Every War Of The Worlds Adaptation: Ranked Worst To Best

7. The Period Drama

And now we come to the current BBC adaptation, sitting solidly in the unremarkable place of being neither amongst the best nor the worst takes on the Wells novel.

Even though it has shifted forward a few years to take advantage of the international political tensions in 1905, the BBC The War Of The Worlds feels like the strongest visual representation of the British Empire in its turn-of-the-century pomp being torn apart by aliens unimaginably more advanced.

The action and effects are impressive for a BBC TV budget. It really feels like Martian tripods are present in Edwardian Britain, leading to an impressive Dunkirk-esque sequence on a South Coast beach.

Unfortunately, the plot is bitty and disconnected and, while solving the book's lack of any decent female characters by drawing on the women in Wells's own life is a good concept, the interpersonal drama does not mesh brilliantly with the invasion stuff.