The morthren leader Mana (Catherine Disher) is proving to be a real threat as we dive into this week’s installment of War of the Worlds.

Breeding Ground written by Alan Moskowitz first aired on 30 October, 1989 and sees Mana coercing a dying surgeon, Emil Gestaine (Gerard Parkes) into experimenting on his patients. In an attempt to find a proper breeding ground for the morhtren embryos, they’ve now decided to implant them in human flesh!

When Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin) arrives at the dingy looking hospital through his own adventures (he’s a friend of Emil’s, and the doctor serves as they source for meds), he discovers something terrible is going on, and summons Kincaid (Adrian Paul). Suzanne (Lynda Mason Green) is out of the scene, as she is quarantined at the Lair with Debi (Rachel Blanchard) because she is ill. Though once Suzanne recovers, she goes undercover in the hospital as a nurse… all the heroes are there, digging into what is going on, and it gets increasingly dangerous for everyone.

Julian Richings’ Ardix is overseeing a large portion of the experiment, and lurks, menacingly, around the hospital, even as Gestaine implants embryos in unsuspecting patients, often with frightening, and gory (yay syndication!) results.

The trio learn about Emil’s latest implantation in elderly Kate (Helen Hughes), and work to track her down, and save her before the morthren can prove they’ve found an acceptable way to continue their breeding. And maybe they can find a way to stop the program, and save Kate, and potentially countless others.

But who will win this battle?

Seft of Emun was written by J.K.E. Rose and first aired on 6 November, 1989.

This one puts Harrison in some trouble when he falls in love with an alien, Seft (Laura Press), who was once a slave of the morhtren and who has since been revived to help them restore their power cells.

The episode gives us our first look at an alien planet when Seft is revived and we see her capture by the morthren.

Somehow Seft is able to track down Harrison telepathically, and makes a connection with him. This allows the pair to connect, even as Seft is working for the morthren against her will.

The episode is filled with dreamlike imagery as the pair contact one another, and Seft reveals herself to Harrison.

This ends up being a bit of an odd episode, as it doesn’t quite fit within the frame of what we have seen and been introduced to before about the morthren, not to mention that we didn’t even know they had taken over other planets, or that there were other inhabited planets in the WotW’s universe.

Still, it’s very cool to see some of the writers taking chances and telling different kinds of stories.

The battle continues next week as I explore War of the Worlds: The Complete Series on DVD from Paramount Canada!