H.G. Wells' "scientific romance," published first in serial form and then as a book in 1898, attained perhaps its greatest fame in another form, the infamous realistic 1939 radio broadcast "Invasion from Mars" by Orson Welles. It was also made into an early 1950s science fiction adventure movie. Stover (emeritus, Illinois Institute of Technology) describes Wells' story as "a prophecy of startling originality foreseeing the coming of totalitarianism...

Presents Koch's radio play, Invasion from Mars, which was made famous by Orson Welles; the play is an adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel, War of the worlds. This is followed by a short play which continues the theme in a more modern form.

Describes the panic induced when listeners believed Orson Welles' radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" to be news of an alien invasion, discussing the context in which the broadcast was aired and why it was so convincing.

Contains the original story by H.G. Wells, and describes how Orson Welles was inspired by the tale of Martian invasion to create the radio broadcast in 1938 which frightenend over one million people.