Jump to content
 

War of the Worlds - Oh dear...


Harlequin
 Share

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Stubby47 said:

 

I noted that 'Vienna Blood' (BBC2, Murder cases, an Austrian version of Sherlock Holmes with a hint of race purity) was also set at about the same time (1906), but there was no mention of Martians or signs of any red weed.

 

This comment was not appreciated by SWMBO...

 

Apart from the lack of Martians and red weed, is Vienna Blood any good? 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
22 minutes ago, sharris said:

 

Apart from the lack of Martians and red weed, is Vienna Blood any good? 

 

Yes, we think so. 2/3 shown so far,  each a separate case, with on going plots as well.

  • Like 1
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 25/11/2019 at 10:25, black05 said:

Last night we had an evacuation TO Dunkirk and the Royal Navy in the channel keeping the Martian Immigrants out of Europe.New Tory policy ? Where are the sand dune beaches in Kent opposite France, mainly cliffs down there.

 

I can’t imagine a plot involving the Royal Navy keeping out unwanted incomers from the French coastal towns, getting past the BBC’s editing conferences... 

 

on a more serious note, there was little understanding at the time, of any sort of environmental effects of industrialisation; and what little there was, was simply disregarded. Look at the wholesale infilling of Welsh valleys with slate waste, the heavy metal pollution attending the Cornish mining industry or the general devastation of the area still known as the “Black Country” 

 

Nor does Wells show the social conscience of Dickens, although he does tend to favour the same sort of deus ex machina endings - “Ann Veronica”, for example, reads like a serial from The Guardian, ending (pretty much) by saying “.. and they all lived happily ever after”. His reputation now rests very largely on four of his first first books, written within five years in his twenties (and “First Men In The Moon” is mostly known through a camp, low-budget 1960s film much repeated on dull mid-week afternoons) 

Edited by rockershovel
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Administrators
2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Vaguely drifting back towards our hobby ...

 

I may be in a distinct minority, but, for me, there is no need to update WotW to make it terrifying.   As many know, I pretty much live around the turn of the (Twentieth) century, so the Martian invasions seems very immediate to me! 

 

For those of us living in the times that should have been designed by Gerry Anderson, the big problem is that we know the Martian invasion didn't happen, and we also know a lot more about the planet so the red weed stuff is an issue.

 

Personally, I'd have gone with a faithful version of the book (with Jeff Wayne sound effects for the Martian gun) and just accepted the historical and scientific anomalies.

 

Mind you, I'd love the BBC to make accurate versions of the James Bond books as well. Maybe if I land the DG job next time.

  • Like 2
  • Agree 1
  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

But, before it did .....

 

(mit soulful music)

 

 

 

I do love watching those "Mitchell & Kenyon"-type films. :yes:

 

But at the back of my mind is always that nagging, awful thought, especially when young lads are on screen - knowing what their future probably held - "what happened to you in the Great War?"  :sad_mini:

Edited by F-UnitMad
Spelling.
  • Agree 4
  • Friendly/supportive 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Last year, or maybe 2017 there was a radio drama of WOTW. Think it was in several parts but my brain can't remember. However I really enjoyed that as, with so many other radio dramas, one has to use one's imagination to 'picture' the scenes.

Far better than this for dialogue and content. However I am an old fart who enjoys radio and hates small screen stuff.

A. O. Git. BO; VD.

 

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Mallard60022 said:

Last year, or maybe 2017 there was a radio drama of WOTW. Think it was in several parts but my brain can't remember. However I really enjoyed that as, with so many other radio dramas, one has to use one's imagination to 'picture' the scenes.

Far better than this for dialogue and content. However I am an old fart who enjoys radio and hates small screen stuff.

A. O. Git. BO; VD.

 

 

There is on on BBC Sounds at the moment, what seems to be a reading, rather than dramatisation, of the book.

 

I started listening to it at the weekend, having previously looked at an old map of Maybury. and suddenly, for one unfamiliar with Woking, the very detailed descriptions of the topography made sense and could be fully visualised.

 

And what further proof could you have that it All really Happened than the fact that  an ASDA stands on the site of the Oriental college?

 

589275933_WokingOrientalCollege00.jpg.61024b8a54fb8ed95df6deba67ab96c0.jpg

 

EDIT: A little more Here for those with too much time on their hands!

 

 

Edited by Edwardian
  • Like 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

For those of us living in the times that should have been designed by Gerry Anderson, the big problem is that we know the Martian invasion didn't happen, and we also know a lot more about the planet so the red weed stuff is an issue.

Yes, but we've presumably got a human-crewed mission to Mars to look forward to, in which case I'd be more bothered about our meeting the Mysterons... :P

  • Like 1
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Metr0Land said:

 

Not acceptable to the snowflake generation, even with pre-warning at the start of the show :rolleyes:

 

Speaking about pre-warnings, I'd recorded Night Mail off the Talking Pictures channel (81) the last time it was on, and they announced that they had given it the rating PG.  The film then came on, with the customary old film classification of U.  What has changed since the mid-30s to warrant an upgrade in classification?

 

Unless it was the terrible error of having a shot of a Crab pulling into Crewe with a passenger service early in the film, all the kerfuffle about holding the Mail four minutes for the late running Holyhead Mail, then showing the arrival of the said Holyhead Mail as the arrival of a Crab with a passenger service...  :scared:

 

 

  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Speaking about pre-warnings, I'd recorded Night Mail off the Talking Pictures channel (81) the last time it was on, and they announced that they had given it the rating PG.  The film then came on, with the customary old film classification of U.  What has changed since the mid-30s to warrant an upgrade in classification?

 

Unless it was the terrible error of having a shot of a Crab pulling into Crewe with a passenger service early in the film, all the kerfuffle about holding the Mail four minutes for the late running Holyhead Mail, then showing the arrival of the said Holyhead Mail as the arrival of a Crab with a passenger service...  :scared:

 

 

 

Given the number and variety of shadows which have people quaking in their boots these days, or at least exhorted to do so, I wouldn’t care to venture a guess.  

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
18 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

Mind you, I'd love the BBC to make accurate versions of the James Bond books as well. Maybe if I land the DG job next time.

 

They have done it on Radio 4 quite successfully. It was quite a shock to realise how long Bond has been around, when M speaks to the Prime Minister on the telephone and calls him Winston.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, started on the Pullman adaptation last night. I only managed 10 minutes or so before my daughter decided that we should spend the night in A&E (she's fine, thankfully), but already I could tell that this was a different class of adaptation.

 

I've not watched much Beeb in the last 2-3 years, and, I have to say His Dark Materials made me realise that I'd forgotten how good BBC drama can be.  It does WotW no favours to be screened at the same time; it is lamentable in comparison.

 

I'm probably going back to bed soon ...

  • Like 1
  • Agree 2
  • Friendly/supportive 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 20/11/2019 at 11:37, Harlequin said:

In "War of the Worlds" the producers have committed yet another calumny against railway history...

 

The story is set in the late Victorian or Edwardian era. When the hero travels up to London from Horsell Common in Surrey we see a Collett goods with "GWR" on the tender hauling 3 decidedly non-Edwardian coaches.

 

They can conjure up giant alien tripods with death rays but not a correct period train!

 

I think any producer would have a great problem summoning up a correct period train. The coaches are scattered all over the UK and it would be very expensive to get them together and they would be in all sorts of liveries.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
12 minutes ago, PenrithBeacon said:

I think any producer would have a great problem summoning up a correct period train. The coaches are scattered all over the UK and it would be very expensive to get them together and they would be in all sorts of liveries.

 

Er, yes, but my point was really about CGI: If they can summon up a horde of Martian tripods why not a CGI period train?

 

Obviously the quality of the production would have to justify the cost and as we can see now that this is pretty low quality stuff, unfortunately.

 

It's a shame because it could have been so much better.

 

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

I have to say His Dark Materials made me realise that I'd forgotten how good BBC drama can be.  It does WotW no favours to be screened at the same time; it is lamentable in comparison.

 

Of course, the production team of His Dark Materials has Philip Pullman peeking over their shoulders (I believe he's on the credits) so there's a bit of restraint over the flights of fancy of the scriptwriters, unlike WotW, where they can do what they like.  There ARE differenced between the series and the books, but rather than wholesale rewriting and invention, they appear in the main to be shuffling scenes about from one place to another to fill in backstory.

 

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-11-25/his-dark-materials-tv-series-compared-book-differences/

 

It would be nice to think that HG might have a chat with Charlie Dickens and arrange for the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future to visit the WotW Production team and scriptwriters this Christmas Eve!

Link to post
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

 

Er, yes, but my point was really about CGI: If they can summon up a horde of Martian tripods why not a CGI period train?

 

Obviously the quality of the production would have to justify the cost and as we can see now that this is pretty low quality stuff, unfortunately.

 

It's a shame because it could have been so much better.

 

 

Having seen the speed with which vinyl wrappings can now be used to change the livery on multiple units, I’d have thought there was a market for some enterprising FX company? Laser-scan the original coach, produce the required livery on the computer model, wrap, film, strip and return? 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

Why wrap when you can simply alter with CGI?

 

 

I believe it's significantly cheaper and faster?  (Admittedly I don't have figures but recall tv execs discussing the need to be very critical when authorising top quality CGI)

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Harlequin said:

 

Er, yes, but my point was really about CGI: If they can summon up a horde of Martian tripods why not a CGI period train?

 

Obviously the quality of the production would have to justify the cost and as we can see now that this is pretty low quality stuff, unfortunately.

 

It's a shame because it could have been so much better.

 

I would have though the CGI would be cheaper than the research. A Martian tripod can just be made up.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Administrators
2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Having seen the speed with which vinyl wrappings can now be used to change the livery on multiple units, I’d have thought there was a market for some enterprising FX company? Laser-scan the original coach, produce the required livery on the computer model, wrap, film, strip and return? 

 

I'm looking forward to the comments on here when that happens. I might say that all coaches look like Mk1's but suspect that others may be a bit picky when BR coaches are covered with sticky-backed plastic to represent something pre-grouping. On the other hand the "Hornby War of the Worlds" set would only be a paint job away.

  • Like 2
  • Funny 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...