The Great Martian War

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the History Channel’s mock alternate history Sci-Fi documentary - The Great Martian War.

History meets science-fiction in the Canadian original film The Great Martian War. A unique allegorical tale of the horror of battle, The Great Martian War spectacularly re-imagines the years 1913-17, with humankind fighting a catastrophic war against a savage race of extraterrestrial invaders.

On its 100th anniversary, The Great Martian War tells the story of the catastrophic events and unimaginable horrors of 1913-17, when Humankind was pitted against a savage Alien invasion.

With powerful and detailed First World War parallels The Great Martian War fuses sci-fi fantasy with factual History  to explore the real-world tragedies and unique horror of World War One.

"The Great Martian War" was a well made Sci-Fi mock documentary which I greatly enjoyed and was very impressed by the quality of the production. I am a great fan of the author H. G. Wells and the genre of Science Fiction in general and the sub genre of Alternate History in particular.

It is a real pity that this documentary did not air on the Sci-Fi Channel which would have been a more appropriate venue for this production. The producers did a better job than Timothy Hines in the original film "H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (2005)" which was supposed to be set, like Wells' original novel, in Victorian England.

My first major criticism of this mock documentary is that it shouldn't be airing on the History Channel. I can just imagine school kids wondering if H.G. Wells' novel the "War of the Worlds" were actually a true story. This documentary is also being billed in some quarters as a mock documentary to mark the recent 100th anniversary of the publication of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds." But, that's ridiculous. The centenary was in 1998. The novel was first serialized is 1897 in the Cosmopolitan (not the Women's magazine) and published in 1898.

Another criticism I can level against this documentary since it’s also being billed as a convincing allegory about the First World War, whose centenary we will be commemorating next July, why not produce or revamp a legitimate documentary about the real war? This mock documentary certainly doesn't do justice to the real people who sacrificed their lives to the very real conflict that was The Great War of 1914-1918.

Having said that, I look forward to purchasing this production when it comes out on DVD.

The Great Martian War 1913 -1917 (Watch the entire film via this  direct link)
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