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Edginton and D'Israeli's 2006 adaptation of '' H.G. Wells' The War Of The Worlds '' is effectively a prequel to ''Scarlet Traces'', as key characters of ''Scarlet Traces'' can be glimpsed therein. SETTING ''Scarlet Traces'' is based on the premise that Britain was able to develop alien technology, abandoned after the abortive Martian invasion of '' The War Of The Worlds '', to establish economic and political dominance over the remainder of the world. The artwork shows an imposition of futuristic devices on early 20th Century society. In the first series, set in 1908 , London Cabbies and the Household Cavalry have swapped their horses for mechanical devices with spiderlike legs; homes are heated and lit by modified versions of the Martian heat ray; the pigeons of Trafalgar Square are Thinned Out by miniature Martian war machines. In the sequel, Britain of the late 1930s is recreated along fairly recognisable lines but with an additional layer of alien derived technology and a political agenda that has modern parallels. PLOT Scarlet Traces The story begins ten years after the abortive Martian invasion of Earth, with bodies turning up in the dark corners of a glittering post-invasion London . Emerging from comfortable retirement in fashionable Bedford Square , Major Robert Autumn DSO and his trusty manservant Colour Sergeant Arthur Currie search for the culprits. Robert Autumn is represented as a classic Victorian hero, honourable, perceptive and brave but out of his depth in a new age of ruthless exploitation personified by the bullish, cynical government official Dr Davenport Spry. The climax is a grim one in which virtue does not triumph. Scarlet Traces: The Great Game Thirty years after the events of ''Scarlet Traces'', the counter-invasion of Mars is going badly. The central character is an aristocratic young Photojournalist Charlotte Hemming. She is saved from the thuggish agents of an increasingly repressive British Government by a now elderly Robert Autumn, but he has a dangerous mission for her — she must travel to Mars to unravel dark secrets behind the war. REFERENCES TO/IN SCARLET TRACES Characters from ''Scarlet Traces'' can be seen in '' H.G. Wells' The War Of The Worlds ''. In '' Kingdom Of The Wicked '', also by Edginton and D'Israeli, the main character's wife is seen reading ''Scarlet Traces''. In ''Scarlet Traces'', when the main characters arrive at the London airport, Captain Haddock , Tintin And Snowy can also be seen arriving. In ''The Great Game'', when Charlotte reaches the cavern with the glyphs, the original Martian species are revealed to be the Green Martians from the Barsoom series, and the hrossa, séroni, and pfifltriggi from '' Out Of The Silent Planet ''. It also shows the Silurians and their Sea Devil cousins from '' Doctor Who '' as the inhabitants of Earth. Among a number of figures from popular British culture in the 1950s and 1960s that make brief and whimsical appearances in ''The Great Game'' are Sergeant Major Snudge (from the TV series " The Army Game "); Dan Dare and Digby (from the " Eagle " comic) and Shari Lewis (childrens' television personality) with her glove puppet Lambchop . PUBLICATION HISTORY |
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