War of the Worlds (television)

:{{Otheruses3|The War of the Worlds}}

Premise

According to the series, rather than being outright killed by germs at the end of the original War of the Worlds, the aliens had all slipped into a state of suspended animation. Their bodies were stored away in toxic waste drums and shipped away to various disposal sites (at least two known to exist in the U.S.), and a widespread government cover-up combined with a condition dubbed "selective-amnesia" convinced most people that the invasion had never happened.

Related Topics:
Germ - Suspended animation - U.S. - Cover-up

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since the concept of vastly intelligent life on Mars had lost its plausibility by the time of the series, the aliens were revealed to actually be from Mor-Tax - a garden planet 40 light years away in the Taurus constellation orbiting a dying sun.

Related Topics:
Life on Mars - Mor-Tax - Light year - Taurus constellation

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thirty-five years later, in 1988 (modern day when the series began), the appropriately named terrorist group The People's Liberation Party accidentally irradiate the drums containing an alien while raiding dumpsite Fort Jericho. The radiation destroys the bacteria that were keeping the aliens unconscious. Once free, the aliens take possession of the bodies of the six that overran the site. From there they use a strew of human bodies and crudely adapted earth technology to find means of appropriating the planet both in wiping out the plague that is humanity and developing a permanent means to inoculate themselves against the planet's indigenous bacterium. Their attempt to successfully make Earth into their new homeworld is imperative for in roughly five years, 3 million colonists from Mor-Tax are expected to arrive.

Related Topics:
1988 - Earth

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

An eclectic group was formed by the government to deal with the new alien threat, and the series followed their missions and adventures (and, often, failures) in fighting the aliens. The Blackwood Team, named after its leading member, consisted of:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Dr. Harrison Blackwood (played by Jared Martin) - Astrophysicist whose parents were killed in the war, and then adopted by Dr. Clayton Forrester who was a major witness to the aliens' initial invasion.
• Dr. Suzanne McCullough (played by Lynda Mason Green) - Microbiologist and single mother.
• Lt. Col. Paul Ironhorse (played by Richard Chaves) - Native American military man.
• Norton Drake (played by Philip Akin) - A wheelchair-bound computer genius.