War of the Worlds by the Star Trek Cast

eDavidLu writes "Here is a radio remake of The War of the Worlds. From the promo: 'Join actors from Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation as they recreate this classic radio thriller. The breathless pace and convincing details make it clear why the 1938 broadcast of an eyewitness report of an invasion from Mars caused a nationwide panic in 1938. Originally performed by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre of the Air, War of the Worlds is truly the mother of all space invasions, offering a rare combination of chills, thrills and great literature.' My local NPR station KPCC broadcast this show last Saturday night, and the streaming audio for the entire program is available for one week only on their site. I was going to submit this story for Halloween eve, but KPCC was in the middle of a fund drive. Now that the fund drive is over, the slashdotting can begin. If you like this type of programming, remember to contribute to your local NPR station." Update: 11/05 17:53 GMT by Z : Edited for jerks. Thanks, guys. Seriously. Way to be responsible members of the internet community.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[dancingmad]

Uh, I haven't listened to the progam, but its probably based on the H.G. Wells book (or the radio drama by Orsen Wells, which is based on the book) not the movie, which had very little do with the actual novel.

Real Media format

[aussie_a]

I was willing to listen to an act or so, to see how bad it was. But then I realised it was in Real Media format. Sorry, I refuse to download that piece of spyware onto my computer, and I haven't had much luck downloading alternate applications and getting them to work with the Real Media format. I'm not going to try, yet again, merely to listen to something I'm likely not going to like. There are very few sites that use this format. Why do the fringes continue to use it though? I'll never know.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[aussie_a]

No matter how you slice it, the ending sucks. It hears/reads/looks like the creator went "Well shit. The baddies are undefeatable, and humanity doesn't have a hope. But I have to finish this in 10minutes/pages, I know! I'll have all of the aliens suddenly die. Now what's a good reason, ooh! A virus. And it's scientific, so everyone will think I'm oh so clever."

Sure, it's scientifically plausible. But as a novel/play, it sucks. It sucks big time. Just because something is scientifically plausible, doesn't mean it's good. And it's the one consistent element in every incarnation of War of the Worlds. I thought Hollywood, being Hollywood, would change it. But they didn't. Typical.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[freakybob]

I thought Hollywood, being Hollywood, would change it. But they didn't. Typical.

Contradiction. If Hollywood DID change it, you'd still say typical.

Suspension of Disbelief?

[Squideye]

I can't help but think that hearing voices associated with Star Trek, TNG and such will not exactly be making a positive contribution to the immersive suspension of disbelief which so distinguished Orson Welles' original broadcast.

I don't think thousandss of people are going to be running into the streets after hearing Patrick Stewart and Leonary Nimoy, f'rinstance, declaring that aliens are among us...

Re:That's my favorite myth, too.

[Life2Short]

His claims would be more believable if he backed things up with some data of his own or some references. Sorry, but if my choices are contemporary news reports and some guy from Western Illinois University with no data or references, I guess I'll go with the contemporary news reports. Also, later in the passage he seems perfectly willing to accept that 20% of those listening to the broadcast experienced some form of panic, and he attributes this to mass hysteria. No one is saying that every American east of the Mississippi shit a brick that night, but I don't see anything here to suggest that the idea that the broadcast freaked a lot of people out is a myth.

Re:That's my favorite myth, too.

[pm_agapow]

Actually it's not just "some guy from Western Illinois University". There's quite a body of work on the myth of the WotW hysteria. As for the veracity of contemporary newspaper accounts (because newspapers are always truthful, right?) - almost none of those accounts were first hand. They used the familiar motif of "just over there, just beyond what you personally know about, there's some astounding things going on". Just like cannibals are always in the next village, and the choking doberman / vanishing hitch-hiker / stolen kidney stories always happened to a friend of a friend (of a friend ...), the stories of hysteria were safely placed in the next state, the deep south, somewhere else.

Did the broadcast wierd some people out? Sure. Did it lead to widespread panic and hysteria? No. Fortean Times carried an article on the hysteria myth last year. Check out their website for it.

Using the enemy's bullets is sometimes necessary.

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolutism isn't that useful. One has to begin somewhere and using the computers we have in order to liberate ourselves from the control of proprietors is perfectly reasonable. Just as 20 years ago people questioned that anyone would write a free software operating system, people today use absolutism to avoid directly challenging if we are better off now then we were then.

Clearly it is foolish to settle for proprietary or patent-encumbered encoding algorithms in favor of freely available, publicly-specified, and unencumbered algorithms to do the same job.

--jbn-o

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[PhreakOfTime]

How exactly is PBS and NPR a service for the most well off members of society? Are you well off? Do You listen or watch either of those entities?

Something tells me that the richest memebers of society arent taking telecourses on PBS at 10pm at night. Merely, it is somehow your preconception that only rich people listen to NPR, or watch PBS. Rich children dont watch sesame st, they get taken shopping by their servants.

So, lets take all govt funding out, INLCUDING the standard deduction you get on your income taxes every year. After all, it wouldnt endanger your existance in the slightest. And writing off property taxes as a deduction? Hell no, if you can afford a house, then you can afford to not take the deduction. Its just a boondoggle for the homeowners that they can be exempt from paying taxes to the govt because they pay taxes on a house.

Or, in other words, you dont have the slightest idea what you are talking about. Mainly, because the views you are expousing are not your own, you are simply parroting what you have heard other people say.