BBC/Mammoth Screen
16 November 2019 • WAR CRY • TELEVISION 3
Earth invaders Could hostile Martians be the the least of a couple’s problems? asks Sarah Olowofoyeku
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NEMIES from another world launch their attack on an unsuspecting corner of planet Earth in BBC One’s The War of the Worlds tomorrow (Sunday 17 November). As the alien invasion causes chaos across Edwardian England, young couple George and Amy, who have attempted to defy social norms, must also deal with their own personal problems. The three-part series, an adaptation of the sci-fi novel by H. G. Wells, begins with George (Rafe Spall) and Amy (Eleanor Tomlinson), newly arrived in Woking, visiting their neighbour, astronomer and scientist Ogilvy (Robert Carlyle), who has invited them to study the planets with him. Excitedly, he shows them the unusual pillar of smoke he has spotted emerging from the edge of Mars, which he believes could be a volcanic eruption. To welcome them to the neighbourhood, he gives them a picture of the phenomenon. Taken aback by the gesture, Amy responds to Ogilvy by saying: ‘We’re pariahs, George and I.’ She doesn’t reveal what she and George have done, but the glances from other neighbours as the couple go about their everyday lives
suggest that they know and that the disapproval is widespread. Some days later, amid news reports of an unprecedented attack by Russia, the whole neighbourhood is alarmed when they hear an explosion and find that a giant spherical object has landed in the woods. Having spoken to Ogilvy previously, Amy wonders whether it has come from Mars. Uncertainty fills the air as no one
Feeling alienated might be a familiar experience knows what the new arrival could be. After more explosions, it is clear that the incidents are not freak accidents. They may be attacks. George, who works as a journalist, travels to London to pitch the story to his editor, who is not as enthusiastic as he’d hoped. But his seeming indifference is perhaps due to something other than a lack of interest in the strange incidents. ‘You cannot expect to do what you’ve done and have no consequences – you’re lucky to have a job at all,’ he says to George.
George and Amy’s actions have jeopardised his career and forced both of them out of the city. Their decisions have resulted in their becoming outcasts. Feeling alienated is an experience that may be familiar to many of us. Perhaps we have been rejected by family for doing something that they did not like. Maybe our lifestyle choices have made us feel that we are not accepted in certain places. We may have done something which has had serious consequences, and be struggling to move forward. It can seem as though our mistakes are the defining part of our story. The Bible is filled with reports of people who made terrible mistakes but were not rejected by God. And nothing has changed. No matter what we have done, God will accept us. One figure who made his fair share of mistakes but experienced forgiveness wrote: ‘God holds nothing against you’ (Psalms 32:2 The Message). His experience can be ours. There is no uncertainty about the forgiveness and acceptance that God wants to offer us. If we choose to put our confidence in him, we can discover his love – which is out of this world.