Martian Blood... or "Invasion of the Amphibians"

[Tripod Bait]

Anyone else notice the similarities between the Martians' blood and that of a frog?

Martian Blood:



Frog Blood:


Granted - not many people watching the film would have noticed this back in the 50's, but I can't help but wonder if the similarity was deliberate.

[Leatherhead]

hmmmm... Martians have nucleied red blood cells...like reptiles

[Commandingtripod]

He he he. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Sorry about that...but....the Martians don't look like frogs..........not that I know of anyway......

[Lensman]

Wells wrote a short story titled "The Crystal Egg" which describes scenes on Mars. Some readers believe the Mars depicted in this story is the same as that of the Martians in WotW. There are at least two types of Martians in that story. One is described as frog-like, which doesn't at all match the description in WotW. But there are also some similaritites to WotW Martians, such as them supporting themselves on masses of thin tentacles. Some readers explain away the difference in description as that of two different observers seeing the same unfamiliar thing, and describing it with different terms.

I personally find it a bit of a stretch that the frog-like Martians of "The Crystal Egg" are the same as the bear-like Martians of WotW, but I can see why some are tempted to draw similarities between the two.

If you haven't read "The Crystal Egg" you can easily do so; it's quite short and you can follow the following link to the online text:
makeashorterlink.com/?O265520AC

[sunnyrabbiera]

Well I think perhaps they did use frogs blood for the effect, or used it for inspiration.
Meh, back then there was still a lot not known about blood in the general community so perhaps Pal used that as a advantage...
its uncertain

[Luperis]

Frogs' blod is probably one of the cheapest, easy to obtain types of reptillian blood, and looks different enough to human blood that it most likely had a 'wow, that's different!' effect.

It is interesting that you saw the martians in the 'Crystal Egg' as frog-like, Lensman - I have never imagined them like that when reading it. But looking back at the story, I can see where you're coming from.
Thanks for the link - two of the wells stories on that page, 'The Purple Pileus' and 'The Apple', are not in any of my Wells books.

[Lensman]

luperis said:

It is interesting that you saw the martians in the 'Crystal Egg' as frog-like, Lensman - I have never imagined them like that when reading it. But looking back at the story, I can see where you're coming from.

Well actually now that *I* look at the story again, I don't see that the "frog-like" description is so apt. I thought they were described as having wide mouths, but no that's not in the story at all. Hopping and round-headed, with small bodies. Still doesn't fit Wells' Martians; those were described as just being a head with no body at all.

However a bit of thought reveals that must be an exaggeration; the WotW Martians had lungs if nothing else, so there must have been something present in addition to the head. Additionally there's the mention of the bipeds which seem to be the same, or at least similar, to the bipedal "cattle" in WotW. So I'll admit upon a third reading of this story that those who claim they're the same Martians have a better case than I thought.

I'm still not entirely convinced, as the Martian culture seen in "The Crystal Egg" seems to be healthy and alive, not decadent and dying as the WotW Martians were.

[Graz]

Frog blood is quite apt, as that's pretty much what they look like in the film and series. Yukky slimy, squishy frog things.