After first being released in the pages of Pearson’s Magazine and Cosmopolitan in 1897 as a serial and the following year as a novel, H.G. Wells‘ The War of the Worlds has been among the works of literature most frequently adapted for media. While the most memorable adaptations are Orson Welles‘ infamous 1938 broadcast on CBS Radio and Steven Spielberg‘s take on 2005’s War of the Worlds, there have been countless direct adaptations, as well as works that share its DNA, like Independence Day, and parodies, like “The Day the Earth Looked Stupid” story in The Simpsons‘ “Treehouse of Horror XVII.”
But it’s rare for an adaptation to truly do something different with The War of the Worlds, a unique twist that hasn’t been represented often, or at all, in other adaptations. 2019’s three-part BBC TV miniseries The War of the Worlds is one of those rarities, a dark take that brings the tale to a different age and introduces a different voice. A female one.
BBC’s ‘The War of the Worlds’ Turns H.G. Wells’ Alien Invasion Into Amy’s Story
BBC’s 2019 The War of the Worlds is, surprisingly, the first British TV adaptation of British author H.G. Wells’ iconic work and the first to be set in London during the Edwardian era. The setting of London and the surrounding area is true to the book, but the interesting twist of using the Edwardian era as the time period, a bump forward from the novel’s Victorian era, adds an element to the adaptation that hasn’t been utilized before, with director Craig Viveiros musing (per Variety) that even though it has been adapted for the screen before, “it’s always had a contemporary (and American) setting.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
This iteration ofThe War of the Worlds, as writer Peter Harness says, takes place when Britain “was at the height of its imperial powers, and at the height of its self-confidence and even arrogance.” It’s a mighty power, soon to be challenged by WWI, being shattered by a mightier power, an indictment of Britain’s imperialist past.
But the inclusion of a strong female character truly separates the BBC version from its kin. That character is Amy (Eleanor Tomlinson), who is entering a new stage of her life with George (Rafe Spall) when the Martians arrive, and her inclusion as a main character is decidedly purposeful, with Harness explaining it was a clear choice from the beginning. It seemed the “natural way of doing things,” and long overdue, so much so that Amy is a fully realized lead who he’s built essentially from scratch. Amy is stronger and far more practical than George, which is more often than not how women truly react to challenges of any kind, let alone extraterrestrial ones.
‘The War of the Worlds’ Amy Is a Presence Rarely Seen in Adaptations
Tomlinson perhaps states it best in the previously cited Digital Spy, saying, “It was so refreshing to read Peter’s adaptation of the novel, which has a woman at the core of the drama, a choice which I feel is where Peter’s adaptation really updates the book.” The reason why it’s so refreshing isn’t hard to see, especially when compared to other adaptations.
The only female character of note in Spielberg’s 2005 iteration is Dakota Fanning‘s Rachel, and while her character matures quickly over the course of the film, she’s still largely relegated to screaming and hyperventilating while Tom Cruise plays the hero. An Anglo-French series in 2020 does have strong female characters, only as part of an ensemble in a contemporary setting that plays closer to The Walking Dead than anything else.
Intentional or not, 2005’s ‘War of the Worlds’ conjured the specters of 9/11.
If we look at Independence Day, which, for all intents and purposes, is an adaptation (right up to the introduction of a virus that cripples the aliens), the females are there to cheer on the real heroes of the piece in Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. The real disappointment in all of this is that it takes an adaptation that dates back to the turn of the century, the last century at that, to finally give The War of the Worlds a female character that is every bit as much a hero as the male characters. If not more.
The War of the Worldsis available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.
