War of the Worlds - Oh dear...

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, didcot said:

I think this tripod is more in keeping with the era!!! 

 

For Earthlings, yes.

 

But a Manfrotto 055 with an adjustable head looks SOOOO Martian!

 

(Although my Manfrotto with its MPP MkVII atop looks even more Martian, and weighs a ton too...)

 

42 minutes ago, 81C said:

Some members have nothing better to do than moan about a Telly program how sad.

 

Keeps us off the streets, I suppose....   

 

[NIK]

Hi,

 

The chances of an accurate train appearing on TV or film is a million to one they say.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[Compound2632]

9 minutes ago, Hroth said:

But a Manfrotto 055 with an adjustable head looks SOOOO Martian!

 

 

We saw quite a number of Surreyites, male and female, being frotto'd, so I'd worry about that. 

[Georgeconna]

I enjoyed and I when I saw the train I thought what what a lovely shot. IT Did not cross my mind about period etc, Just how evocative it looked along the riverside..

[Mallard60022]

8 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

We saw quite a number of Surreyites, male and female, being frotto'd, so I'd worry about that. 

If that had happened in South Yorkshire nobody would have batted an eyepiece.

Nerd bit...… Blubell footage might have been a little nearer to 'home' as it is at least next door to Surrey and not far from Woking as the Tripods stride. I suspect the production team give searching for stuff like this to newbies that mostly know nuffink about anything earlier than 1990.

[Steamport Southport]

43 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

 

Its not moaning - it’s called letting the rest of us know whether it’s worth watching.

 

I would have been interested in watching this series had it been accurate to the book - but as it’s not I won’t waste my time.

 

That's what I was hoping for as we've had plenty of revisionist versions over the years. When I saw they had added new characters "to better represent modern Britain" I was out....

 

If you want to represent modern Britain then set it in modern Britain.

 

 

 

Jason

[Harlequin]

I suggest we set up a Period Railway Advisory Team Service to advise TV and film production companies.

 

They would submit a request to the PRATS and we'd be able to get back to them within a mere say, two or three years, after we'd argued out exactly what the coach bogies should look like and other such esoteric details.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Harlequin

[JohnR]

36 minutes ago, NIK said:

Hi,

 

The chances of an accurate train appearing on TV or film is a million to one they say.

 

Regards

 

Nick

 

But still.... they're wrong!

[melmerby]

41 minutes ago, Ian Morgan said:

I believe they get the costumes, and other things wrong too, but we only see the railway bloopers that we are knowledgeable about.

 

The BBC series "Merlin" had Gaius wearing spectacles, and Merlin being pelted with tomatoes while in the stocks. The legends place the rule of Arthur somewhere in the 5th or 6th century. Spectacles were invented in the 13th century, and tomatoes did not come to Europe until the 16th century.

 

 

And at the end of the series Merlin was seen walking along a Somerset Road, complete with cars.

I don't think they had cars in those days.

C'mon guys it just fantasy, none of it's accurate.

[dibber25]

If you think that's bad you should have seen 'A Christmas train' on Channel 5. Shot in Canada with Pacific Terminal in Vancouver purporting to be Chicago, Illinois, I was expecting some nice stock train shots of the 'Canadian' trans-continental in the snow. Instead, what did we get - a Class 91 and Mk4 coaches at night! Daylight shots outside the train featured Budd RDCS with their corrugated stainless steel sides. (CJL)

[dibber25]

3 hours ago, number6 said:

...hate to say it but they weren't Mk1s but a Hawksworth brake and two Colletts 

It cheers me up no end when there is a train faux pas. You realise that every other item we have no specific clue about is also wrong too. My uncle couldn't watch any movie helicopter winching without wincing.

My late wife was a microbiologist. We couldn't watch any movie with a laboratory scene without, " That's wrong. You don't you one of those like that." or "that's the wrong machine. It wouldn't give you that result." (CJL)

[Grovenor]

I don't think the version of WotW on the Great model Railway Challenge was any better.

Rgds

[TomE]

This brings back memories of dealing with various production companies but with historic aircraft rather than the railway. Some productions would go to great lengths and cost to get things as accurate as possible, even to the point of having aircraft repainted (One Dutch production paid for a DC-6 to be flown to Amsterdam to be repainted by KLM into authentic 1950's KLM colours) whereas others just wanted something that looked about right. A fleeting glimpse of another DC-6, supposedly at Miami International, in the Bond film Cassino Royal clearly showing the logo of the company which had never been anywhere near Miami!

 

Back to railways though, somewhere in season 3 of the crown there is a lovely shot of a BR Green Class 37 in open countryside hauling a rake of Mk.1s, clearly branded with West Coast Railway's logos! 

 

Tom.  

 

 

[railroadbill]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

For Earthlings, yes.

 

But a Manfrotto 055 with an adjustable head looks SOOOO Martian!

 

(Although my Manfrotto with its MPP MkVII atop looks even more Martian, and weighs a ton too...)

 

 

Keeps us off the streets, I suppose....   

 

Got a 128RC head on my 055. Intended for video so it pans very smoothly.  Terrific piece of kit (both tripod and head).  Had it for years.  Also great for fitting telescopes for bird watching or very long lens DSLRs.

 

Er, what was this thread about? Oh yes, the Orsen Welles (different Welles )  US radio broadcast version must be the most notorious...

 

Of course if you read the book you can have whatever types of train you like....

 

[Phil Bullock]

49 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

My late wife was a microbiologist. We couldn't watch any movie with a laboratory scene without, " That's wrong. You don't you one of those like that." or "that's the wrong machine. It wouldn't give you that result." (CJL)

 

A Biomedical Scientist with an interest in railways might be worse! Theres at least two on here....

 

[caradoc]

I also heard the word 'wireless' but thought I must have been mistaken. I kept hearing Jeff Wayne's music in my head, and was surprised to see 3205 working the 'Victorian' train. And I will forever associate Tripods with John Christopher's series of novels, rather than HG Wells. However, I will give Episode 2 a chance........

[Steamport Southport]

4 minutes ago, railroadbill said:

 

Er, what was this thread about? Oh yes, the Orsen Welles (different Welles )  US radio broadcast version must be the most notorious...

 

Of course if you read the book you can have whatever types of train you like....

 

 

There was a documentary about that on the radio the other day. Again, set in the present (at the time). Worth a listen.

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03f86lh

 

The book however clearly states the place names. Horsell Common, Woking, Billericay. So you can easily found out what trains are implied.

 

There is even a tripod in Woking.

 

 

 

And a capsule.

 

 

 

 

Jason

[Captain Kernow]

Well, notwithstanding railway-related criticisms and possibly those regarding clothing etc., it's still the closest production to the original book that's been done.

 

There was the forgettable 1950s American Hollywood production, with flying (hovering) Martians (yes, I am aware that in the original book, the Martians were developing a flying machine).

 

The much more recent Tom Cruise version is also just about as forgettable, although provides entertainment of a sort.

 

And then there is the execrable Pendragon Pictures version, made about the same time as the Tom Cruise version, set in the late Victorian or Edwardian period, but clearly filmed in North America and with a budget that was clearly less than the average schoolboy's weekly pocket money.

 

The  'future' shots of the woman and child wandering around a blasted, reddened landscape some years later, looking for the Journalist, are also not consistent with the storyline of the original book (and yes, her character wasn't a feature of HG Wells' version either, as others have already said!).

 

[Compound2632]

15 minutes ago, railroadbill said:

Of course if you read the book you can have whatever types of train you like...

 

 

In fact they're quite closely specified, in the sense that if you know your way around the late 1890s railway scene and given Wells' precise description of locations, you can know what you should expect to see.

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

And a capsule.

 

 

That's a point. They're cylinders in the book, spheres in the BBC adaptation. So, clearly, anything goes.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Compound2632

[railroadbill]

As the novel was published in 1897 the LSWR trains (with salmon and brown coaches) that are still running after the first martian cylinder lands on Horsell Common  would have been hauled by Adams 4-4-0 locos or perhaps 4-4-2Ts.   There is a brief mention of Chalk Farm and the LNWR later on. Also Liverpool street but that's just a rioting crowd trying to get into the station.   [Not much change there then :-)  ].

[Harlequin]

10 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

In fact they're quite closely specified, in the sense that if you know your way around the late 1890s railway scene and given Wells' precise description of locations, you can know what you should expect to see.

 

6 minutes ago, railroadbill said:

As the novel was published in 1897 the LSWR trains (with salmon and brown coaches) that are still running after the first martian cylinder lands on Horsell Common  would have been hauled by Adams 4-4-0 locos or perhaps 4-4-2Ts.   There is a brief mention of Chalk Farm and the LNWR later on. Also Liverpool street but that's just a rioting crowd trying to get into the station.   [Not much change there then :-)  ].

 

Now you're talking! Do you want to join the PRATS?

 

If someone reading this models that company in that period perhaps they'd like to post an image of what the train should have looked like.

 

[pete_mcfarlane]

At this rate HMS Thunderchild will be represented by a Type 45.......

[melmerby]

8 minutes ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

At this rate HMS Thunderchild will be represented by a Type 45.......

[Derekl]

3 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

The BBC series "Merlin" had Gaius wearing spectacles, and Merlin being pelted with tomatoes while in the stocks. The legends place the rule of Arthur somewhere in the 5th or 6th century. Spectacles were invented in the 13th century, and tomatoes did not come to Europe until the 16th century.

 

 

So what was used to pelt miscreants in the stocks prior to the introduction of tomatoes in the 16th century?