The Artilleryman Returns - Jeff Wayne

JOURNALIST: Again, I was on my way to London, through towns and villages that

were blackened ruins, totally silent, desolate, deserted.

Man’s empire had

passed away,

taken swiftly and without error, by these creatures who were composed entirely

of brain.

Unhampered by the complex systems which make up man, they made and used

different bodies according to their needs.

They never tired, never slept and

never

suffered, having long since eliminated from their planet the bacteria which

cause all

fevers and other morbidities.

ARTILLERYMAN: Halt!

Who goes there?

JOURNALIST: Er — friend.

ARTILLERYMAN: Be on your way.

This is my territory.

JOURNALIST: Your territory?

What do you mean?

ARTILLERYMAN: Wait a minute — it’s you!

The man from Maybury Hill!

JOURNALIST: Good heavens!

The Artilleryman!

I thought you surely burned.

ARTILLERY MAN: I thought you surely drowned.

JOURNALIST: Have you seen any Martians?

ARTILLERYMAN: Everywhere.

We’re done for all right.

JOURNALIST: We can’t just give up.

ARTILLERYMAN: Course we can’t.

It’s now we’ve got to start fighting — but not

against them 'cos we can’t win.

Now we’ve got to fight for survival,

and I reckon we can

make it.

I’ve got a plan.

ARTILLERYMAN: We’re gonna build a whole new world for ourselves.

Look, they

clap eyes on us and we’re dead, right?

So we gotta make a new life where they’ll never find us.

You know where?

Underground.

You should see it down there — hundreds of miles of drains — sweet and clean

now after

the rain, dark, quiet, safe.

We can build houses and everything,

start again from scratch.

And what’s so bad about living underground eh?

It’s not been so great living up here, if you want my opinion.

Take a look around you at the world we’ve come to know

Does it seem to be much more than a crazy circus show

But maybe from the madness something beautiful will grow

In a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We’ll start — we’ll start all over again — all over again — all over again —

all over again

We’ll build shops and hospitals and barracks right under their noses — right

under their

feet!

Everything we need — banks, prisons and schools… We’ll send scouting

parties to collect books and stuff, and men like you’ll teach the kids.

Not poems and

rubbish —

science, so we can get everything working.

We’ll build villages and towns and…

and…

we’ll play each other at cricket!

Listen, maybe one day we’ll capture a Fighting Machine,

eh?

Learn how to make 'em ourselves and then wallop!

Our turn to do some wiping

out!

Whoosh with our Heat Ray — Whoosh!

And them running and dying, beaten at their

own

game.

Man on top again!

Now our domination of the Earth is fading fast

And out of the confusion the chance has come at last

To build a better future from the ashes of the past

In a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We’ll start all over again

Look — Man is born in freedom but he soon becomes a slave

In cages of convention from the cradle to the grave

The weak fall by the wayside but the strong will be saved

In a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We’ll start all over again

I’m not trying to tell you what to be Oh no, oh no, not me But if mankind is to survive

The people left alive

They’re gonna have to build this world anew

And it’s going to have to start with me and you

Yes!

I’m not trying to tell you what to be Oh no, oh no, not me But if mankind is to survive

The people left alive

They’re gonna have to build this world anew

Yes and we will have to be the chosen few

Just think of all the poverty, the hatred and the lies

And imagine the destruction of all that you despise

Slowly from the ashes the phoenix will arise

In a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We’ll start all over again

Take a look around you at the world you’ve loved so well

And bid the ageing empire of man a last farewell

It may not sound like Heaven but at least it isn’t Hell

It’s a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We’ll start — we’ll start all over again — all over again — all over again —

all over again.

I’ve got a plan!

Can’t you just see it?

Civilization starting all over again — a second chance.

We’ll even

build a railway and tunnel to the coast, go there for our holidays.

Nothing can stop men

like us.

I’ve made a start already.

Come on down here and have a look.

JOURNALIST: In the cellar was a tunnel scarcely ten yards long, that had

taken him a week to dig.

I could have dug that much in a day, and I suddenly had

my first inkling of the gulf between his dreams and his powers.

ARTILLERYMAN: It’s doing the workin' and the thinkin' that wears a feller out.

I’m

ready for a bit of a rest.

How about a drink eh?

Nothing but champagne,

now I’m the

boss.

JOURNALIST: We drank and then he insisted upon playing cards.

With our species

on the edge of extermination, with no prospect but a horrible death,

we actually played

games.

Later, he talked more of his plan, but I saw flames flashing in the deep blue

night.

Red

Weed glowing, tripod figures moving distantly — and I put down my champagne

glass.

I felt a traitor to my kind and I knew I must leave this strange dreamer.

ARTILLERYMAN: Take a look around you at the world we’ve come to know Does it seem to be much more than a crazy circus show Maybe from the madness something

beautiful will grow…