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| In their hands? WAR OF THE WORLDS Season Two arrives on UK DVD. Images: CBS DVD/REVELATION FILMS. |
Famous last words spoken by Dr. Harrison Blackwood, scientist and alien fighter, played by Jared Martin, at the end of the first audience successful season of the hit PARAMOUNT TV series of the late eighties: WAR OF THE WORLDS, a re-imagining/continuance of the classic novel of 1898 charting the invasion of Earth by a fleet of Martians in their unstoppable war machines, written by that literary genius H. G. Wells. Their first major battle won against an en masse hidden enemy (having removed themselves from their radiation soaked Mojave desert base and the continued planning of terrorist-style atrocities against Humanity), thanks to the help of another alien, and an enemy of the Martian (Mor-Tax) invaders, the killing machine synthetic android female Q'Tara (Elaine Giftos), Harrison and this Project Blackwood team unfortunately failed to recognise an even greater enemy on the horizon ready to hamper, then ruin, their continued plans to strike back against the invaders: namely their own creators at PARAMOUNT TELEVISION!
Hiring a new producer to oversee the new second season of WAR, the company, thinking the show needed some tinkering to entice further new audiences, hired Frank Mancuso, Jr. as the new series producer, on the strength of his success for the company with another of their weekly series then in syndication/production: the horror/anthology FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES. Wanting to inject new blood and make a mark, as all incoming producers like to do, Mancuso made the big mistake of completely and unnecessarily revamping the shows format in its entirety, abandoning any continuity, removing some of its now familiar motifs, and basically hurting the show just when the series had built up a strong format, was hitting its creative stride and was liked by audiences. Gone would be the series original aliens, the Mor-Tax, wiped out and replaced by a new race: the more humanoid and emotionally complex Morthren. Gone was the scientific/military resistance force that was the Blackwood Project, its base of operations blown to smithereens at the end of the new series opening episode, with its small but dedicated team scattered across an America now at the point of meltdown, its resources starved and its society/people desperate to survive in a kind of post-apocalyptic nightmare environment now ripe for out of this world takeover. But worst of all for the series fans was the killing off of two of the shows main characters: the wheelchair bound electronic genius Norton Drake, played with enthusiasm by Phil Akin, and, even worse, the shows most popular character, the alien butt-kicking Lt. Colonel Paul Ironhorse, as played with conservative military determination, but also humanity, by Richard Chaves. Though given a strong and memorable exit, Chaves forced exit from the series was ultimately Mancuso's biggest mistake, replacing him with a less interesting character/actor, British born Adrian Paul, later to become internationally known as the star of the HIGHLANDER TV series, as new action hero/lead character, and an ex-member of Ironhorse's Delta Squad now turned mercenary, John Kincaid. In honour of his fallen former commander, Kincaid soon aides our remaining heroes (Martin as Blackwood, Lynda Mason Green as Suzanne McCullough and Rachel Blanchard as her daughter, Debi) as they now go on the run across America and try to devise a way of surviving the new fate that has befallen them all...
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| New Morthren aliens Mana (Catherine Disher) and Malzor (Denis Forest) watch our heroes: Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin), John Kincaid (Adrian Paul), Suzanne McCullough (Lynda Mason Green) and Debi (Rachel Blanchard). |
Title sequence: War of the worlds season 2 opening - YouTube
Premiering in 1989 , the new syndicated series of WAR, despite much publicity and hype of the time regarding its new look, would split the audience fan base right down the middle. Many people out there liked the second season and its new format- now completely removed from what had been seen before- as well as it's better overall production values. But there were many that didn't-particularly the die-hards that loved the first season and its potent and enjoyable mix of horror/sci-fi and action, the story's re-imagining, and the way it also tried to maintain continuity with both Wells novel and the classic George Pal 1953 movie. Plus there were those many fans and general audience members mourning the loss of Colonel Ironhorse...
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| Lt. Colonel Paul Ironhorse (Richard Chaves) is gone but not forgotten by the series viewers. |
Now, with the passage of time, viewers old and new can make their own mind up on this controversial season of 20 episodes, as Season Two of WAR OF THE WORLDS finally gets a well-deserved five disc set UK DVD release-after years in limbo- from CBS DVD/REVELATION FILMS later this month (August 27th), and transferred in the best available picture and sound quality possible- a positive upgrade from its recent repeat run on the UK's HORROR CHANNEL.
Here's a KOOL TV look at some of Year Two's more notable episodes...
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| The Mor-Tax are defeated in the controversial opening episode The Second Wave. |
THE SECOND WAVE (SEASON OPENER)
Earth is on the brink of ecological and society collapse, and the heroes of the Blackwood Project come under attack from a new group of arriving alien invaders, the Morthren. Quickly wiping out the remaining Mor-Tax and their advocacy leaders, the new kids on the extraterrestrial block capture Colonel Ironhorse and send a duplicate to eliminate his compatriots. But they haven't reckoned on the emergence of mercenary John Kincaid (Adrian Paul), or the dying Ironhorse's last vestiges of courage and humanity in fighting back...
A sold, well-made, if often gloomy, series opener, with strong production values and a generally well paced structure. But it's a huge format transition for just one episode! Things happen too quickly, and the loss of Ironhorse, whose duplicate kills the also missed Norton Drake (Phil Akin), is a real blow for the series.
NO DIRECTION HOME
Their cottage destroyed, our on the road heroes try to reorganise themselves and find a new base of operations as the turmoil around them continues to intensify. The aliens, too, solidify their new plans for Earth and it's population.
BREEDING GROUND
Trying to find some desperately needed medication, Harrison discovers a hospital where the aliens plan to use Humans as incubators for their brood.
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| Laura Press plays Harrison's alien love in Seft of Emun. |
SEFT OF EMUN
Harrison falls in love. Unfortunately, it's with one of the aliens! Can their blossoming friendship help bring peace and love between Human and Morthren?
NIGHT MOVES
Country matters for Suzanne as she goes all alien-fighter having to defend her mothers farmstead from Morthren aggressors. Think the usual THE A-TEAM episode, but with monsters!
SYNTHETIC LOVE
Love is not the drug, as the aliens create a new pharmaceutical to try and control the Human condition and it's violent ways. There may be trouble ahead...
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| Harrison and Kincaid prepare for battle. |
THE DEFECTOR
There's always one, as Harrison and the gang find out when a friendly Morthren tries to help them stop a takeover of the Earth's remaining computer systems.
THE DEADLIEST DISEASE
The common cold remains incurable to Mankind, and it's a pain! So, it's Sod's Law that, when the aliens get infected with something far worse, only the Human government actually has the cure!
MAX
Kincaid discovers that his dead brother is now alive, well and full of beans. But have the aliens brought him back to life for a new and deadly purpose?
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| The end in sight for our heroes? |
THE OBELISK (SERIES FINALE)
In the series reasonably satisfying, if slightly head-spinning finale, which also pretty much changes all of the previously established continuity of both series of WAR OF THE WORLDS, more is discovered about the Morthren and their secrets linked to the original 1953 invasion of Earth. Meanwhile, its a last stand for our heroes to stop the aliens from releasing a deadly plague of alien spores.
Season One of WAR OF THE WORLDS is also available on DVD from CBS/REVELATION FILMS.
Seft of Emun wasn't Morthren. She was from a different world.
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