BBC War of the Worlds

oooh!
Fingers crossed it's not shite!

It's the BBC so I'm not going to hold my breath.

They kill the Martians with feels by getting everyone to cry at a certain frequency.

They finish it off with a mawkish memorial service. The creature chokes on its own vomit as it's presented with a Martian-Terran unity trophy.

Cunnus Maximus wrote:They kill the Martians with feels by getting everyone to cry at a certain frequency.

They finish it off with a mawkish memorial service. The creature chokes on its own vomit as it's presented with a Martian-Terran unity trophy.

Despite a rather generic BBC trailer, I'm looking forward to this, but am a little concerned that we'll inevitably see soapy/sentimental elements forced into Wells' narrative.  This version is adapted for TV by Peter Harness, a man who carries the taint of NuWho (he was responsible for the godawful 'Kill The Moon' plus a few other second-rate Capaldi episodes). The following quote by Harness doesn't fill me with confidence either: "The version of The War of the Worlds that I wanted to make is one that's faithful to the tone and the spirit of the book, but which also feels contemporary..."

Worrying...

As soon as I heard a NuWho writer was involved I completely check out.

Kaijuko wrote:Despite a rather generic BBC trailer, I'm looking forward to this, but am a little concerned that we'll inevitably see soapy/sentimental elements forced into Wells' narrative.  This version is adapted for TV by Pete Harness, a man who carries the taint of NuWho (he was responsible for the godawful 'Kill The Moon' plus a few other second-rate Capaldi episodes). The following quote by Harness doesn't fill me with confidence either: "The version of The War of the Worlds that I wanted to make is one that's faithful to the tone and the spirit of the book, but which also feels contemporary..."

Worrying...

Oh, fuck. If Harness is involved, it’s bound to be shit. And why do the BBC have this strange obsession with making everything ‘contemporary’, when all this does is ironically date your work considerably? I presume this will entail coerced mawkish soap storylines, as stated above, and forced contemporary political references and narratives which possess nought in the way of subtlety, nuance or intelligence.

Bernard Marx wrote:

Kaijuko wrote:Despite a rather generic BBC trailer, I'm looking forward to this, but am a little concerned that we'll inevitably see soapy/sentimental elements forced into Wells' narrative.  This version is adapted for TV by Pete Harness, a man who carries the taint of NuWho (he was responsible for the godawful 'Kill The Moon' plus a few other second-rate Capaldi episodes). The following quote by Harness doesn't fill me with confidence either: "The version of The War of the Worlds that I wanted to make is one that's faithful to the tone and the spirit of the book, but which also feels contemporary..."

Worrying...

Oh, fuck. If Harness is involved, it’s bound to be shit. And why do the BBC have this strange obsession with making everything ‘contemporary’, when all this does is ironically date your work considerably? I presume this will entail coerced mawkish soap storylines, as stated above, and forced contemporary political references and narratives which possess nought in the way of subtlety, nuance or intelligence.

The Mars Dragon-Egg, anyone? The Martian Invasion/Inversion? or maybe we'll see a clumsy Brexit metaphor? (perhaps the French and German governments offer military assistance in order to help us repel the Tripod invaders but we plucky Brits wish to stand-alone).  Expect the worst...(Damn, modern culture has made me awfully cynical).

It's the modern BBC. Difficult to not expect it to be complete shit.

I notice "the wife" seems to figure more prominently in this than in the book so i guess this adaptation will give us a unique female perspective of the story. Rafe Spall may end up very much a secondary character.

Despite the speculation i am looking forward to the premiere but am prepared for a Moffian level of shitness.

The chances of this one becoming more woke, are a million to one they said.....

Did you like it?

I havent seen it (as of 29.10.19). I don't think it has premiered in the UK yet but i may be wrong. I can't see it on the BBC I-Player anyway.

However, I have read that it has premiered in other countries such as Canada. Sad to say that the reviews on IMDB are not good. The average review score is currently 5.6 out of 10. One review dismissed it as a rather dull love story which is not faithfull to the book. Given the period setting i was originally hoping that it would closely follow the original story.

Shame. I will still watch it eventually but i am not as excited about it as i was previously.

I saw some foreign language clips of WOTW on YouTube recently and I have to say, I'm not impressed. Whenever I see a modern, fantasy-based BBC drama, I somehow associate it with the taint and stink of NuWho and want to immediately switch off.

Some reviews claim the whole production is more like an Edwardian romance/soap opera/melodrama, with just a bit of sci-fi added.
May skip this.

Is anyone really surprised?

iank wrote:Is anyone really surprised?

I guess not - but i am still dissapointed.

So, has anyone managed to watch the first episode?  While it's not quite as bad as I feared, its still not good enough to be considered a worthy adaptation of Wells' novel. There's some very wooden acting on show, the two main characters are pretty unlikeable, seemingly trapped in a dreary Edwardian soap opera and the special effects are not so special. Worst of all, there's no convincing sense of fear, dread or panic throughout the episode (essential, I would say, in any alien apocalypse story). For instance, when the Martian artefact opens on Horsell Common, (a large cylinder in the book, a black, floaty ball here) there's no real feeling of anxiety, alarm or terror from the onlookers - it's all so matter-of-fact, flat and plodding.

Another thing - when I watch stuff like Upstairs Downstairs or The Duchess Of Duke Street or any old telly shows set in the Victorian/Edwardian age, I'm drawn into the sense of period these programmes evoke and am (usually) convinced by the actors that this is how people from that particular age would look, act and speak.  Not so with George and Amy - everything about them screams the 21st Century - they act, talk and behave like a couple from 2019, who just happen to be wearing Edwardian clothes. Perhaps this is part of Harness' intention to make sure the drama 'feels contemporary'.

Never has the end of the world seemed so mundane.

They seem utterly incapable of evoking the past now, just like with New Who. Perhaps it's deliberate, perhaps they're just staggeringly incompetent.

I’ve yet to see it, and frankly have little interest whatsoever based on word of mouth, and the fact that Harness is writing it. The man seems incapable of creating intelligent or respectful science fiction, and his comments concerning Kill the Moon entirely affirm this.

The BBC have had a tendency of popularising 21st century tropes and archetypes for a long time, and not just in soap dramas- hence why this adaptation of Welles’ novel and NuWho evoke no semblance of either the past or any atmosphere of otherness, mystery or the surreal. It’s popularist soap drama under the guise of a science fiction brand- in a sense, they are indeed transforming the extraordinary into the ordinary, the unique into the conformist, and the exciting into the mundane.

i cąnt be arsed with anything bbc these days. even the shows evēryone raves about have been absolute shite filled with the ideological

no interest in this at all. id rather watçh the tom cruise outing.

Their sports coverage is pretty awful. Sky Sports > BBC Sport.

Saw the first episode and fell asleep during it.

Never got around to the rest.

Decided to read "Scarlet Traces" instead, the comic adaption of "War of the Worlds" was far better paced and enjoyable.

I saw this last week. A nice adventure story ruined by the decision to complicate it with a love story sub plot which held no interest for me whatsoever. In fact its not clear to me which was the main and which was the sub plot. The love story seemed to dominate the whole thing imho. As a result i felt the programme was painfully slow.

For me it was a wasted opportunity. A dramatisation of War of the Worlds in a period setting that i have been waiting to see for decades and they fucked it up. And to add insult to injury they sidelined Rafe Spall - who i personally think is a superb actor - and spent most of the airtime shoving the camera in Eleanor Tomlinson's face. She is pretty but not that much.

I'd probably be chopping off my nose to spite my face but its output like this that inclines me to favour privatising the BBC and forcing it to move towards commercials or subscriptions as a means of funding.