The Last Supper

The Last Supper
Season 1, Episode 19
Air date	March 6, 1989
Written by	George Lazarus
Directed by	George McCowan
Episode Guide
Previous Unto Us a Child Is Born	Next Vengeance Is Mine

"We should surrender to the aliens! We have no other choice!"

―Harrison Blackwood

"The Last Supper" is the nineteenth episode of the 1st season of the War of the Worlds TV series.

Plot

A secret meeting between countries is conducted in order to evaluate the global alien threat. However, the Advocacy learns of this grouping, and seize it as an opportunity to swiftly crush resistance.

Synopsis

To plan a world defense against the aliens, the team, in a site secured by Ironhorse for a weekend, briefs representatives from several countries. They're hampered by international tensions. The aliens locate them and attack, breaking through Ironhorse's defense. One delegate proves to be alien, but is destroyed. Ironhorse defeats the aliens with a clever but desperate strategy.

Notes

• This episode includes clips from the 1953 film The War of the Worlds and the following episodes: "The Resurrection", "Thy Kingdom Come", "A Multitude of Idols", "Eye for an Eye", "The Second Seal", "Goliath Is My Name", "To Heal the Leper", "The Good Samaritan", "Dust to Dust", "He Feedeth Among the Lilies", "The Prodigal Son" and "The Meek Shall Inherit".

Quotes

Norton: According to archaeological dating, we know the aliens have visited this planet for the last 2,000 years. They have periodically visited many places on Earth using several different kinds of spaceships. Now the oldest ship that we've encountered was at the Westeskiwin Indian Reservation. This was a walking spaceship, over 600 years old. In this century, we know the aliens arrived on the East Coast of the United States in late October 1938 on a reconnaissance mission. The main invasion force arrived in 1953, as it apparently did around the world. The aliens would have conquered the planet if they had not succumbed to our bacteria. Now the United States and Canadian governments placed what they thought were the remains of dead aliens into steel drums, and these drums were placed in different dump sites throughout the continental United States and Canada. One of the dump sites, a secret facility called Fort Jericho in Northern Nevada, was the first confirmed location of an alien resurrection. There was a large number of steel drums in storage. About half a year ago, a few of these drums accidentally came into contact with radiation. The radiation neutralized the bacteria we thought had killed the aliens, and they came back to life. The aliens searched out their war machines from the invasion of 1953 stored in Hangar 15 at Kellogue Air Force Base and mounted a lethal attack. Fortunately, we were able to sabotage the ships with explosives, and they were destroyed. Suzanne: At this point we can only estimate how many aliens are in the United States and Canada, somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000. Harrison: This number keeps growing. Now we first discovered aliens at the site of what appeared to be a terrorist operation. We were investigating the scene, and we think it started here at Fort Jericho. Six empty barrels dated 1953 were found, and 320 barrels were missing: all those dated 1953 as well as barrels of raw radioactive waste, presumably as a radiation source to revive more aliens. Aliens walked the Earth again, and we let them get away. Now we've had contact with a renegade mutant alien named Quinn. He has confirmed our worst suspicions: the aliens' goal is world domination. In four short years, a force of millions of aliens are scheduled to arrive here. So let's see what we're dealing with. Suzanne: Structurally, they're more like jellyfish than mammals. By examining DNA molecules, it appears that the aliens possess humans using a cell-phase matching technique. The alien cells literally overtake the human cells through osmosis. As a result, they have access to the host body's intelligence, and can control them physically and yet there is no outward way for anyone to know. Physiologically, the aliens have a liquid core which carries neurological information as well as arterial matter. Their stable, upright carriage is supported by a web-like musculature structure. Harrison: The alien stands between 5½ and 7 feet tall. It has a cyclops eye in the center of its forehead and it is a biped. It's got three fingers, three toes, and three arms. Apparently, it has no skeletal structure per se. Suzanne: One of the aliens' most remarkable characteristics is their ability to osmose into the human body – actually meld their body into ours. We have footage that was taken by a local news photographer. Harrison: Aliens have never possessed animals or children. Because of this, we theorize they need a certain minimal mass to occupy. They can be anywhere and they can be anyone: soldiers, waitresses, bikers, the homeless, paramedics – they can take over just about anyone. Once they took over Beeton, California, an abandoned irradiated town, and they stocked it with aliens. They took over an abandoned warehouse where they brought humans for the aliens to possess. The most frightening thing of all: they have absolutely no regard for human life. Not since Nazi Germany has the world witnessed such callous and brutal treatment of human beings. They mutilate and maim. To them, we're an inferior species and they treat us like one. Now we know the alien threat is real... and the future of our planet is depended upon what we accomplish here. Unless we transcend partisanship and we begin to cooperate, we may just as well hand the Earth over to them right now. Norton: Okay. Here are some examples based on eyewitness reports of the aliens utilizing everyday items to make high-tech tools and devices. There's a report from Canada where kitchen appliances were jury-rigged to make radio receivers and locators. And a story from New Jersey where the aliens were seen using a vacuum cleaner-like device to locate an alien warship buried underground. They've even used their technology to create artwork unlike anything we've ever seen before. We also believe that they can communicate over light-years in a matter of seconds using their makeshift devices. So, as we've seen, the alien technology runs from the lethal to the sublime. Harrison: The closest that we've ever come to actually examining an alien artifact was in an automated power plant North of San Francisco. The aliens had taken over the facility, brutally killed every single member of the crew, and then had gone on to set up this bizarre device. When I finally found the aliens we'd been looking for, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a device using a logic system far unto ours in every way. It was fascinating. After they'd gone, Dr. McCullough and I went up to examine this strange alien handiwork. It worked like a distillery, reducing human brains to their very essence, and then one very potent drop of that extract would drip into the sick alien's mouth, curing it. But apparently they'd anticipated us, and the device was booby-trapped, and disintegrated immediately upon touch. Clearly, they do not want anyone to get ahold of their technology. Harrison: We've been painting a pretty negative picture about our battle with the aliens, but there is a bright side: they can be killed and we're getting pretty efficient at it. One particular incident comes to mind. The aliens had broken into a secure army facility in search of war machines and weapons left over from their earlier invasion. Our intelligence discovered this plan and we wiped them out. What they turn into after they die is the only real indication we have that these were once human beings who are now possessed by aliens. But we can be fooled. As a result of an exothermic reaction, their cells become a horrible broiling mass of decomposing alien and human tissue. They are vulnerable, and so are we. We have already lost a member of our team. We have lost many soldiers in combat, and, of course, all the innocent people. The aliens are deadly and they promise – as their numbers increase and they become more sophisticated – they promise to become even deadlier.

Cast

Episode Cast

• Jared Martin as Harrison Blackwood
• Lynda Mason Green as Suzanne McCullough
• Philip Akin as Norton Drake
• Richard Chaves as Lt. Col. Paul Ironhorse
• Colm Feore as Leonid Argochev
• Efrain Figueroa as Gabriel Morales
• James Hong as Soo Tak
• Barry Kennedy as Jerry Raymond
• Suzanne Coy as Sunethra Menathong
• Abbott Anderson as Morris Burnobi
• Ilse von Glatz as Advocate #1
• Ric Sarabia as Advocate #2
• Michael Copeman as Advocate #3
• Brenda Kamino as Nurse
• Ron Payne as Businessman
• Norah Grant as Sgt. Coleman

Episode Crew

• Directed by George McCowan
• Written by Tom Lazarus
• Produced by Jonathan Hackett, Greg Strangis and Sam Strangis
• Original Music by Billy Thorpe
• Cinematography by Ron Stannett
• Film Editor - Steve Weslak
• Production Designer - Gavin Mitchell
• Art Director - Rolf Harvey
• Set Decorators - Gareth Wilson and Greg Chown (uncredited)
• Costume Designer - Leonie Reid

Makeup Department

• Jane Meade - Makeup Artist
• Maxine Rennes-Gunderson - Hair Stylist
• Jacques Fortier - Special Makeup Effects Technician (uncredited)

Production Management

• E.A. Jemison-Ball - Post-production Supervisor
• Susan Murdoch - Production Manager
• Robert Wertheimer - Executive in Charge of Production

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

• Megan Banning - Third Assistant Director
• Linda Fox - Third Assistant Director
• Ken A. Smith - Second Assistant Director
• Terry Ingram - First Assistant Director
• David Warry-Smith - Second Unit Director

Art Department

• Dan Bezaire - Property Master
• Ken Sinclair - Set Dresser
• Stuart Land - Sculpted Main Title Alien Hands (uncredited)
• Andriy Pereklita - Props: Second Unit (uncredited)

Sound Department

• Lou Solakofski - Dubbing Mixer
• Janis Gabbert - Sound Supervisor
• Tom Mather - Sound Mixer
• George Solakofski - Dialogue Editor
• Brad Stephenson - Sound Editor

Special Effects

• Jeff Morgan - Special Effects Editor
• Marianne Klein - Special Effects Coordinator
• Bill Sturgeon - Prosthetics: Alien

Visual Effects

• Kim Davidson - Graphics Artist

Stunts

• Robert Hannah - Action Coordinator
• Dennis Lundin - Stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department

• Ira Cohen - Gaffer
• Joel Guthro - Assistant Camera
• Gordon Langevin - Director of Photography: Second Unit
• Jill MacLauchlan - First Assistant Camera
• Mark Manchester - Key Grip

Casting Department

• Gabrielle Iviney - Extras Casting
• Caro Jones - Casting: Los Angeles
• Brian Levy - Casting: Canada

Costume and Wardrobe Department

• Isabel De Biasio - Wardrobe Mistress

Editorial Department

• Stewart Dowds - Assistant Editor
• Bernie Laramie - Post-Production Consultant
• Mary Jane Patterson - Post-Production Coordinator
• Dave Hussey - Colorist (uncredited)

Location Management

• David Coombs - Location Manager

Music Department

• Larry Brown - Composer: Additional Music

Transportation Department

• Eddie Bowman - Transportation Coordinator

Additional Crew

• Jack Crain - Designer: Custom Edged Weapons
• Janet Gayford - Production Secretary
• Alexandra La Roche - Continuity Supervisor
• Tom Lazarus - Executive Script Consultant
• Heather McIntosh - Production Auditor
• Susan Perry - Assistant to Producers
• Nan Skiba - Production Coordinator
• Herbert Wright - Creative Consultant

References

External links

• The Last Supper at the Internet Movie Database
• Thesis: The Last Supper (1×18, Part 1) at TrenchcoatSoft Interactive
• Thesis: The Last Supper (1×18, Part 2) at TrenchcoatSoft Interactive

War of the Worlds TV Series - Season 1

The Resurrection I The Walls of Jericho I Thy Kingdom Come I A Multitude of Idols I Eye for an Eye I The Second Seal I Goliath Is My Name I To Heal the Leper I The Good Samaritan I Epiphany I Among the Philistines I Choirs of Angels I Dust to Dust I He Feedeth Among the Lilies I The Prodigal Son I The Meek Shall Inherit I Unto Us a Child Is Born I The Last Supper I Vengeance Is Mine I My Soul to Keep I So Shall Ye Reap I The Raising of Lazarus I The Angel of Death