War of the Worlds Season 2

[indianatrekker26]

http://www.amazon.com/War-Worlds-Se...FAM2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287865829&sr=8-1

I didn't think they were doing this, but season 2 of War of the Worlds is finally coming to dvd.

 

[Leonardo T. Dragon]

I may have to buy this simply because I have season 1 on DVD from when it came out 5 years ago. However I seem to recall that season 2 was more convoluted than season 1.

Hmm... to be a completionist or not... that is the question.

 

[Christopher]

Season 2 was a drastically different, far worse show than season 1. They changed producers, killed off half the cast (including the most popular character), stripped the remaining half of their personality, replaced the first-season aliens with a different, human-appearing faction, transformed the setting into a dreary post-apocalyptic world without any explanation for the change, and just generally told awful, unpleasant stories. There was some slight improvement in the latter half of the season, but the series finale was ridiculous. Unless you're a huge fan of Adrian Paul, Denis Forest, or Catherine Disher, I say skip it.

 

[FreezeC77]

Unless you're a huge fan of Adrian Paul, Denis Forest, or Catherine Disher, I say skip it.

Or you're a 12 year old boy and have a major crush on Rachel Blanchard...

Only reason why I stuck with S2. I don't really think I'd go back and watch it again since it's been 20 years

I remember being just so confused when S2 started. Suddenly it's like some kind of post apocalyptic world. Looking back on it it was almost like an episode of sliders and somehow the show 'slid' into a parallel universe for S2.

 

[arch101]

Well, I guess there's hope the remaining seasons of The Equalizer might finally come out too!
BTW, I was definitely a Catherine Disher fan

 

[diankra]

Yes, WotW season2 is an early example of that tendency to retool a series where season one which wasn't great, but had its moments (and was getting better in its later episodes, IFAIR)... by totally losing its point (Not that the ruined world scenario didn't have promise, but it's an idea for a different follow-up to the Pal film).

 

[AJBryant]

I could never figure out the reason for the change. It was, really, a totally different show. No one could ever really explain to me what the hell was behind the changes.

 

[Christopher]

Or you're a 12 year old boy and have a major crush on Rachel Blanchard...

Only reason why I stuck with S2. I don't really think I'd go back and watch it again since it's been 20 years

Well, I had the hots for Lynda Mason Green, but even that wasn't enough to make the second season palatable. I'm amazed that I actually stuck with it and watched the whole season, considering how much I hated most of it.

I could never figure out the reason for the change. It was, really, a totally different show. No one could ever really explain to me what the hell was behind the changes.

I think the idea for the overall change was that the new showrunner (Frank Mancuso, Jr.) figured the world would still be suffering from the consequences of the 1953 invasion. Which would make sense if it had been that way all along, but Mancuso just retconned the universe without explanation.

The cast changes, I think, were motivated by something darker. The two characters who were killed off were the Native American and the black man in a wheelchair. The two (well, three, counting Debbie) who survived were white. The new regular was white. The alien-looking and -sounding aliens were replaced by a bunch of ordinary-looking (and white) actors. And Jared Martin's character, who had been charmingly eccentric and hippie-ish in the first season, became completely bland and ordinary in the second. There's a pattern of rejection of anything different or exotic.

Moreover, Mancuso claimed that the reason he killed off Norton Drake was because the team would lose their home base and be on the run, and it wouldn't be practical for a man in a wheelchair to function in those conditions. But that was a lie, because the team moved into a new base in the season's second episode and stayed there for the rest of the show. Norton could've worked just as well in that environment. But he was still killed off, and I'm convinced it's because he wasn't white enough or ordinary enough.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The first season had a really sick sense of humor about it that made the show fun. The second season was a waste of video - the budget was clearly slashed to the bone, and it looks like the studio was just hoping to churn out enough hours to make a go of the thing in back-end syndication. Obviously they failed.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I loved the first season. J.M. Dillard's novelization is one of my prized possessions. I've long been disappointed that Pocket Books didn't do original WotW series novels. I really really really really wanted a crossover storyline between Star Trek: The Next Generation and War of the Worlds.

I've never seen the second season. The television station in West Virginia that carried the first season didn't carry the second. Season two is going to be a blind-buy for me. I know its reputation, but I'm going to give it a shot.

 

[Aragorn]

I didn't have cable growing up, so when War of the Worlds (which was syndicated) went from one of the big three networks in season one to this new network called Fox (which required standing upside down holding tin foil in one hand while your leg was touching a metal pole in order to watch) for season two, I missed out.

Or rather, didn't miss out, according to everyone here.

 

[Christopher]

I loved the first season. J.M. Dillard's novelization is one of my prized possessions.

I thought the writing on the first season was inconsistent (especially the last two episodes, which were pretty bad) and horror isn't my thing, but I absolutely loved the chemistry among the leads. It was an awesome cast that just clicked wonderfully; you could tell they enjoyed working together and that made them enjoyable to watch even when I didn't like the story. Killing off half the cast, destroying that perfect ensemble, was the worst thing Mancuso could've done to the show, even more than all the other damage he did.

I've long been disappointed that Pocket Books didn't do original WotW series novels. I really really really really wanted a crossover storyline between Star Trek: The Next Generation and War of the Worlds.

Hmm, I suppose it might've been possible to slot a Mor-Taxian invasion in 1953 and a resurgence in 1988 into Trek history, but it would've been tricky.

I've never seen the second season. The television station in West Virginia that carried the first season didn't carry the second.

There was one episode my local station didn't carry, because it was simply too risque. It was about the aliens' second evil plot of the season, third of the series, that involved using subliminal messages to drive people crazy or something. This time the message was inserted into a perfume ad that was basically just a naked man and woman, err, interacting, with only strategic camera angles and poses hiding the not-for-TV bits. It was shown several times in the course of the episode. People say that NYPD Blue was the first non-cable US show to take nudity that far, but WotW had it beat. I had to watch that episode over the air on the station from Dayton, 50-some miles away.

 

[DWF]

The first season was pretty graphic when it came to violence as well, it's no wonder Greg Strangis was a consultant on TNG's Conspiracy ep.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I've long been disappointed that Pocket Books didn't do original WotW series novels. I really really really really wanted a crossover storyline between Star Trek: The Next Generation and War of the Worlds.

Hmm, I suppose it might've been possible to slot a Mor-Taxian invasion in 1953 and a resurgence in 1988 into Trek history, but it would've been tricky.

See, now you're raining on my fun.

The first season was pretty graphic when it came to violence as well, it's no wonder Greg Strangis was a consultant on TNG's Conspiracy ep.

Strangis' involvement with Star Trek: The Next Generation went way back, well before "Conspiracy"; he was hired by Paramount to create the series when Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy both declined. Either what he came up with was unacceptable to Paramount (which I find unlikely) or Roddenberry's lawyer pulled strings to get Roddenberry dealt back in (which I think it more likely); either way, he was out and credited as a consulting producer on most of the first season.

 

[Christopher]

Right, DWF has it backwards. War of the Worlds premiered a year later than TNG (riding on its coattails as a syndication success). When "Conspiracy" was written, WotW would've only been in preproduction. Strangis moved from TNG to WotW, not the other way around.

 

[DWF]

Right, DWF has it backwards. War of the Worlds premiered a year later than TNG (riding on its coattails as a syndication success). When "Conspiracy" was written, WotW would've only been in preproduction. Strangis moved from TNG to WotW, not the other way around.

I don't have it backwards at all, you totally missed my point. I meant it's no wonder given the graphis nature of Conspiracy's ending that Greg Strangis was involved. Nowhere in my did I say that WOTW came before TNG. If anything Conspiracy was a taste of what we'd see on WOTW and to date it's the only Star Trek ep. that aired with a warning attached to it.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I don't recall "Conspiracy" carrying a warning when it first premiered locally here in 1988.

 

[propita]

I basically only watched it for Richard Chaves (the Native American character killed off with season 1). Season 2 sucked by comparison, for the reasons others have posted.

Btw, Richard Chaves has a Trek connection--he was in Voyager’s “Tattoo.” He was also in Predator.

 

[Aragorn]

I always thought Richard Chaves could've played The Punisher back then. Of course, I was a kid at the time.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I still wonder how Mancuso thought that killing off Ironhorse was a good idea. It was a horrible fraking idea. The world went post apocalyptic overnight! I never understood how thought that was a good idea too. how exactly does that happen? It's not like they jumped ahead 5 years or so.