This week, War of the Worlds attempts to tie into the alien abduction phenomena, in He Feedeth Among the Lilies. Written by Tom Lazarus, this episode first debuted on 30 January, 1989.

Team Blackwood begins to look into stories of close encounters, and discover the morthren are abducting people, implanting them with a device that will help the invaders learn about our immune systems, and potentially discover a cure to keep them alive.

Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin) is conducting the investigation into the encounters of the fourth kind, and soon finds himself falling for one of the abductees, Karen (Cynthia Belliveau).

I like the fact that a lot of the abduction experiences sound very similar to stories that have been reported, and yet adapted enough to work within the universe created by the series.

But is there still something inside Karen? As the team dig into her memories, they are troubled by what they learn, and what has happened to her at the hands of the aliens.

I like the fact that Harrison gets a bit of a romantic interlude, but will they be able to stop the aliens from continuing their hideous experiments on humanity?

Watch for a brief appearance by Julian Richings as someone who gets abducted… which is interesting because he becomes a bit of a regular on the second series.

The episode definitely ends as a loss for our heroes, specifically Harrison, and you have to wonder about Karen’s fate…

Scary.

The Prodigal Son features a wonderful scene-chewing Canadian actor, John Colicos, as an artist by the name of Quinn. This episode was penned by Herbert Wright from a story by Patrick Barry. It first aired on 6 February, 1989.

Harrison is kidnapped by Quinn, and learns that the artist is in fact an alien, but somehow he is immune to all the bacteria that seems to be causing the morthren problems. Consequently, they are looking for him as well.

Quinn has a plan that he wants to speak to the world leaders about. He wants a smooth peaceful transition to the morthren taking over the world, instead of the all out war that the rest of his species seems intent on conducting. And he is going to use Harrison to get his way, and use the scientist any way he sees fit.

But the aliens are only interested in grabbing Quinn to understand how he is immune to Earth’s bacteria, even if that means his death.

And for the first time, I recognized some of the shooting locations for the Toronto-based series!!

Colicos is wonderful in this episode, and gives lots of backstory to the alien side, giving Harrison and the audience a deeper understanding of the invading force, even as Team Blackwood tries to find their missing friend.

The war continues next week as I explore The Complete Series on DVD from Paramount Pictures. Check out this classic cult series!