Bish's Review: Marvel UK #77 "In The National Interest" Part 4

Part 4 brings the story to a close with only minor changes in the creative lineup. Furman and Simpson continue as writer and artist. Anne Halfacree lettered the piece. Tony Jozwiak coloured it and, naturally, Ian Rimmer was the editor.

The rather unusual cover was by Phil Gascoine and it is a collage of scenes that we are about to witness within the book. However, unlike previous times the book has done something similar (usually in the very early issues) this is all new artwork, which is of course worthy of study. There is no doubt that Gascoine has drawn heavily on some interior panels of this issue and the last one for inspiration, but he has reimagined them. That said, I am not really a big fan of this style of cover. I realise its intent: to draw all the threads of the story into one place and prepare us for an epic showdown (“This one... has it all!” blares the caption) but I would much rather have had one big, eye-catching image. We are left with too much blank space and the cover turns out to be too bitty to be memorable. The bits themselves are skilfully depicted but the cover as a whole lacks drama.

Part 4 naturally has to explain the events of the previous issues which is often awkward but, like Part 3, Furman does attempt to do this in a more elegant fashion than it is often attempted. We are treated to Professor Morris’ musings about how he ended up in control of Centurion. His suggestion that Triple-I will have circulated an incorrect version is a good reiteration of the story’s themes without banging the reader over the head. We are also treated to a splendid new picture of Centurion stomping his purposeful way across the countryside. Morris’ intense feelings fuel this back-story and we are told of his shock at seeing Swoop again. This is new information than we were provided with when that incident actually happened and is a strong and logical emotional punch.

After the set-up we cut to the beach where the Dinobots are now locked in combat with the Decepticons. Megatron takes Grimlock down hard while demanding to be given Joy Meadow’s taped evidence. Over this, we are shown Professor Morris’ thoughts as narration as Centurion gets nearer and nearer.

Sludge is in a fighting frenzy, consumed with anger that anyone should try to harm Joy. He is being worn down, however, as the Constructicons work as an efficient team, although, for once, they do not form Devastator.

Soundwave uses Laserbeak to stun Snarl while three more Constructicons drag Swoop out of the sky - “They rely on weight of numbers to win” Morris observes.

He has seen enough. Centurion leaps from the cliff and charging at Bonecrusher, punches him out. Swoop uses this distraction to grab Mixmaster and slam him bodily into the cliff-face. This prompts a fantastic lack of reaction from Soundwave - brilliantly realised by Simpson - which manages to naturally give Soundwave an emotional demeanour through incredibly minimal body language, as befitting the taciturn Decepticon. In two panels we can see his irritation at Mixmaster’s failure coupled with complete indifference to his pain.

At this point, Soundwave comes to the logical conclusion to take the crucial humans hostage and end the battle that way. He takes their film and has Laserbeak vaporise it. Megatron, trigger-crotch standing embarrassingly proudly, proclaims victory.

Morris’ narration continues as he lays out the state of play. The Decepticons leave victorious, the Dinobots’ pride is wounded. Joy Meadows is frightened but defiant and, most crucially, Morris’ fight continues, with Centurion as his weapon. Triple-I, however, despite the setback of losing Morris, are shown to be well and truly still in business, as Forsythe's evil smile at the end demonstrates very ably. Clearly the President is no closer to finding out the lengths they have been going to.

Part 4 is mostly a big fight but it’s a good one. The Dinobots’ valour in their defence of Joy Meadows is an extremely appealing character trait and it’s great to see Sludge fighting for her with all his savage power. I am at a loss as to why the Constructicons do not form Devastator but they work well as fairly interchangeable grunts to populate the Decepticon forces. Centurion’s game-changing entry into the battle is brilliantly done but the ending is where the story really becomes memorable. Like the previous long story featuring these characters, “Dinobot Hunt”, “In The National Interest” ends with the Decepticons having won the day. It is telling that for all their bluster, the Dinobots do not abandon the humans in order to chase the Decepticons. Even they have to accept defeat sometimes. Professor Morris, however, will not accept anything of the sort, and the final image of Centurion clenching his fist with grim resolve is an effective foreshadowing that Morris’ story is far from over.

In the end "In The National Interest" teaches us that sometimes there's nothing you can do in the face of institutionalised evil. Professor Morris remains determined to try, but we are yet to find out whether he is successful, and Joy Meadows, despite all her spirit, is left empty-handed, and will not appear again for many issues. I actually wish that Part 3 had not made it so clear that Triple-I had exceeded their mandate because I feel that the alternative would have been braver, but maybe (hopefully?) less believable.

I can’t get over the cynicism in this story. Not only are the humans the principle villains in this story but their actions allow the Decepticons to have their way. Although we see more of Megatron than we do of Triple-I it’s easier to almost forgive the Decepticon leader. The Decepticons are just doing what they do - tyranny, contempt for organic life and soforth. Despite their faction name the Decepticons have never really been anything less than open about their beliefs and intentions. Triple-I, however, work for the United States government, representing the very beings that Optimus Prime has long had an almost pathological need to protect.

I like this story because it is different - because (whisper it) it is ultimately about humans rather than Transformers and about how, while we might not actually be gripped in a millenia old civil war, we will still do terrible things to one another in order to maintain a fundamentally flawed and failing status quo. It is not the most subtle or well-written story with these themes by a very long way, but it does demonstrate that the Transformers universe is a lot more versatile than simply "Autobots vs Decepticons". Most of all, I like it because I believe in it, and that frightens me.

The other great thing about this issue is the final caption: "Next: Target 2006" - which is one of the single greatest Transformers stories of all time. However, we're not quite there yet, next week I will be tangling with the 1987 Annual in order to tackle the nine part epic the space it deserves.

Review: Marvel G1 #26: Funeral For a Friend!

Funeral For a Friend! is the twenty-sixth issue of the G1 Marvel Transformers series. It was penned by long-term Transformers scribe Bob Budiansky. Pencils are by Don Perlin, backed up with Brett Breeding inks, Nel Yomtov colors and Janice Chiang's letters. The cover is a Herb Trimpe.

The cover mostly does its job well. The Mechanic stands in the middle of the picture, making an aesthetically pleasing X with his wide stance and his two smoking guns. The Autobots, block colored, are in a heap in the background. "Introducing: the MECHANIC!" it promises us, which works well. It lets us know that we're in for another Supervillain themed issue. The odd part, though, is the "No job too big ..." ".. or too small..." caption on the bottom. I don't get at all why that's there. It adds nothing to the visuals, and isn't particularly menacing.

Once inside the book, we're given an interesting tale. The first two and a quarter pages are devoted to Ratchet's frantic efforts to repair Optimus Prime, blown up two issues prior. He's spent 238 straight hours at the task, and he's nearly finished. All of the other operational Autobots watch on. Bob's prose is in top form here. "Ratchet waits as monitors scan Optimus for that spark -- one billionth of a volt would register." Perlin and Breeding together do a fine job of conveying the somber mood with body language, facial expressions and plenty of dark hues. When Ratchet announces that Optimus Prime is beyond repair, one wants to cry. This is the sense of mourning that we didn't get back in 24, when Prime unexpectedly blew himself up. We'll get plenty more.

But for now, the plot has to march on. Omega Supreme has been busy since his creation. He's built massive artillery batteries into the mountain where the Ark has crashed, and has a radio activated power booster rod to control it. In theory, this allows the Autobots to safely leave their base without fear of finding it under Decepticon Dominion. In theory. All of the Autobots prepare to leave for Prime's funeral, but Ratchet can't bear to face another one of his failures. He has a great exchange with First Aid, where the younger Autobot advises Ratchet about the need to persevere, but Ratchet wants to grieve in his own way. The exchange rings true - a young bot saying the technically correct words to an older, more experienced bot, but without the emotional weight of experience behind it.

After his comrades depart, Ratchet laments how little he was able to do for his fellow Autobots. All he can do is keep them alive on life support, but he lacks the parts to return them to working order. Looking at Prowl's body, though, gives Ratchet an idea. He remembers seeing a place that might have parts - a junkyard. At first he finds it macabre, until he reminds himself that Earth machines are not alive. Soon he's finding part after part that might help his fellows, but he's interrupted by some humans doing illicit business. Ratchet transforms to lay low, observing The Mechanic and his henchman, Juan, attempting to sell stolen cars to what turns out to be an under cover cop. The thieves bolt and quickly discover Ratchet. Juan drives, while the Mechanic positively quivers in fear. He seems to have an unnatural phobia regarding the police. Ratchet quite rightly reasons that winding up in police custody is probably not a good thing for him, and so aids their pursuit with his cryogenic sprayer and his laser scalpel. With the cops no longer in pursuit, though, the Mechanic recovers his wits and begins to remove Prowl's weapons. The whole thing is a little contrived. Ratchet should have had the presence of mind to keep the thieves locked out of his interior, and probably should have ejected them long before they could start removing his innards. The Mechanic's astynomiaphobia is also a bit contrived, but then I suppose every supervillain needs an Achilles heel.

As Ratchet futzes about with humans, Omega Supreme officiates at Optimus Prime's funeral. He somehow looks positively gentle as he lays Optimus in his casket. I love the design of the casket - while I'm sure it's a Perlin original, it looks perfectly in keeping with Floro Dery's style. Yomtov's colors help add to the effect. We cut away from the actual body of the funeral, though some of that is depicted in G.I. Joe and the Transformers #3. We come back in time for the ending. Perceptor has the last word, and again, Bob's writing style has a great mix of expressiveness and slightly alien diction. "His courage was the beacon that guided us through the dark wilderness of this alien world. His love and kindness inspired us when our prospects seemed most bleak. His wisdom washed over us in unending waves. If we each retained but a drop we would each be immeasurably the better for it." Powerful stuff - Bob kills at eulogies. This is the real emotional heart of the issue, and it couldn't have been handled better.

There's also some most likely coincidental resonance with issue #74, which Furman was destined to scribe several years later. As Prime blasts off, Perceptor finishes with, "we send you to join with the universe -- to return to the cosmic dust from which all life began and from which it will begin again." #74 would reveal the origins of the Universe as we know it was tiny bits of cosmic dust that Unicron missed on his first pass through the universe interacting and forming the big bang.

But meanwhile, the Mechanic has big plans for the alien weaponry he's captured, and for the strange ambulance that contained it. Ratchet's heard enough, and prepares to retrieve his tools and return to base. The Mechanic, though, is as overconfident with machines as he is underconfident with the police. He dives for the cryogenic sprayer and ices Ratchet down. When Ratchet thaws out he decides the make his way back to the Ark, not realizing that he's being tailed. Undaunted at the site of an alien spacecraft surrounded by autoguns, The Mechanic makes his way into the base and uses Ratchet's own weaponry to defeat the Autobot. When the other Autobots return to base, he observes the power booster rod in action and reactivates the defenses. He also deduces its strength-amplifying powers and decides to add it to his arsenal.

Ratchet tries to save his companions, but gets both his knees blasted and is forced to retreat in Ambulance mode. The Autobots, meanwhile, are reluctant to fire on their own guns for fear of damaging their spacecraft and losing their best chance to go home. Ratchet gets too weak to drive and props himself up against the life support chambers. He's not depressed that he's going to die - he's depressed that he'll never get the chance to save his fellow Autobots. This, really, was his fear all along, triggered by his failure to save Optimus. It was clear that Ratchet gave everything he had to the task of reviving his leader and his friend, and it was not enough. All the emotional threads are together, and Bob bundles them up skillfully when First Aid's words of wisdom inspire a plan. Using the parts from the junkyard, Ratchet takes the few minutes he has to get Prowl into some semblance of a working order. As the Mechanic prepares to crush Ratchet with the power booster rod, Prowl shows up ... in vehicle mode, sirens blaring and lights flashing. The Mechanic immediately turns tail and runs, allowing Ratchet to deactivate the defenses. The Autobots are battered, but still alive. First Aid thinks that they can all be fixed in a week, but Ratchet thinks that it can be done in two days. His confidence has returned. While he's still grieving for his friend, he realizes how much good he can do for the living.

While I don't find the Mechanic to be a compelling villain, the story is structured perfectly. Emotionally, everything fits together. Plotwise, everything is set up in advance and then ties up neatly. It's an almost textbook example of how to write a good Transformers story. Having Prime's funeral gives it an extra level of gravitas that the A-plot lacks. The artwork was unusually good in spots, which was a nice touch. Overall, I'd give this one an A minus despite myself. Funeral For a Friend! is available for sale from IDW Publishing as part of  Classic Transformers Volume 2.

Torchwood: Children of the Earth (spoiler free)

I recently had the opportunity to watch Torchwood: Children of the Earth and I came away most impressed. I thought I'd ramble on a bit about it.

As a Doctor Who fan, I was a bit skeptical when I first heard that Doctor Who was coming back. I loved the cheesy 70s and 80s episodes that I'd seen, but wasn't sure that the same level of magic could work in a modern setting. When I heard it was a fully in-continuity continuation, rather than a reboot, I warmed up a bit, though my skepticism remained. Watching it on the Sci-Fi channel, though, my doubts were dispelled. Here was a show with all the magic and charm and wit of the classic Who, but with modern aesthetics. The best of the old and new, coming together.

So, naturally, I had high hopes for Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off following alien investigators in Wales. They imported over Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, a break-away companion character introduced late in the first season. He did have some changes, though. He was immortal now, and a bit more serious than when we last saw him swashbuckling around with Rose and The Doctor. He was joined by a crew of four. Former policewoman Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), the female lead and newest member, was a proxy for the audience. Doctor Owen Harper (Burn Gorman) provides medical expertise and a generally unpleasant disposition. Toshiko 'Tosh' Sato (Naoko Mori) is a brilliant but insecure computer programmer. Rounding out the team is Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), the jack-of-all-trades administrator of the team. They are based around The Hub, a huge complex built around a time/space rift in Cardiff. Things drift in and out of the rift, giving the team plenty to do in any given season.

Unfortunately, Seasons 1 and 2 were both a bit disappointing. It lacks the child-like sense of wonder that Doctor Who does so well, trying instead for a grittier reality. Unfortunately, it commits the same sin that many programs do when trying to be 'adult'; it winds up being juvenile. More sex and violence does not equal more mature. Oh, sure, there are some great episodes here and there. Countrycide, in season 1, pits the team against an extremely terrestrial threat. Owen has some great character development in season 2. Season 2 also features some terrific guest spots by Buffy's James Marsters as Captain John Hart, foil fantastic for Captain Jack. Still, the general effect was one that left me a bit indifferent. Glad I watched them, but not really needing to get the DVDs. (I usually buy DVDs so that I can share a series with someone else; my family, my fiancee, my buddies, someone. I love rewatching a great show or movie with some fresh eyes.)

That all changed with Torchwood, Season 3. Instead of a full thirteen episode season, the producers opted instead for a more limited approach. Five episodes, but all telling one massive story. This, finally, is a tale where adult means adult. The drama is real, and human, and poignant. There is love, and loss, and sacrifice from many unexpected quarters. The stakes are higher than ever, somehow higher than the usual 'the universe might end' that is so often employed because the stakes are more relateable. The writers expertly jerk us around with some false leads, playing on the knowledge of how the show is structured to lead us down some blind alleys. The miniseries format really works well, allowing the whole story to build to a crescendo.

I don't want to say more, because it hasn't aired yet in America, but I highly recommend this series. Watch it, buy it, love it! Torchwood: Children of Earth is available from Amazon.com for under $20, and will be airing on BBC America starting 7/20 at 9:00 PM.

Cybertron DVDs

Does anyone out there have the Cybertron DVDs? I need some screen grabs from episode 12: Ship.

Ark Addendum - Darkwings Combined

As usual, it's Tuesday and that means that it's time for some new character models. Since Ivan's Gallery yesterday featured Buster and Hydra Darkwing, I thought that today might be a good day to pull out the combination of those two into the Darkwings jet.

Masterforce is an interesting series. Like Headmasters, the toys are mostly the same as their American counterparts. Sure, some of them sport different color schemes, and some have different tooling. Still, the Japanese line of 1988 was substantially the same as the American line of 1988. Like Victory, the storyline for Masterforce varied greatly from the American storyline of 1988. Masterforce Pretenders walked among us, in suits and ties, working at jobs, driving in cars. The Headmasters were youthful participants in the war, with their own agendas and motivations. And the Godmasters were something special, tapping into ancient forces and powering Transtectors with their own will.

It functions as a kind of transition point, before the toys diverge but after the underlying mythology seriously diverged. The Darkwing brothers sort of function as both. As Godmasters, they represent one of the most important aspects of the Masterforce mythos, but they also feature the sort of extra combination-based transformation that permeated so much of Victory. Unlike the toys of Victory, the Darkwing combination is relatively simple, basically just smashing the two jets together. The animation model reflects this fairly accurately, though the motion lines and the sub-transformation of the human components jazzes it up a bit.

Iván's Gallery: Darkwings

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I certainly enjoyed a lazy summer weekend of reading and swimming and watching War of the Worlds. Now it's time for another edition of Ivan's Gallery. This week, Iván brings us the Darkwing brothers. Here's what the artist has to say about them:

Great characters, the intention of this Pin-up is clear... play with the duality of this brothers. Interestingly these characters appears in Marvel series... but a very uninteresting.

Buster (left) and Hydra (right) are repainted and darkwing of Dreadwing in Masterforce version, and like all human components has its power bracelets. Buster is a DJ, has a certain effeminate appearance, the very era of the eighties, reminds me a little of David Bowie in Labyrinth movie, I think it is the younger brother.

Both are German, Hydra, for his part is an actor, and uses this chip in occasions in the series to lay a trap to Autobots. Is the boss in the group.

They are Transtectors, are different to the rest, are not Headmasters, they are transformed into engines, so it is assumed that are more fearsome. And also could be combined in airplane mode and form a rare aircraft... very funny... It is not very clear, but it seems to have been adopted by Giga and Mega and have special training.

The figures, the prices are very high, and more at the Japanese version, and even more if we look for a pack showing both. I think around 500 dollars.

Why, despite that I like a lot, are two of the figures that I have not yet, and certainly make me more enthusiasm in its Japanese version, although I think the American version in its colors are better.

In any case, the picture we see the characters, the human form with armor, and some of his robot form. Then I played a little with the composition, to make the arms of both species together in a single body to display his mechanical gadgets as they do in the series.

Then got to finish the composition Decepticon logo. I enjoy with this picture that even I did a quick version to color, play with the color range of each.

Then I have done a better version of the brothers .. giving a more serious and realistic, which I hope soon you will see in a mosaic.

Review: War of the Worlds, the series ep 0

People in my life recently have been annoyed by me. While this is not really an unusual occurrence, I figured that I'd try to channel the source of that annoyance into something useful. You see, when I get into something, it's all I can talk about. Recently, I've recently been watching a lot of War of the Worlds, The Series.

For those of you who don't remember, in 1988 there was a syndicated series called War of the Worlds. It was set in-continuity with the classic 1953 George Pal film and followed a small team as they tried to battle a revived alien menace. It went two seasons, though the second season was a radical departure for the first. I was 12 when the show started and loved watching it late on a Friday night. Recently, I rewatched the entire series and found that I had mixed emotions about it. For one, the first season wasn't nearly as good as I'd remembered, and the second season wasn't nearly as bad. With analytical adult eyes, I was able to discern flaws that I never noticed as a 12-year-old, but also new virtues. Thus, the idea of reviewing the series sprang into my head as a way to exorcise the show from my subconscious.

Since the show is, as I mentioned, ostensibly set in the same universe as the film, I figured I'd review that first. I'm going to be reviewing it, and indeed all episodes of both seasons, in the context of the series as a whole, so it'll be slightly askew from a normal review of the film. Also, the series was pretty bad about continuity, one of the mortal sins for a Science Fiction television program. I'm going to note the continuity errors, but I'm making a conscious effort (I nearly wrote 'conscious error' - Freudian slip maybe?) to judge each story on its own merits even in the face of such discontinuities. These reviews will be a bit more abbreviated than my Transformers reviews, since I'm not sure how much interest there is. If you want me to go into greater depth, please say so on the comments pages. For the film, though, I felt that I couldn't shortchange it, so this review is quite detailed.

The War of the Worlds is an absolute classic film chronicling the invasion of Earth by Martians. It is loosely based on the H.G. Wells book by the same name, though the nameless journalist narrator has for the most part been replaced by Doctor Clayton Forrester. (This name was, of course, appropriated by Mystery Science Theater 3000 for their primary antagonist.)

Forrester, played by Gene Barry, is a congenial scientist who happens to be on a fishing trip near the site of a strange meteor that crashes to Earth. He's called in to investigate and immediately notes that an object of that size should have made a much larger crater. This implies that the object was either less massive than it should be or traveling more slowly than it should. As it turns out, it was both. The meteor was in fact a canister fired from another world, Mars the omniscient narrator informs us, and was merely the first of many. Forrester heads into town in the company of an adoring young lady, Sylvia van Buren as portrayed by Ann Robinson, with only a trio of deputies left behind to make sure that the glowing hot body doesn't start any more fires. We immediately get a sense for both of our primary protagonists. Barry plays Forrester as just a bit quirky but with penetrating intelligence. Van Buren is eager and cheerful and also sharp, though not quite as sharp as her hero Dr. Forrester. They have great chemistry together and help ground the film.

While the town makes merry, the deputies encounter the Martians for the first time. They note that a hatch on the celestial body is unscrewing itself and nervously chatter among themselves. A probe emerges, prompting them to slowly make their way forward. As they entreat the occupants of the probe to show themselves, they declare themselves friendly and welcome the men from another world to California. So as to make sure that their intentions are understood, they create a makeshift white flag and wave it about. The ominous probe regards them for a moment, then opens fire, obliterating them. In the town below, the discharge has caused power to go out, phone lines to die, and watches to become magnetized. Investigating what's happened causes Forrester and the sheriff to come under fire from the Martians. Forrester advises the sheriff to call the military. The whole bit with the deputies is also very well done. While they never become much more than some quick caricatures, they are earnest and friendly in the face of the unknown. The cavalier way the Martians dispatch them help set the tone for the rest of the film and, as it turns out, human / alien relations in the series. We are insects to them, to be exterminated without regard or pity.

Thus begins the invasion in earnest. All over the world, canisters are dropping. They fall in threes, with a pilot cylinder landing and guiding in two more. From each canister emerges three war machines. We're told that they're attacking all over the world, though the focus remains on the sleepy Californian town where the first cylinder landed. The army surrounds the three war machines, hovering wedges with a single protruding probe, and prepares to wage war against these hostile visitors from another world. Sylvia's uncle, pastor Collins, attempts to again make peaceful contact with the extra-terrestrial visitors. Muttering a litany of prayers, he walks forward, bible in hand. His extermination signals the start of a huge barrage against the craft. Guns, bombs, rockets, nothing is effective against the magnetic umbrella protecting the craft. The heat ray mercilessly blasts into our heavy artillery, while a disintegration ray takes our soldiers apart at the molecular level. The army has no choice but to withdraw, having lost 90% of its equipment and 60% of its manpower. The airforce fared worse - all planes sent in to bomb the war machines were obliterated. The extended bombardment of the war machines is one of the best in the movie, and probably responsible for the Best Special Effects Oscar this film earned. Pastor Collins death was also a good moment for the film; when offered a chance to back down from hostilities, the Martians didn't hesitate to throw down the gauntlet.


Forrester and van Buren, too, retreat, though when his private plane is downed they are forced to hole up in an abandoned farm. This proves less than safe, when a canister lands nearby. They send a small probe into the farmhouse and eventually get a good look at the humans, though Forrester chops off the tri-colored lens with an axe. This prompts a martian to investigate, giving us our only real look at a Martian. It's a bipedal creature with a large, cycloptic eye, though much smaller than a man. He wounds it and it retreats, though leaving him with a bit of Martian blood. As our heroes retreat, the war machine levels the farm. This scene doesn't hold up quite as well. The movement of the lens is shaky and abrupt, not in keeping with the magnetic elegance of the war machines. The eye of the Martian looks kind of silly - I think Pal was going for a vaguely camera-like appearance, but it looks fake to these skeptical 21st century eyes. The suckered fingers, though, are very nice.

With cities all over the world falling, the government prepares to take its most drastic step yet. A huge fission bomb was deployed against the machines, despite the risk of fallout to our own populace. When even this proved insufficient, desperation set in. Forrester was tasked with developing some way, any way, of fighting the aliens. He was told to evacuate the laboratories of the fictitious Pacific Institute of Technology to the mountains for this critical measure. However, he had a hard deadline - the complete destruction of all infrastructure was projected for six days hence. Sylvia notes that the world took as long to make as it will to destroy, continuing the religious undertones of the film.

Even this proved impossible. As he tried to evacuate the gear from the lab, a desperate mob of people pulled him from his truck and drove off with it. Barry turns in an excellent performance here, as he watches whatever tenous hope humanity had left torn from him. He then realizes that Sylvia, on a prior bus out of town, could easily have suffered a similar fate. His worst fears are confirmed when he sees a sign from the bus on the ground. Realizing that humanity is doomed to extinction, he has no other thought than reuniting with the woman who has recently come to mean so much to him. He eventually remembers a story she told of running away from home and taking sanctuary in a church. He goes from church to church, even as the war machines are leveling Los Angeles, until he finds her with the aliens just minutes away. The two of them desperately fight the crowd, intent only on dying in each others arms, and embrace as a heat ray strikes the stained glass of their not-so-safe-harbor. This scene is amazingly effective. The war machines are incredibly menacing, especially as they systematically raze Los Angeles. The sound effects are especially well done, Martian machines tsking and humming menacingly.

But, in a twist ending that's been ingrained into the consciousness of modern society, the war machines begin to crash - the martians begin to die. It seems that their immune systems were ill prepared to deal with the virulent bacteria of Earth. God, in his infinite wisdom, the omniscient narrator informs us, saw fit to populate the world with such creatures.

It's a powerful story. Barry and Robinson turn in powerhouse performances. Robinson goes a bit more hysterical than a modern actress would, but that was part of the style of the time. Their desperation, especially in their final moments, is palpable. Though the movie mostly focuses on California, there are enough scenes and newspapers from around the world to give the conflict a truly global feel. Humanity really seems on the verge of being wiped out. The utter failure of the atomic bomb to even dent one of the machines was a terrific moment.

There were also strong religious overtones to the movie, more so than in the book. The priest dying in a futile attempt to stave off disaster, seeking sanctuary in a church, and of course the miracle of humanity's salvation all conspire to give the sense of us surviving by divine grace alone. This aspect of the movie would be picked up on in both seasons of the show. Season one featured biblical verses as titles for every episode, and often featured aliens disguised as spiritual leaders. Season two would introduce The Eternal, the living god of the aliens and flipping the religious quotient from humans to aliens.

There is also just a bit of examination of the alien culture. They seem to be fixated on the number three, as all of their strategy is built around powers of three. This aspect, too, would be picked up on in the first season of the show.

Overall, this is a thoroughly excellent depiction of the near-extermination of humanity. The special effects, while primitive by today's standards, were top-notch for the day and still manage to hold up decently well for the war machines. (The alien and the lens seem fairly primitive, though.) In the context of the series that follows it, it almost does its job too well. Humanity is teetering on the brink here, something that never really comes across in the show. There are also several discontinuities, though of course none of that is the fault of the film. Still, the Martians of Pal's War of the Worlds are such a classic foe that the chance to examine more of them in a television format is almost too good to pass up.

I can't recommend the film enough - at $7 for the special edition, it's a steal. The commentary by Barry and especially Robinson is worth that alone.