Second Season
Opening voice-over:
"There's rioting breaking out through the city. Fire is continuing to burn everywhere. Troops are shooting people. My God, I...I don't know why! There's a woman dying in front of me, and no one's helping her! There are conflicting reports about who or what started the chaos. Will someone tell me what's happening? This is madness! What is this world coming to?"
- –a news reporter on scene
The creative team of Season 1 was replaced, bringing in Frank Mancuso, Jr., who was also busy producing Friday the 13th: The Series. Many aspects of the show were retooled, such as removing the black humor and Biblical references.
The modern-day setting of the first season shifted to a not-too-distant future of “Almost Tomorrow” where the world has since spiraled into a dismal state with its economy, environment, and government all beaten down. Of the few characters that return for the second season, most are killed off in the season premiere, including fan favorites Norton and Ironhorse. The aliens of the first season are replaced by the Morthren, from Mothrai, who have an unexplained connection to the first season aliens from Mor-Tax. The show is inconsistent in revealing whether or not the Morthren are indeed a new race of aliens, a sub-culture of the season one aliens, or something else altogether.
Whereas bacteria and radiation are constant problems for the Mor-Tax, the Morthren have quickly found a cure-all means for this by transmutating into human bodies. With this, they forwent the ability to possess human bodies, retaining only one human body. Their equivalent of body-swapping is a cloning machine that makes exact copies of someone, only differing in that the duplicates would be loyal to the Morthren cause and their existence tied to the original. Ironically, as sores are the telltale signs of alien possession in the first season, a lack of scars or any physical flaw was a telltale sign of a clone, as the Morthren are fixated with perfection. While the Eternal is their god, the Morthren are led by Malzor (played by Denis Forest, who had a large part in the Season 1 episode “Vengeance Is Mine”). Just under him was the scientist Mana (Catherine Disher, whose husband also played a major role in a Season 1 episode) with Ardix (Julian Richings who appeared briefly in “He Feedeth Among the Lillies”) as her assistant.
Meanwhile, with General Wilson missing, the Cottage destroyed, and two team members lost in battle, the remnants of the team, with mercenary John Kincaid (Adrian Paul), seek shelter. They take up base in an underground hideout in the sewers. Some of the characters experience shifts, such as Harrison carrying a gun, becoming more sullen and losing his more quirky personality traits. The friction between the militaristic Ironhorse and the other team members was not transferred with Kincaid, who got along well with everyone, who themselves became more militaristic in season 2. The show's theme of warfare between two races, and all the issues that come with it, was replaced by a theme of a bleak life on a desolate world.
The series was canceled two episodes shy of a full season.
Read more about this topic: War Of The Worlds (TV series)
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