As the first science fiction writer of the cinema age, it is fitting that so many of H. G. Wells’ key works should have been adapted for the movies, says Brian J. Robb in this survey…

The work of acclaimed writer H G Wells has never really gone out of fashion, but there does seem to be new interest in film and TV adaptations of his most famous science fiction stories (not coincidentally, now largely out of copyright). The BBC co-production of a three-part version of The War of the Worlds late last year met with a mixed response, while the recent The Invisible Man (from Upgrade, 2018, director Leigh Whannell) and Elizabeth Banks’ in-development The Invisible Woman show there is life in another of Wells’ core concepts.

Wells was an innovator, developing many of the basic ideas that formed the foundation of 20th century science fiction, from time travel to alien invasion, genetic alteration to invisibility. His ‘scientific romances’ (as they were termed) combined page-turning adventure with astute political and social commentary-that’s why they have lasted over a century. His work has been adapted and re-adapted for film and television, with some projects proving more successful or more popular than others. For each key novel, there is usually one outstanding visual version of the story, yet these are not always the most faithful version either.

THE HISTORY OF MR. WELLS

Herbert George Wells, born in 1866, is known to Infinity readers as primarily an innovator in the field of literary science fiction. He was, however, a polymath, involved as much in politics and social concerns as he was with alien worlds or voyages through time. He was a utopian, and much of his work-whether fiction or non-fiction-looked ahead to a time when humanity could be free of war and disease, the things that he believed were holding mankind back from realising his full potential. A socialist and a pacifist, Wells’ later mainstream fiction included such classics as Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr. Polly (1910).

Having left his first wife (his cousin, Isabel), Wells moved with one of his students, Amy Roberts, to Woking in 1895. While living there, he would enjoy his most productive period. During the next year and a half, Wells set out to explore a variety of modern ideas producing in short order such classic foundational science fiction as The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1897).

“As soon as the magic trick has been done the whole business of the fantasy writer is to keep everything else human and real. Touches of prosaic detail are imperative and a rigorous adherence to the hypothesis. Any extra fantasy outside the cardinal assumption immediately gives a touch of irresponsible silliness to the invention.”

Poster art from George Pal’s The Time Machine (1960); One of the Morlock idols; a magnificent illustration from the novel; Rod Taylor with Yvette Mimieux

Wells basic concept was to make the underlying setting and characters in his stories as believable and realistic as possible, then introduce one outré idea- time travel, genetic alteration, invisibility, or invading aliens-and see how that affected things. At the same time, he was interested in exploring these themes philosophically-if one could travel in time can past or future events be changed, how would the ability to move around unseen affect human behaviour, how would humans change if their essential nature was altered, and what would the discovery of life elsewhere in the solar system mean, especially if the people of Britain were treated by invading aliens as the British treated those in their conquered colonies?

This became known as ‘Wells’ Law’, which he described: ‘As soon as the magic trick has been done the whole business of the fantasy writer is to keep everything else human and real. Touches of prosaic detail are imperative and a rigorous adherence to the hypothesis. Any extra fantasy outside the cardinal assumption immediately gives a touch of irresponsible silliness to the invention.’

The history of visual adaptations of the work of H. G. Wells is as old as the history of film itself. The Time Machine was published the same year the Lumière brothers first demonstrated moving pictures in 1895. Wells’ fiction made manifest the promise of cinema, the ability to alter the illusion of time, to change its flow, going forward or backwards, or halting its passage altogether.

He would do all these things in The Time Machine. Cinema could also depict places far away or imaginary, transport viewers to other worlds, or others times and places.

Wells was a writer of the cinema age, and his literary career would run in parallel with the evolution of cinema, so it is fitting that so many of his works are popularly known through their various cinema adaptations.

There were to be no limits in Wells’ fiction, just as there are none in what cinema can now depict. Although time travel was hardly a new idea in fiction, Wells was the first to conceive of a vehicle as the method by which a human might traverse the eons. His ‘time machine’ concept-a term coined by Wells for this novel-has become a standard, giving rise to both Doctor Who and the Bill and Ted film series, as well as the celebrated Back to the Future trilogy (which Wells’ film director great grandson Simon Wells was a consultant on).