The War of the Worlds (radio drama) leading to an outcry against the broadcasters and calls for regulation by the Federal Communications Commission. Nevertheless, the episode secured Welles's fame as a dramatist. "The War of the Worlds" was the 17th episode of the CBS Radio series "The Mercury Theatre on the Air," which was broadcast at 8 pm ET on Sunday, October 30, 1938. H. G. Wells' original novel tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth. The novel was adapted for radio by Howard Koch, who changed the primary setting from 19th-century England to the contemporary United States, with the landing point of the first
Fighting machine (The War of the Worlds) free-flowing organic legs described in Wells' novel. They are also described in the prologues of the live stage versions as being modified versions of similar walking machines the Martians use on Mars. This interpretation of the Martian tripods also appears in the 1998 and 1999, video games based on the Jeff Wayne album. In Kevin J. Anderson' "The Martian War" the Martians use two type of tripods, the ones from "The War of the Worlds" and a smaller, "overseer" variant. In "Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds", the fighting machines are described as having legs that can telescope down allowing