History Series / WarOfTheWorlds1988

The show now has [[Recap/WarOfTheWorlds1998 a recap page]].

The show now has [[Recap/WarOfTheWorlds a recap page]].

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 Sci-Fi in the 1990s.

The two-hour premier [[RetCon retconned]] the ending to the George Pal movie (and, for that matter, the Creator/HGWells novel), deciding that the aliens were really NotQuiteDead, 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).

''War of the Worlds'' (1988-1990) was a television series. For the novel that inspired this series, see ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds''. For the 2019 BBC mini-series, go [[Series/TheWarOfTheWorlds here]].

''War of the Worlds'' (1988-1990) was a television series. For the novel that inspired this series, see ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds''.

* AnyoneCanDie: The show made a point of killing off or [[StuffedIntoTheFridge stuffing]] supporting characters in shocking and increasingly gruesome ways to drive home the fact that no one was safe. If you were anyone other than a series regular your mortality rate was low. A lot of guest stars were ''BRUTALLY'' (and unceremoniously) killed.

* HarmfulToMinors: The death of Debi's alien friend in the series finale causes her to snap, and fires upon the Morthren several times while still in shock.

* BittersweetEnding: The series ends with the team victorious, Malzor defeated and the Morthren intending to destroy their base, but the victory came at a cost (many lives, including the death of Debi's alien friend).

* OhCrap: In the pilot, Blackwood and his team, having just dealt with a [[spoiler:merged Akin]], 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.

* AlienBlood: Both the Mortaxans and the Morthrens bleeds green, with Morthren blood being florescent.

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 SciFi in the 1990s.

* BodyHorror / NauseaFuel: The first season. In spades.

* CerebusSyndrome: The first season had more explicit gore but it also had more humor and had a brighter, cheerful mood. The main characters were allowed personality quirks and banter. In the cyberpunk second season, all of the humor and banter vanished, and most of the season's episodes were set at nighttime. The opening credits for the first season followed the standard fare of most adventure shows of TheEighties, an upbeat theme and mood. This was not the case in the second season where the opening credits was accompanied with a fly-through of the corridors of an abandoned, dilapidated building accompanied by news bits of escalating violence and crime. It ends by showing us that this abandoned building is a city hall building in front of which is a sculpture of what appears to be the Spirit of 76. In a dramatic, symbolic fashion, the sculpture topples over and crumbles.

* ClipShow: The first season episode "The Last Supper"

* HopelessWar: On both sides, specifically season 1

* 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. Which then, a couple of scenes later, has somehow turned into a CDRom.

* ReTool

After a season of fighting aliens who were, essentially, stand-ins for communists, the show was taken out of the hands of executive producers Sam and Greg Strangis and given to Frank Mancuso Jr., who radically [[Main.ReTool retooled]] the show. Chavez and Akin were written out, replaced by Adrian Paul (later of ''Series/{{Highlander}}''), and the world of the series was reimagined as a CyberPunk (minus the futuristic technology) {{Dystopia}} in the midst of collapse, with the new tagline "Almost Tomorrow" usually taken to mean that the show had shifted TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, though this never became explicit. A "second wave" of invaders, calling their planet Mor-thrai instead of Mor-tax and themselves Morthren, arrived on Earth following the destruction of their homeworld by a "light storm". Physical possession was replaced with cloning process and, basically, everything else about the show changed. (The only remaining sign that this was meant to take place in [[TheVerse the same universe as]] the original movie came in the episode "Time To Reap", when the characters traveled back in time to 1953, and in the series finale, "The Obelisk", where footage from the movie was used in a [[{{Main.Montages}} flashback montage]].) The alien race was even renamed.

* FantasticDrug: The crystal in "The Second Seal" and the music embeds in "Choirs of Angels". Harrison suffers a painful withdrawal from the latter.

* UnresolvedPlotThread: Quinn, a radiation-resistant alien who was stranded on Earth after the first invasion; Q'tara, who helped the Blackwood team and promised to bring reinforcements (actually intending [[spoiler:to preserve humanity [[ToServeMan as a food source]] ]]); the threat of another invasion force that would be coming in five years; the fate of an alien/human hybrid newborn taken by aliens in the episode "Unto US A Child Is Born."

* UnresolvedPlotThread: Quinn, a radiation-resistant alien who was stranded on Earth after the first invasion; Q'tara, who helped the Blackwood team and promised to bring reinforcements (actually intending [[spoiler:to preserve humanity [[ToServeMan as a food source]] ]]); the threat of another invasion force that would be coming in five years.

* CanadaEh: Shot in and around the Mississauga and Toronto in the Ontario area; many significant landmarks can be spotted during the series.

* EvilDetectingDog: In one episode Debi gets a dog just so it can bark at an alien infiltrator. This doesn't go well for the dog; the infiltrator promptly kills it and hides the body.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Many episodes end in a standstill, with the Blackwood team only being able to stop an immediate threat, instead of stopping the aliens outright.
** This is likely also why the Advocacy was executed by the Morthren.

* FantasticDrug: The crystal in "The Second Seal" and the music embeds in "Choirs of Angels"; Harrison suffers a painful withdrawal from the latter.

* ForgottenPhlebotinum: In the first season Episode "Vengeance is mine" the aliens [[spoiler: want to get their grubby tentacles on a lot of rubies so they can build some laser guns.]] They decide that stealing them would draw too much attention, so they decide to buy them by stealing money, instead of using their well established ability to simply take someone over to get what they want.

* OhCrap: In the pilot, Blackwood and his team, having just dealt with a [[spoiler:merged Akin]], 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.

** The second invasion force may have been the second season Morthren, since evidently enough time has passed for the world to become a CrapsackWorld.

** Omega Squadron (Ironhorse's military unit) join the fight against the Morthren during the Blackwood Estate assault in the second season premiere. They fight off several Morthren, and are last seen holding the perimeter (which is empty) at the estate. Then, they suddenly disappear after it's destroyed, and are never seen or referenced again. Considering they were loyal to Ironhorse and Kincaid, they end up being no more than RedShirts.

* WriterOnBoard: Frank Mancuso Jr.

War of the Worlds (1988-1990) was a television series. For the novel that inspired this series, see ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds''.

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 SciFi in the 1990s.

* Debi [=McCullough=] (Rachel Blanchard, later of ''[[Main.SeventhHeaven Seventh Heaven]]''), Suzanne's young daughter. Rarely involved in the action in any way until season 2, but the only major supporting character with an ongoing presence in season 1.

Though the show is now mostly forgotten (for many years, the show's owners at Paramount denied that it had ever even existed), its influences can be seen in many of the series that followed, such as ''Series/FirstWave'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', ''EarthFinalConflict'' and ''Series/DarkSkies''.

[[quoteright:120:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wotw-head-120.gif]]

* YouWouldntBelieveMeIfIToldYou: In the pilot episode, "The Resurrection", Harrison makes a point of saying this.