War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds is one of my favourite stories. Whether it be the original H.G.Wells book, the Jeff Wayne musical, the Orson Welles radio show or the Tom Cruise film (unnessesarily slated I thought) I just love the tale of the invasion of Earth by the Martians in their fantastical three-legged fighting machines. And okay, this is a laboratory tripod and not a Martian..

The Orson Welles show is one of the most interesting takes on the story. It was first broadcast in 1938, perhaps not the most sensitive time to beam out a play about an invasion. Maybe not too surprising then that many people who heard it, believed it to be true. Especially if they had missed the brief section at the beginning pointing out that it was fiction. It didn't quite cause the kind of panic that the papers were reporting at the time but people were scared nonetheless. And having listened to it myself I can see why since it starts as a series of interruptions to the normal programme about something unusual happening but we are not quite sure what yet. If I had missed the start, I would have been pretty worried myself.

It is an example of mass hysteria, which is surpisingly common and shows how easliy fear and panic can spread among people, especially when they already fear an attack.