I was watching some images about War of the Worlds, specially the various designs in the martian tripods. From Edward Gorey to the 2025 Ice Cube film. But somehow, even if I found what I consider my favorite tripod design of all time...
Why Alvim Correa's tripods are still the best to date?
It keeps true to the roots.
Something curious about a lot of interpretations of the tripods is that every single time there are aspects that never quite fit in the descriptions of the books. There's always that artistic liberty that the illustrators take to represent them in their own way, and sometimes, too far away from the actual descriptions. Take for example the Jeff Wayne's tripods. Iconic non the less, but considering that the musical states that the tripods smashed people against the trees, that have invisible heatrays and a head with a hood... yeah, it doesn't fit quite well. Heck, even the descriptions of how the tripods function and move are changed, with the legs being more mechanical and less muscle-like, with diferent proportions amd everything. Look also to the Edward Gorey designs to look how weird those designs are with a basket or the headray on them. It just doesn't fit.
This could be a good reasoning if it wasn't for the fact that, aside from the original HG Well's sketch for a tripod...
Everything is completly original. The big eyes, the shape like a watter tower, even the way the legs are made are some artistic liberties that yes, have some basis on the book, but it isn't exact . Heck, the design shows a lot of wheels, something that the book said the martians didn't invent. So what else could it be?
The spirit of Wells in paper
Let's remember that, at the end of the day, the tripods and the martians are a satirical parody of human society. The colonialism, the fact that England was portrayed as an octopus extending his tentacles around the world, the cylinder on top that was like a cork, and the gravity afecting on them. All those elements were made for mocking on the idea that humanity was unstopable. At the end of the day, Wells' works like the Time Machine, the Invisible Man or Dr. Moreau were satire, even if there were horror and thrilling elements on them, the point was to mock in conceved ideas. In this case, the martians that Alvim Correa drew were perfect, having that surreal element in them while also portraying a cartoonish look in the society of England. Even HG Wells himself praised the work made by Correa, having the fear that people would be more invested in the drawings than in what's written.
But here is the problem. Correa's drawings weren't only used for Wells' work. It was the base model for every design following them. From Spielberg to Minecraft modders, sometimes saying that are the original designs and others taking them as reference, for not only the War of the Worlds, but other alien invasions... so then, what is it?
Ok, this was quite obvious. Like... we all know this was gonna be like this, but I have more to add to the discussion.
Not only are pretty good designs that worked for the story, but also are very flexible for the setting. Let me explain. I've seen these guys in god knows how many projects, from parodies, analog horror, documentaries, videogames, etc. And everytime they use it I say think to myself: "Waoh, that's a good design choise" Why? Cause they fit SO WELL in each and every one of those works. From surrealism, horror, comedy and satire. Even if it was mostly accidental, the tripods fit so well in a lot of works that their designs change almost nothing. It's like of they were made for the task.
And of course, let's not forget the little aspects. Look how the tentacles are made, the arms, the structure, even the bell under the the machine. Somehow, a hundred of years before these elements were standards on sci fi, these elements were included in the design and fortunally, they get old like fine wine. You can put thos design in any era of sci fi and it will look great, not even as a product of its time bit as an atemporal one.
Or at least that's what I think.
