European TV

In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, Fox. Starts March 5

HG Wells is one of the founding authors of literary sci-fi. That in itself wouldn’t explain why there have been so many repeated adaptations of his work – other authors such as Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain get the occasional adaptation, but adaptations of Wells work are vastly more common. It might be because there being so many adaptations ensures a cultural familiarity with Wells’ work or it could be because he came up with so many fundamental science-fiction ideas, such as time machines, invisibility, alien invasions and eugenics.

Even so, that wouldn’t explain why in the past six months alone, as well as a movie adaptation of The Invisible Man, we’ve seen not one but two adaptations of The War of the Worlds. The first by the BBC, The War of the Worlds, was a relatively faithful, period affair set in England.

And now we have a far looser adaptation, War of the Worlds, set in modern day France and the UK.

Alienated

It introduces us to a whole gaggle of Brits and French people, but predominantly British/Irish neuroscientist Gabriel Byrne and his estranged wife (Elizabeth McGovern), as well as French scientist Léa Drucker (Le Bureau Des Légendes) who has sister issues.

Drucker is tasked by the European Space Agency to monitor signals from outer space for signs of alien intelligence. On top of that, she actually sends signals out, too – music encoded as binary. Then one day, she starts to receive signals from a far away star that has a known exoplanet. The world is shocked – more shocked as the signal starts to get stronger and things start coming towards us.

Do they mean us harm? Well, the clue is in the title.