BBC's The War of the Worlds - Should you watch?

All Images from IMDB 

Spoiler Warning: This review will contain spoilers for basically every version of War of the Worlds ever and major spoilers for the BBC version both written and visual spoilers.

So I decided to change the name from Why you should watch to Should You Watch because that cynically brings in people looking for an answer to the question and it also allows me to look at good and bad thing under the same umbrella.  The fact I'm bringing this change in now might be a bit of a revealing about my feelings on this show, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

This is going to be a long blog because I feel it needs to be to do this justice. However it can handily be summarised for those who don't want to read all the details by a single comment made by my mother (who is a fan of Sci-Fi) 

"In this version it wasn't bacteria that killed the Martians, but sheer embarrassment at having to be part of this abomination." - my mother

Plot

The plot of The War of the Worlds should probably be known to almost anyone with an interest in Sci-Fi by this point but for the 2 people who don't aliens land and humanity tries to fight them off and loses pretty badly until the invaders mysteriously keel over and die for seemingly no reason. It's then revealed the Martian's were so advanced as a civilisation that they'd eliminated all disease on their planet and didn't anticipate the problems our own bacteria and viruses might them.

The major overarching plot however is often more background events to the more personal stories of the humans trying to survive this world changing event. In BBC's The War of The Worlds series the story attempts to combine elements from both the HG Well's original story and the Jeff Wayne's story itself based that is loosely based on the HG Well's original and then just random new elements. What this creates is an unfortunate mess that feels like a Hollywood film lumbering from set piece event to set piece event while not understanding how to build tension, atmosphere or any real emotion or tension. None of this is helped by the fact the events the story does decide to show are either only partially done or just executed poorly in the name of fancy special effect over established ideas. But before I rip on the tv miniseries more here's a synopsis of what happens in each episode and this is very detailed because hopefully it will help explain my problems with the plot.

Episode 1

Episode 1 begins with the emissions from Mars and introduces us to the George the Journalist played by Rafe Spall (DC Andy Cartwright in Hot Fuzz, Agent C in Men in Black International) and his girlfriend Amy played by Eleanor Tomlinson (Demelza in Poldark, Young Sophie in The Illusionist) who's an assistant to Ogilvy the scientist and astronomer played by Robert Carlyle (Dr Rush in Stargate Universe, Begbie in Trainspotting and T2 Trainspotting). George, Amy and Ogilvy all observe the emissions from Mars and we learn of the fact George has left his wife (who we later learn is also his cousin). An object lands in the woodland area near George and Amy's home, in the morning they go and investigate finding that Ogilvy had already found the object and geared up to investigate it further. Amy helps out at the pit while George goes off to try and convince his Ex wife to sign the divorce papers, also discovering that the newspaper he works at is running his stories under another name; because of the scandal of him being a man in the early 1900s whose living unmarried with a woman having left his wife. As more people turn up to help look into the mysterious sphere like object that has landed it starts to let out steam and then fly up into the air throwing out a black tar like susbstance that causes explosions when it hits the ground and sets fire to any human hit with it. The sphere eventually is reduced to just a few last particles of the black substance that drops down to the ground.

Due to this the army is called in and promptly surround the common where it landed. Shortly after the first tripod emerges and George and Amy witness a bunch of horses bolt across the street near their home followed by a series of explosions from parts of buildings nearby. In an attempt to save their pet dog George ends up separated from Amy by a piling of burning rubble and insists she go on to London and to George's brother (a senior minister) without him and he'll meet her there as a tripod looms over the local church spire. Amy arrives in London and meets George's brother Frederick played by Rupert Graves (DI Lestrade in Sherlock) telling him she's expecting George's child. We then see George emerge from a pile of rubble that had fallen onto him. The episode cuts to Amy holding the hand of a child as they walk across a barren red wasteland of destroyed and ruined buildings.

Episode 2

Episode 2 opens with Amy in the future continuing the search for George then cutting to George back at the house sheltering in the present in the story. A surviving soldier to turns up leading to George leaving a hasty letter in case Amy returns and heading off with the soldier to the next town over and George failing to save a baby from a tripod attack. Amy explains the situation to the Prime Minister who is advised by a military general to send in some of the larger guns to fight the threat. George gets involuntarily drafted by the army one town over to try and mount an assault on another sphere which has landed nearby, they destroy the sphere however a tripod turns up and a second comes out of the swamp where the sphere had been and things go badly. The sequence with George and the artillery company is broken up by a speech by the Prime Minister about the strength of England and how the Martians stand no match. After a flash forward of Amy teaching her son about the army fighting the Martians we cut back to the present where the tripods are attack London and deploy their chemical

weapon, a thick black smoke that kills all it engulfs. Amy, Frederick and the Prime Minister  try to run for some old tunnels but the Prime Minister falls behind and is engulfed in the smoke as Amy closes the door to the tunnels. However banging on the doors prompts Frederick to open them again letting the Prime Minister in and closing them again to stop the black smoke.

Amy, Frederick and the Prime Minister continue down the tunnels intending to go to the docks while the Prime Minister goes on about colonialist expansion of England to possibly beyond the stars if they can get hold of one of the machines. At some point the Prime Minister however stops and Amy and Frederick turn back to see him bleeding from the nose as the black smoke having seeped into the tunnels slowly creeps up and engulfs him. Frederick and Amy them argue over where to go with Amy eventually making the choice to go with those evacuating and Frederick following her then intending to head north to help co-ordinate the fight there. We then cut to the future where Amy learns from the local preacher that a man is coming to the local area who has her listed as his next of kin. We then cut back to George who helps a woman push her injured husband on a cart.

Amy ends up being put on a boat to evacuate as George runs onto the beach seeing her sailing off. Some alien fighting machines come over the horizon and chaos erupts as the tripods open fire on the civilians and the battleships out in the bay open fire on the Martian fighting machines. George wades then swims out to sea as Amy jumps off her boat and swims to him. The Navy takes down one of the tripods and the Martians destroy one the smaller boats carrying civilians to safety, the boat Amy jumped out of not long ago. George and Amy make it back to sure along with a little girl who survived the destruction of the boat and they join up with Frederick as they flee the beach with the Martians still advancing and another Tripod being brought down by the warships out in the bay. We cut to the future where we learn the man coming to the local area is in fact Ogilvy.

George, Amy, Frederick, the old woman and the little girl all take refuge in a school for orphans that seems mostly abandoned. We then cut to the future where Ogilvy discusses his theory that the black smoke was a seeding method for the red weed now chocking the earth and making it so crops can't grow, also causing large red crystal structures to grow. Back in the past George and Amy talk but are interrupted and all the group are forced to hide under tables as the aliens scan the area. We then cut back to the future where Amy confesses to Ogilvy that she doesn't believe it was humanity that defeated the Martians and won the war. This last sequence is interspersed with shots of the past events with the Martian light flooding into where the group are hiding and them ultimately deciding to barricade themselves in.

Episode 3:

We learn in the future the only places crops will now grow and the red weed hasn't taken over is church yards. Cut to the past where Frederick, Amy and George go out to the courtyard of the school where they see a downed fighting machine and Frederick notes there has been no dawn, the sun hasn't risen with George pointing out that the black dust rose into the air and is blanketing the air and is now up in the sky stopping some of the sunlight reaching the Earth. They go back inside and George reveal that he believes the water that he and the old woman drank at a rest stop previously might have been contaminated and both of them are now ill. Frederick and Amy explore the School looking for supplies, mostly coming up empty except for a half full jug of water. The Martians scan the area again and the light spots the elderly woman who is drifting in and out of consciousness in the chair, it then lets out a noise which attracts one of the Martians that has come out of its fighting machine.  It quickly kills the old woman then seemingly starts sucking on her blood. We cut to the that Amy's son is falling ill and people in the local town are dying.

We cut back to the past where with the creature having gone outside Frederick barricades the remaining members of the group (Frederick, Amy, George and the little girl) inside to keep them save and starts to give a speech about fighting back and British spirit and how chaps like Robert Baden-Powell have likely been in worse spots and survived and suggests making firebombs to use on the Martians. George then suggests that the Martian invasion is retribution from God for English Colonialism and poor treatment of natives of various countries England has been invading drawing parallels between the black smoke and steam engines and machines. After a heated exchange between Frederick and George the latter collapses and Amy points out they can't stay here as there's no real resources. We cut to the future where Amy suggests her Son may have Typhoid fever and asks Ogilvy if he work on a potential serum to help combat it but also culture some of it.

Back in the past George, Frederick and Amy decide to look out into the courtyard and see one of the Martians stumbling around seemingly ill and Frederick suggests this may be their chance. They turn round to get the little girl only for a Martian to have come into the room from above (despite no broken windows or obvious ways in) and as she's picking up her teddy and coming towards the group the Martian pounces off the top of some shelving impaling her with its razor sharp limbs. With a Martian behind them in the room they came from the remaining members of the group are forced out into the courtyard. Frederick throws a firebomb at the Martian in the courtyard and it lets out a cry and writhes but then stops and while still on fire it impales Frederick on one of its limbs.

Amy and George run into another section of the school, this time a sort of store room / cellar. It's revealed that George's condition is getting worse as he now has strange welts / black marks showing up over his body.

In the future Ogilvy tries to get permission from the local priest who is presiding over the local town to take samples from some of the sick to try and create additional cultures this time of the sickness from the town. Eventually getting it much to the reluctance of the Priest. After a cut to after the cultures are grown we see Ogilvy using a sprayer pump to spray samples of the cultured bacteria onto sections of the Red Weed chocking the land. We also find that Amy's son is called George Junior.

In the past George's illness has given him a fever and in turn that has made him become delirious. He then comes back to reality and decides he wants to try and reason with the remaining Martian (the one that was ill and got firebombed having dropped dead). Amy tries to stop him.

Cut to the future where George Junior is shown to once again be well thanks to Ogilvy's serum. it's then revealed the culture from George Junior's blood combined with some bits of rotting flesh has killed off an area of red weed in Ogilvy's testing area pointing out how it was thanks to Amy's suggestion that this happened. Ogilvy suggests clearing some land and trying to grow some crops now. Ogilvy then say "This is how we do it, not by praying or saluting the bloody union Jack". The next day Ogilvy talks to the priest who argues he's taking away the belief that it was God and Great Britain who defeated the Martians from the people and how this would depress the people Ogilvy however convinces him it is still a victory for humanity and god for it's the smallest creatures put on earth by god that defeated the Martians and Humans have fought off or learned to live with over the years and struggled against just such creatures over Millions of years and at the cost of millions of lives winning where the Martian could not. The Priest points out that this is Darwinism.

In the past Gorge is getting worse and Amy (who is still pregnant) start to show signs of being in pain.

George then goes outside and picks up a stick, getting the Martian to come to him in the courtyard and he gets impaled by essentially an extendable insect like proboscis. While the creatures feeds of George's corpse Amy is able to run out of the courtyard and away from the school. Eventually Amy runs to her a George's home and find the letter her wrote her before he himself had left to find her in episode 1.

The mini series ends with Amy in the future finding a single earth plant has managed to once again grow in a patch cleared of red weed.

The problems with the plot / This version

Traditionally in The War of the Worlds the red weed is more incidental to the plot element rather than a larger plot element. In other versions the red weed's advancement and overtaking the natural flora and fauna of Earth resembles the advancement of the Martians as they overtake mankind leaving the latter struggling to survive. It also works as an excellent foreshadowing device as the red weed begins to mysterious die off just before the Martians.  In the BBC version the red weed comes after and is framed as a deliberate act by the Martians as part of their attempts to take over Earth. The problem being as the Martians are shown drinking blood and eating human flesh, it makes little sense for them to release the red weed onto the Earth and the series doesn't bother to explain the reasoning for it beyond 'Oh maybe they want to make Earth look more like Mars'. In HG Wells original version we're never given an explanation as to why the Martians come. In Jeff Wayne's version it's set up as the Martians coming to Earth in the style of Independence Day to live on a world without dwindling nearly exhausted resources. Quite why the Martians would release a plant that sucks up a lot of resources and harms other plants on the world needs an explanation if it's deliberate as BBC's War of the Worlds wants to suggest it being.

In other versions of The War of the Worlds the Martians die to general exposure to bacteria in our atmosphere (and it's hinted at in our blood after it's revealed they drink it). It's the same kind of idea of just pathogens native to our planet that affect plants that infects the red weed and causes that to die off. In the BBC's version however the red weed is killed off by using human typhoid bacteria. Now I'm not a biologist but I did do a couple of modules of microbiology as part of my studies and I'm pretty sure that a lot of diseases targeting humans don't affect plants and vice versa due to the different biological make of up plants and plant cells when compared to animals and animal cells. While there are some bacterial infection than can cross between species of animals it seems very scientifically inaccurate to have the red weed be vulnerable to human typhoid.

Amy is the only character who seems to have more than one dimension to her. I'm not joking, for the most part Amy is the only one allowed to seem that a character not almost a caricature.

George is a coward and what would be called a bleeding heart liberal spending most of the series blubbering almost in despair and then later suggesting trying to talk with the Martians and let's not forget his rant about the evils of colonialism. Ogilvy is the impossibly noble scientist dedicated to his studies and even in the future being said to have suffered serious facial scarring (hidden by a patch) due to experimenting with some of the Martian's technology, this doesn't stop him wanting to carry on doing research and at no point showing any interest in anything other than Science except once expressing desire to have a bacon sandwich.  Frederick is all patriotism, duty and honour most of the time. The Prime Minister whose only in it for a bit spends most of his time on about the strength of the British Empire and how we will win with an added bit about how the machines would be great for use in more colonialist expansion. Amy leaving people to die is portrayed as acceptable sacrifices required for her to survive and sensible move. George leaving people behind is often for cowardly reasons when his survival is seen a far less at risk most of the time.

In all other versions of The War of the Worlds characters seem to have some arc or other. In the Jeff Wayne's one there's the Preacher Nathaniel whose only in it for a short section but we see his arc as he thinks the Martians are demons and humanity is doomed and lost only later to try and stand up to fight them (even if foolishly) still believing they're demons. In the Jeff Waynes version and the H.G. Wells original there's the rifleman who barely survives and end up dreaming of creating a new world underground to escape the Martians and eventually being able to start a resistance. The characters in the BBC version barely change or evolve based on their experiences yet even Amy basically ends the BBC version as much the same character she started as being quite capable and somewhat determined maybe losing hope for about 30 seconds before there's an implication that there is still hope.

The Martians are cartoonishly evil in the BBC version. In most other versions the Martians are almost cosmic horror. They're mostly unknowable and to them we are like ants (as the original book even says). Cosmic horror is really about showing how insignificant humanity really is and how little power it has and how unknowable the thing being fought really is hence I feel the phrase fits and it's not just Lovecraft stuff than can be cosmic horror. The Martians are far beyond humans in terms of advancement and so little is known about them it makes them scary especially as humans are seen as little threat. In most other versions The Martian only use their weapons to spread fear and cause people to run or to take out military targets like artillery and warships or using the black smoke to kill an area of civilians. In the BBC version at one point the Martian's destroy multiple houses to kill a crying baby for no given reason, in any other version the Martians wouldn't care as they're more than happy to less people escape and not kill everyone. They're fine to let people escape in other version because they build other machines to chase down, round up and catch humans. In the BBC version the Martians fire on the fleeing civilians on the beach seemingly ignoring the battleships firing upon them while in other version they target the battleships as they are seen as the bigger threat to them and they don't really target the civilians on the banks or at the docks. Having the Martians trying to target and kill civilians just for the sake of killing them and collapsing multiple houses just to kill a single crying baby makes them seem cartoonishly evil. Oh and what is with the Spheres that fly up in the air spraying material that incinerates people on contact and causes massive explosions on the ground that just seems like it's just done to be evil and kill people, the spheres don't seem to have any other purpose.

The Martians are too powerful. This might seem stupid initially because in this version they bring down more of the Martian fighting machines than any other version. The thing being in all other versions I've seen the Martians hen outside of their fighting machines were said to be ungainly or struggling (which as I just checked would make sense as the Gravity on Mars is only 38% of that on Earth). In the BBC version the Martians even outside of their machines are presented and extremely deadly with one having been implied to have killed everyone else sheltering in the school for orphans and been able to drag their bodies onto the roof. It's even implied that one of the Martian is able to climb up a near vertical metal shaft with ease. Oh and fire also doesn't seem to harm them either. The War of the Worlds series just makes the Martians there super powerful creature that can't be stopped even once their fighting machines have been damaged or taken down. In the original by H.G. Well, Jeff Wayne's version and the more recent film starring Tom Cruise the Martians build machines to help them hunt with essentially extendable arms with grabbers on them and a sort of cage like thing on the machines back, in the BBC version the Martians are shown as highly dangerous predators on their own unaided.

I get there's a thing for high tech alien hunter with the likes of The Predator but the BBC's

The design of the Martians in this version seems like a rejected Dr Who monster design that was deemed too scary for a kids show.These are huge 3 legged creatures with razor sharp limbs. This is the kind of thing I'd expect from a horror game. In H.G. Wells Original they're described as being "the size, perhaps, of a bear" and further described as having  'two "Gorgon groups of tentacles"'. In the BBC version the Martian design might be the worst I've seen. In terms of design I think I even prefer the Simon Says martians of the first film adaptation of War Of the World over the BBC version.

Image of the Martians from the 1953 film taken from IMDB

The story jumps forwards and backwards in time way too often and while it seems up a Abram's style plot mystery box of where is George, will George survive it also removes the tension as we know Amy will survive until the end of the Martians and due to the lack of any mention of Frederick we can assume he will likely die. By the time it reveals the name of Amy's son to be George Junior most of the people watching it will know that George won't make it.

Worse still by the time we Amy's son is revealed to be called George Junior most of the audience likely won't care for George's survival due to his cowardice and preaching. I think this can be best presented by another comment from my mother

"I was glad when the Martians finally killed George he was a blubbering cowardly hypocritical sanctimonious fool" - My Mother

The story also has a lot of plot threads it just leaves dangling. After rubble falls on Mary who is George and Amy's maid they leave her believing her to be dead only in a later show you see the rubble and some blood by that Mary's body is clearly not there and this was meant to be not long after the first fighting machine emerged with no indication the Aliens had already started collecting dead humans.  George meets with his estranged wife to try and get a divorce to marry Amy and nothing comes of it, George's estranged wife is in all of one scene, wouldn't it have made more sense and create more drama and conflict to have had George's wife end up on the run trying to escape with them?

The alien sphere's create a permanent images on the material of any human who touches them when they're activated before they fly up in the air and if they're destroyed they just create an image of the human on the material. Why? What's the purpose of this?

A lot of people escape via boat, in most other versions of The War of the Worlds it talks about them returning after the Martians have died, but not in the BBC version the people who fled onto waiting boats are just forgotten about.

At one point in the future Amy decides to steal some food to try and ensure George Junior gets enough to eat as the food rationing is reducing people to eating very little food. Amy is caught in the act by a drunken soldier who tries to come on to her and then it cuts to black. This is never brought up again? Did Amy choose to seduce him to get away with the food? Did something awful happen? Did some-one else step in and save Amy? Did Amy save herself? It's never mentioned or brought up again.

The Plot fails to manage the idea of raising the hope of fighting back and dashing them like many other versions do. In the H.G. Wells original and Jeff Wayne's adaptation and I think even the Tom Cruise version we see a Martian taken down by Artillery only for the Artillery to be destroyed moments later by a second Martian. In the H.G. Wells original and Jeff Wayne's adaptation we have the warship fighting the Martians and taking one down only for the Martians to turn their focus onto it and sink it moments later, in the BBC version the battleships out at sea manage to take down two Martians and seemingly never face any kind of return fire or anything from the Martians . Even near the end in other versions we get the moment of madness where the main character in the H.G. Well original and Jeff Waynes version decides they will die by the Martians hand they will willingly run and out in the open towards a fighting machine and let it kill them only to discover the fighting machine to be no longer moving and the Martians to be dead inside.

The changes the BBC version makes are not explained or seem to make litte sense. Why set loose the red weed on the Earth deliberately? Why change the black smoke from a chemical weapon to a chemical weapon that also starts to block out the sun permanently (had the writer just watched the Matrix too many times?). Why replace the tension building alien pods with spheres which don't open but essentially deploy as a kind of weapon in their own right? Why do the spheres captures images of humans who touch them? Where do the Tripod come from, the only indication in this version is the tripod fighting machines come from under where the spheres were. In pretty much all other version the Martian come in a pod and you have the tension of the pod slowly opening or noises from inside of the pod itself.

The pacing of the plot seems off with it feeling like maybe an hour and a half to 2 hours at most of show painfully stretched out to 3 hours. In the first episode there's numerous bits of stock footage and I think at least 1 pan over a landscape shot. Even when it is doing things some scenes just seem dragged out or lengthened artificially to add length to the show.

The BBC show also chooses to try and do a lot of artistic lingering shots on people and scenes the thing is most of them feel like showing off for the sake of it and trying to make it look artsy as an attempt to disguise the severe lack of substance on show. Only maybe 2 or 3 of these artistic shots feel warranted or the point in the story deserving of such a show to emphasise scope, scale or impact of such events.

Ripping parts of its script from better version. The character George in the BBC show seems an odd choice especially being a journalist as Jeff Wayne's musical The War of the Worlds has George being the main character in that. The problem being the BBC version just feels inferior to the Jeff Wayne's version and unoriginal rather than how it was likely intended to be of a nice little reference for people who have see the Jeff Wayne's musical. 

The Wokeness

Ok I put this as its own subsection because it's part of the problem of the BBC version and I tend to have a fairly high tolerance for elements often framed as woke. However this version has to be labelled as an attempt to make the series Woke of the Worlds nor The War of the Worlds.

Some more cynical could point to Amy the main character as being a sign of the mini-series bing woke, as traditionally the The War of the Worlds adaptations have had a male lead character.

She points out at one point "I don't need to be kept". She's bright the story mentions she has a degree and it's implied very strongly to be in a STEM field with a comment about her potentially thinking of taking a Masters qualification in Natural Science in the future. At no point do her actions ever seem cowardly as if she has to leave some-one behind who dies. At the end of episode 2 when the Martian fighting machine having fallen in the courtyard and the group investigating it's Amy who takes the lead with Frederick only slightly behind and behind them both is George seemingly quivering in fear. However I like Amy as a character and she's shown as caring almost to a fault  where it can hamper her own survival and she doesn't try to be the one explaining everything scientific or talking over people claiming to know better or yelling at them to questioning her claims or for them explaining their plans to her.

The Woke elements start in the form of most of the rest of the cast. The side character of a Prime Minister is a blustering oaf on about expansion of the British Empire to the star and how the British are the best in the world and everyone want to be English. Frederick is overly concerned with honour and duty and stiff upper lip and all that how everyone will survive because that's what being English teaches you, which leads to him trying to firebomb a Martian and dying when he's stands seemingly shocked the Martian doesn't care it's on fire. George is a coward who leaves a person to die when he could help, sees himself as a progressive and gives an impassioned speech about how the invasion is punishment for English Colonialism. The Preacher is ok but highly leaning into faith and arguing against revealing the truth of what killed the Martians and what could kill the red weed.

One of the Army officers is portrayed as a bully who threatens to shoot George if he refuses to do his duty and is entirely determined that he and his squad will succeed when attacking the second sphere until his overconfidence having destroyed the sphere leads to him in turn being killed by a fighting machine. One of the soldiers in the future is drunken and slightly lecherous towards Amy. The only male character shown in any kind of good light is Ogilvy the scientist who shows no desire for anything other than a bacon sandwich and near unwavering dedication to Science. This seems like a case of the make Amy seem better and almost every other male character was made worse or given some moment to show a series flaw except Ogilvy because he and Amy work together and he's helping teach and train Amy as such.

This is coming from someone with a Science degree who has dunked on journalist both on this blog before (admittedly game journalists) and on twitter. But I think George being sanctimonious but also a huge coward to be quite an offensive portrayal of journalists and I'm sorry but Ogilvy the almost impossibly upstanding scientist dedicated just to Science and study seems like a ridiculous character too as he has no real flaws and ends up seeming to be right or able to save the day with the help of Amy of course. George's wife Lucy is also kind of a caricature with her implication that the issue with her and George's marriage was her being unable to give him children despite their time together.

I've already mentioned multiple times the talk about colonialism from the Prime-Minister characters talks about the British Empire expanding into space if it could capture the alien technology and George rallying against it saying how awful and frightening and terrible it is for people facing colonisation by the English. For the record I do recognise that England did some pretty shitty things during colonial times. However it's very much presently in vague to rally against colonialism especially by certain countries looking to gain things from other countries in recompense for their past actions , be it countries claiming due to the precious resources taken by England they deserve pay back (ignoring anything England provided them as a colony in terms of high end technological advancements for the time and institutions to train more people to developer said technology and learn to how it works) or countries like Argentina who want control of the Falkland Islands against the Islanders own choice under the right to self determination to remain part of England. Let's just say having all the talk of colonialism (Something in no other version I'm aware of) just seems like it's trying to play to present in vague trends among the woke crowd rather than a sincere commentary on it, especially as that aspect is delivered in speeches and a character almost lecturing another on it.

Correction: I have been informed the original The War of the Worlds does mention colonialism, for all of about 1 paragraph as a passing thought of the main character. This was the only mention of it in the book and the way the BBC adaptation handles it is with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer with characters om about it and George acting almost like Tyrion in Game of Thrones season 8 by almost explicitly explaining the theme in detail to make sure the audience get it.

You know what another thing that's in vogue to blame for things? The Russians. And yes they haven't exactly been hiding some of their actions as of late however even if you could argue it makes some vague sense based on the time the story is set it seems odd to have them suggesting initially the spheres and even the tripods might be some kind of new Russian super weapon. Oh and it's even suggested Russia may be about to start a war (which given in World War 1 the Russians were on our side) seems a bit contrived.

Effects

The effects aren't bad. The alien sphere's raining down destruction is a glorious display of special effects explosions and fireworks mixed with the flying sphere raining down death upon those below, it serves no real plot purpose other than to replace the whole section where the Martian heat ray is first used but again this is about effects not about them making sense.

The Martian Tripods look suitably terrifying and alien as do segments where they release the black smoke later on.

The beach sequence where the British warships take on the Aliens as civilians on the beach run for their life seems like it could have used a bit longer in the over as it seems a little rough round the edges.

The Martians themselves reach about the level of Modern Dr Who creature effects at best and it they do look very clearly CGI creations.

Acting

 Acting wise Eleanor Tomlinson does a great job as Amy that is until she sinks into seemingly over-acting and almost melodrama in parts of Episode 3, before that though I'd have said she was likely managed the best performance of the cast. Stargate Universe) but with all the rough edges and character complexities and flaws filed off.

The best performance has to be handed to Rupert Graves as Frederick who while not much of a fully fleshed out character Rupert Graves does commit to the role never seemingly falling into over acting or hamming it up but managing to elevate the lackluster script to at least make his character seem real even if not fleshed out. Robert Carlyle is acceptable as Ogilvy though it's mostly him performing a somewhat budget version of Dr Rush (his character in Stargate Universe)

It's rare can ever call out a particularly poor performance but Rafe Spall does an utterly unconvincing turn as the George a character who spends most of the time blubbering or in fear. Rafe Spall could have been replaced by Rupert Grint (Ron from the Harry Potter films) and it would have been a far more convincing performance. As is Rafe Spall has no presence in most scenes and just seems like a lump whose there sitting fading into the background of most scenes. I will say it likely isn't all Rafe Spall's fault as the script likely gave him little to work with but he didn't feel like he had much chemistry with co-star Eleanor Tomlinson either even if she had seemed to have plenty of chemistry with him.

Verdict

Probably the most grim poe faced and preachy version of The War of the Worlds I've ever had the misfortune to witness with little to no redeeming factors or real reason to make it actually worth sitting through except to study as an example of what not to do. It painfully drags itself out to a just under 3 hour run time stretching and padding it's run time more than a highschool girls bra and is more full of filler than a cosmetic surgery addicts whole body. It rips character names from far better versions only to then turn said characters into a joke meaning it's less of a respectful homage and more trying to smear it's awfulness over other superior versions by associating trying to make it seem they share characters. It feels it knows better than the book but ends up turning the Martians into cartoon villains and by episode 3 it just decides to throw the every other version out of the window and turn the Martians into generic killer alien monsters. It's characters are more one dimensional and seem less like fully rounded characters then side characters that appear in a stage musical for 1 song and maybe 5 minutes more on top of that. Yet it has the audacity to try and do artsy sequences constantly often unearned and often when a more understated shot would have been better to allow the more artsy shots to be used to better impact. More embarrassingly the character of Amy probably have better knowledge of science than any of the people behind the script for this version of The War of the Worlds as it regularly feels scientifically inaccurate or at least not basing it's script on a scientific basis.

In terms of the versions I've seen this version of The War of the Worlds I've this is 2nd to last only to the 1953 version and even then the 1953 version can provide some entertainment if you and friends laugh and riff on it while drinking as a bad movie night thing. BBC's The War of the Worlds doesn't even manage to be something so cheesy and bad it's fun and the 1953 film at least has the excuse that it's from 1953 to excuse its shortcomings and problems.

BBC's The War of the Worlds would struggle to be worth your time free on youtube or for those in the UK with TV licences and definitely isn't worth the £7 they've released it on Prime video for at present.

Should you watch it ?

NO, not even as a joke. It's not even watching out of curiosity to see how bad it is because it's just that dull.

Instead spend £5.99 and get the Jeff Wayne's live stage show musical adaptation of The War of the Worlds the new generation as even if like me you're not a fan of musically normally you'll likely find it far more enjoyable and entertaining very much capturing the tone of the book.

Failing that you can buy the film version from 2005 starring Tom Cruise for £5, which, despite being set in more modern times and in America, still somehow manages to capture the tone of the book far more than the BBC mini-series.