I'm on a bit of a B5 kick at the moment, and this, in conjunction with my renewed interest in wargaming in general got me thinking about the various attempts to bring the B5 universe to the tabletop.
The universe of Babylon 5 is, like Star Wars and Star Trek, a vast and quite detailed one, with various races all sending ships of various sizes and types zooming around the big black until invariably at some point they will meet up and start shooting at each other for some reason. Hell, the TV show did this a lot, so therefore it should have been a fairly simple task to transfer the on screen action to the tabletop with a minimum of fuss and make it enjoyable enough and popular enough for it to be a decent seller.
Unfortunately though this didn't seem to happen, for many and various reasons...
...and so it begins....
Babylon 5 Wars
The first "official" stab at making a playable B5 miniatures game came courtesy of Agents of Gaming (AoG). Launched in 1997, B5 Wars (as it became known) is considered to be part of B5s official "canon", being as much of its development was overseen by J. Michael Straczynski himself, who took a fair bit of interest in it.
The game itself follows the usual wargaming formula of players building fleets to a set number of points (usually making a fleet of between 3 and 15 ships, depending on size, point cost and/or scenario requirements if being used), and then having a space battle using the games somewhat complex rules.
This was one of the things that proved to be the games undoing, as its first edition was deemed by the gaming public at large to be much to difficult to be able to play with any level of enjoyment, instead of epic battles in the B5 universe, play ended up being a series of book keeping tasks, tedious dice rolling activities and arguments over vagaries within the games core rule set and expansions.
Within a year of the games debut, a "Second edition" was released, which dispensed with some of the more tedious rules and streamlined or clarified the remainder, however, even with these changes, game play was still difficult and somewhat unrewarding.
Another problem with the game was availability of miniatures. While the game recommended that for the "best" experience you should be playing with official AoG miniatures, AoG were happy for players to use tokens in lieu of actual models, which for some ships and/or factions within the games source books was the only way to play them as miniatures were either not available for quite some time, or were never released, leading to much frustration amongst fans of the game.
On the subject of miniatures, B5 wars miniatures that had been released were somewhat difficult to obtain, this, added to AoGs problems in finding miniatures sculptors, as well as a somewhat disorganised release schedule, meant that even though the game was nominated for an Origins award in 1999 (It lost to Diskwars, another game which has since faded into relative obscurity) , it still wasn't a big hit, and production of miniatures and source books was discontinued in 2001.
I personally owned a couple of B5 Wars miniatures, although I didn't pick these up until the early 2000s, at what I can only describe as a significant markdown from their original asking price, and they were still sealed in their boxes, never opened or assembled.
Although the pictures on the boxes made the promise that the miniatures contained within would look awesome once assembled and painted, the reality couldn't have been further from the truth.
Made from some kind of white metal, the miniatures themselves were covered in so much flashing that it was in some cases, difficult to tell what was and wasn't supposed to be there, added to this problem was that for some unknown reason, I could not get the parts to stick together properly, regardless of what glue I used, and I tried a hell of a lot of different ways to get them to stick together, up to and including using solder and a blowtorch, which did nothing but melt the miniature and render it completely unusable, but by then I didn't care about it anymore, and the whole lot went in the bin.
As for the games rules, I laid hands on a copy of the 2nd edition rulebook at one point and tried to read through it and understand the game, but it was a rather boring and tedious process, and I just gave up on it.
Babylon 5: Fleet Action!
AoGs next stab at a B5 Miniatures game came towards the end of B5 Wars' life in the form of B5:Fleet action!.
Appearing in mid 2000, B5:FA was intended to compliment B5W insofar as it allowed for larger fleets to be used for battles than B5Ws "small skirmish" type action.
The miniatures for B5:FA were much smaller scale and more often than not single piece miniatures that used "standard" (ie, Battletech sized) hex bases.
The rules for B5:FA were fairly different to B5W, emphasising fleet level tactics over individual ship tactics, however again AoG fumbled the ball, as on paper the FA rules were simpler, in practice, especially so after source books started coming out, they became rather difficult to understand and once again, required a lot of tedious book keeping exercises, head scratching over rules problems and lots and lots of tedious and, more often than not, unnecessary dice rolling. The problem of rules vagaries became more prominent once the source book containing the Shadow fleet came out, who, due to the way their rules worked, made it difficult, if not impossible for them to be defeated.
Again, like B5W, miniatures for this game were difficult to come by, with many promised miniatures never appearing, although unlike B5W miniatures, FA miniatures seemed to have better quality control and the few that did require assembly glued together quite well with just normal super glue.
Unfortunately, before B5:FA could have the creases in its game play ironed out, the Babylon 5 TV series was cancelled and AoG lost its rights to produce B5 material, and it ceased production in 2002, with AoG declaring bankrupt soon after.
I had a small Earthforce fleet for B5:FA however i found it difficult to actually play any games due to the limited availability of miniatures, and the limited number of players here in the UK. The game wasn't bad per se, but it wasn't terribly user friendly either.
Both the AoG B5 miniatures games still enjoy a cult following online, with many home brew source texts and rules addendum's being published by fans.
Babylon 5 Collectable Card Game
Although not a miniatures wargame, the B5 CCG was probably the most successful B5 Game to be released.
Like other CCGs before and since, the B5 CCG required players to purchase packs of cards to build gaming decks with, and offered a variety of strategies by which to win. One noteworthy thing about this game was that it actively encouraged games to be multiplayer matches, that is, more than the "standard" CCG trope of being just 2 players, it also encouraged players to work together in some fashion in order to win.
The game itself turned up in 1997, and over the course of its life had 8 full sets released at retail, with various promo cards being released as tournament prizes for organised play.
It was also noteworthy for incorperating elements of RPG type play into its mechanic, as well as for quite closely following the storyline of the TV series.
Quite rightly, the B5 CCG is regarded as being one of the best CCGs ever released, as its fairly simple rules coupled with complex strategies make it an interesting game to play, even for the casual gamer.
However, the CCGs fate was sealed in 2001 when Warner Brothers, the owners of the B5 franchise, pulled the rights for Precedence Entertainment, the games publisher, to produce any further B5 related materials, and also ordered them to destroy any remaining stock they had.
I started playing the B5 CCG in about 2001, it wasn't a bad game but it did take some getting used to, especially if you were used to playing games such as Magic: The Gathering and/or Pokemon TCG. At one point following the games discontinuation you could buy whole boxes of starter decks for as little as £2, with booster boxes going for as little as £5 as games retailers sold off their remaining B5 CCG stocks cheap in order to offload stocks of a game that had been abandoned.
Oddly enough though, Precedence Entertainment closed it doors at roughly the same time as AoG did after losing their B5 licence, as none of their other products enjoyed the popularity as the B5 CCG.
Babylon 5: A Call To Arms
ACtA, as it came to be called, turned up in 2004 as a "compliment" to Mongoose Publishing's Babylon 5 RPG.
Fan reaction to the game overwhelmed Mongoose somewhat and they were very surprised at how quickly the games popularity soared, to the point at which the game won the 2004 Gamers Choice award at Origins.
This was because, unlike B5W and B5:FA, ACtA was actually a good, user friendly game, with a fairly reliable miniatures supply containing miniatures that were of good quality and were easily obtainable via games shops or purchased from Mongoose directly.
A "second edition" version of the game was published in 2007, representing updates in game rules and actually incorporating feedback from players (!!!) , as well as expanding available source materials.
However, the good times were not to be long term, as in early 2008 Mongoose announced that they were no longer going to produce miniatures or rules updates for the game, citing that the cost of miniatures production coupled with the amount of stuff needing to be produced was no longer cost effective for them, and, as such, they were disposing of their entire stock of ACtA miniatures at a discount via their website.
This decision affected all of Mongooses miniatures games at that point, so as well as the ACtA miniatures ceasing production, miniatures for other lines such as their Starship Troopers game were also sold off and abandoned, with Mongoose deciding to concentrate on their pencil & paper RPG systems instead.
I never played or physically held an ACtA miniature or book, as it was released and vanished during the time when I wasn't interested much in wargaming, but from what I understand the game was much better than the previous efforts and still enjoys something of a cult following to this day.
Its a shame really that despite the rich history contained within the B5 universe and so much enthusiasm for it amongst fans that it has been difficult to produce and sustain a B5 wargame of any description, but I can understand why larger games companies are hesitant to take the task on as B5 hasnt enjoyed the mass popularity that similar things such as Star Wars and Star Trek have, plus with no plans to relaunch the series, and the lackluster reception of spin off series' it seems that gaming in the B5 universe will be limited to dusty old legacy games, RPG books and home brew rules for quite some time to come.
Showing posts with label editorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editorial. Show all posts
Monday, 21 July 2014
Friday, 11 October 2013
Aint War Hell? - The Divide (2012)
The Divide is a 2012 sci-fi/psychological thriller type film, dealing with the trials of a group of survivors who hide in a basement to escape a nuclear war.
The film is somewhat different to most "post nuclear" films as it makes no effort to explain how or why the war happened, or indeed how life goes on in the fallout riddled aftermath, instead, the film concentrates on the breakdown of human morality following a harrowing and extremely life changing event.
Although the film gets a little slow in places, which is unsurprising given its subject matter, and lacks any kind of deep meaningful scenes or action packed edge of your seat type bits, the whole aspect of people "going rotten" is well explored and realistically portrayed.
The film itself also doesn't make use of "A-list" actors in much capacity, the only names in this film I recognise are Michael Biehn and Rosanna Arquette, both of whom play pivotal characters and do so extremely well.
The film begins with nuclear missiles raining down on New York City. Eight residents of an apartment block force their way into the ex-military survivalist caretakers fallout shelter in the basement of the building hoping to live through the terrible events going on above ground.
The "survivors" are an eclectic mix of people, a young couple, a mother and her preteen daughter, two brothers and a shy reclusive man.
Very quickly, the caretaker (Biehn) tries to assert his dominance over the group, but ultimately fails due to the combined efforts and wills of the younger men.
Shortly after they lock themselves in, the shelter is invaded by masked soldiers of indeterminate origin (it is never explained who these soldiers are) who kidnap Wendis (Arquette) daughter. the survivors successfully manage to repulse the invaders, killing one of them and taking some of their weapons. One of the men, Josh, volunteers to dress in the dead soldiers uniform and go outside to see if he can find a way for them all to escape, when he does so, he instead finds that the outside is a series of plastic sheeting corridors, which lead to some sort of laboratory, in which he finds Wendis daughter seemingly having medical experiments being performed on her, as well as other children all locked in deep freeze units. His disguise is rumbled quickly by one of the other soldiers within the bizarre complex and he beats a hasty retreat back to the shelter, killing some of the soldiers as he flees.
After he returns, the soldiers weld the metal door of the shelter shut, thus preventing their escape.
Resigning themselves to being trapped within the small basement shelter, the survivors begin to lose hope, and over time, begin turning somewhat insane.
Firstly, after arguments over food and supplies begin breaking out, the survivors find that the caretaker has a secret room which is crammed full of food and clean drinking water, his punishment for not revealing this, as well as for killing one of their number in "self defence" is a lengthy torture session, carried out by Bobby and Josh, who emerge as the dominant members of the group, followed by him being tied to a chair and left to starve in a back room.
Bobby also begins physically and sexually abusing Wendi, as she has become completely apathetic upon learning her daughter is dead, even going so far as to tell Eva, the only other female survivor, that she should begin allowing the men to have sex with her on a regular basis in order to make themselves all feel better.
As time passes, Bobby and Josh become degenerates, and begin indulging in various bizarre sexual rituals, while all the time very obviously suffering from the early stages of radiation poisoning, for example, Bobby begins wearing Wendis clothes and make up, while Wendi is usually seen wearing only a dressing gown or makeshift clothes made from gaffer tape.
Eva and Adrien try and figure out another way to escape, and their breakthrough comes when the caretaker reveals that they could escape by swimming through the septic tank and going out through the sewers.
Things come to a head when it is discovered that Bobby and/or Josh have killed Wendi in the process of abusing her, and open fighting breaks out.
The caretaker reveals he has another gun hidden in his safe room and it ends up getting used to kill Bobby, but then Josh immolates himself, leaving Adrien and the caretaker scrambling to escape the flames, while Eva locks them out of the toilet, and, taking the dead soldiers NBC suit earlier worn by Josh, she escapes through the sewers, leaving the other two men to be burned to death.
The ending of the film is somewhat depressing, as all through the film Eva and Adrien struggle to maintain their relationship, but she happily abandons him when it looks like she might be killed, and the final scene shows her walking through a completely destroyed New York, whose streets are litters with the skeletons of people killed by nuclear blasts.
This isn't a bad film, but its really, really hard going in the middle, as the films subject matter is wholly dependant on character development, which fortunately, this film does really well.
This film will most certainly NOT appeal to all, especially those looking for action scenes etc or mystery, but its a nice enough film to get you thinking about human nature.
I give this film 6 megatons out of 10
The film is somewhat different to most "post nuclear" films as it makes no effort to explain how or why the war happened, or indeed how life goes on in the fallout riddled aftermath, instead, the film concentrates on the breakdown of human morality following a harrowing and extremely life changing event.
Although the film gets a little slow in places, which is unsurprising given its subject matter, and lacks any kind of deep meaningful scenes or action packed edge of your seat type bits, the whole aspect of people "going rotten" is well explored and realistically portrayed.
The film itself also doesn't make use of "A-list" actors in much capacity, the only names in this film I recognise are Michael Biehn and Rosanna Arquette, both of whom play pivotal characters and do so extremely well.
The film begins with nuclear missiles raining down on New York City. Eight residents of an apartment block force their way into the ex-military survivalist caretakers fallout shelter in the basement of the building hoping to live through the terrible events going on above ground.
The "survivors" are an eclectic mix of people, a young couple, a mother and her preteen daughter, two brothers and a shy reclusive man.
Very quickly, the caretaker (Biehn) tries to assert his dominance over the group, but ultimately fails due to the combined efforts and wills of the younger men.
Shortly after they lock themselves in, the shelter is invaded by masked soldiers of indeterminate origin (it is never explained who these soldiers are) who kidnap Wendis (Arquette) daughter. the survivors successfully manage to repulse the invaders, killing one of them and taking some of their weapons. One of the men, Josh, volunteers to dress in the dead soldiers uniform and go outside to see if he can find a way for them all to escape, when he does so, he instead finds that the outside is a series of plastic sheeting corridors, which lead to some sort of laboratory, in which he finds Wendis daughter seemingly having medical experiments being performed on her, as well as other children all locked in deep freeze units. His disguise is rumbled quickly by one of the other soldiers within the bizarre complex and he beats a hasty retreat back to the shelter, killing some of the soldiers as he flees.
After he returns, the soldiers weld the metal door of the shelter shut, thus preventing their escape.
Resigning themselves to being trapped within the small basement shelter, the survivors begin to lose hope, and over time, begin turning somewhat insane.
Firstly, after arguments over food and supplies begin breaking out, the survivors find that the caretaker has a secret room which is crammed full of food and clean drinking water, his punishment for not revealing this, as well as for killing one of their number in "self defence" is a lengthy torture session, carried out by Bobby and Josh, who emerge as the dominant members of the group, followed by him being tied to a chair and left to starve in a back room.
Bobby also begins physically and sexually abusing Wendi, as she has become completely apathetic upon learning her daughter is dead, even going so far as to tell Eva, the only other female survivor, that she should begin allowing the men to have sex with her on a regular basis in order to make themselves all feel better.
As time passes, Bobby and Josh become degenerates, and begin indulging in various bizarre sexual rituals, while all the time very obviously suffering from the early stages of radiation poisoning, for example, Bobby begins wearing Wendis clothes and make up, while Wendi is usually seen wearing only a dressing gown or makeshift clothes made from gaffer tape.
Eva and Adrien try and figure out another way to escape, and their breakthrough comes when the caretaker reveals that they could escape by swimming through the septic tank and going out through the sewers.
Things come to a head when it is discovered that Bobby and/or Josh have killed Wendi in the process of abusing her, and open fighting breaks out.
The caretaker reveals he has another gun hidden in his safe room and it ends up getting used to kill Bobby, but then Josh immolates himself, leaving Adrien and the caretaker scrambling to escape the flames, while Eva locks them out of the toilet, and, taking the dead soldiers NBC suit earlier worn by Josh, she escapes through the sewers, leaving the other two men to be burned to death.
The ending of the film is somewhat depressing, as all through the film Eva and Adrien struggle to maintain their relationship, but she happily abandons him when it looks like she might be killed, and the final scene shows her walking through a completely destroyed New York, whose streets are litters with the skeletons of people killed by nuclear blasts.
This isn't a bad film, but its really, really hard going in the middle, as the films subject matter is wholly dependant on character development, which fortunately, this film does really well.
This film will most certainly NOT appeal to all, especially those looking for action scenes etc or mystery, but its a nice enough film to get you thinking about human nature.
I give this film 6 megatons out of 10
Monday, 7 October 2013
Dystopiarama:- Life After People (TV series 2009-2010)
"Life After People" is a History Channel documentary series produced between 2009 and 2010, and thus far has had two complete series plus its initial 90 minute "special" episode.
The series postulates what would happen to the Earth should mankind suddenly vanish, and also explores what would mankinds legacy to the universe be should this happen.
The series' tagline is "Welcome to Earth, population: Zero".
The initial 90 minute episode takes a look at various subjects, mostly concentrating on the subjects of how animals would cope without humans, and also the matter of urban decay.
The series version, which runs at approx 50 minutes per episode, expands on these concepts, with each episode having a particular theme, such as the fate of various building types, the long term effects of human mechanisation and technology, and the effect that pollution would have after we have gone and are not around to stop it.
The series makes no attempt to explain why humans have gone, they just have, and all the episodes show time from "today" (i.e, early 21st century) and extends forward, up to 1 million years into the future in the case of one episode.
The series can make for rather depressing viewing at times, for example, all those fluffy little pet animals would not fare so well without their owners to look after them, and many farm animals such as dairy cows would die from starvation, whereas other creatures, such as house cats, horses, raccoons and rats would do very well freed from the constraints of human intervention. A special mention also goes to head lice, who would become extinct within two weeks due to the complete loss of their only available food source.
One episode concentrates on the legacy of pollution left behind, showing how nuclear waste and hazardous chemicals would cause horrendous environmental damage after their containment systems begin to break down within the first 50 years or so, and the incredible amount of time it would take for nature to recover from the mass chemical or radioactive poisoning that would result.
Another bizarre twist is an episode which looks at what would happen to buried or preserved human corpses in the years that followed, where, due to lack of maintenance, human corpses would not only provide a feast for the animals that remain, but would also end up becoming something akin to the crude oil that we use by the gallon now.
On a plus note, the series takes a fairly in depth look at the way nature would quickly reassert its dominance over the Earth one we have gone, with cities quickly giving way to the regrowth of plants and trees and natural water flows sweeping away concrete dams.
Glimpses into the far future show cities such as London, Washington D.C and Seattle becoming marshlands or even being completely covered by water, and even show that in the far, far future, bacteria from Earth my spread life from Earth to other planets both in and outside of Earths solar system due to them stowing away on the various space probes launched during mans time on Earth.
The series itself is quite enjoyable, albeit very dry in some places, and should you wish to view it, you can do so, click HERE
The series postulates what would happen to the Earth should mankind suddenly vanish, and also explores what would mankinds legacy to the universe be should this happen.
The series' tagline is "Welcome to Earth, population: Zero".
The initial 90 minute episode takes a look at various subjects, mostly concentrating on the subjects of how animals would cope without humans, and also the matter of urban decay.
The series version, which runs at approx 50 minutes per episode, expands on these concepts, with each episode having a particular theme, such as the fate of various building types, the long term effects of human mechanisation and technology, and the effect that pollution would have after we have gone and are not around to stop it.
The series makes no attempt to explain why humans have gone, they just have, and all the episodes show time from "today" (i.e, early 21st century) and extends forward, up to 1 million years into the future in the case of one episode.
The series can make for rather depressing viewing at times, for example, all those fluffy little pet animals would not fare so well without their owners to look after them, and many farm animals such as dairy cows would die from starvation, whereas other creatures, such as house cats, horses, raccoons and rats would do very well freed from the constraints of human intervention. A special mention also goes to head lice, who would become extinct within two weeks due to the complete loss of their only available food source.
One episode concentrates on the legacy of pollution left behind, showing how nuclear waste and hazardous chemicals would cause horrendous environmental damage after their containment systems begin to break down within the first 50 years or so, and the incredible amount of time it would take for nature to recover from the mass chemical or radioactive poisoning that would result.
Another bizarre twist is an episode which looks at what would happen to buried or preserved human corpses in the years that followed, where, due to lack of maintenance, human corpses would not only provide a feast for the animals that remain, but would also end up becoming something akin to the crude oil that we use by the gallon now.
On a plus note, the series takes a fairly in depth look at the way nature would quickly reassert its dominance over the Earth one we have gone, with cities quickly giving way to the regrowth of plants and trees and natural water flows sweeping away concrete dams.
Glimpses into the far future show cities such as London, Washington D.C and Seattle becoming marshlands or even being completely covered by water, and even show that in the far, far future, bacteria from Earth my spread life from Earth to other planets both in and outside of Earths solar system due to them stowing away on the various space probes launched during mans time on Earth.
The series itself is quite enjoyable, albeit very dry in some places, and should you wish to view it, you can do so, click HERE
Monday, 30 September 2013
Aint War Hell? - The War Game (BBC 1965)
"The War Game" is a 1965 docu-drama-film about the effects of a global nuclear war, set in contemporary times (ie, the late '60s).
Originally planned to be shown as part of the BBCs "The Wednesday Play" series (which ran in a weekly prime time slot from 1964 until 1970) the play/film was a groundbreaking and exceptionally honest portrayal of the state of affairs in Britain at the time and showed the total and complete lack of understanding about just what would happen should world war 3 actually occur.
As such, when viewed by the BBC governors and government officials prior to its broadcast, the program was immediately pulled from the broadcast schedules, and wasnt shown in full on television until 1985.
This was due to the fact that the brutally honest style of filming, using actual quotes and recreations of government procedures, as well as interviews with real people in the street regarding the various topics related to nuclear war would have heavilly damaged the carefully crafted government image that nuclear war wasnt really all that different from the use of conventional bombs, and that the government could be trusted to get things up and running again following a nuclear exchange.
Plot wise, the film doesnt particularly follow any particular person, or group of people, but instead recreates a snapshot of life in and around a typical english town in Kent.
The build up to "the war" happens completely off camera, and centres around a Chinese invasion of south Vietnam (which incidentally was a very real portent of things to come in the Vietnam war which was kicking off at the time this film was made) in response ot this, the NATO powers begin mobilising against China, but, to show solidarity with their communist friends, the USSR mobilises its forces in east Germany, eventually invading west Berlin.
In response to this, the US president (Ed Bishop) issues an ultimatum to the USSR, leave West Germany or else!.
Open warfare soon breaks out between the NATO and warsaw pact countries in Germany, and talk soon comes round to the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
In Britain, which the narrator points out has more targets for nuclear missiles than the entire continental United States due to its high concentrations of military staging areas, missile launching facilities and industrial and manufacturing facilities, the populations of large cities are graded with a rating of 1 to 5, and then evacuated to towns in the country or in remote areas like Wales or the Lake district.
The vast majority of these evacuees are young women and children, any men over the age of 18 are to remain behind in the cities, either to continue working or to fight should there be an invasion.
Preparations for war are shown, firstly in the form of civil defence volunteers going door to door handing out booklets , which it is remarked have been available for some time, but did not sell well due to their asking price of 9d, so no one has really read their content, much less have had time to build fallout shelters as described in the book.
Profiteering soon becomes rife, with people selling sandbags, wood and sand for ridiculous prices, and shop owners begin selling tinned food and supplies for vastly inflated markups, all the while, evacuees are forced to live with complete strangers under threat of imprisonment under the emergency powers act.
Interviews with people in the street show the level of ignorance the general public had about a nuclear war, with one woman referring to Strontium-90 as "some sort of gunpowder" and people not knowing what effects radioactive fallout would have on them other than it being "some sort of dust that makes you ill if you swallow it".
The narrator points out at this point that the amount of warning time available for an ICBM strike could be as little as 30 seconds, depending where the missiles were launched from, and at what time of day the launch occurs, and that the standard "3 minute warning" benchmark was more optimistic than realistic.
Eventually, the war begins proper, after the US president orders a pre-emptive tactical nuclear strike against Russian forces who are still holding West Berlin, pretty soon, the ICBMs start flying.
The village , although not a target, is hit by a stray missile which was headed for Gatwick airport but failed en route and exploded prematurely, this is shown on screen as a massive white flash in the sky, which immediately vapourises anyone caught out in the open, blinds those who were outside of the blast radius by melting their eyeballs due to the intense light, then the ensuing firestorm and blast wave set fire to anything flammable within its maximum blast radius, and destroy or severely damage any building not strong enough to withstand it.
The following day, radioactive fallout begins slowly killing off those who haven't found shelter, which is just about everyone.
The local authorities struggle to cope with the sudden influx of wounded and dying, and soon rioting and looting becomes commonplace, which increasingly draconian measures fail to curb (the narrator points out that following the firebombing of Dresden during World War 2, it was found that respectable middle class citizens had no qualms whatsoever about resorting to violent looting and theft, while those of the lower classes, from whom this type of behaviour would normally be expected, were less likely to exhibit this behaviour)
Within a month, all civil order has broken down, with policemen and civil defence volunteers being openly beaten, shot and murdered in the streets by looters and thieves, civil food banks find themselves over run and civilisation as it was known vanishes into history as the instinct for survival takes precedence over everything else.
Interviews with people in the street after the war show that following the harrowing events, people enter a state of incurable depression, simply interested in nothing more than finding food, one man states that he was offered £1 (a lot of money for the average person in 1965) for a loaf of bread, but refused it as "you cant eat a pound note".
The film ends by showing a home for war orphans in Dover, where scarred, malnourished and deformed children are brought up by a local priest. None of the children show any interest in life when asked about what their hopes are for the future.
Probably the most disturbing thing about this film is the quotes used which were supplied by various sources at the time.
One actor, dressed as an Anglican priest, reads a statement by another priest who he quotes as saying that he was in favour of there being a nuclear war, simply because God protects the just and would help the righteous smite their enemies.
Another quote, this time from a government official at the time stated that they didn't believe that a global nuclear war would be any worse than the blitz, and that Britain would easily be able to cope with any aftereffects of a war and would be back on its fee tin no time etc etc.
The film is a very well made and very though provoking piece of film, and is highly recommended.
If you wish to view this film, you can do so by clicking HERE
Originally planned to be shown as part of the BBCs "The Wednesday Play" series (which ran in a weekly prime time slot from 1964 until 1970) the play/film was a groundbreaking and exceptionally honest portrayal of the state of affairs in Britain at the time and showed the total and complete lack of understanding about just what would happen should world war 3 actually occur.
As such, when viewed by the BBC governors and government officials prior to its broadcast, the program was immediately pulled from the broadcast schedules, and wasnt shown in full on television until 1985.
This was due to the fact that the brutally honest style of filming, using actual quotes and recreations of government procedures, as well as interviews with real people in the street regarding the various topics related to nuclear war would have heavilly damaged the carefully crafted government image that nuclear war wasnt really all that different from the use of conventional bombs, and that the government could be trusted to get things up and running again following a nuclear exchange.
Plot wise, the film doesnt particularly follow any particular person, or group of people, but instead recreates a snapshot of life in and around a typical english town in Kent.
The build up to "the war" happens completely off camera, and centres around a Chinese invasion of south Vietnam (which incidentally was a very real portent of things to come in the Vietnam war which was kicking off at the time this film was made) in response ot this, the NATO powers begin mobilising against China, but, to show solidarity with their communist friends, the USSR mobilises its forces in east Germany, eventually invading west Berlin.
In response to this, the US president (Ed Bishop) issues an ultimatum to the USSR, leave West Germany or else!.
Open warfare soon breaks out between the NATO and warsaw pact countries in Germany, and talk soon comes round to the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
In Britain, which the narrator points out has more targets for nuclear missiles than the entire continental United States due to its high concentrations of military staging areas, missile launching facilities and industrial and manufacturing facilities, the populations of large cities are graded with a rating of 1 to 5, and then evacuated to towns in the country or in remote areas like Wales or the Lake district.
The vast majority of these evacuees are young women and children, any men over the age of 18 are to remain behind in the cities, either to continue working or to fight should there be an invasion.
Preparations for war are shown, firstly in the form of civil defence volunteers going door to door handing out booklets , which it is remarked have been available for some time, but did not sell well due to their asking price of 9d, so no one has really read their content, much less have had time to build fallout shelters as described in the book.
Profiteering soon becomes rife, with people selling sandbags, wood and sand for ridiculous prices, and shop owners begin selling tinned food and supplies for vastly inflated markups, all the while, evacuees are forced to live with complete strangers under threat of imprisonment under the emergency powers act.
Interviews with people in the street show the level of ignorance the general public had about a nuclear war, with one woman referring to Strontium-90 as "some sort of gunpowder" and people not knowing what effects radioactive fallout would have on them other than it being "some sort of dust that makes you ill if you swallow it".
The narrator points out at this point that the amount of warning time available for an ICBM strike could be as little as 30 seconds, depending where the missiles were launched from, and at what time of day the launch occurs, and that the standard "3 minute warning" benchmark was more optimistic than realistic.
Eventually, the war begins proper, after the US president orders a pre-emptive tactical nuclear strike against Russian forces who are still holding West Berlin, pretty soon, the ICBMs start flying.
The village , although not a target, is hit by a stray missile which was headed for Gatwick airport but failed en route and exploded prematurely, this is shown on screen as a massive white flash in the sky, which immediately vapourises anyone caught out in the open, blinds those who were outside of the blast radius by melting their eyeballs due to the intense light, then the ensuing firestorm and blast wave set fire to anything flammable within its maximum blast radius, and destroy or severely damage any building not strong enough to withstand it.
The following day, radioactive fallout begins slowly killing off those who haven't found shelter, which is just about everyone.
The local authorities struggle to cope with the sudden influx of wounded and dying, and soon rioting and looting becomes commonplace, which increasingly draconian measures fail to curb (the narrator points out that following the firebombing of Dresden during World War 2, it was found that respectable middle class citizens had no qualms whatsoever about resorting to violent looting and theft, while those of the lower classes, from whom this type of behaviour would normally be expected, were less likely to exhibit this behaviour)
Within a month, all civil order has broken down, with policemen and civil defence volunteers being openly beaten, shot and murdered in the streets by looters and thieves, civil food banks find themselves over run and civilisation as it was known vanishes into history as the instinct for survival takes precedence over everything else.
Interviews with people in the street after the war show that following the harrowing events, people enter a state of incurable depression, simply interested in nothing more than finding food, one man states that he was offered £1 (a lot of money for the average person in 1965) for a loaf of bread, but refused it as "you cant eat a pound note".
The film ends by showing a home for war orphans in Dover, where scarred, malnourished and deformed children are brought up by a local priest. None of the children show any interest in life when asked about what their hopes are for the future.
Probably the most disturbing thing about this film is the quotes used which were supplied by various sources at the time.
One actor, dressed as an Anglican priest, reads a statement by another priest who he quotes as saying that he was in favour of there being a nuclear war, simply because God protects the just and would help the righteous smite their enemies.
Another quote, this time from a government official at the time stated that they didn't believe that a global nuclear war would be any worse than the blitz, and that Britain would easily be able to cope with any aftereffects of a war and would be back on its fee tin no time etc etc.
The film is a very well made and very though provoking piece of film, and is highly recommended.
If you wish to view this film, you can do so by clicking HERE
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