Jeff Wayne The Eve Of The War
JOURNALIST: No one would have believed, in the last
years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs
were being watched from the timeless worlds of space.
No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as
someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm
and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even
considered the possibility of life on other planets and
yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably
superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes,
and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against
us.
At midnight on the twelfth of August, a huge mass of
luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth.
Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly
hurtling towards us, came the first of the missiles
that were to bring so much calamity to Earth. As I
watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another
missile, starting on its way.
And that's how it was for the next ten nights. A flare,
spurting out from Mars - bright green, drawing a green
mist behind it - a beautiful, but somehow disturbing
sight. Ogilvy, the astronomer, assured me we were in no
danger. He was convinced there could be no living thing
on that remote, forbidding planet.
SONG: "The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one," he said.
"The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one - but still they come!"
JOURNALIST: Then came the night the first missile
approached Earth. It was thought to be an ordinary
falling star, but next day there was a huge crater in
the middle of the Common, and Ogilvy came to examine
what lay there: a cylinder, thirty yards across,
glowing hot... and with faint sounds of movement coming
from within.
Suddenly the top began moving, rotating, unscrewing,
and Ogilvy feared there was a man inside, trying to
escape. he rushed to the cylinder, but the intense heat
stopped him before he could burn himself on the metal.
SONG: "The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one," he said.
"The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one - but still they come!"
"Yes, the chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one," he said.
"The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one - but they still come!"
JOURNALIST: It seems totally incredible to me now that
everyone spent that evening as though it were just like
any other. From the railway station came the sound of
shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost
into melody by the distance. It all seemed so safe and
tranquil.
