The Eve Of The War

[00:00.75] JOURNALIST: No one would have believed, in the last years of the

[00:02.98] nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds

[00:07.22] of space.

[00:09.47] No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope

[00:13.47] studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered

[00:18.72] the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds

[00:23.97] immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and

[00:32.98] surely, they drew their plans against us.

[00:00.00] At midnight on the twelfth of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars

[00:00.00] and sped towards Earth. Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling

[00:00.00] towards us, came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth.

[00:00.00] As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way.

[00:00.00] And that's how it was for the next ten nights. A flare, spurting out from Mars - bright

[00:00.00] green, drawing a green mist behind it - a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilvy,

[00:00.00] the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be no

[00:00.00] living thing on that remote, forbidding planet.

[00:00.00] "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one," he said.

[00:00.00] "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but still they

[00:00.00] come!"

[00:00.00] JOURNALIST: Then came the night the first missile approached Earth. It was thought

[00:00.00] to be an ordinary falling star, but next day there was a huge crater in the middle of the

[00:00.00] Common, and Ogilvy came to examine what lay there: a cylinder, thirty yards across,

[00:00.00] glowing hot... and with faint sounds of movement coming from within.

[00:00.00] Suddenly the top began moving, rotating, unscrewing, and Ogilvy feared there was a

[00:00.00] man inside, trying to escape. he rushed to the cylinder, but the intense heat stopped him

[00:00.00] before he could burn himself on the metal.

[00:00.00] "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one," he said.

[00:00.00] "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but they still

[00:00.00] come!"

[00:00.00] "Yes, the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one," he said.

[00:00.00] "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but they still come!"

[00:00.00] It seems totally incredible to me now that everyone spent that evening as

[00:00.00] though it were just like any other. From the railway station came the sound of

[00:00.00] shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. It all

[00:00.00] seemed so safe and tranquil.