War of the Worlds (television)

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

Second season synopsis

Opening voice-over:

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:"There's rioting breaking out through the city. Fire is continuing to burn everywhere. Troops are shooting people. My God, I... I don't know why! There's a woman dying in front of me, and no one's helping her! There are conflicting reports about who or what started the chaos. Will someone tell me what's happening? This is madness! What is this world coming to?"

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:- character and voice actor unknown

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Although the ratings for the first season were among the highest Paramount had of its syndicated series that year, they still saw fit to replace the creative force of Season 1 with Frank Mancuso Jr. (who was also busy producing Friday the 13th: The Series, which, interestingly enough, was actually rated just behind the first season of this show), who admitted that he never really watched many of the episodes of the first season. This combined with different writers made for a season that was terribly inconsistent with the first. Just about every detail of the first season was either changed completely or just deleted altogether (such as the Biblical reference and black humour). Even the show's name underwent change as it was now fully titled "War of the Worlds: The Second Invasion".

Related Topics:
Frank Mancuso Jr. - Black humour

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Countless changes were made in the second season. First, the modern day setting was now shifted to a not-too-distant future of "Almost Tomorrow" where the world had since spiraled into a dismal state with its economy, environment, and government all beaten down. Of the few characters that returned for the second season, most were killed off in the season premiere. The two saddest demises were that of fan favourites Norton and Ironhorse. Also sent to their death were the aliens of the first season. The Advocacy and their lot (all incorrectly referred to as soldiers) were sent to execution by a new race of aliens, the Morthren. Despite the fact that their planet is clearly stated to be Morthrai, they are still inexplicably tied to the first season aliens of the planet Mor-Tax. Planet name change was but one aspect altered with the aliens. In fact, nearly every aspect of the season one aliens was either written out of the show or ignored altogether. The show became extremely inconsistent in determining whether or not the Morthren was indeed a new race of aliens, a sub-culture of the season one aliens, or something else altogether.

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Whereas bacteria and radiation were constant problems for the Mor-Tax, the Morthren had suddenly found a cure-all means for this by transmutating into human bodies, a process that was only noted in the first episode, but never explained in any detail. With this, they forwent the ability to possess human bodies, retaining only one human body. Their equivalent of body-swapping was a cloning machine that would make exact copies of someone, only differing that the duplicates would be loyal to the Morthren cause and physically tied to its original. Ironically, as sores were the telltale signs of alien possession in the first season, a lack of scars or any physical flaw was a telltale sign of a clone as the Morthren were fixated with perfection. While the Eternal is their god, the Morthren are led by Malzor (played by Denis Forest, who had a large part in the Season 1 episode "Vengeance is Mine"). Just under him was the scientist Mana (Catherine Disher, whose husband also played a major role in a Season 1 episode) with Ardix (Julian Richings who appeared briefly in "He Feedeth Among the Lillies") as her assistant.

Related Topics:
Denis Forest - Catherine Disher - Julian Richings

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Meanwhile, with General Wilson missing, the Cottage destroyed, and two team members lost in battle, the remnants of the team, with mercenary John Kincaid (Adrian Paul), seek shelter. They take up base in an underground hideout in the sewers. And the aliens weren't the only characters to change. Harrison seemed to have lost touch with his kooky nature (yoga positions, tuning forks, etc.), and for a man who turned down every offer of a gun from Ironhorse, he carried one with no second thought. Meanwhile, Suzanne, a microbiologist, suddenly seemed incapable of even baking a simple cake with her daughter Debi (Rachel Blanchard) slowly starting to become the star of the series. The show's theme of warfare between two races, and all the issues that went with it, had been taken over by a theme of a bleak life on a desolate world.

Related Topics:
Adrian Paul - Yoga - Tuning fork - Rachel Blanchard

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While the radical changes were often claimed to be for the better of the show, many fans were turned off for many reasons. Ultimately, the ratings were so poor that the series had to wrap things up just two episodes shy of a full season.

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