War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 1, Episode 1]
Shown 28th October 2019
A Space Agency detects a signal from outer space.
Unlike most shows, this is not NASA -
it is the French Space Agency!
This show is obviously an Anglo-French production,
despite being distributed by a US TV network.
To add a bit of excitement,
it turns out that someone or something is going to use an EMP attack
that will kill any humans who are not in a shielded location.
Most of the main characters rush to get underground.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 1, Episode 2]
Shown 28th October 2019
The EMP has killed everyone who was not underground.
Somehow an elevator can shield people, but not a car.
Also, somehow dogs (and presumably other animals) are immune.
The bit about the dog is not a clumsy goof
but an intentional part of the plot.
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) actually points it out.
The French soldiers go out to find survivors.
Typically of soldiers in movie and TV shows,
they do not have helmets or infrared goggles.
Well, they have to look telegenic.
There are a few looters who take all the food and water.
Also, something is collecting all the dead bodies.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 1, Episode 3]
Shown 4th November 2019
The British Army sends out a patrol,
and they have the same problem that the French did.
In fact, this is worse because they have no recognition signal at their base.
Yes, the man opening the front door has no way to verify
if the person on the other side is friend or foe.
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) discovers a few secrets of the alien invaders.
They look like robotic dogs, with pneumatic bolt-guns for heads.
Inside is a cerebral cortex, so they are at least partly organic.
Since the aliens used an EMP that specifically spared dogs
it is possible that the brains are actually cloned dog tissue.
The alternative is that the aliens are dogs,
and their genocidal war to exterminate all humans
is their attempt to liberate the dogs that mankind has enslaved.
This is no stranger than the storyline of
Westworld (2016)
, which is basically the story of
Terminator (1984)
as told from the perspective of Skynet.
Elsewhere, the woman and her tweenage kids continue their selfish journey
to whatever remains of what used to be their home.
They get sidetracked to help other survivors in a hospital.
Somehow, the man that they left for dead has gotten there before them.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 1, Episode 4]
Shown 4th November 2019
The hospital gets attacked by the robot dogs.
Rather than stay and fight, the humans plan to run.
But what about the babies in the maternity ward?
The French army sends out a patrol to locate the source of the alien signal.
As always, they have kevlar vests ... but no helmets!
The French civilians meet up with a French police unit.
This allows a bit of domestic drama,
something that would be better suited to a cheesy soap opera.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 1, Episode 5]
Shown 11th November 2019
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) and Helen Brown (
Elizabeth McGovern
) meet up with other survivors.
They start to deduce a few things about the robot dogs.
The French police unit finally realise it is time to move on.
They get chased by the robot dogs,
and nobody acts like a sensible person.
One forgets they have an automatic weapon,
while another does not bother to shoot an easy target.
The third idiot can be ignored, since his motivation is revenge
and his deliberate action actually makes sense.
The French Army locate a crashed alien spaceship,
and try to find the component that is transmitting the signal.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 1, Episode 6]
Shown 11th November 2019
It seems apparent that the aliens' communication system
is on a frequency that certain humans can detect.
This may be the reason the blind girl Emily (
Daisy Edgar-Jones
) can now see again.
The British Army is fighting back,
and clearing an area of the city.
The survivors decide this would be more trouble than it is worth,
and instead plan to move on.
Yes, they would rather hide from the robot dogs
than stay in a safe zone protected by the military.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 1, Episode 7]
Shown 18th November 2019
This starts with a flashback to the day of the initial attack.
Sophia's sister phoned to warn her to get underground,
so she was only only one from her traffic jam to survive.
Later she teamed up with a young English boy named Matthew,
and they dodged the robot dogs long enough to find other survivors.
Colonel Mokrani and the French Army get back to the outpost,
but it seems the men left on guard there have abandoned their posts.
The only viable option is to follow them down the hill
to the ski resort, where the civilians need help.
Helen Brown (
Elizabeth McGovern
) picks a fight with her ex-husband Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
), by interrogating him over what happened to her more recent husband.
Sasha the creepy French kid becomes obsessed with the Englishman's family,
and steals a photo of them.
It turns out that, by incredible coincidence,
that he is the father of the blind girl Emily (
Daisy Edgar-Jones
) and her family.
Yes, out of the tiny handful of humans still alive
what are the chances that could happen?
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 1, Episode 8]
Shown 18th November 2019
Colonel Mokrani and the French army descend the hill,
and discover what happened to the deserters.
Next they try to help the survivors in the ski resort.
Sasha the creepy French kid has run off by himself.
For some reason the robot dogs will not harm him.
Does he have the incest gene, like Fry in
Futurama
? His mother and the Englishman go looking for him -
firing the rifle from the him when they see a robot dog.
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
), the scientist, should be working out a way to kill the aliens.
Instead he is distracted by his personal issues.
Luckily the French scientist with the soldiers has a plan.
This ends on a series of cliffhangers,
and asks more questions than it answers.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 2, Episode 1]
Shown 17th May 2021
The robot dogs, a substitute for tripods,
have been supplemented by humanoids which are vulnerable to viruses.
Yes, this still pays some slight lip-service to the HG Wells original.
Also, TV shows keep their budgets low
when the aliens just look like normal humans.
The survivors in London launch an attack on the alien ship.
They rely on a jammer that can supposedly paralyse the robot dogs.
Of course, none of the raiders has military training
so they do not know to keep their heads down.
None of them even has a helmet.
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) is working on a biological weapon, a weaponised virus,
that will kill the aliens but not normal humans.
Somehow the aliens know about this.
Their technology allows for FTL travel,
so they may get limited time-bending capabilities too.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 2, Episode 2]
Shown 17th May 2021
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) gets a sample of Emily's DNA, and discovers proof of her secret.
He does not think it will be appropriate to experiment on her,
just as she is uncertain about assassinating him.
Which will break their own moral code first?
Colonel Mokrani and the French army know the aliens know their location,
but do not bother to fortify their position.
How many humans will survive when the inevitable attack happens?
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 2, Episode 3]
Shown 17th May 2021
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) has the test subject he needed, so he starts the experiment.
The humans know he is the aliens' main target,
but do not bother to fortify their position.
How many humans will survive when the inevitable attack happens?
The French women only have Bill's name to go on.
To locate him, they check the references section
of every science book in the local library.
Once they work out he is in London,
all they need to do is somehow get there.
The good news is, they find a functioning car.
The bad news is there is a suicidal man inside it.
What are the chances of that happening?
The aliens have slaughtered most of the human race,
many of them in front of the main characters.
Emily (
Daisy Edgar-Jones
) is one of the aliens,
as her murder attempt on Bill has proven.
However, she is a pretty girl so everyone likes her more than Bill.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 2, Episode 4]
Shown 17th May 2021
Sasha the creepy French boy moves in on Emily (
Daisy Edgar-Jones
). After all, they are both immune to the robot dogs.
If they are both clones then they could be genetic brother and sister,
which makes their sexual dreams somewhat incestuous.
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) does not test anyone's DNA, but then his lab is unavailable.
The French women are driving towards the south end of the Chunnel.
Their drive is a Soap Opera story,
focusing on emotions and not on plot.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 2, Episode 5]
Shown 17th May 2021
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) hides out with the three squaddies and their hostage.
He does not approve of the way they treat her,
but he lacks the ability to convince them that his way is best.
Naturally he does things his own way.
The aliens attack the hideout,
but the humans fight their way out.
Yes, a couple of girls with pistols can fight better
than the entire French army unit at the science outpost.
The French women arrive at Bill's old college in London.
There is no sign of him there,
but they discover a functioning science lab
where someone has opened up one of the robot dogs.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 2, Episode 6]
Shown 17th May 2021
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) has the alien woman to experiment on.
However, he still needs Zoe to obtain some of Emily's blood.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 2, Episode 7]
Shown 17th May 2021
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) experiments with Emily at the college.
Sasha followed them there because he is stalking her,
and is now creeping around the building.
This should be the perfect opportunity to unleash the virus.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 2, Episode 8]
Shown 17th May 2021
The aliens have a method of time-travel.
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) agrees to go back in time,
hoping to avert the apocalypse before it happens.
The problem is that nobody really knows the best way to save the world.
Unfortunately, Bill's plan to change history comes at a cost.
This is really badly shot, filmed in an awkward way
and edited together in a haphazard and randon fashion.
The audience really has to pay attention
in order to work out what is supposed to be happening.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 3, Episode 1]
Shown 5th September 2022
The alien ships have not arrived ... yet.
However, the French scientists have detected a Black Hole
that opened within the solar system.
Also, there is a worldwide epidemic of halucinations
as people remember traumatic future events from the other timeline.
The French woman briefs NATO,
and points out the two events are unlikely to be coincidence.
The tattooed aliens shoot their way into an English police station
in order to obtain Emily's journal.
This event is flagged by MI5,
where Zoe the future leader of the Resistance is working.
She contacts Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) to find out what is happening.
Unfortunately he is in prison for murder,
presumably because of a very speedy trial and a very bad lawyer.
Aboard the International Space Station, astronauts Richard (Lukas Haas -
Space Camp
) and Juliet (
Lizzie Brochere
) are assigned to investigate the Black Hole.
One of the aliens goes undercover
and becomes the girlfriend of Emily's brother.
Well, they can hardly draw the line at incest
since their entire bloodline is kept pure by in-breeding.
Her mission is to drug him every night,
and take a pint of blood from him.
One of the aliens needs transfusions,
and Tom is the only suitable donor.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 3, Episode 2]
Shown 5th September 2022
Zoe has teamed up with the refugee.
They discover clues as to the aliens' plan.
Richard the astronaut (Lukas Haas -
Space Camp
) has a bad experience space-walking near the Black Hole.
Juliet (
Lizzie Brocheré
) talks him back, and they invetsigate.
He reads up on the French scientist's theories on the Black Hole,
and contacts her directly with his findings.
To confirm her theory, she books time on the Large Hadron Colider.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 3, Episode 3]
Shown 12th September 2022
The French scientist tries the LHC again,
and her mind travels into the alternate universe.
Since Zoe is suspended from her job,
she has nothing to lose by breaking Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) out of custody.
Despite being a supposed professional,
she does a really amateurish job of it.
Because she chooses the wrong location,
she has to worry about CCTV and armed police.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 3, Episode 4]
Shown 12th September 2022
Zoe and Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) close in on their next target.
They need to catch one of the invaders,
and use them to locate the main base.
The French scientist is on the other side.
Her story seems to mirror Bill's,
since each travelled from the opposing world.
The astronauts decide to join the hundred-mile-high club.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 3, Episode 5]
Shown 19th September 2022
Zoe knows where the alien base is.
Of course, the police are after the aliens
because of the shootout at the police station.
However, she chooses to conduct amateurish surveillance herself.
Somehow, the aliens - despite being inbred hillbillies
who were raised in the confines of a spaceship -
actually have a relatively good grasp of small unit tactics.
The French scientist is still in the alternate universe.
She has been pressganged into helping a lone survivor
to carry his brain-dead parents to somewhere he heard is a makeshift hospital.
All this seems abit too good to be true.
The astronauts can hear the radio signals from the other side of the Black Hole.
Richard does another space-walk,
and has another vision of the space station getting destroyed.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 3, Episode 6]
Shown 19th September 2022
The invaders force the French scientist
into taking them to Tom.
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) discovers that the French scientist spoke to the astronauts.
He messages them, and later the scientist manages to radio them ...
through the Black Hole.
Yes, the astronauts earn their place in the story
by being the intersection for messages between universes.
The police are still after Bill and Zoe.
They seem to have given up investigating the aliens
who shot up an entire police station.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 3, Episode 7]
Shown 26th September 2022
The invaders activate their superweapon.
It creates a mini black hole, which sucks the big one closer to Earth.
The gravitational field is not strong enough to destroy the planet,
but prolonged exposure will affect everyone's neurones
and put them all into comas with no hope of recovery.
The only hope Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) has of reversing it is to contact the French scientist.
She is trapped in the alternate universe,
and she is not contacting the astronauts any more.
War of the Worlds (2020) [Season 3, Episode 8]
Shown 26th September 2022
Bill Ward (Gabriel Byrne
Excalibur (1981)
) and the French scientist work together to seal the black hole.
Unfortunately, if they can seal it then they will be unable to return home.
Sealing the Black Hole will cause an enormous release of energy.
The Earth will be protected by its atmosphere,
but the Space Station will be vulnerable.
The astronauts might have been seeing visions of the future
instead of memories from the alternate universe.
