[Another small piece of the missing time between Symphonies 3 and 4... --G.

No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely they drew their plans against us.

At midnight, on the twelfth of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth. Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling towards us, came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth. As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way.

And that's how it was for the next ten nights. A flare spurting out from Mars, bright green, drawing a green mist behind it; a beautiful, but somehow disturbing, sight. Ogilvy, the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be no living thing on that remote, forbidding planet.

The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one...
But still they come

Then came the night the first missile approached Earth. It was thought to be an ordinary falling star, but next day there was a huge crater in the middle of the common, and Ogilvy came to examine what lay there: a cylinder, thirty yards across, glowing hot, and with faint sounds of movement coming from within. Suddenly the top began moving - rotating - unscrewing, and Ogilvy feared there was a man inside trying to escape. He rushed to the cylinder, but the intense heat stopped him before he could burn himself on the metal.

The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one...
But still they come

Yes, the chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one...
But still..
They come

It seems totally incredible to me now that everyone spent that evening as though it were just like any other. From the railway came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance.

It all seemed so safe and tranquil.

- The BBC Ethereophonic Orchestra under the direction of Miss Kaitlyn Hutchins and featuring The Art of Noise
"The Coming of the Martians, Part 1: The Eve of the War"
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: 430th Anniversary Edition
Recorded live at the BBC Centre Amphitheatre, Second Westminster, London Prime

How is it that I have never heard of this before?!?!?

Must obtain posthaste!

Offsides (WotW - the original 1953 version - is the first Sci-Fi movie I remember seeing as a kid, as my dad loved it too :))

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

>How is it that I have never heard of this before?!?!?

I was wondering that very thing about, oh, 17 hours ago. There's an offhanded reference to it in an episode of James May's 20th Century (he uses "the cover of Jeff Wayne's excellent Musical Version of The War of the Worlds" as an example of an electrical insulator), and I was a bit baffled by the concept - The War of the Worlds as a rock opera?! - but hey, Captain Slow said it was good, so I tracked it down.

Within not a very long time at all, I knew how Kate spent part of the missing S3-S4 period. (How she ended up associated with the BBC Etereophonic Orchestra in the first place has, as these things happen, nothing to do with Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, but... )

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Of course, this requires a bit of actual music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8JLqsbK5V0

It is indeed awesome.

>Of course, this requires a bit of actual music.
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8JLqsbK5V0
>
>It is indeed awesome.

My only complaint about the Jeff Wayne treatment of the introduction is that it omits my favorite phrase from Wells's original book (and possibly my favorite descriptive phrase in English literature), "intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic".

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Of course, this requires a bit of actual music.
>It is indeed awesome.

Thunderchild is a particular favorite of mine, I must admit.

-- Bob
-------------------
Five years ago I was a four-stone apology. Today I am two separate gorillas.

>Thunderchild is a
>particular favorite of mine, I must admit.
>
>-- Bob
Its my favorite piece off the whole album, and was somewhat of a personal themesong for myself during my teen years.

>How is it that I have never heard of this before?!?!?
>Must obtain posthaste!

You can always listen to our copy if you and your wife want to come around some time.

-- Bob
-------------------
Five years ago I was a four-stone apology. Today I am two separate gorillas.

Man, I'd all but forgotten about this. Used to listen to it on tape with a friend some ten years ago or something, and never since.

Thank you for the reminder. I'm gonna have to track some level of this down myself now. It's been too long.

I find myself wondering if Miss John Hyatt is involved, and in what capacity...

>I find myself wondering if Miss John Hyatt is involved, and in what
>capacity...

She's the Artilleryman and Parson Nathaniel's wife!

Actually she isn't; in 2408 she was still at the AEGIS Academy and pretending to be a colonist. (One wonders why she didn't simply pretend to be a Red Martian. Nobody's afraid of them. On the other hand, then everyone would've expected her to be a nudist. And there again, maybe there aren't any telepathic Barsoomians. Barsoomites?)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>(One wonders why she didn't simply
>pretend to be a Red Martian. Nobody's afraid of them. On the
>other hand, then everyone would've expected her to be a nudist. And
>there again, maybe there aren't any telepathic Barsoomians.
>Barsoomites?)

Huh. Did I miss earlier material indicating that the DC and Burroughs Martians share Planet Four, or is this new revelation?

Either way it leads me to wonder if the DC Martians occupy the requisite "Green Martian" position for the Barsoomians...

-- Bob
-------------------
Five years ago I was a four-stone apology. Today I am two separate gorillas.

>>(One wonders why she didn't simply
>>pretend to be a Red Martian. Nobody's afraid of them. On the
>>other hand, then everyone would've expected her to be a nudist. And
>>there again, maybe there aren't any telepathic Barsoomians.
>>Barsoomites?)
>
>Huh. Did I miss earlier material indicating that the DC and Burroughs
>Martians share Planet Four, or is this new revelation?

It's come up before, but only in by-the-way mentions (like this one, come to that), and what I'm about to say is probably different in some particulars from earlier versions anyway:

There are several distinct sapient Martian species, which came as quite a surprise to the first Earthpeople to arrive there with an eye toward terraforming the place and settling in. They went expecting to have to deal with, if anything, the remnants of the declining civilization behind the unsuccessful invasion of 1904. Instead they found at least four (possibly five) separate sentient races, only one of which looked convincingly human, and one guy from Virginia who claimed that a) he was immortal and b) they were trespassing. Is it any wonder there was a brief and very confusing war?

>Either way it leads me to wonder if the DC Martians occupy the
>requisite "Green Martian" position for the Barsoomians...

The four-armed guys are about, although to avoid confusion with the DC Martians (who are more properly known as Malacandri) they're usually called Tharks.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Is the esteemed Mr. Carter the reason so many Malacandri are named J'onn?

>Is the esteemed Mr. Carter the reason so many Malacandri are named
>J'onn?

This is, if you will pardon the potential pun, conceivable.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>at least four (possibly five) separate sentient races

Would the uncertainty be about whether the Gnards and Paeecs from Mars Attacks! are separate species or not?

--The Evil Midnight Lurker what Lurks at Midnight
"An object at rest--CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!"

>>at least four (possibly five) separate sentient races
>
>Would the uncertainty be about whether the Gnards and Paeecs from
>Mars Attacks! are separate species or not?

Nope; it's generally accepted that the Fungus Heads (as the Tharks called them) were extrasolar invaders and not native to Mars in the first place. The uncertainty mainly stems from the fact that no one quite knows whether the White Martians (of Red Martian antiquity, not evil Malacandri) are really extinct, and if they're not, are they really a separate species from the Reds? Some scholars say yes, some say no.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

So the four species of sapient Martians are Malcandri, Tharks, Red Martians, and...H.G. Wells-style martians? Or something else that I've forgotten and missed?

>So the four species of sapient Martians are Malcandri, Tharks, Red
>Martians, and...H.G. Wells-style martians? Or something else that I've
>forgotten and missed?

I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that there are no Heinlein-style Martians -- either Red Planet or Stranger In A Strange Land style...

-- Bob
-------------------
Five years ago I was a four-stone apology. Today I am two separate gorillas.

Or short black Martians who like Roman helmets....

>Or short black Martians who like Roman helmets....

Clearly, Marvin is a "Green Mandcalan" who's gone over to the white, even if he did keep his green skin color....

>>Or short black Martians who like Roman helmets....
>
>Clearly, Marvin is a "Green Mandcalan" who's gone over to the white,
>even if he did keep his green skin color....

Now I'm imagining something slightly different...

"Greetings, Invader Zim. It seems you have uncovered my plans. I shall have to disintegrate you now."
"You?!"
"Who is it, Zim?"
"The Banished One. He tried to overthrow the Tallest...but we thought him dead."
"Not so. Now, prepare to die at the hands of Invader Marvin!"

Peter Eng
--
If it pleases thee, God, grant that this never happen. Anywhere. Ever.

It now occurs to me to wonder if the BBC Ethereophonic Orchestra includes any Sarmaks.