1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,540 An unstoppable and deadly invasion. 2 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:09,280 Killing machines wielding deadly heat rays and poison gas. 3 00:00:09,380 --> 00:00:12,180 The largest city in the world devastated within hours. 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,060 This was the nightmare that H.G. Wells-Ford told 5 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:21,620 more than a century ago. 6 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,120 A story made even more terrifying by the fact 7 00:00:24,220 --> 00:00:27,400 that the Marauders were creatures from Mars who fed 8 00:00:27,500 --> 00:00:28,460 on human blood. 9 00:00:30,020 --> 00:00:32,260 And as fantastic as the story was, 10 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:35,640 it struck deep-rooted fear in everyone who read it, 11 00:00:35,740 --> 00:00:37,940 and much later caused legendary panic 12 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:40,040 in the streets of America. 13 00:00:40,140 --> 00:00:43,380 Why then does this story continue to terrorize us? 14 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:45,520 As modern probes discover more and more 15 00:00:45,620 --> 00:00:48,160 about the red planet, how close to the truth 16 00:00:48,260 --> 00:00:51,380 is this work of science fiction? 17 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:54,660 This is the real story behind this tale, 18 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:57,760 a journey beyond the war of the worlds. 19 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,900 How can I describe it? 20 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,800 A monstrous tripod striding over the pine trees, 21 00:01:07,900 --> 00:01:10,800 smashing them aside. 22 00:01:10,900 --> 00:01:13,880 A walking engine of glittering metal, 23 00:01:13,980 --> 00:01:17,220 articulate ropes of steel writhing from it, 24 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:19,520 and the clattering tumult of its passage 25 00:01:19,620 --> 00:01:21,620 mingling with the riot of thunder. 26 00:01:30,060 --> 00:01:32,800 And the attack from Mars begins in a story 27 00:01:32,900 --> 00:01:36,740 by a young British author H.G. Wells. 28 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:40,340 First appearing as a magazine serial in 1897, 29 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,280 the war of the worlds grips readers from page one. 30 00:01:44,380 --> 00:01:47,680 The war of the worlds was a shocker. 31 00:01:47,780 --> 00:01:49,520 And all of a sudden, you have a novel where Martians 32 00:01:49,620 --> 00:01:53,020 are invading tranquil British countryside 33 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:54,280 and wreaking havoc upon it. 34 00:01:54,380 --> 00:01:58,260 I think this was something that was quite extraordinary. 35 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:00,220 The magazine sells out quickly. 36 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,920 And when the war of the worlds is published as a novel in 1898, 37 00:02:04,020 --> 00:02:06,200 it becomes an instant bestseller, 38 00:02:06,300 --> 00:02:08,960 playing on the paranoia of the British Empire 39 00:02:09,060 --> 00:02:11,640 at its precarious height. 40 00:02:11,740 --> 00:02:13,440 The end of the 19th century, England 41 00:02:13,540 --> 00:02:16,840 was certainly the most protected and most powerful 42 00:02:16,940 --> 00:02:18,380 nation on earth. 43 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:20,540 Then yet, there was a foot, a sense 44 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:24,740 that this was a fragile piece, that there were forces abroad 45 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:27,620 that were menacing the British Empire. 46 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:30,320 Air warfare, people would drop bombs on England. 47 00:02:30,420 --> 00:02:32,780 England was not this invulnerable island, 48 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:36,720 but it was quite, on the contrary, quite vulnerable. 49 00:02:36,820 --> 00:02:38,060 And Wells took it one degree higher 50 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:42,260 by simply associating the war of the worlds with Martians. 51 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,660 The idea of a Martian invasion in Victorian England 52 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:49,600 is not only a good story device, but seems a real possibility 53 00:02:49,700 --> 00:02:52,240 to his readers. 54 00:02:52,340 --> 00:02:55,980 Wells is putting into words thousands of years of curiosity 55 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:58,640 and fear about Earth's next door neighbor. 56 00:03:03,180 --> 00:03:07,420 At its closest, Mars is scarcely 35 million miles away 57 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:11,420 and a third the size of Earth. 58 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:13,680 Of the nearby planets, it is the easiest 59 00:03:13,780 --> 00:03:17,700 to identify as it stands alone, scarlet in the night sky. 60 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:23,700 5,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians 61 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:26,700 are the first to record its presence in the sky. 62 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:31,360 They call it, Har Desher, the red one. 63 00:03:31,460 --> 00:03:33,560 Four millennia later, the Babylonians 64 00:03:33,660 --> 00:03:37,800 call the planet Nurgall, the star of death. 65 00:03:37,900 --> 00:03:40,140 The Babylonians are also the first to record 66 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:42,780 that the planet has peculiar motions, 67 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:47,620 as if it is under some things or someone's control. 68 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:50,880 If you were an ancient person watching the sky, 69 00:03:50,980 --> 00:03:52,720 there are two aspects of Mars that 70 00:03:52,780 --> 00:03:56,040 would be most likely to bring thoughts of war and terror 71 00:03:56,140 --> 00:03:57,380 to your mind. 72 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:02,820 First, the fact that it swells up in brightness dramatically 73 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:05,920 when it comes near the Earth, so that it dominates the sky 74 00:04:06,020 --> 00:04:07,720 and then fades again. 75 00:04:07,820 --> 00:04:10,220 And then, of course, the reddish color. 76 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:12,960 The ancient Greeks named the planet Aries 77 00:04:13,060 --> 00:04:15,960 after their god of war, one of five heavenly bodies 78 00:04:16,060 --> 00:04:19,140 they call the wandering stars. 79 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,340 Ancient people believed the stars were very far away 80 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:25,000 and sort of incomprehensible. 81 00:04:25,100 --> 00:04:28,060 And by giving the planets and the stars a character, 82 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:31,200 they somehow enabled us to relate to them, 83 00:04:31,300 --> 00:04:33,740 which I think is a very important underlying thing 84 00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:36,940 that human beings need to do to relate to the universe, 85 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:39,640 to feel that we mean something. 86 00:04:39,740 --> 00:04:44,420 As early as 250 BC, the Greek astronomer Aristakis of Samos 87 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:48,180 makes the bold claim that Aries is one of several planets, 88 00:04:48,280 --> 00:04:52,020 including Earth, that revolve around the sun. 89 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:57,100 But the Roman astronomer Claudius Ptolemy insists in 100 AD 90 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:00,100 that the planets and stars revolve around Earth, 91 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,200 and that is the theory that sticks. 92 00:05:04,300 --> 00:05:09,900 And so does the Roman name for the planet Mars, the god of war. 93 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,440 Well, it's perfectly natural to think of the Earth 94 00:05:12,540 --> 00:05:14,380 as the center of the universe, because the Earth feels 95 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:15,980 stationary and solid to us. 96 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:17,480 It's the center of our existence. 97 00:05:17,580 --> 00:05:21,280 And the sky appears to be a dome or the inside of a sphere 98 00:05:21,340 --> 00:05:24,440 with things moving across it. 99 00:05:24,540 --> 00:05:26,480 Earth as the center of the universe 100 00:05:26,580 --> 00:05:30,080 is a comforting explanation for 1,400 years. 101 00:05:30,180 --> 00:05:33,880 Until 1543, when a Polish astronomer named Nicholas 102 00:05:33,980 --> 00:05:38,420 Copernicus sets the scientific world on its ear. 103 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:42,960 Copernicus in the 1,500s gets the credit for being the first 104 00:05:43,060 --> 00:05:46,860 to make a strong case that the planets go around the sun, 105 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:49,500 not around the Earth. 106 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,800 This theory means that Earth is just another planet orbiting 107 00:05:52,900 --> 00:05:56,540 the sun, so scientists wonder how much the other planets might 108 00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:58,840 be like our own. 109 00:05:58,940 --> 00:06:01,840 This is the beginning of real scientific inquiry 110 00:06:01,940 --> 00:06:04,340 into the possibility that we are not alone. 111 00:06:07,180 --> 00:06:10,580 In 1609, German astronomer Johannes Kepler 112 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:12,660 explains the strange movement of Mars 113 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:16,020 by proving it has an elliptical orbit 114 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,160 and wonders if this may be the next planet upon which we will 115 00:06:19,220 --> 00:06:21,260 find life. 116 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:24,720 He writes, who shall dwell in these worlds 117 00:06:24,820 --> 00:06:26,460 if they be inhabited? 118 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:31,260 Are we or they lords of the world? 119 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:34,800 In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei 120 00:06:34,900 --> 00:06:39,480 is the first to observe Mars through a telescope. 121 00:06:39,580 --> 00:06:42,480 In his one-inch lens, Mars is the size of a pea held 122 00:06:42,580 --> 00:06:44,980 eight feet away, but it is impressive enough 123 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,780 to sustain the idea of life on other planets. 124 00:06:49,220 --> 00:06:51,880 To the naked eye, without the aid of a telescope, 125 00:06:51,980 --> 00:06:54,760 a planet just looks like a bright star. 126 00:06:54,860 --> 00:06:56,920 And yet when Galileo looked at the planets 127 00:06:57,020 --> 00:06:59,760 of a telescope, he found they were not stars. 128 00:06:59,860 --> 00:07:04,440 They were tiny worlds like the Earth. 129 00:07:04,540 --> 00:07:07,840 Over the next three centuries, telescopes gradually improve. 130 00:07:07,940 --> 00:07:09,380 And so does the scientific evidence 131 00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:12,540 that Mars could be another Earth. 132 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:16,580 1877, we had what is called an opposition of Mars. 133 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:19,180 Every two years, Mars comes closest to the Earth 134 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:20,980 and is brightest in the sky. 135 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:25,480 And that's generally the best opportunity to observe it. 136 00:07:25,580 --> 00:07:27,780 During this close approach of the red planet, 137 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:30,380 Italian astronomer Giovanni Ciapparelli 138 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:35,460 publishes sensational new maps of the surface of Mars. 139 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:37,060 If you look at the drawings of Shaperade, 140 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:38,200 they're absolutely beautiful. 141 00:07:38,300 --> 00:07:39,900 They're a work of art, as well as 142 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:41,460 being a work of science. 143 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:43,040 But the most interesting thing was 144 00:07:43,100 --> 00:07:47,900 his drawings of straight line linear features on the surface, 145 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:52,340 which he saw, and which he wrote in his paper 146 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:56,480 were a canale, which again, Italian means channels. 147 00:07:59,380 --> 00:08:01,880 He entertained the possibility that they 148 00:08:01,980 --> 00:08:06,520 could be artificial, but he certainly 149 00:08:06,620 --> 00:08:10,620 was open to other interpretations. 150 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:13,980 In 1892, a French scientist, Camille Flamarion, 151 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:17,020 cites more evidence of life on Mars. 152 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:19,820 He discovers what he calls the wave of darkening 153 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:23,220 during the Martian spring, when dark patches on the surface 154 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:25,060 spread from the poles to the equator 155 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,000 and then recede at the end of Martian summer. 156 00:08:28,100 --> 00:08:30,360 Flamarion theorizes that this darkening 157 00:08:30,460 --> 00:08:33,400 may be caused by vegetation changing with the seasons. 158 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:39,040 As the scientific evidence grows more compelling, 159 00:08:39,540 --> 00:08:41,840 wild theories about the possibility of intelligent life 160 00:08:41,940 --> 00:08:44,640 on Mars capture the public imagination. 161 00:08:44,740 --> 00:08:47,640 And the imagination of writers who feature space travel 162 00:08:47,740 --> 00:08:53,380 on Mars in a new genre called science fiction. 163 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:55,780 People consider H.G. Wells and Jules Verne 164 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:57,720 to be the two fathers of science fiction. 165 00:08:57,820 --> 00:08:59,320 And between the two of them, they 166 00:08:59,420 --> 00:09:02,620 created some of the basic ideas that we've all 167 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:06,100 taken so many times from time machines and invasions. 168 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:07,720 And Jules Verne, of course, came up 169 00:09:07,820 --> 00:09:11,260 with the really cool technology with the submarines 170 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:14,100 and the flying airships. 171 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:17,140 Their collective dreams inspire one of the first motion 172 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:22,680 pictures ever made, Georges Melies from the Earth to the Moon. 173 00:09:22,780 --> 00:09:25,980 The 1902 film envisions an advanced lunar population 174 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,980 of man-sized insects ruling a cold, desolate world. 175 00:09:30,980 --> 00:09:33,940 But the most popular works about life on other planets 176 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:35,840 don't come from science fiction. 177 00:09:35,940 --> 00:09:39,040 They come from amateur astronomer Percival Lowell 178 00:09:39,140 --> 00:09:41,680 and his best-selling series of highly-speculated books 179 00:09:41,780 --> 00:09:44,820 about Mars, which aspire to be science fact. 180 00:09:47,820 --> 00:09:51,220 And those books took the world by storm. 181 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:54,860 He had his convictions, and he just bulldozed over anybody 182 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:55,860 who got in his way. 183 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:58,360 And he wrote these books out of the blue. 184 00:09:58,860 --> 00:10:01,520 And he wrote these books about Mars and life on Mars. 185 00:10:01,620 --> 00:10:04,560 And they became extremely popular books at the time. 186 00:10:07,300 --> 00:10:09,860 Air to an enormous textile fortune, 187 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,600 Lowell travels to Flagstaff, Arizona in 1894, 188 00:10:13,700 --> 00:10:17,240 where he builds an observatory with a 24-inch telescope atop 189 00:10:17,340 --> 00:10:21,600 a mountain he calls Mars Hill. 190 00:10:21,700 --> 00:10:23,640 After a year of observation, Lowell 191 00:10:23,740 --> 00:10:27,640 theorizes that intelligent life has created waterways all 192 00:10:27,660 --> 00:10:29,940 over the surface of Mars. 193 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:31,600 He called them canals. 194 00:10:31,700 --> 00:10:35,240 And they appeared to be very straight, linear features. 195 00:10:35,340 --> 00:10:38,940 And Lowell thought the only way these could have been formed 196 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:41,240 was by intelligent life, digging them 197 00:10:41,340 --> 00:10:44,340 to bring water down from the dry parts of the planet 198 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:47,780 to water a dying planet. 199 00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:49,720 They had run out of water and resources, 200 00:10:49,820 --> 00:10:53,020 and it was very poignant that their cities were falling 201 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:56,060 and that they couldn't survive very long. 202 00:10:56,120 --> 00:11:00,720 Lowell pictured Mars as a dying society. 203 00:11:00,820 --> 00:11:03,560 But many scientists scoff at Lowell's observations 204 00:11:03,660 --> 00:11:06,820 and accuse him of playing connect the dots with his telescope 205 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:09,760 for not everyone sees the elusive canals. 206 00:11:09,860 --> 00:11:12,360 Most of the professional astronomical community 207 00:11:12,460 --> 00:11:14,360 were not quite so convinced. 208 00:11:14,460 --> 00:11:17,860 Of course, the public loved it, the idea of Mars. 209 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:20,500 Nonetheless, about a year after Lowell's first book 210 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:24,040 about Mars is published, a young writer in London, England, 211 00:11:24,140 --> 00:11:25,340 puts pen to paper. 212 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:28,560 H.G. Wells has paid close attention 213 00:11:28,660 --> 00:11:31,700 to Lowell's theories about a dying Martian civilization, 214 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,260 speculates about their evil intentions, 215 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:36,440 and creates literary history. 216 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:43,140 No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century 217 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:47,040 that this world was being watched keenly and closely 218 00:11:47,140 --> 00:11:51,380 by intelligences greater than man's, who regarded this Earth 219 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:56,480 with envious eyes, slowly and surely drawing their plans 220 00:11:56,580 --> 00:11:57,480 against us. 221 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:08,360 For centuries, astronomers have gathered scientific evidence 222 00:12:08,460 --> 00:12:10,460 of life on Mars. 223 00:12:10,560 --> 00:12:14,060 Now in 1897, a hot new science fiction writer 224 00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:16,400 offers his own chilling interpretation. 225 00:12:16,460 --> 00:12:18,100 Had our telescopes permitted it, we 226 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:22,260 might have seen gathering trouble far back in the 19th century. 227 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:25,240 Men like Chaperrelli watched the Red Planet, 228 00:12:25,340 --> 00:12:28,180 but failed to interpret the fluctuating markings they 229 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:30,040 mapped so well. 230 00:12:30,140 --> 00:12:35,040 While all the time, the Martians must have been getting ready. 231 00:12:35,140 --> 00:12:38,420 Herbert George Wells was born into a lower middle class 232 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:41,180 family in southern England. 233 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:46,160 Wells had a very long history of the Martian civilization. 234 00:12:46,180 --> 00:12:48,980 He had quite an extensive scientific background. 235 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:51,820 He was very interested in human evolution 236 00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:54,320 and the evolutionary process. 237 00:12:54,420 --> 00:12:56,160 He spent his early career as a somewhat 238 00:12:56,260 --> 00:12:58,660 unenthusiastic school teacher. 239 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:01,800 Then in 1895, at the age of 29, Wells 240 00:13:01,900 --> 00:13:05,260 moves to a sleepy London suburb called Woking 241 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:08,000 and tries his hand at writing. 242 00:13:08,100 --> 00:13:11,440 His first two novels, The Time Machine and The Invisible Man, 243 00:13:11,540 --> 00:13:14,740 combine his interest in science with social criticism 244 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:19,240 and establish him as one of the most popular writers of the day. 245 00:13:19,340 --> 00:13:22,540 Great things are expected from H.G. Wells when his third novel 246 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:24,780 debuts in 1897. 247 00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:28,420 His public is not disappointed. 248 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:30,480 Amidst the thrill of alien invasion, 249 00:13:30,580 --> 00:13:33,160 the War of the World suggests the vulnerability 250 00:13:33,260 --> 00:13:34,960 of the empire. 251 00:13:35,060 --> 00:13:36,560 When Wells wrote The War of the Worlds, 252 00:13:36,660 --> 00:13:39,300 the British Empire was the big kahuna on the planet. 253 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:41,600 They were the ones that conquered every country 254 00:13:41,700 --> 00:13:42,760 that they went up against. 255 00:13:42,820 --> 00:13:46,480 They were the superpower. 256 00:13:46,580 --> 00:13:51,460 Wells offers a warning to an arrogant empire. 257 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:53,060 The War of the Worlds is an allegory 258 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:55,960 of those these Martians misuse their own technology. 259 00:13:56,060 --> 00:13:58,960 They have this overpowering military might, 260 00:13:59,060 --> 00:14:01,840 but they misuse it, and therefore they fall. 261 00:14:01,940 --> 00:14:04,140 So I mean, there is a sense here that we could do the same thing, 262 00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:07,040 that Wells is trying to teach us some kind of responsible use 263 00:14:07,140 --> 00:14:09,640 of all these things. 264 00:14:09,700 --> 00:14:15,400 This superior force arrives in a spectacular fashion. 265 00:14:15,500 --> 00:14:18,600 Hollow cylinders crash into a park just minutes 266 00:14:18,700 --> 00:14:19,940 from Wells' walking flat. 267 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,980 Fascinated readers wonder what the Martians look like. 268 00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:32,420 It is not what they expect. 269 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:34,480 The lid of the cylinder fell upon the gravel 270 00:14:34,580 --> 00:14:38,620 with a ringing concussion, a big rounded grayish bulk, 271 00:14:38,700 --> 00:14:41,940 the size of a bear was rising slowly and painfully 272 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:43,840 out of the cylinder. 273 00:14:43,940 --> 00:14:46,980 As it caught the light, it glistened like wet leather. 274 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:51,040 Two large dark colored eyes were guarding me steadfastly. 275 00:14:54,820 --> 00:14:57,620 Wells portrays the Martians as highly evolved beings 276 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:02,660 which use advanced technology to wage war on humanity. 277 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:06,220 And worse still, the creatures are vampires. 278 00:15:06,260 --> 00:15:09,900 Perhaps more social commentary from Wells? 279 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,300 Wells, it makes certain analogies in his book 280 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:15,100 to how we treat the so-called lower animals 281 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:17,060 and how the Martians treat us. 282 00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:18,800 The Martians feeding off blood, well, 283 00:15:18,900 --> 00:15:19,800 they're intelligent beings. 284 00:15:19,900 --> 00:15:21,540 You think, well, they wouldn't be doing that. 285 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:22,940 But if we look at our own history, 286 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:24,440 we're not that different. 287 00:15:24,540 --> 00:15:29,580 So there's that much difference between blood and flesh. 288 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:31,300 During this time, people are still 289 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:34,140 fascinated with the theory of evolution. 290 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:37,940 Are these creatures a future generation of man? 291 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:40,580 If we look at Wells' depiction of the Martians, 292 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:44,380 he is coming from a perfectly valid standpoint 293 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:47,160 in terms of trying to extrapolate what directions 294 00:15:47,260 --> 00:15:51,320 evolution might take for an intelligent species. 295 00:15:51,420 --> 00:15:55,000 This superior race rides in giant war machines, 296 00:15:55,100 --> 00:15:58,600 armed with horrifying weapons that unleash violent fury 297 00:15:58,700 --> 00:15:59,340 into the crowd. 298 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:01,740 A thin rod rose up. 299 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:04,680 A ghost beam of light seemed to flicker out from it. 300 00:16:04,780 --> 00:16:08,180 It was as if each man was suddenly turned to fire. 301 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:13,020 And by the light of the fire, I saw them staggering and falling. 302 00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:16,080 The Martian heat ray renders humankind's greatest 303 00:16:16,180 --> 00:16:18,420 weapons useless. 304 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:20,920 As the Martians begin advancing toward London, 305 00:16:21,020 --> 00:16:23,160 they reveal an even deadlier weapon 306 00:16:23,260 --> 00:16:26,160 that neutralizes Britain's army in an instant. 307 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:30,560 Each of the Martians had discharged a huge canister, which 308 00:16:30,660 --> 00:16:32,300 smashed on the ground and disengaged 309 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:35,860 a great volume of heavy, inky vapor, 310 00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:40,140 coiling and pouring upward in a huge ebony cloud. 311 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:43,880 At the touch of the vapor, the inhaling of its pungent wisps 312 00:16:43,980 --> 00:16:45,640 was death to all that breathes. 313 00:16:48,740 --> 00:16:50,980 The stark reporting style of the novel 314 00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:56,080 adds to the tension between the Martians and the Martians. 315 00:16:56,180 --> 00:16:59,860 And the terrible reality of the story. 316 00:16:59,960 --> 00:17:01,820 This frightening book is translated 317 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:05,920 into dozens of languages and sells out around the world. 318 00:17:06,020 --> 00:17:08,860 Interest in Mars, both fictional and scientific, 319 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:10,800 is increasing. 320 00:17:10,900 --> 00:17:13,340 The question I'm at we're trying to answer is, are we alone? 321 00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:15,840 Well, suppose the answer is, no, we're not alone. 322 00:17:15,940 --> 00:17:17,180 There's other things out there. 323 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:21,180 The next question is, well, is it dangerous? 324 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:22,980 What does it think about us? 325 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:24,940 Obviously, our first concern is our own survival 326 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,360 and so fear is the great motivator. 327 00:17:29,700 --> 00:17:33,200 In 1910, even the scientific pioneer Thomas Edison 328 00:17:33,300 --> 00:17:35,540 speculates about what Martians might look like. 329 00:17:40,940 --> 00:17:42,620 Edison's vision of the red planet 330 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:44,980 is a complete departure from his traditionally 331 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:45,880 rational thinking. 332 00:17:48,620 --> 00:17:51,660 He brazenly disregards contemporary scientific notions 333 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:54,620 of Mars for a wild fantasy of his own design. 334 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:01,720 In 1926, Russia offers another view of the red planet 335 00:18:01,820 --> 00:18:04,960 when it releases aelita, Queen of Mars, 336 00:18:05,060 --> 00:18:07,560 written by a cousin of Leo Tolstoy. 337 00:18:07,660 --> 00:18:10,800 Mars again becomes a metaphor for evil, 338 00:18:10,900 --> 00:18:13,380 as Earth's first cosmonauts arrive on a planet 339 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:17,740 where people live under crushing capitalist oppression. 340 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,880 The space travelers land on Mars. 341 00:18:21,340 --> 00:18:22,500 They, of course, have come from Russia, 342 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:23,700 where the revolution has occurred, 343 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:26,840 and they see an opportunity here to help the Martians 344 00:18:26,940 --> 00:18:29,980 and improve their lot in life. 345 00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:33,240 In no time, they introduce the joys of communism 346 00:18:33,340 --> 00:18:37,580 and are soon on their way home to the Soviet Union. 347 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:39,220 They wanted to make a movie that wasn't just 348 00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:42,360 about the revolution, but would be sort of a very entertaining 349 00:18:42,460 --> 00:18:43,360 film as well. 350 00:18:43,940 --> 00:18:49,340 But soon, entertainment turns to horror, 351 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:53,040 as Mars prepares to invade the United States. 352 00:18:57,780 --> 00:19:02,020 In 1938, Mars invades New Jersey. 353 00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:05,020 The new medium of radio adds a terrifying dimension 354 00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:05,820 to the war of the worlds. 355 00:19:06,820 --> 00:19:10,240 Halloween Eve, 8 p.m., Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre 356 00:19:10,340 --> 00:19:11,240 is on the air. 357 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:21,740 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. 358 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:24,340 From the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza Hotel in New York City, 359 00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,340 we bring you the music of Raymond Raquello and his orchestra. 360 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:29,840 The Dutch of the Spanish, Raymond Raquello leads off 361 00:19:29,940 --> 00:19:30,840 with la Compensita. 362 00:19:30,940 --> 00:19:33,040 The first ever film in the world, 363 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:35,240 Raymond Raquello leads off with la Compensita. 364 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:42,200 Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance 365 00:19:42,300 --> 00:19:43,740 music to bring you a special bulletin 366 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:45,840 from the Intercontinental Radio News. 367 00:19:45,940 --> 00:19:48,080 At 20 minutes before 8 central time, 368 00:19:48,180 --> 00:19:50,920 Professor Farrell of the Mount Gennings Observatory, Chicago, 369 00:19:51,020 --> 00:19:53,760 Illinois reports observing several explosions 370 00:19:53,860 --> 00:19:56,820 of incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals 371 00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:59,860 on the planet Mars. 372 00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:02,100 At first, it seems like an ordinary broadcast 373 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:03,720 of an evening concert. 374 00:20:03,820 --> 00:20:06,400 But news flashes in the program grow progressively more 375 00:20:06,500 --> 00:20:08,400 frightening. 376 00:20:08,500 --> 00:20:10,660 It is reported that a huge flaming object 377 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:13,240 believed to be a meteorite fell on a farm 378 00:20:13,340 --> 00:20:15,200 in the neighborhood of Grover's Mill, New Jersey, 379 00:20:15,300 --> 00:20:16,940 22 miles from Trenton. 380 00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:19,640 We have dispatched a special mobile unit to the scene. 381 00:20:19,740 --> 00:20:23,220 In the meantime, we take you to the Hotel Martinet in Brooklyn, 382 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:25,080 where Bobby Millett and his orchestra 383 00:20:25,180 --> 00:20:29,320 are offering a program of dance music. 384 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,480 The original story took place in England, 385 00:20:32,580 --> 00:20:36,520 and Orson adapted it to present day, 386 00:20:36,620 --> 00:20:41,320 and actually then put into it places and street names 387 00:20:41,420 --> 00:20:46,160 and locations and geographic regions that were in New Jersey. 388 00:20:46,260 --> 00:20:48,360 So that as people heard those names, 389 00:20:48,460 --> 00:20:52,640 of course, it added to the realism of it all. 390 00:20:52,740 --> 00:20:54,640 I started listening, and I heard the music, 391 00:20:54,700 --> 00:21:00,700 and then another broadcast that they were hitting some town 392 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:01,700 in New Jersey. 393 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:05,640 And then I had over my eyes and listened. 394 00:21:05,740 --> 00:21:08,340 In 1938, the idea of a fake newscast 395 00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:10,680 is unheard of to the listeners at home, who 396 00:21:10,780 --> 00:21:13,080 start to become genuinely alarmed. 397 00:21:13,180 --> 00:21:15,180 Most have not heard the opening of the show, 398 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:19,260 warning that this is only a drama. 399 00:21:19,360 --> 00:21:22,260 As the War of the Worlds program begins on CBS, 400 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:24,880 many Americans are listening to a sketch by Edgar Bergen 401 00:21:24,980 --> 00:21:29,220 and Charlie McCarthy on competitor NBC. 402 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,320 But when the Charlie McCarthy skit ends at 8.12 PM, 403 00:21:32,420 --> 00:21:36,260 an estimated 6 million listeners switch over to CBS. 404 00:21:36,360 --> 00:21:40,760 And what they hear doesn't sound like a dramatization at all. 405 00:21:40,860 --> 00:21:43,260 Ladies and gentlemen, this is Carl Phillips again 406 00:21:43,360 --> 00:21:46,260 out at the Wilmets Farm, Grover's Mill, New Jersey. 407 00:21:46,360 --> 00:21:50,260 I'm a self-made, the 11-mile convention in 10 minutes. 408 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,260 If you didn't hear that first part of the World of Worlds, 409 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:54,960 you didn't know what was going on. 410 00:21:55,060 --> 00:21:56,860 So a lot of people got excited when they heard it, 411 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:01,360 because they sounded like real loose flashes at the time. 412 00:22:01,460 --> 00:22:03,360 What I can see of the object itself 413 00:22:03,460 --> 00:22:05,860 doesn't look very much like a meteor. 414 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:07,160 At least not the meteors I've seen. 415 00:22:07,260 --> 00:22:10,160 It looks more like a huge cylinder. 416 00:22:10,260 --> 00:22:13,960 As a diameter of, what would you say, Professor Pearson? 417 00:22:14,060 --> 00:22:14,960 What's that? 418 00:22:15,060 --> 00:22:15,660 What would you say? 419 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:16,860 What's the diameter of this? 420 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:17,660 About 30 yards. 421 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,160 About 30 yards. 422 00:22:20,260 --> 00:22:23,160 It might be almost there. 423 00:22:23,260 --> 00:22:24,160 That's heaven. 424 00:22:24,260 --> 00:22:27,160 Something breaking out of the shadow like a gray snake. 425 00:22:27,260 --> 00:22:29,960 Now it's another one, and another one, and another one. 426 00:22:30,060 --> 00:22:32,160 They look like tentacles to me. 427 00:22:32,260 --> 00:22:33,660 I can see the thing spotty. 428 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:34,660 Now it's large. 429 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:36,160 Large is a bear. 430 00:22:36,260 --> 00:22:39,660 Just seems like wet leather, but hey. 431 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:40,960 Ladies and gentlemen, it's been described 432 00:22:41,060 --> 00:22:44,860 of like an hardly forced myself to keep looking at it. 433 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,860 Radio listeners on the East Coast start calling local police 434 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:49,960 and radio stations but can't get through. 435 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,760 The lines are jammed. 436 00:22:52,860 --> 00:22:53,960 The broadcast went on. 437 00:22:54,060 --> 00:22:56,660 Jesus, they're talking about playing field and then 438 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:57,660 Newark. 439 00:22:57,760 --> 00:22:59,960 That's my god, they're coming closer. 440 00:23:00,060 --> 00:23:01,660 So I ran next door to Bonnie Walk. 441 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:04,360 I said, are you listening to this? 442 00:23:04,460 --> 00:23:07,060 I'm on the awesome wells. 443 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:08,060 He said, yeah, I'm listening. 444 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:09,060 Let's go out and look. 445 00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:10,760 So we were looking all over the streets 446 00:23:10,860 --> 00:23:13,160 and see they were coming into Bayonne, which 447 00:23:13,260 --> 00:23:15,260 was right next door to Hoboken. 448 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:17,760 And we don't see anything. 449 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:19,960 The streets are dark and deserted, 450 00:23:20,060 --> 00:23:23,160 but that's little comfort to the panic listeners. 451 00:23:23,260 --> 00:23:25,260 And so the fact that, oh my gosh, 452 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:26,860 there aren't any cars on the street, 453 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:28,460 well, that would be a sign to most of us 454 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:31,160 in rational times that it's a quiet night. 455 00:23:31,260 --> 00:23:34,960 But for somebody who is inclined to move toward hysteria, 456 00:23:35,060 --> 00:23:38,360 no cars on the street means that those people have already 457 00:23:38,460 --> 00:23:41,660 been harmed in some way. 458 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:43,960 Wait a minute, something's happening. 459 00:23:44,060 --> 00:23:46,860 Pumped shape is rising out of the pit. 460 00:23:47,060 --> 00:23:51,960 It may got a small beam of light against a mirror. 461 00:23:52,060 --> 00:23:52,960 What's that? 462 00:23:53,060 --> 00:23:55,060 There's a jet of flames springing from the mirror 463 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,460 and at least it's right at the advancing men. 464 00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:59,460 It strikes them head on. 465 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:00,960 They're turning into flames. 466 00:24:01,060 --> 00:24:04,560 How the hell is he a scholar by the word of the Bible? 467 00:24:04,660 --> 00:24:06,660 Of the 7 million listeners, it's estimated 468 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:10,060 that 1.7 million believe the broadcast is real. 469 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:14,260 And 1.2 million panic. 470 00:24:14,360 --> 00:24:16,460 In Grover's Mill, New Jersey, many residents 471 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,360 grab their rifles and a few fire at a local water tower 472 00:24:20,460 --> 00:24:23,860 thinking it is an alien death machine. 473 00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:27,160 Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. 474 00:24:27,260 --> 00:24:30,160 Incredible as it may seem, both the observations of science 475 00:24:30,260 --> 00:24:33,960 and the evidence of our eyes lead to the inescapable assumption 476 00:24:34,060 --> 00:24:36,760 that those strange beings who landed in the Jersey farmlands 477 00:24:36,860 --> 00:24:40,360 tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from the planet 478 00:24:40,460 --> 00:24:41,860 Mars. 479 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:45,560 Some people started storing food because of some sort 480 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:47,360 of impending attack. 481 00:24:47,460 --> 00:24:50,460 Some people tried to leave the area and gather up the kids 482 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:53,760 and rush out of the city. 483 00:24:53,860 --> 00:24:56,660 Others remain confident that a mobilization of the American 484 00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:59,860 military can stop the Martians. 485 00:24:59,960 --> 00:25:02,060 Because we're going to take care of them 486 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,360 because we were Americans. 487 00:25:04,460 --> 00:25:06,660 In those days, we won every war there was. 488 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:08,660 We were a ren. 489 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:10,560 Rumors run rampant. 490 00:25:10,660 --> 00:25:13,460 Many believe the invasion is not extraterrestrial. 491 00:25:13,460 --> 00:25:15,160 But part of the growing threat from the Nazis. 492 00:25:18,260 --> 00:25:20,760 A bulletin has handed me. 493 00:25:20,860 --> 00:25:25,860 Martian cylinders are falling all over the country. 494 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,460 One outside of Buffalo, one in Chicago. 495 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:31,960 They've lost. 496 00:25:32,060 --> 00:25:36,860 Finally, at 9 PM, the attack is over. 497 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,360 This is the end now. 498 00:25:39,460 --> 00:25:40,360 Smoke comes out. 499 00:25:40,460 --> 00:25:42,360 Black smoke. 500 00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:45,360 People are trying to run away from it, but it's no use. 501 00:25:45,460 --> 00:25:48,360 They're falling like flies. 502 00:25:48,460 --> 00:25:52,360 Now the smoke's crossing 6th Avenue, 503 00:25:52,460 --> 00:25:57,360 5th Avenue, 100 yards away. 504 00:25:57,460 --> 00:26:01,360 It's just a feat. 505 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:07,960 The X2L calling, say kill. 506 00:26:08,060 --> 00:26:11,960 The X2L calling, say kill New York. 507 00:26:12,460 --> 00:26:14,760 Anyone on the air? 508 00:26:14,860 --> 00:26:17,060 The eerie silence is followed by an announcement 509 00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,960 that the program is a dramatization, but it's too late. 510 00:26:21,060 --> 00:26:23,760 The hour-long broadcast has convinced millions of listeners 511 00:26:23,860 --> 00:26:25,260 that the end is near. 512 00:26:25,360 --> 00:26:28,260 And the citizens fleeing for their lives tonight 513 00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:31,760 will be calling for the head of Orson Welles tomorrow. 514 00:26:37,260 --> 00:26:40,860 A 1938 radio dramatization of the H.G. Welles classic, 515 00:26:40,860 --> 00:26:43,760 The War of the Worlds, has thrown the United States 516 00:26:43,860 --> 00:26:45,760 into a panic. 517 00:26:45,860 --> 00:26:48,060 When listeners find out they have been duped, 518 00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:50,860 there are angry calls for a congressional investigation 519 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:55,160 to prevent future fake news broadcasts. 520 00:26:55,260 --> 00:26:58,260 Orson Welles is blamed for the panic. 521 00:26:58,360 --> 00:27:01,060 It's identified with Orson because he was the voice, 522 00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:02,960 and he did direct the show. 523 00:27:03,060 --> 00:27:08,060 He was the product of his directorial talent. 524 00:27:08,060 --> 00:27:11,160 But it was a fluke. 525 00:27:11,260 --> 00:27:14,160 He never expected to get out of hand that way. 526 00:27:14,260 --> 00:27:14,960 Do you want me to speak now? 527 00:27:15,060 --> 00:27:15,960 I'm sorry. 528 00:27:16,060 --> 00:27:18,960 The next day, a contrite Welles addresses the nation. 529 00:27:19,060 --> 00:27:24,960 Of course, we are deeply shocked and deeply regretful 530 00:27:25,060 --> 00:27:29,160 about the results of last night's broadcast. 531 00:27:29,260 --> 00:27:30,860 Came rather as a great surprise to us 532 00:27:30,860 --> 00:27:37,760 that a story by H.G. Welles classic 533 00:27:37,860 --> 00:27:41,760 about a mythical invasion by monsters from the planet Mars 534 00:27:41,860 --> 00:27:46,760 should have had so profound an effect upon radio listeners. 535 00:27:46,860 --> 00:27:49,760 I remember now how worried he looked and how pale 536 00:27:49,860 --> 00:27:51,760 and it sort of frightened. 537 00:27:51,860 --> 00:27:53,760 The FCC began looking into it, 538 00:27:53,860 --> 00:27:55,760 but I think there were some commissioners 539 00:27:55,860 --> 00:27:58,760 who were concerned about somehow infringing 540 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,660 on freedom of speech and radio's creativity. 541 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:05,660 And so there wasn't really much done about it. 542 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:08,660 And I think that even though Orson Welles had a fairly 543 00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,660 half-hearted apology, this made him very famous. 544 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,660 And when you have fame, you don't apologize too much. 545 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,660 But he did say, I don't think we'll try anything like this 546 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:20,660 again. 547 00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:22,660 Orson Welles never admits whether or not 548 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:24,660 the panic was premeditated. 549 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:27,660 When asked, he merely smiled. 550 00:28:27,660 --> 00:28:30,560 Despite the furor over the 1938 broadcast 551 00:28:30,660 --> 00:28:34,560 on February 12, 1949, another radio play based 552 00:28:34,660 --> 00:28:37,560 on the War of the Worlds results in pandemonium 553 00:28:37,660 --> 00:28:39,560 in Quito, Ecuador. 554 00:28:39,660 --> 00:28:42,560 Tens of thousands of panic-stricken residents run 555 00:28:42,660 --> 00:28:46,560 into the streets to escape deadly Martian gas rains. 556 00:28:46,660 --> 00:28:50,560 Once the public realized that it was this hoax, 557 00:28:50,660 --> 00:28:54,560 they were pretty irate about it and stormed the radio station 558 00:28:54,660 --> 00:28:57,560 and actually burned the radio station to the ground. 559 00:28:57,660 --> 00:29:00,560 15 employees of the radio station die in the fire. 560 00:29:03,660 --> 00:29:07,560 In July, 1947, newspapers report that alien bodies have 561 00:29:07,660 --> 00:29:11,560 crashed to Earth in Roswell, New Mexico. 562 00:29:11,660 --> 00:29:16,560 This sparks a worldwide mania for all things Martian. 563 00:29:16,660 --> 00:29:19,560 Please contact us. 564 00:29:19,660 --> 00:29:22,560 We are your friends. 565 00:29:22,660 --> 00:29:25,560 Scientists insist the Roswell spacecraft is a government 566 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:29,460 weather balloon, but that doesn't stop a pop culture 567 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:33,460 explosion of books and movies about flying saucers and aliens. 568 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,460 We want to believe that we're not alone. 569 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,460 We want to believe that there are other people out there. 570 00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:48,460 And so if you tap into that great reservoir, you not only 571 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:52,460 have great entertainment, but you also validate these beliefs 572 00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:53,460 that we have. 573 00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:59,460 And the first big-budget science fiction movie in 1953 is an 574 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:04,460 adaptation of The War of the Worlds. 575 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:07,460 This could be the beginning of the end for the human race. 576 00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,460 For what men first thought were meteors or the often ridiculed 577 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:15,460 flying saucers are in reality the flaming vanguard of the invasion 578 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:16,460 from Mars. 579 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:19,460 It was the first time they'd taken a really good science fiction 580 00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:23,460 story and coupled it with really good special effects. 581 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:30,460 The film is a blockbuster the world over for its Oscar-winning 582 00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:34,460 visual effects and groundbreaking spaceship design. 583 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,460 Well, those war machines in the world certainly were unique 584 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:39,460 for their time. 585 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:43,460 They took this idea of a craft from another world and 586 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:48,460 surprised everybody with this sort of organic notion. 587 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:50,460 Move it, you're dead! 588 00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:59,460 The very first movie I ever saw was The War of the Worlds. 589 00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:03,460 And I stayed up late to watch it and it scared the crap out of 590 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:04,460 me. 591 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:09,460 And I was obsessed with these Martians and their death rays. 592 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:21,460 For the next decade, pop culture keeps the dream of life on 593 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:25,460 Mars alive at the same time that scientists are learning more 594 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:36,460 and more about the inhospitable forces at work in the universe. 595 00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:40,460 On November 28, 1964, the six-year-old National Aeronautics 596 00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:45,460 and Space Administration, NASA, launches Mariner 4 on a fly-by 597 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:46,460 mission to Mars. 598 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:48,460 I'm current in one panel. 599 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:49,460 I'm behind you. 600 00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:50,460 We have a current on the panel. 601 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,460 Eight months later, Mariner snaps 22 black and white images of 602 00:31:53,460 --> 00:31:57,360 the surface of the Red Planet and 5,000 years of speculation 603 00:31:57,460 --> 00:32:03,360 about Martian life, it's transformed overnight. 604 00:32:03,460 --> 00:32:06,360 You know, when Mariner 4 went by, it surprised us like, oh my 605 00:32:06,460 --> 00:32:08,360 gosh, it's just like the moon. 606 00:32:08,460 --> 00:32:11,360 It's completely lifeless, completely dead. 607 00:32:11,460 --> 00:32:14,360 Mariner 4 changed everything. 608 00:32:14,460 --> 00:32:19,360 There was enough there to see no canals, no civilizations, no 609 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:26,260 little green men for the popular world to see that whole Martian 610 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:31,260 empire smashed was a big moment. 611 00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:35,260 Despite this scientific evidence, the War of the Worlds still has 612 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,260 the power to cause panning. 613 00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:41,260 Traffic coming off the young man's expressway is completely at a standstill. 614 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,260 We've asked you to please stay away from the area. 615 00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:46,260 There have been fires and explosions. 616 00:32:46,260 --> 00:32:49,160 You're not exactly sure how many people have been killed or injured, 617 00:32:49,260 --> 00:32:51,160 but they're calling it all available. 618 00:32:51,260 --> 00:32:54,160 Ambulance is from the area. 619 00:32:54,260 --> 00:32:59,160 On Halloween night 1968, on the 30th anniversary of the original radio broadcast, 620 00:32:59,260 --> 00:33:04,160 WKBW Radio in Buffalo, New York presents a modernized version of the Mercury 621 00:33:04,260 --> 00:33:06,160 Theater program. 622 00:33:06,260 --> 00:33:11,160 This time, the Martian invasion hits the US-Canadian border. 623 00:33:11,260 --> 00:33:12,160 I'll be all right. 624 00:33:12,260 --> 00:33:13,160 I just want to see. 625 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,060 Jeff, Jeff, it's turning my way. 626 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:20,060 Irv, Irv, can you hear me? 627 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:24,060 KAK393, KAK393 to KH2586, can you hear me? 628 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:27,060 Irv, can you hear me? 629 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:32,060 Despite the fact that the broadcast is heavily promoted as a dramatization, 630 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,060 with disclaimers broadcast 21 days in advance, every hour on the hour, 631 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:41,060 local police report more than 4,000 phone calls from panicked listeners. 632 00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:48,060 A year later, in 1969, NASA launches Mariner 6 and 7. 633 00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:53,060 200 more photographs of Mars confirm that the red planet is not a place 634 00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:57,060 where Martians might be planning our destruction after all. 635 00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:01,060 Hope for a Martian civilization fades until 1976, 636 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:05,060 when one amazing image from NASA stuns the world. 637 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:10,960 The 1970s see an explosion in unmanned exploration of the red planet. 638 00:34:11,060 --> 00:34:16,960 And the photos taken from orbit reveal more than just rocks and craters. 639 00:34:17,060 --> 00:34:19,960 It is now known simply as the Face on Mars, 640 00:34:20,060 --> 00:34:23,960 a feature in the Sedonia region of the planet that looks like the result 641 00:34:24,060 --> 00:34:25,960 of intentional engineering. 642 00:34:26,060 --> 00:34:29,960 And this rekindles the passions of thousands of wishful thinkers. 643 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:36,860 I can understand their passion about this, because were this to be genuine, 644 00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:39,860 it would be one of the most fantastic discoveries of all time in science 645 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,860 to find some monolith, some ancient structure on Mars. 646 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:47,860 NASA insists the face is a natural geologic formation, 647 00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:49,860 a trick of light and shadow. 648 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:52,860 But many people, eager to believe in Martians, 649 00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:54,860 think NASA's involved in a cover-up. 650 00:34:54,860 --> 00:35:01,760 Scientists would be the first people to be fascinated if that face on Mars was genuine. 651 00:35:01,860 --> 00:35:03,760 The evidence is simply not there. 652 00:35:04,860 --> 00:35:09,760 Much later, the Mars global surveyor spacecraft flew over this same landscape 653 00:35:09,860 --> 00:35:12,760 with cameras that can see at much higher resolution, 654 00:35:12,860 --> 00:35:16,760 looked at many different times of day, and it's just a hill. 655 00:35:16,860 --> 00:35:21,760 The fact that the face idea of the face is a natural geologic formation 656 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:23,660 and it's just a hill. 657 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,660 The fact that the face idea can continue to survive 658 00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:31,660 is another piece of evidence about this weird hold that Mars has on our imagination. 659 00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:40,660 Two Viking spacecraft launched in 1975 send back thousands of pictures from Martian orbit. 660 00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:43,660 And the results are the same as before. 661 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,660 Mars is a dry, weather-beaten desert. 662 00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:50,660 But there is one more amazing find still to come. 663 00:35:50,660 --> 00:35:57,560 Later images reveal deep channels that appear to have been carved by water in the distant past. 664 00:35:57,660 --> 00:36:01,560 What we've observed on Earth is wherever we find liquid water on Earth 665 00:36:01,660 --> 00:36:04,560 and some sort of energy source we find life. 666 00:36:04,660 --> 00:36:10,560 Then therefore what we want to look for on Mars is where a long time ago there was also liquid water. 667 00:36:11,660 --> 00:36:16,560 In the quest for water, the Viking lander does something remarkable. 668 00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:23,460 It detaches from the orbiter and without the aid of any modern computer guidance system, Viking lands on Mars. 669 00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:34,460 I am truly amazed when I look back at Viking as to how they were able to do what they did 670 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,460 and with the technology they had at the time. 671 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:39,460 I figured those guys must have been a lot smarter than we were 672 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:42,460 to be able to get those things down successfully and they did 673 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:45,460 and it was a fantastic success to be able to do that. 674 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:52,460 The Viking landers perform three life-seeking remote-controlled experiments. 675 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:58,460 The first mixes Martian soil with water and other Earth elements to see if anything will grow. 676 00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:03,460 The second searches for organic compounds in the Martian atmosphere. 677 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:08,460 The third burns a patch of the Martian surface and analyzes the ashes. 678 00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:13,460 Viking was the first attempt to do biology on another planet 679 00:37:13,460 --> 00:37:18,360 and it was actually very impressive because we had never even been to Mars before. 680 00:37:18,460 --> 00:37:23,360 We were going to do some of the most ambitious biology experiments ever attempted. 681 00:37:24,460 --> 00:37:30,360 At first they think they found life but the results are a false positive. 682 00:37:31,460 --> 00:37:38,360 The overwhelming scientific consensus is definitely that Viking rather than finding life on Mars 683 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:44,260 was only able to sort of discover an interesting aspect of Martian surface chemistry. 684 00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:49,260 This tantalizing result would inspire another Mars landing mission. 685 00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:57,260 It would take 22 years but in 1998 the tiny Mars pathfinder roams the surface of the red planet. 686 00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,260 CLCBR had the dex flesh on. 687 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:07,260 With this success behind them, NASA sends the first of two new Mars exploration rovers aloft 688 00:38:07,260 --> 00:38:10,160 on June 10th, 2003. 689 00:38:10,260 --> 00:38:15,160 And liftoff of the Delta II rocket with the Mars exploration rover. 690 00:38:15,260 --> 00:38:25,160 Its twin launches just weeks later and both undertake the lonely voyage to Mars. 691 00:38:30,260 --> 00:38:35,160 Seven months later, on January 3rd, 2004, the first rover lands on Mars, 692 00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:45,060 armed with a new close-up camera and rock grinder, which search for evidence of microscopic life inside the frozen rocks. 693 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:53,060 It is followed just weeks later by the second rover with similar stunning results. 694 00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:03,060 These NASA missions continue the quest for water and ultimately life itself. 695 00:39:04,060 --> 00:39:08,960 Upcoming missions may eventually lead to the manned exploration of Mars, 696 00:39:09,060 --> 00:39:14,960 but it seems highly unlikely that any of these expeditions will discover the creatures of science fiction. 697 00:39:17,060 --> 00:39:23,960 It's funny that Mars, after all the exploration we've done, is still kind of a fantasy planet to a lot of people. 698 00:39:24,060 --> 00:39:29,960 We still somehow hope there's Martians there or we think, 699 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:34,860 gee, maybe they're underground or maybe their cities are covered in sand or something. 700 00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:41,860 We had a culture for so long of thinking about that planet as being a place that had life. 701 00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:43,860 We want neighbors in space. 702 00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:51,860 Mars is so darn close and if only there was life there, it would make our solar system so much more fun, if nothing else. 703 00:39:52,860 --> 00:39:59,760 Despite the scientific evidence, this great tale of interplanetary invasion lives on. 704 00:39:59,860 --> 00:40:05,760 In 2005, Steven Spielberg's sci-fi blockbuster rekindles the terror of invasion. 705 00:40:08,860 --> 00:40:13,760 Now in Britain, major computer animated motion pictures are developed. 706 00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:18,660 The movie is the brainchild of musician and filmmaker Jeff Wayne, 707 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:23,660 whose creative energies have been driven by this story for almost 30 years. 708 00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:32,660 In 1978, he and his father buy the rights to the H.G. Wells story and create, of all things, a musical interpretation of the classic novel. 709 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:38,660 The work is set in Wells' time, but the music is inspired by 1970s rock. 710 00:40:39,660 --> 00:40:44,560 Famed British actor Richard Burton reads dramatic passages from the book. 711 00:40:45,660 --> 00:40:51,560 The Martians release their black smoke, but the ship's sped on, cutting down one of the tripod figures. 712 00:40:51,660 --> 00:40:58,560 Instantly, the others raise their heat rays and melt it the Thunder Child's valiant heart. 713 00:40:59,660 --> 00:41:06,560 When the smoke cleared, the Thunder Child vanished forever, taking with a man's last hope of victory. 714 00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:14,460 The lead in the sky was lit by green fashions, cylinder following cylinder, and no one and nothing was left now to fight them. 715 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,460 The Earth belonged to the Martians. 716 00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:26,460 The original album is a hit in the UK and sells over 13 million copies worldwide over the next 27 years. 717 00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:35,460 H.G. Wells is an author of The Great Vision and The War of the Worlds just got my nod. 718 00:41:35,460 --> 00:41:45,360 And I think probably because H.G. did write it as this episodic adventure, it was easy to cut off moments within a block of the story and compose a sequence. 719 00:41:45,460 --> 00:41:49,360 And I followed the chapters exactly as H.G. did. 720 00:41:54,460 --> 00:42:02,360 I think the appearance of a musical version of War of the Worlds really says a lot about the sort of the viability and the flexibility of this basic story. 721 00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:10,260 Jeff Wayne orders paintings for the album, which offer a striking new interpretation of the Martian fighting machines. 722 00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:18,260 The paintings were quite extraordinary at that time, and they were really kind of a definitive version of the walking tripods. 723 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:25,260 When Jeff Wayne commissioned these paintings, that was really reminded us about striking the H.G. Wells concept. 724 00:42:26,260 --> 00:42:37,160 Over the next two decades, Wayne's passion for the story inspires video games and an ever-expanding range of merchandise, and now a major animated feature film. 725 00:42:37,260 --> 00:42:45,160 Why does the idea of something horrible from Mars continue to strike a chord? 726 00:42:45,260 --> 00:42:50,160 Why is it something that you can still make into a popular sensation? 727 00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:57,060 Maybe you just put it all together and you've got something that's got a hook into people's minds that just won't let go. 728 00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:07,060 For more than a century, H.G. Wells' book has never been out of print, and Mars remains a pivotal character in our thoughts about life from beyond. 729 00:43:08,060 --> 00:43:23,960 Maybe we see Mars as our evil twin, that we look at it and see a planet that is in some ways like Earth, but it has never been associated with good things from Earth. 730 00:43:24,060 --> 00:43:31,960 The popular imagination about Mars has so often had to do with threat and terror and evil. 731 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:36,860 The power of Mars over our imagination is still there. 732 00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:43,860 And as for H.G. Wells' Martians, for all their power, how did man survive? 733 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:52,860 As I emerged from Baker Street, I saw far away and over the trees the hood of a Martian giant. 734 00:43:52,860 --> 00:44:08,760 He appeared to be standing still and scattered about it in a dozen of their machines, stark and silent, with a Martians, dead, slain by the disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared. 735 00:44:09,860 --> 00:44:12,760 The War of the Worlds is over for now.