"'War Of The Worlds Goliath': The Martians" Topic

DWW is going to love this picture:

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It is from "War of the Worlds: Goliath":

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wotw-goliath.com
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I definitely like their Martian Cephalopods a lot more than the ones I've seen from other films and artwork:

TMP link

But . . . what do YOU guys think? Does it still have the HG Wells feel?

CC

That drawing looks EXACTLY like Bob Charrette's Cephalopods in his Parroom Station line.

Nazrat,

You mean these?

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If so, I think this image is even closer to these, but the Parroom ones have thicker tentacles:

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What do you think?

CC

Thanks for sharing CC! I'm buying a ticket opening day…

Sweet!!!

LLC aka Ron

"Earth has rebuilt their shattered world…"

As I previously stated in an earlier thread, in the original book that this movie appears to be basing its backstory on, only Britain was actually "shattered". The rest of the world stood on the sidelines and watched in horror but were otherwise unaffected. They were likely to have been next once the superpower of Britain had been destroyed and the "beachhead" secured, but the virus killed the Martians before they could make their move, so most of Earth was actually quite untouched by the Martians.

Oh well.

I also doubt very much that, even if other nations were able to acquire the martian technology that only the British would actually have had access to, and even if they had been able to reverse engineer it into warmachines, that we would magically be one united planet giving a united front.

More likely we'd use our new toys to tear ourselves apart before the Martians even came back. World War One would have been far far worse.

I suppose it's a nice excuse for some battlemechs though. ;)

To answer the question, personally I've always liked the artwork seen in Jeff Wayne's musical version (and on some paperback covers). To me this has always been the archetypal martian war machine:

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Scutatus,

Then you might find this interesting too. This is what some on TMP said would happen after the tripods went down (but mostly based on the 2005 film version):

TMP link

CC

Thanks for sharing CC! I'm buying a ticket opening day…

I'm pretty sure this is intended to be a direct to DVD release.

-Will

Scutatus
I cannot find a reference in the original book WotW by Wells that only England was attacked.

According to this book, War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches
the invasion was world wide
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It is implied by several factors.

First, by the fact that France was safe, that "overseas" was safe. All the accounts in the book talk of Britain, there is no mention – no suggestion – that other parts of the world are being attacked – all of the Martian efforts are concentrated on the British Isles.

Then we have the accounts of the Martians themselves: there were only ten martian cylinders fired at Earth and we know at least five hit Britain. Wells himself specifically mentions only two martians exiting the first cylinder – the only one explicitely described. The first two martian tripods appear only after two canisters have already fallen. From this we can gather that in all there really weren't many martians at all and if the were so few, would they really have divided their strength by sending other canisters, alone and unsupported, to other parts of the world? This combined with the numbers of martian machines encountered during the fighting, as well as the concentration of fifty or so dead Martians and machines in London at the end of the book, (likely most if not all of the martian expeditionary force) all suggest the Martians focused all their initial attention on Britain.

This makes sense if one perceives Britain as a) the superpower of the moment that argueably represents the greatest threat to the martians and
b) that the martians are establishing a beach head prior to more forces arriving.

When the British begin to flee they try to flee across the water to the continent. They do so because the continent (and therefore argueably the rest of the world) was still safe.Those that would like to think that the U.S or other parts of the world were involved are just getting it wrong.

This may not go down very well with the Americans here, but when the book was written (indeed at the time the story is set) the USA was NOT the superpower it was to become and the world did not yet revolve around it. Just as 90% of Hollywood movies (and indeed radio plays) have subsequently been based in the US, so, back then, an awful lot was set in GB. The original novel was set in GB, affected only GB, because at the time, it was largely a GB orientated world – certainly for the Brits and their Empire anyhow. Sorry.

Ammendment: I have of course temporarily forgotten Mr Well's very detailed description of the fifth cylinder and the goings on around it. We are told of one war machine and one harvester machine, both apparently built at/from the one canister, with other unmanned(sic) devices constructed as well. This was apparently a larger canister than the first that the narrator had seen, implying that not all canisters were so large and did not all hold so many martians or machines. Allowing for the five (or even six) martians that Wells describes working around the fifth cylinder when he is buried beneath the house, the fifty machines/Martians in London that congregate to die together still has the suggestion of the entirity of the martian invasion force.

Although we are told not all canisters were as large as the fifth one, if we are generous we can say that ten cylinders each with six martians (10 x 6) gives us sixty or so martians, with one martian driving each machine. Two of these machines are destroyed in battle, we are told of the construction of a flying machine, and fifty machines mass in London at the end. That is fifty two, possibly fifty three, machines accounted for in Britain; just about all of them according to the maths.

To back this up we actually know seven of the landing/crash sites. These being: Horsell Common (Woking), Addlestone Golf Links, Pyrford, Bushey Park, Sheen, Wimbledon and Primrose Hill – all in England. Of the three remaining sites, would they really be elsewhere in the world, or with the other seven? The trend would suggest all ten hit Britain, possibly even just England. Certainly they appear to make London their main base of operations.

The statistics alone show almost conclusively that the Martians attacked Britain and Britain only. What ever the Marians had intended to do subsequently, the virus killed them before they could do it.

So no, sorry, according to HG Wells, no American front, no real "World War."

War of the Worlds: Global Despatches is a "tribute" inspired by the original and is not canon. It is essentially a collection of international contributors imagining that their part of the world too had a slice of martian action. Which according to HG Wells, didn't happen. Wotw; Global Despatches is not actually The War of the Worlds. While it's heart is in the right place it and its contributors seem to miss the point that in the pure original story, the Martians never got any further from Britain than the English channel. There is certainly absolutely no way that the three unaccounted for canisters could have landed Martians in so many places throughout the world! And in any case, as stated, the number of Martians present in London suggest that no such landings and no such dispersal of martian forces ever occurred. WotW: Global Despatches also contradicts other points established by HG Wells, such as the Martians being sexless.

In other words, WotW: Global Despatches is not the real deal and is just one of the many "interpretations" inspired by War of the Worlds – as opposed to actually BEING War of the Worlds.

One last statistic: from beginning to end, using HG Wells' account as a guide, the war lasted barely twenty one days – a month at the most. When the Narrator gets back to his house and finds the work he had been writing when the war began, he reflects on how "barely a month had gone by" since it all started. We know that for most of that time the Martians were rather preoccupied consolidating themselves in England, and harvesting the survivors. And at the end of it the Martians congregated in London, their main base.

Again, the suggestion is that there was little time for the Martians to get any further than Britain itself, no time to deploy elsewhere in the world and open up other fronts, and even if they began to, they just as quickly turned around and returned to London to die.

And when talking of the immediate aftermath of the war we are given the lines "Across the channel, across the Irish Sea, across the Atlantic, corn, bread and meat were tearing to our relief. All the shipping in the world seemed going Londonward in those days" Implication: the rest of the world has been unaffected and after the war rushes to send humamitarian aid to devastated Britain, something they would surely be less inclined to do if they were themselves devastated. Again, there is no suggestion of such a worldwide devastation.

I hope this all clarifies matters? :)

For more about the Martians read the story "The Crystal Egg" by H.G. Wells. It is reprinted in one of the Iron Stars gamebooks, along with a Wells sketch of a Martian.

They look rather less like octopi and more like an imense humanoid head with a body that has atrophied until only the fingers are left to form the tentacles.

Wells does not directly state that these are the same Martians that attacked Earth, but clearly implies it.

Still, these Goliath Martians look great.

Here is the Wells sketch from a copy of War of the Worlds he inscribed to a friend, picture I guess that makes it about as cononical as we are likely to get. And darned if it doesn't look "cute"

I guess this is how they get breakfast . . .

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CC

I remember Kenneth Hite (of Steve Jackson Games' Pyramid Magazine) making up an alternate WoftheWs. He mentions that the Germans had success against the Martians because of their experience with indirect artillery fire.

I just love the way the entire body of the WOTW:G Martians fit into the walkers' transparent cockpit, as though that was just the head within a helmet:

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Dan

WOW! I mean W.O.W. too, no, I'd somehow missed this and now I'm watching out for it…but it will probably go directo to DVD like 'Moon'…

Slish!
Sgt DWW

LOL. Glad you finally got a chance to see it, DWW!

Dan

"More likely we'd use our new toys to tear ourselves apart before the Martians even came back. World War One would have been far far worse."

sheeze, no one ever accused you of being an optimist lol. Atleast your taste in tripods is correct :D

QUESTION:

Is anyone thinking of producing any NEW cephalopod-like Martian figures (big brain with tentacles) since this topic was first started (hopefully like the Goliath Martians)?

Thanks.

Dan
TMP link

Not so soon but there are squids and their mutations listed in our World Wide Water beta rules.