The Martians

The Martians
''This article is about the creatures from mars. For objects of martian origin see Martian Technology''



The Martians are a race from the planet Mars, who have tried to invade Earth by travelling from their homeworld via gigantic cylinders, containing material to be assembled into handling-machines, fighting-machines, and flying-machines.



Appearance
Martians are about the size of a bear with a V-shaped mouth and sixteen slender, whip-like tentacles grouped in two bunches of eight around the mouth. Their skin colour is oily-brown, which glistens like wet leather in sunlight. They have two dark-coloured eyes.



Biological systems
Martians are mainly brain and little else. They have a heart, lungs and eyes but no digestive system, so they feed by taking fresh blood from their victims and inject it into their own veins.

Martians reproduce by budding, similar to Hydras on earth.

The Martians on Earth are eventually killed by earthborne bacteria, of which their immune systems couldn't cope.

Language
Little is known about the Martian language. They seem to use telepathy to communicate, and have very little spoken words. The one exception is the term "ulla" (ooooollllaaa), this seems like a rallying or battle cry, but is also uttered when the Martians are dying. In the Spielberg film, the aliens do indeed have a language, even having hieroglyphic style writing on their tripods, but the language is never explained in any detail.

The War of the Worlds (1953)


The Martians first appeared onscreen in George Pal's adaptation of The War of the Worlds. In this version, they do not resemble the squids from the novel. They have no mouths, have a single sectioned tricoloured eye, and have suction cups on the three fingers of their long arms. Although the bottom part of this Martian is never depicted onscreen, blueprints that have circulated show that they have six legs with what appears to be a foot featuring a single toe (the same suction cup tips as those on the end of their fingers). It walks awkwardly, but doesn't seem to be hindered by Earth's gravity, unlike it's predecessor. Because Mars does not have as much light from the sun as earth, these Martians are unaccustomed to any form of bright light.

War of the Worlds (2005 adaptations)
Paramount





The Martians in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of The War of the Worlds are shown as having a somewhat similar appearance to their tripods.

Pendragon

The Martians from the Pendragon adaptation are the most true to the novel.

Asylum  The Asylum Martians resemble insects more than octopi.

2011 adaptation
for more info, see this Article.

Influence
Wells' Martians are the basis of the modern "bug-eyed tentacled monsters" that are usually referred to alien or beings who are extraterrestrial in origin, such as the Rigellans of The Simpsons and the Daleks of Doctor Who.