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The War of the Worlds television series ran for two seasons, from October of 1988 to May of 1990. It was an extension of the 1953 War of the Worlds movie.
Premise
Rather than being outright killed by germs at the end of the original War of the Worlds, the aliens had actually all slipped into a state of suspended animation. Their bodies were stored away in toxic waste drums and shipped away to various disposal sites (at least two known to exist in the U.S.), and a widespread government cover-up combined with a condition dubbed "selective-amnesia" convinced most people that the invasion had never happened.
Since the concept of vastly intelligent life on Mars has lost its plausibility by the time of the series, the aliens were revealed to actually be from Mor-Tax - a garden planet 40 light-years away in the Taurus constellation orbiting a dying sun.
35 years later, in 1988 (modern day when the series began), the ironically named terrorist group The People's Liberation Party accidentally irradiate the drums containing an alien while raiding dumpsite Fort Jericho. The radiation destroys the bacteria that were keeping the aliens unconscious. Once free, the aliens take possession of the bodies of the six that overran the site. From there they use a strew human bodies and crudely adapted earth technology to find means of approriating the planet both in wiping out the plague that is humanity and delevoping a permanent means to inoculate themselves against the planet's indigenous bacterium. Their attempt to successfully make Earth into their new homeworld is imperative for in roughly five years, 3 million colonists from Mor-Tax are expected to arrive.
An eclectic group was formed by the government to deal with the new alien threat, and the series followed their missions and adventures (and, often, failures) in fighting the aliens. The Blackwood Team, named after its leading member, consisted of:
- Harrison Blackwood (played by Jared Martin) - Astrophysicist whose parents were killed in the war, and then adopted by Dr. Clayton Forrester who was a major witness to the aliens' inital invasion.
- Suzanne McCullough (played by Lynda Mason Green) - Microbiologist and single mother.
- Lt. Col. Paul Ironhorse (played by Richard Chaves) - Native American military man.
- Norton Drake (played by Philip Akin) - A wheelchair-bound computer genius.
First Season Synopsis
Along with the other sci-fi/horror series that ran in syndication in the late 1980s (such as Friday the 13th: The Series and Freddy's Nightmares, many of which were produced by Hometown Studios), War of the Worlds constantly pushed the "acceptable content" envelope, regularly featuring violence on par with the R-rated horror movies of the time. Gore was commonplace in the first season (dead aliens and their tossed away hosts' bodies melted in a grotesque puddle), and the super-strong Mor-Taxans had no compunctions about mutilating any poor schlep who got in their way. One of their trademark methods of murder would be gouged out eyes courtesy of the third arm that would often burst out from their chest.
During the first season, the aliens were lead by a triad known as the Advocacy. They were a part of their society's ruling class, overseeing the invasion force on earth while their leaders, the invisible and never heard Council, remained back on Mor-Tax. Outfitted throughout most of the season in contamination suits that pumped coolant to counteract the killing heat of the radiation they needed, they stayed in their base of operation: a cavern in the Nevada desert, which was perfect due to the ambient radiation from the atomic bomb tests. They rarely went into battle because without them, the lower classes would have no guidance and be useless.
Their goal is to pick up where they left off in 1953, by wiping out humanity. For the aliens' hatred of human beings goes beyond simple prejudice. Having come from a planet that can be compared to the Garden of Eden based on description, the aliens see that humans do nothing but snuff it out. Without them, they can help bring out the vegetation, and better replicate the conditions of their world. To accomplish this, they seek out weapons (some of which is their own left behind), help amass their army, engage in filtration, and all sorts of acts of warfare. But to make things more problematic, they also must find immunity against the germs that befell them in '53.
If the war between humanity and the aliens wasn't enough, the season also dropped other anomalies into the mix:
- Quinn - an alien trapped in a human host since the invasion of '53, mysteriously immune to bacteria, and ready to play both of the major warring factions against each other for his own favour.
- The Qar'To - an unknown alien race represented by a synth sent to Earth, having deadly reasons for wanting the aliens dead and humanity preserved.
- Project 9 - a government organization much like the Blackwood Project, but they have a shadowy hand in alien research.
Also inserted for the Blackwood Team's side was Sylvia Van Buren, a colleague of Dr. Forrester in the years following the war who had developed a strange ability to sense the aliens and even often make predictions with a fairly accurate rate. And while the aliens had science on their sides, the supernatural elements wielded by Joseph Lonetree (whose presence was seemingly foreshadowed in the first episode) seems to be something that the aliens cannot defeat. The team even made friends with the remaining Grover's Mill militia of 1938 who had their own run in with the aliens, not once but twice.
A recurring element with the aliens was the number 3. An extention from the film, when it came to the aliens, just about everything had some root in the number three - from their caste system (Ruling Class, Soldiers, and Scientists) to their body (three arms) to their planet (their planet is the third from the sun), weaponary (in "The Resurrection", they make bolas with three weighted ends), and even their mating ritual was every nine years. The appearance of the number in some form (sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle) is sprinkled throughout the season in reference to the aliens.
The episodes all had (often ironic) Biblical titles, such "The Walls of Jericho", "To Heal the Leper", and "Among the Philistines".
"To Life Immortal" ("do na decatae" as it would be said phonically), a phrase by which the aliens seemed to sum up their belief system, became a hallmark of the series as it was exchanged between aliens or cried before one would take its own life in honour, and became a well-deserved catchphrase for fans.
Second Season Synopsis
Although the ratings for the first season were among the highest Paramount had of its syndicated series that year, they still saw fit to replace the creative force of Season 1 with Frank Mancuso Jr. (who was also busy producing Friday the 13th: The Series, which, interestingly enough, was actually rated just behind the first season of this show), who admitted that he never really watched many of the episodes of the first season. This combined with different writers made for a season that was terribly inconsistent with the first. Just about every detail of the first season was either changed completely or just deleted altogether (such as the Biblical reference and black humour). Even the show's name underwent change as it was now fully titled "War of the Worlds: The Second Invasion".
All the changes between seasons are far too numerous. First, the modern day setting was now shifted to a not-too-distant future of "Almost Tomorrow" where the world had since spiraled into a dismal state with its economy, environment, and government all beaten down. Of the few characters that returned for the second season, most were killed off in the season premiere. The two saddest demises were that of fan favourites Norton and Ironhorse. Also sent to their death were the aliens of the first season. The Advocacy and their lot (all incorrectly referred to as soldiers) were sent to execution by a new race of aliens, the Morthren. Despite the fact that their planet is clearly stated to be Morthrai, they are still inexplicably tied to the first season aliens whose planet was named Mor-Tax. Planet name change was but one aspect altered with the aliens. Virtually much of what made up personality traits of the Mor-Tax race were nonexistent with the Morthren - 3 seemed to be nothing special to them and "To Life Immortal" was never uttered. In fact, their belief system centred on a strange deity called the Eternal Spirit of Morthrai (simply called "the Eternal" throughout the season), which seemed to erase the existence of the Council as their leader. Many other problems with the continuity between seasons only grew as the season went along as many things with the aliens' backstory kept changing, each time distancing from facts not only established in the first season and film, but even those rooted in the H.G. Wells novel (some elements of which the first season had tied into its mythology). These drastic changes were never even explained, even when the show had a conclusive finale.
Whereas bacteria and radiation were constant problems for the Mor-Tax, the Morthren had suddenly found a cure-all means for this by transmutating into human bodies, a process that was only noted in the first episode, but never explained in any detail. With this, they forwent the ability to possess human bodies, retaining only one human body. Their equivalent of body-swapping was a cloning machine that would make exact copies of someone, only differing that the duplicates would be loyal to the Morthren cause and physically tied to its original. Ironically, as sores were the telltale signs of alien possession in the first season, a lack of scars or any physical flaw was a telltale sign of a clone as the Morthren were fixated with perfection. While the Eternal is their god, the Morthren are led by Malzor (played by Denis Forest, who had a large part in the Season 1 episode "Vengeance is Mine"). Just under him was the scientist Mana (Catherine Disher, whose husband also played a major role in a Season 1 episode) with Ardix (Julian Richings who appeared briefly in "He Feedeth Among the Lillies") as her assistant.
Meanwhile, with General Wilson missing, the Cottage destroyed, and two team members lost in battle, the remnants of the team, with mercenary John Kincaid (Adrian Paul), seek shelter. They take up base in an underground hideout in the sewers. And the aliens weren't the only characters to change. Harrison seemed to have lost touch with his kooky nature (yoga positions, tuning forks, etc.), and for a man who turned down every offer of a gun from Ironhorse, he now carries one with no second thought. Meanwhile, Suzanne, a microbiologist, suddenly seemed incapable of even baking a simple cake with her daughter Debi (Rachel Blanchard) slowly starting to become the star of the series. The show's theme of warfare between two races, and all the prejudice that went with it, had been taken over by a theme of a bleak life on a desolate world.
While the radical changes were often claimed to be for the better of the show, many fans were turned off for many reasons. Ultimately, the ratings were so poor that the series had to wrap things up just two episodes shy of a full season.
Series End
The finale is set in the last episode of the second season. The young alien boy named Ceeto runs away, taking an important Obelisk with it. With the Blackwood group with him, they watch as it reveals the truth: after the scientific team sent on their research mission (never mind the fact that early episodes made evident that the events of '53 was an invasion effort) are killed, Malzor, whose mate was on the exedition, kills their leader, and makes every effort to wage a war against humanity as an act of revenge. (This gives way to the fact that this is the first and only invasion made by the Morthren, so one can't help but note the confliction of this with the subtitle for the season). In doing so, he has caused the planet to be set for self-destruction. This is then shown to Mana who shows it to the Morthren just as Malzor is ready to launch an all-out massacre. After a cornered Malzor kills Ceeto, Debi shoots Mazlor dead. With this, the Morthren call off the war, and our heroes walk out into a suddenly sunny world.
Loose Ends
The first season's finale, "The Angel of Death", introduces a synth from the planet Qar'To (which is in the same system as Mor-Tax) named Q'Tara who arrives on Earth and begins killing aliens right and left in effort of finding the Advocacy, without whom the aliens would be lost and helpless. The Blackwood Team is happy to have such a powerful ally (who can shoot "atomic bullets" and can easily detect aliens) on their side who seems to be fighting the same enemy. In fact, after the aliens launch a surprise attack on them all, Q'Tara even goes the extra mile to heal the fatally wounded team members. Although she has been doing good so far, she needs to bring in reinforcements. Just as she's prepared to leave, she makes a last report in a strange native language (subtitled), which states that her mission is incomplete and that humanity as a future food source is still in danger.
This set-up in this cliffhanger combined with the existence of the rogue alien Quinn vying for his own global dominance and millions of more aliens with their leaders making the exodus to Earth in such a short strand of years made the future of the show promise nothing but interest with so many friends and foes battling for the planet. Sadly, all this potential died in the aptly titled Season 1 finale, as they were never picked up and carried into the second season.
Another element that was being built was the issue of why no one remembers the invasion of '53 (something that is the centre of the show's criticism). Many hints of the true explanation were dropped in many episodes, but this was something that Season 2 never even acknowledged, much less answered.
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