War of the Worlds/The Obelisk

The Obelisk
Season 2, Episode 20
Airdate	May 14, 1990
Written by	Rick Schwartz & Nancy Ann Miller
Directed by	William Fruet
← 2x19 The True Believer	— N/A
War of the Worlds — Season Two

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The Obelisk is the twentieth episode of the second season of War of the Worlds, and the forty-fourth episode overall.

Starring: Jared Martin (Harrison Blackwood), Lynda Mason Green (Suzanne McCullough)

and Adrian Paul (John Kincaid)

Also Starring: Denis Forest (Malzor), Catherine Disher (Mana), Rachel Blanchard (Debi McCullough)

Guest Stars: John Gilbert (Lord Tallick), Keram Malicki-Sanchez (Ceeto)

Special Guest Appearance by: Cynthia Dale (Tila)

with Julian Richings (Ardix), Patricia Phillips (Bayda)

Plot Overview

After consulting a sacred obelisk, Malzor orders the Morthren to use a deadly spore to wipe out all Earth-born life on the planet. However, the obelisk holds a secret that could end the war of the worlds once and for all.

Trivia

Goofs

• Debi gets a message from Ceeto. However, it's only signed with a C. While it's probable for Debi to recgonise him, it's highly unlikely that Suzanne would see the same message and know who it was from.
• Ceeto says that the Morthren thought themselves the only lifeform in the galaxy, obviously until the discovery of Earth. This not only ignores the first season ("The Angel of Death"), but the second season episode "Seft of Emun".
• The Morthren didn't know about life on any other planet, yet they seem to know the third planet in the Solar System is named Earth
• The Mothren didn't know about Earth until 1945. In the first season episodes "Eye for an Eye" and "Dust to Dust" made it evident that the aliens knew about Earth well before then.
• It clearly takes less than a year for the Morthren to reach Earth. The first season began with the colonists en route with an ETA of about five years (evidence further suggests that the entire travel time is 40 years).
• It's established that it's a research expedition that's being sent to Earth. This pretty much contradicts what's seen in the 1953 with the ships being fully armed (not to mention fully protected) and openly firing, including unarmed humans. If this wasn't confusing enough, the episode actually features footage from the film with the Heat-Rays in full use, making for an odd editorial decision, fully negating the narrative.
• The last part of the flashback takes place 35 years later, making it 1988. At this point, the Morthren are fully ready to leave Morthrai for Earth. This further confuses the timeline. The aliens were resurrected in 1988, but by the end of the first season, the time had shifted to more than a year later, making for either late 1989 or early 1990. Even if one were to work a window of time between the seasons, it would be too small for such dramatic events to have taken place when the second season started.
• In keeping with the opening of "The Second Wave", the planet destructs. However, it's stated in the first season that Mor-Tax was not necessary dying itself, but rather becoming uninhabitable due to its dying sun.