...but that's what made it so good! I remember the episode when the alien rips that nurse's leg off and it was all bloody and junk!
But then they killed off the half the cast and those three crazy aliens who we thought were running the show, but were just pawns themselves. What were they called? The Committee? The Triumverate? I can't remember...either way, the show was never as good after that!
You're talking about Frank Mancuso Jr's second season (or "The Second Invasion") which was when these dramatic alterations to the cast and plot were made. Yes, it was crap. Many fans don't like to include the events of Season 2 with the mythology established in Season 1 since Season 2 contradicted the first season, the 1953 movie, and even previous Season 2 episodes. To fathom how the aliens from Season 1 played into anything in Season 2 would cause your head to explode! So it's best just to ignore all that and to know that the Advocacy were representives of the Mor-Tax ruling class, ordering around the lower classes of soldiers and the even lower scientists, while answering only to the off-planet (and hence unseen and never heard) Council.
Many critics bashed the show's gore, but at least it was interesting to watch (Season 2 was so bland that even pointless gore would have been something to keep you awake). I recall that that was a hook to me. Seeing bodies dissolve and gouged out eyes was definitely attention getters. But I also like that the first season also had some amazing subtleties that many critics of the show completely missed. It just also had some unique quirks you don't find on many other shows. My favourite was the aliens' obsession with the number 3 and how they would often exchange "To Life Immortal". Not to mention the black humour. It was a show that Paramount never should have tried to ruin.
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Formless, faithless, and free.
Personally, I never had a problem with the show's graphic nature in terms of the violence. I mean, it's a War of the Worlds after all- and war is never pretty. And I agree with Thurisaz regarding the subtleties that the first season had. A lot of the times the violence would dovetail with the show's black humour. For instance, take the scene with the human captive in "Vengeance is Mine" having a laser bore a hole through his head. Ordinarly this is something that is horrific to watch- but George Bloomfield (a regular first season director for WOTW) had this wonderful shot of the back of the human's head. So, you can see the Advocacy right through the hole in this guy's head. Also, the hair salon scene in "To Heal the Leper" was another one of those magical first season moments where the violence could mix with humor.
I just try to pretend that Mancuso's season 2 never happened and that "The Angel of Death" was the end of the WOTW series- and we can speculate on where the series COULD have gone from there. The whole three-person aspect of the Mor-Taxan society has always fascinated me- and these comments from Elyse Dickenson (a huge WOTW fan who had her own WOTW fanzine and wrote the series episode guide for Starlog) back in August, 1989 provided some interesting insights into the invaders:
"While I'm on the subject of aliens and radiation, I'll propose a theory on the background of our favorite people in 'vacuum cleaner suits.' Some people have wondered why the aliens operate in threes. Their pattern is extremely similar to the communist Viet Cong, who operated in structures of three- "from three regiments per division to three-man cells- of which three formed a squad, three squads to a platoon, and so on. The three-man cell was Chinese communist idea; the group was intended to be mutually supportive but also to deny privacy and to prevent desertion or deviation from the Viet Cong's puritanical standards of conduct." ('The Tunnels of Chu Chi', T. Marigold & J. Penycate, Berkeley, 1985).
"This does raise an interesting point regarding the aliens. We all know that they refer to each other as comrade. This perhaps the closest interpreation into the English language to their own ideals. Who is to say that they don't operate under a structure similar to communism? Certainly- the scientists are used but abused by the ruling powers (look at what Russia does to their 'dissident scientists); if you botch a job, you die (or end up in a gulag), etc. No doubt the loyalty to the whatever government they possess is instilled in youth, the best time to warp young minds. So far, we haven't seen "into" what makes the aliens tick, but nobody has deserted the cause. In fact the aliens prefer death to failure (evidenced by the alien who didn't wait for the elevator in "The Angel of Death"). Perhaps the mere idea is tantamount to heresy."
I guess to understand their motives you have to harken back to the 1953 movie. If my memory serves me correctly(and before I watch my new DVD of the movie), The reason why the Martians(remember, they were from Mars) invaded Earth was because their own planet was dying hence was their "cause". This would be a good idea as to what makes them tick. The reference to communism is also evident in both the movie and the series and again you have to remember what was going on at the time. In both 1953 and 1988 the Cold War was in full swing albeit in 1988 it was beginning to implode on the Communists. So the fear in the U.S. was still a Soviet invasion of some sort or some sort of communist takeover. See the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Manchurian Candidate to get the picture. Our enemy of the time was the Soviet Union who were often stereotyped as calling each other comrade. This term turned into a kind of political slur during the Cold War and to be called comrade was basically an accusal of being a communist which was almost as bad as saying something bad about one's mother. Aliens killing themselves instead of being captured was also like the stories about spies from both sides taking cyonide(sp) capsules instead of falling into enemy hands and being forced to talk. History of the times tells us alot about the shows and movies we see. It really isn't any deeper than that.
"We all go a little mad sometimes"-Norman Bates
I didn't mind the gore, but it seemed like it was tacked on for the sake of being tacked on....IMO.