History Series / WarOfTheWorlds1988

* Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin, previously of ''{{Dallas}}''), project leader, an eccentric scientist and adopted son of the movie's Clayton Forrester. Equal parts TheSpock and the male equivalent of GranolaGirl.

* MacGyver: Both Harrison and the aliens, who can build [=WMDs=] out of anything.

* FantasticDrug: The crystal in "The Second Seal" and the music embeds in "Choirs of Angels"; Harrison has a fairly brutal experience coming down from the latter.

The ReTool is generally reviled by fans, so much so that many believe Mancuso intentionally sabotaged the show in favor of one of its perceived competitors, Mancuso's own brainchild, ''Friday The Thirteenth The Series''. Over the years however the second season has developed quite a few defenders.

Noteworthy guest-stars included Ann Robinson, who reprises her role from the film as Sylvia Van Buren, the now-insane love interest of Clayton Forrester (who became his wife and adoptive mother of Harrison), and John Colicos (of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Classic}}'' fame, see LargeHam) as the renegade alien Quinn. Not to mention a cameo by Australian rock legend Billy Thorpe, who also provided the music for the first season.

* OhCrap: In the pilot, Blackwood and his team when they suddenly hear an all-too-familiar noise coming from the three war machines in the warehouse...and do the only logical thing: RunOrDie, pursued by the war machines and their newly merged human/alien hybrid crews.

* OhCrap: In the pilot, Blackwood and his team when they suddenly hear an all-too-familiar noise coming from the three war machines in the warehouse...and do the only logical thing: Run for their lives, pursued by the war machines and their newly merged human/alien hybrid crews.

* OhCrap: In the pilot, Blackwood and his team when they suddenly hear an all-too-familiar noise coming from the three war machines in the warehouse...and do the only logical thing: ExitStageRight, pursued by the war machines and their newly merged human/alien hybrid crew.

* OhCrap: In the pilot, Blackwood and his team when they suddenly hear an all-too-familiar noise coming from the three war machines in the warehouse...and do the only logical thing: run for their lives.

->''In 1953, Earth experienced a War of the Worlds. Common bacteria stopped the aliens but it didn't kill them. Instead they lapsed into a state of deep hibernation. Now the aliens have been awakened, more terrifying than before. In 1953, the aliens tried to take over the world. Today, they're taking over our bodies.''

Based on the 1953 movie, '''''War of the Worlds''''' added cold war sensibilities and a liberal dose of ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' to create the prototype for alien invasion [[Main.SciFi sci-fi]] in the 1990s.

The two-hour premier [[Main.RetCon retconned]] the ending to the George Pal movie (and, for that matter, the [[Main.HGWells H. G. Wells]] novel), deciding that the aliens were really [[Main.NotQuiteDead not quite dead]], but simply comatose. A terrorist attack on a storage facility exposed the alien bodies to radioactive waste, neutralizing Earth bacteria and awakening the aliens, who promptly revealed a nifty new ability: they could absorb themselves into human bodies, at least until radiation (and the fact that the host was essentially an animated corpse) caused the body to break down. Also the aliens were eventually revealed to be from the planet Mor-tax 40 light-years away in Taurus, rather than Mars, as was assumed in the original movie (though never confirmed except in the prologue narration).

* NightmareFuel: Aside from the fact that the aliens enact BodyHorror via taking over unwilling humans, the first-season episode "The Angel of Death" shows the aliens casually discussing their plan while a bound and gagged group of humans are trapped in a cage. The scene ends as the aliens walk over to the cage to take over several victims (including the father of a family) as they try to hop away pitifully.

* RecycledTheSeries

* ArtistDisillusionment: Catherine Disher (Mana in the second season) has made no secret of the fact that she hates the show ''because'' of irate fans who sent her derogatory and negative letters during (and after) the production of the second season. To this day, she won't talk about the show at fan conventions or participate in DVD commentaries about the show.

* EvilTwin: Ironhorse's clone
* ExecutiveMeddling: The second season

* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: For a show that ran in syndication, the show was ''BRUTAL'', showcasing all manner of shocking deaths and melting aliens.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Would you believe that the BigBad of season two is [[Film/TheMask Sweet Eddy]]? Or that his scientist is [[Anime/SailorMoon Mimete]] and her assistant [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Death]]? And the KGB agent in ''Epiphany'' in the first season is [[http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Iblis Count Iblis]] from the original Battlestar Galactica, and Quinn is Baltar from the same series.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Would you believe that the BigBad of season two is [[Film/TheMask Sweet Eddy]]? Or that his scientist is [[SailorMoon Mimete]] and her assistant [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Death]]? And the KGB agent in ''Epiphany'' in the first season is [[http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Iblis Count Iblis]] from the original Battlestar Galactica, and Quinn is Baltar from the same series.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Would you believe that the BigBad of season two is [[Film/TheMask Sweet Eddy]]? Or that his scientist is [[SailorMoon Mimete]] and her assistant [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Death]]? And the KGB agent in ''Epiphany'' in the first season is [[http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Iblis Count Iblis]] from the original Battlestar Galactica

* MagicFloppyDisk: [[spoiler: An alien infiltrator]] in the first season episode "Among the Philistines" is able to fit everything the Blackwood Project knows about the aliens on a single 5" Floppy disc.

* MagicFloppyDisc: [[spoiler: An alien infiltrator]] in the first season episode "Among the Philistines" is able to fit everything the Blackwood Project knows about the aliens on a single 5" Floppy disc.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Would you believe that the BigBad of season two is [[Film/TheMask Sweet Eddy]]? Or that his scientist is [[SailorMoon Mimete]] and her assistant [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Death]]?