War of the Worlds: By the Man Who Made the Musical

Interesting personal reflection here on H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne; he calls it "the greatest story ever told." Wayne's particular connection to War of the Worlds is that he adapted the story into a musical(!) in the 1970s. With a new film version of War of the Worlds about to hit theaters, here are a few excerpts from Waynes' musings:

"I find it hard to believe that it was 30 years ago, almost to the day, that my father first handed me HG Wells's story. ... After one read I was hooked.

"Wells's tale of Martian invasion must have been utterly terrifying when it was first published in 1898. ... To me, the concept of alien invaders from Mars during the late 1890s was a far more terrifying prospect than were they to arrive today. Earthlings now can defend themselves far better with their modern weaponry. ...

"Before he gave [the book] to me, I had never heard of it. Nor was I familiar with Orson Welles's 1938 radio production, which had scared the wits out of some very naïve Yanks, or the 1953 Paramount film also set in America - which didn't scare anyone. What inspired me about the book, other than its possibilities from a musician's perspective, was its underlying theme of man's struggle on Earth."

[Wayne describes trips he took to locations in England mentioned in the original version of The War of the Worlds.]

"... It's easy to forget that in HG Wells's England there were no mobile phones, e-mails or modern transportation, so word of the impending alien onslaught would have initially spread very slowly. In the novel, as word gets around, the streets suddenly turn humanity into a herd of cattle, fleeing London for the seafront in search of route out of England and away from the ever-pursuing Martians.

"... Flight and pursuit - conquest and the conquered - these are realities of the modern world. It's hard to tell such stories without using simple analogies, and, I think, it's for exactly this reason that this tale has continued to hold us all in its thrall. ... [One of the characters, a curate] fails his flock long before the others give up their souls to the Martians. Only his wife Beth knows the essence of life: 'There must be something worth living for, something worth dying for, and if one man can stand tall, there must be hope for us all - somewhere, somewhere in the spirit of man.'

"... H G Wells didn't just write some simple tale of the shoot 'em up, knock 'em down kind. He wrote about strong themes like the survival of mankind, of evil power unleashed, not by Martians, but by humans here on Earth. Perhaps that's why The War of the Worlds survives today, long after so many other stories of science-fiction have long departed."

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