War of the Worlds, Episode 20

The Days of Imprisonment…

(link to Episode 1)

And so, our intrepid Narrator finds himself trapped in the cavernous remains of a house with a fellow human who is quite clearly losing his marbles whilst the ever productive Martian Society of Sporting for Fun and Profit continues in their various and sundry machinations.

Do they have to look so…pleased with themselves? Ew.

The big question is, what are they building out there?

We may never know.

And perhaps that’s going to be for the best. This is some world-changing stuff going on after all. It’s tough going from apex predator to herd animal in the space of a few days. Damages the ego.

I sometimes run WotW as an imaginary scenario, placing it against the here and now. A Martian Cylinder crash lands in Swope Park—what happens then? You could do worse than listen to a production by WBIG in DC, back when it was an oldies station, to find out. They were riffing off of Orson Welles’ 1938 production, but updating broadcast styles and Official Responses by Authorities. And for being in 1997 (hey, Marion Barry and Prez Billy C make ‘appearances’, remember those guys?) I feel they did an excellent job, capturing the slow-burn opener zeitgeist of Herbert George, but also showing how batshit-crazy everything would get in a hurry, once the Martians were on the move.