MovieChat Forums > War of the Worlds (1988) Discussion > Chicken Pox episode

Chicken Pox episode

posted 19 years ago by Book1245
5 replies | jump to latest

I was confused while watching the episode where one of the aliens gets the Chicken Pox and starts to die. At first they were talking about the infected alien like he was an Advocate, but then it showed the infected alien in its natural form, which I thought it could not do for remaining in its original host body for too long.
So could someone explain that episode to me?
(btw, I'm a newbie to the series, but I just love it! I ignore the bad quality of the tape and just focus on the fact that it's just so interesting! ^_^ )

"Why would they want the Duke's...son killed?"

[–] the thorn of Thurisaz 19 years ago

The sick alien was in fact one of the three Advocates. That was the purpose behind trying to purge the pox from his body, as the Advocacy forms a triumvirate of sound counsel and if one is ill, their collective guidance is broken and the underlings, which are totally dependant upon direction, would be helpless. If it were just one of the lower classes, they would show no strong desire to cure them.

As for the Advocates' bodies - well, the contamination suits counteracted against the killing heat, and I can assume that they eventually built up the strength to toss away those bodies. Notice the aliens natural form appearing in parts of the suits. Their disconnection to their bodies also explains why they are able to appropriate new bodies.

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Formless, faithless, and free.

[–] Book1245 19 years ago

Thanks. And yeah, I've noticed how you can see the Advocate's natural hands sometimes.

Do they all ever gain the strength to return to their natural forms?

"Why would they want the Duke's...son killed?"

[–] Jasons_Argonaut 19 years ago

My question is this...why do the Advocates still retain the original host voices throughout season one? Yes, yes, I know it is for familiarity sake, but showing the Advocate having ditched their bodies was a mistake that draws attention to this. We know they can use their third hand outside of the host body, so seeing the alien hand from within the coolant suits wasn't a problem. KNOWING that they ditched their original human bodies while retaining the first host voices is a hilarious mistake, but one I am willing to overlook because I enjoy the show.

[–] the thorn of Thurisaz 19 years ago

Do they all ever gain the strength to return to their natural forms?

I'm not entirely sure I understand. Without their host bodies, they are in fact in their natural state.

My question is this...why do the Advocates still retain the original host voices throughout season one? Yes, yes, I know it is for familiarity sake, but showing the Advocate having ditched their bodies was a mistake that draws attention to this. We know they can use their third hand outside of the host body, so seeing the alien hand from within the coolant suits wasn't a problem. KNOWING that they ditched their original human bodies while retaining the first host voices is a hilarious mistake, but one I am willing to overlook because I enjoy the show.

Well, they could absorb information from their hosts, and there is no evidence that they loose this after shedding them. So it's possible that speaking in those voices was not really simply because they were in those bodies at the time, but rather it is, at least in part, because they have access to that information. And if one brings up the subject of how voice boxes work or whatnot, remember that in "The Second Seal" the vocal recognitation unit could detect something amiss. Clearly, it is something along the lines of only cloning their host's voice. They continue reusing them even after they aquire new hosts in "To Heal the Leper", perhaps too acustomed to the original's by that point to use the new ones.

However, the real problem is that not only do they change voices about halfway through, but for a time, one goes from female to male for a couple of episodes, and then back to the same female voice. Of course, if one stretches, this could be passed off as new hosts off-screen, and maybe trying out something new. The entire season consumes more than a year's time, so there is definately enough time available to squeeze more in. But this seems a little out-of-character to me, so I don't take much fancy to it myself.

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Formless, faithless, and free.

[–] Jasons_Argonaut 19 years ago

Good thoughts, but in the end it still amounts to being a mistake, me thinks. We all liked the original voices, LOL! Anyhow, seeing that these discrepencies leave us having to stretch it into something workable that makes sense, yours is a good a theory as I could ever have come up with!