The War of the Worlds

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Missing information from Travers & Wells and The Book of the Enemy.

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The Master reads The War of the Worlds. (TV: Frontier in Space)

You may be looking for the real world adaptation of this novel.

The War of the Worlds was a novel by H. G. Wells which described the invasion of Earth by Martians using three legged war machines known as "tripods."

History

Wells's experiences of witnessing interplanetary war alongside the Sixth Doctor may have vaguely inspired his novel. (TV: Timelash)

According to one account, in the 1890s, an alien species invaded the Earth with war machines that looked like tripods. After Torchwood handled the invasion, H. G. Wells helped them cover up the incident. (AUDIO: Goodbye Piccadilly)

On 23 October 1921, Professor Archibald Angelchrist read The War of the Worlds and remembered hearing a talk from Wells about it at a bookshop on Charing Cross Road in the late 19th century. (PROSE: Paradox Lost)

The Master read The War of the Worlds while holding the Third Doctor and Jo Grant prisoner in 2540. (TV: Frontier in Space) In the Land of Fiction, the Master materialised tripods to use heat rays against his enemies. (COMIC: Character Assassin) When undergoing a retro-regeneration crisis, Missy nearly finished the novel. To help her focus, Missy recreated the novel on Planetoid 50 but quickly lost control of her Martian invaders. When the Doctor meets up with her, both mention they are familiar with the book, various film versions and the Jeff Wayne musical, and the Doctor struggles to remember “one with puppets”. (AUDIO: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50)

The Meercocks in their natural form resembled the Martians in the novel. (PROSE: Verdigris)

Orson Welles's 1938 Halloween broadcast of a radio play adaptation The War of the Worlds convinced certain members of the American population that Mars had really invaded. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)

The Seventh Doctor read The War of the Worlds while a prisoner in Alcatraz in the 20th century. (PROSE: Inmate 280)

The Tenth Doctor came up against the Judoon in the 19th century. Many events in this encounter were mirrored in the novel. He later came across a man who had read it and compared the events of The War of the Worlds to what was happening around them. (PROSE: Revenge of the Judoon)

When the Eleventh Doctor briefly suspected an alien invasion, Rory was not so sure such an event would begin at a small farm. The Doctor thought it worth noting that the original War of the Worlds book began at Horsell Common. He jested with Rory, implying that the events of the story were true, but quickly admitted he was kidding. (PROSE: Heart of Stone). Notably, a group of Martians had invaded Horsell Common in the Nineteenth century. (COMIC: War of the Worlds ^[+]Loading...["War of the Worlds (comic story)"])

Behind the scenes

• One of the actors in Orson Welles's radio adaptation, George Coulouris, guest starred in the 1964 story The Keys of Marinus.
• The title to the comic story War of the Words is a reference to this book.
• The comic story War of the Worlds is an adaptation of this book.
• The title of the Big Finish audio Dead London originated as the name of a chapter in Wells's novel, and had since been used more prominently for a track in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds.
• The title of the BBC New Series Adventures novel Forever Autumn was taken from a song in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds; in this case, the phrase was not present in the novel.
• Doctor Clayton Forrester from AUDIO: The Silurian Candidate is named after the protagonist of the 1953 film adaptation.
• Justin Chatwin starred, alongside Tom Cruise, in the 2005 film adaptation.
• Peter Harness wrote the 2019 BBC TV adaptation. It starred Eleanor Tomlinson, Rupert Graves, Harry Melling and Charlie De'Ath among others.
• The unfinished stage play Sil and the Avian Uprising was planned to be a "satirical drama" based upon Welles's broadcast of The War of the Worlds.