Adaptation of "Invasion from Mars" by Howard Koch

This radio play was based on the novel "War of the Worlds" by HG Wells.  When it was first produced, people seemed to miss the announcements that this was just a radio play and treated it as fact, which caused mass hysteria (see the New York Times Report page). As a result, this play is still remembered worldwide and studied by both psychologists and governments.  Because it was a radio play and not a stage play, people treated it as fact since all their facts came from radio or newspaper (shows how well-read they were by not recognising the HG Wells book!)  Howard Koch also used up to date scientific jargon (like ray guns and secret army codes) which made the play appear even more factual.  It was also read by one of the most talented "voices" of modern times, Orson Welles.

Summary

This is a radio play/drama that was intended as a Halloween prank but was treated seriously at the time.   While it was misunderstood, it actually deals with some serious issues.

The plot appears to be partly a simple documentary of:

1)    strange explosions on the planet Mars,

2)    landings of alien spacecraft on earth,

3)    aliens attacking humans with ray guns,

4)    battle between aliens and humans where the aliens use poison gas to take over the whole earth;

then it becomes the diary of an astronomer who records how the aliens die of bacteria in the earth's atmosphere.

Characters

The idea of flat and round characters is really strange and outdated.  But since this is what your text-book uses, let's use the terms.  

Professor Pierson is the scientist who is first consulted about the invasion and then it is his diary which ends the drama.  He seems to be a narrow-minded scientist at the start because he dismisses anything that doesn't agree with science - the possibility of life on other planets.  However, because of the destruction he sees and the people he meets, he begins to widen his horizons.  His internal conflict seems to be that he has to learn to survive in a world that used to be familiar, and come to accept the limitless possibilities of existence in the universe.  The external conflict is obviously between him and the narrow-minded, aggressive, "Stranger" who wants to take over the world.

The rest of the characters appear to be "flat" in the sense that they don't show any significant changes, even though they might be important in the story.  The Stranger is one of the new breed of humans without any sense of culture or refinement who seems to be little better than an animal in his attempt to hide from the aliens, survive in the deserted city, and control as much territory as possible.  Mr Wilmuth is your typical sleepy, narrow-minded, half-educated, self-assured, opinionated farmer type (no offense to any farmers).  Carl Phillips seems to be the typical investigative reporter dedicated to getting the news to his listeners even if he dies in the process. 

Symbolism

The play falls within a genre (group) of art that shows how earth and humans are invaded and overcome by aliens.  The aliens arrive in complex spaceships which could be seen as symbols of complex machinery invading the human workplace.  Their poison gas could be a symbol of the pollution in cities; heat-rays or ray-guns symbols of atomic weapons, and the gas a form of chemical or biological warfare.  The way they kill people could be a further symbol of the way they take work and the livelihood (money) from human workers.  

Taken as a whole, the radio play could be seen as an allegory of the invasion of industry in the modern world, how technical superiority can give one group of people dominance over another.  Modern films that dealt with this theme are "The Matrix", "Gattaca".  The Matrix was about the effects of computer technologies and Gattaca about genetic engineering.  "Signs" was more a personal drama about a priest recovering his faith after the tragic death of his wife. "Independence Day" wasn't much more than ra-ra go-go cowboy film where the hero shoots up the alien's .....

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Last modified: Sunday March 02, 2003.