‘The War Of The Worlds’ (2019)

Xenophobia, Female Protagonists, Climate Disaster, and Rebelling Against Extinction

The War of the Worlds was a three-part miniseries produced for the BBC in 2019 and was the first British television adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel of the same name. It is set in Britain in the Edwardian period which is contemporaneous with the era and place in which Wells actually wrote, his now iconic, story.

However, there are some dramatic changes to the focus of the novel with the protagonist and hero now being a female, ‘Amy’ (Eleanor Tomlinson) who is pregnant and ‘living in sin’ with ‘George’ (Rafe Spall) who is still married. The Martians are also completely different from the original description given by Wells in his novel and are akin to the creatures we see in the Spielberg film adaptation of 2005.

Of course, the notorious radio broadcast in 1938 by Orson Welles cannot ever be overlooked. It is here that the essence of the story is captured most perfectly. Perhaps, ironically enough, too perfectly, as it created a mass panic that an alien invasion was actually taking place and that the world was coming to an end.

The fear was already there as America like most countries during this period was either preparing for war or had actually started to invade…