HMS Thunder Child
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HMS Thunder Child is a fictional
Fictional description
In the novel Wells gives only a rough description of the ship. After the narrator talks about his brother, he introduces us to the Thunder Child in chapter 17, describing her thus: "About a couple of miles out lay an
Analysis
Elana Gomel describes the scene involving Thunder Child's attack against the Martians as "one of the great depictions of modern warfare in world literature". According to her, the scene is "rendered through an almost cinematic montage of many partial and distorted viewpoints", resulting in a chapter that "feels strikingly modern".[3] A similar view is expressed by Leslie Sheldon, who calls the scene "almost cinematic".[4]
According to Gomel, the scene involving Thunder Child, with its "scriptural descriptions" of events, also demonstrates how The War of the Worlds as a whole is "permeated" by a metaphorical apocalypse that "echoes of the Bible".[5] Despite the apocalyptic nature of the story, Gomel observes that, as a whole, the novel's happy ending (a unique feature among Wells’ novels) describes the technological advances stemming from the invasion as being beneficial for the whole world.[6] Along similar lines, Nathaniel Otjen uses Thunder Child as an example of how Wells' writing "imagines the collapse of fossil fuel modernity and explores alternate forms of energy".[7] According to Otjen, Wells depicts how the fossil fuel technology represented by Thunder Child is only able to combat the Martians' non-fossil fuel technology by mimicking it.[7]
Larrie D. Ferreiro describes how Thunder Child's use of a ram, while a "standard fixture" in ships between 1870 and World War I and extensively discussed by naval officers of the era, is in reality an "illusory" "armchair tactic". Ferreiro bases his stance on an observation that such ramming attacks were "almost never" used effectively in real life, with the notable exception of the sinking of the Chilean corvette Esmeralda during the Battle of Iquique.[8] John Fidler reaches a similar conclusion, describing how Thunder Child's success in damaging its enemy with a ramming attack stands in contrast to the near-complete lack of success by real-world vessels designed for ramming.[9]
Garry Young considers Thunder Child's demise in combat against the Martians in the context of ethics of
Adaptations
HMS Thunder Child is commonly omitted from some adaptations or replaced outright with technology more appropriate to the updated settings.
In Orson Welles's famous 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber replaces Thunder Child; it collides with a fighting-machine after being critically damaged by its Heat-Ray.
In the
The first adaptation to feature HMS Thunder Child was Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of ''The War of the Worlds'', which was released in 1978 and retains the novel's Victorian setting, characters, and situations. The album features the song, "Thunder Child". The album's cover art depicts a Canopus-class battleship fighting a Martian tripod. This version of Thunder Child is based upon the naval painting depicting the Battle of Coronel (1 November 1914). The War of the Worlds was written as an account of fictional events early in the 20th century (possibly the summer of 1901) and the lead ship of the class, HMS Canopus, entered service in 1899 and thus fits the timeline.
The 1999 video game adaptation of Jeff Wayne's musical features a level revolving around Thunder Child. The player is placed in control of the ironclad and must sail it down a river while using its cannons to destroy Martian machines and settlements; the level ends in a climactic confrontation with Tempest, a powerful Martian war machine.
In Steven Spielberg's 2005 film adaptation, War of the Worlds, contemporary American military forces use tanks and attack helicopters against the alien Tripods, again without success. Earlier in the film, civilian ferries trying to escape from the Tripods are trapped and easily sunk, with no intervention by a warship.
The low-budget direct-to-DVD Pendragon feature adaptation of the novel, released in 2005, uses poor CGI to portray HMS Thunder Child as a Royal Navy Havock-class destroyer.
In the BBC's 2019 TV miniseries, the main characters join up again on the Essex coast, where many small boats are gathering civilians to ferry them out to anchored ships. A Martian Tripod appears and several warships open fire on it with their main batteries. Most of the warships are at quite a distance offshore, but one, which could be Thunder Child, is much closer. The Tripod is hit on one its the legs and in its command cupola, and immediately collapses. A second Martian machine appears on the beach, chasing the protagonists. Before it can activate its Heat-Ray, it is struck by naval artillery shells. It falls forward, narrowly missing crushing the protagonists. As in H.G. Wells’ original novel, the refugees manage to escape, while none of the warships are shown being destroyed by the Tripods.
The 2013 science fiction novel The Last Days of Thunder Child, written by C. A. Powell, is set in Victorian Britain of 1898.[11]
See also
References
- ^ Bennighof, Mike (April 2008). "Great War of the Worlds at Sea". Avalanche Press. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
- ^ a b Wells, H.G. "The War of the Worlds". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-137-36763-1.
- ProQuest 1834039284.
- ISBN 978-1-137-36763-1.
- ISBN 978-1-137-36763-1.
- ^ S2CID 216410740.
- S2CID 110450531.
- ISBN 978-1-47387-148-9.
- ^ S2CID 254463064.
- ISBN 978-1-4840-8826-5.
External links