Well, well, well ...
Film history alone tells us that mankind has had a singular fascination with those dastardly residents of Mars, one of the planets closest to us within our very own solar system. Indeed, H.G. Wells postulated that they'd come here with an intent to take our world from us in his groundbreaking novel "The War Of The Worlds," and audiences have been rapt with attention ever since. Why, even Tim Burton capitalized on such fame with his 1996 adaptation of Mars Attacks -- a flick I truly love but mankind seems to loathe -- so let it be said that these dastardly Martians are never far from our collective consciousness.
And lest you forget? Elon Musk plans to stand face-to-face with one of them sometime during his lifetime! How's that for pop culture references?
Politics aside, I only bring all of this up because it was on this day in Science Fiction History all the way back in 1910 that another famed inventor -- Thomas Edison -- first gave audiences a glimpse of what those dangerous aliens would look like. He produced a five-minute short film -- A Trip To Mars -- that had one scientist suffering the wraths of Reverse Gravity which propelled him across the divide and to the surface of the Red Planet ... and, yes, this was the very first time a Martian was brought to life for the masses-at-large.
Alas, the feature is quite old -- you can Google it, and the surviving print online is rather blurry -- and the images are a bit distorted. Still, it's grand to think about just how deeply ingrained the thought of an alien overlord has penetrated our shared history. Storytellers continue to extrapolate on what an alien species might look like, but 115 years ago today we beheld our first screen Martian.
-- EZ
Film history alone tells us that mankind has had a singular fascination with those dastardly residents of Mars, one of the planets closest to us within our very own solar system. Indeed, H.G. Wells postulated that they'd come here with an intent to take our world from us in his groundbreaking novel "The War Of The Worlds," and audiences have been rapt with attention ever since. Why, even Tim Burton capitalized on such fame with his 1996 adaptation of Mars Attacks -- a flick I truly love but mankind seems to loathe -- so let it be said that these dastardly Martians are never far from our collective consciousness.
And lest you forget? Elon Musk plans to stand face-to-face with one of them sometime during his lifetime! How's that for pop culture references?
Politics aside, I only bring all of this up because it was on this day in Science Fiction History all the way back in 1910 that another famed inventor -- Thomas Edison -- first gave audiences a glimpse of what those dangerous aliens would look like. He produced a five-minute short film -- A Trip To Mars -- that had one scientist suffering the wraths of Reverse Gravity which propelled him across the divide and to the surface of the Red Planet ... and, yes, this was the very first time a Martian was brought to life for the masses-at-large.
Alas, the feature is quite old -- you can Google it, and the surviving print online is rather blurry -- and the images are a bit distorted. Still, it's grand to think about just how deeply ingrained the thought of an alien overlord has penetrated our shared history. Storytellers continue to extrapolate on what an alien species might look like, but 115 years ago today we beheld our first screen Martian.
-- EZ
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