Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

New miniseries set in 1897 England, with Peter Harness (Doctor Who, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) writing, for production company Mammoth Screen:

This has my interest. I was a fan of the previous series that aired back when ST:TNG started (1987), but then they ruined the series in its 2nd season, and never got beyond that. Though it was pretty much a follow up to the George Pal film.

In 2005 when Spielberg released his big budget film with Tom Cruise, the home video market exploded with cheap ripoffs. One by the Asylum, (which I never saw), and another by Pendragon Films, which is the only version I am aware of actually set in 19th century England. Unfortunately its low budget and god awful runtime of nearly 3 hours made it a difficult watch. I could see how they were trying to be faithful to HG Wells novel. But perhaps this setting would be best served in a short TV series.

I had a DVD of "War of the Worlds The True Story" or something along those lines that was set up like a History channel special. It was a bit too long but I enjoyed the concept.

I will keep my eye for this series and hopefully it doesn't suck.

I eat War of the Worlds stuff up like candy so this looks like I will get some enjoyment out of this. I am a little disappointed the tripods didn't go all Victorian machinery in their design but I pulled that expectation out of thin air.

Wow, neat! WotW is one of my all time favorite books. It’s neat to finally see an adaptation set in Victorian England! I think the tripods look pretty good. I would have liked for them to have the tentacles and the heat ray emitting camera shaped box thing and the black smoke cannon shells like in the book*, but they still look pretty good as is. Definitely looking forward to this!


*ideally, I’d love to see super accurate representations of the tripods as described in the book. They sound so wild and fearsome it would be really cool to see realized:

“And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand... Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman's basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me.”

Looks good, but I would have preferred a remake of The Tripods. Cancelling that before its final season was a crime.