Totally unnecessary relationship issue backstory, tripods too big and made of crystal, Martians tripod shaped, best bits of the story missing and replaced with heavy handed environmentally aware flash forwards.
They took a run up and managed to make a total mess of one of the best stories ever told.
You can see how good it could have been if they'd just skipped the extra's they crammed in and stuck rigidly to the book. Its like the Hobbit movies when it could have been like LOTR.
GRRR and other angry noises.
Firstly you get narration from a woman. Then 'Amy' making 'scientific' proposals to Ogilvy. Then you get mention of the 'Socialist Society' or similar. Then you get a jump to Imperialist British Rule. Then you get disapproval of relationship outside wedlock (Well, that would be a church thing, wouldn't it.). Then you get a dung ball hovering above the landing site. No tentacled creature. No spinning mirror. No sounds of engineering from within the cylinder. Flash forward to the future etc etc.
The Jeff Wayne LP got me to read the book as a kid and I have read it countless times since, and what a book that is. The build up, the description, the atmosphere, the tension; amazing. The struggle with sanity, surrendering yourself to realise that your madness is as sane as every other survivor. Witnessing the body of the curate you punched out, to stay hush getting dragged away to be devoured. Working out the biology of the Martians and their evolution into brains with tentacle-like fingers. The narrator finally realising that the only intelligent 'voice' was from those that destroyed all that he loved, and toying with his own crucifixion for their survival. What a book!
But it's the BBC. See, what they did (look up what the writers put on the internet), was grab anything they could. They put words in his mouth: H.G. Wells was involved in the Fabian Society back then. It's also not unreasonable to propose that his book was in response to foreseeable troubles in Europe re empires. But the book was about Martian invaders destroying everything that human kind knew and was powerless to defend, through the eyes of a journalist. The book observes social class; not as an issue, but as noticeable things such as profession. Empire, or power, is discussed the book, but it's not shoved down your throat. It's written in the faith that the reader is able to judge without prompting. The book does questions our dominion over our planet, but it doesn't distract from the story, unlike the BBC who'll shoe horn patronising snippets (that most people roll their eyes at) at every opportunity.
I've waited so long for a faithful screen adaption of the original book. I'm still waiting.
Looking forward to next weeks episode, when it's Merged with 'The Time Machine' and New Dr Who turns up with Rosa Parks, Scooby Doo and Team Tardis