2 actually concludes the story. It’s not a case of a show leaving a cliff-hanger after cancellation, hoping to get a last minute reprieve. The final episode of War of the Worlds Season 2 is a great way to underline the series, and will leave you satisfied.


But you have to understand that the second series may as well be a reboot, and for completely inexplicable reasons. I fell in love with the aliens of the movie, and their golden manta-ray space ships, and it was this that attracted me to the first series. At the start of the second series, a second wave of different aliens arrive, kill off the first aliens (who were apparently their underlings), and establish an invasion of their own. Gone are the tripod fingers, the space ships, and the year of continuity and back-story that had been developed. We’re starting again from scratch, only these aliens are no longer body snatchers, but body cloners. They don’t suffer from radiation burns, and instead of worshipping Life Immortal, they bow down to the Eternal instead, a one eyed, giant glowing jellyfish alien. It’s still practically the same set up though, and the only reason I can see for such a change is that they try a couple of storylines from the first series again, but this time with more dramatic impact.


As well as getting rid of the first aliens, they also get rid of half of the main cast, with an attack on the headquarters that leaves the survivors homeless and on the run. I don’t know about you, but while Norton was always something of an exposition monkey, hardnosed Paul Ironhorse eventually did grow on me by the end of the first season. Their loss does leave a gap in the cast, one which is soon filled quite ably by John Kincaid, maverick mercenary as played by the future Highlander, Adrian Paul. But it still is an indication of how the first season was practically culled by the studio execs. To that end, you’ll also see continuity take a battering as the season progresses, with the first alien wave’s status as underlings completely forgotten by the end of the second season, as if they had never existed, and the second season’s Morthren are retroactively installed as the perpetrators of the 1953 invasion. Also totally forgotten is Harrison Blackwood’s back story as a pacifist free-thinker. Gimmicks like the tuning fork and the yoga positions are forgotten, and here he’s just as gung ho as anyone else, blasting away with a hand cannon at any passing alien.


The final thing is the post-apocalyptic breakdown of society. It’s never explained why, but society and the economy have just collapsed. It’s like the great depression all over again, and the resulting lawlessness and scarcity of essentials makes just living in the city a whole other challenge. It’s visually and thematically more interesting, and adds a layer or two to the story. Of course back in the late eighties, pointing a camera at any rundown area of an American city would offer cheap locations, although continuity keeps being flubbed in wider shots that show more affluent areas in the background. Fans of the first season will hate all this. I hated it when I first saw it, but this second time around, the first time for many of these episodes; I watched the show with a more open mind.


While it is very much a product of its time, exhibiting some of the more twee excesses of late eighties genre television, it still ditches much of the goofiness that diminished the first series. Season 2 has a better balance between frivolity and drama. Also, while continuity between seasons goes all to pot, the second season has a much stronger internal continuity, and you can see an arc developing across its twenty episodes. The second wave of aliens, the Morthren are given human faces in the show, without prostheses or radiation burn make-up, and that makes them much easier to relate to. There’s a triumvirate of aliens, Malzor, Mana and Ardix who put a, for want of a better word, human face on the invasion, and understanding their motives becomes a lot easier. Later on, more amenable alien characters are introduced, and once again, making them human in appearance gives them a greater dramatic potential, although it’s a shame that John Colicos didn’t reprise his role from the first season.


The post-collapse society also gives the show a layer of satire, much in the way of Robocop, with each episode having its little dig at eighties America. It turns out that medical care minus insurance was just as perilous twenty years ago as it is today, and with gamblers betting on VR blood sports, security firms running protection rackets, legalised drugs, and police forces turned into bounty killers, there are plenty of sly winks to the audience to appreciate. The second series of War of the Worlds has much greater depth to it than the first, and that gives it a longevity that still makes it relevant today.


Best of all is that the second series makes much better use of its characters. The first series was a simple case of ‘weird alien plan of the week’ that had to be defeated by the heroes. On that level it was little more than a high class Power Rangers clone. The second season has its ongoing continuity, but it also has a greater focus on its characters. The most obvious to benefit from this is Debi McCullough. She was Suzanne’s daughter, who got to be part of the team in the first season because her mother was part of the team, but was conveniently left behind at base while the adults did all the alien chasing. She hardly figured at all in the show. In the second series, she’s a much greater part of the story, and goes on a more interesting emotional journey following the initial defeat at the mansion, first hiding out under the city, and then trying to salvage a normal life while the battle with the aliens goes on. John Kincaid is also an interesting addition, more of a renegade mercenary than career military, he’s not as disciplined or staid as Ironhorse was, and he’s more of a freedom fighter. He’s still tough as nails, but he also has a vulnerability that is appealing, and makes him a more dimensioned character. Suzanne’s role as mother is more emphasised in the season, as the relationship between her and Debi is explored, and ditching the gimmicks also makes Harrison Blackwood a more subtle character. As the season progresses, other characters are introduced and developed over the episodes as well.


War of the Worlds is still episodic for its second season, and some episodes are better than others. There is still that element of ‘alien plan of the week’ which plays a part in the show, but it’s no longer the sole element. It’s those episodes which have dated the most that stick out now, and VR headsets, and motivational speakers really ought to stay back in the eighties where they belong. The aliens also try and use rock and roll to take over the world (one of those stories that was given another try after the first season), which is dated by its music. But by and large there is a lot more to appreciate about this second season of War of the Worlds, and the strong episodes by far outweigh the weaker ones. If like me you dismissed this second season because it discarded so much that was unique about the first season, then you really ought to give it another chance, as so much that was unique about the first season turned out to be so naff, twenty years later.