Professor Challenger & the Creature from the Aether

Professor George Edward Challenger invents a machine to talk to Martians. Because obviously nothing bad has ever come from his ideas before. Naturally, GEC sends a peremptory summons to his friends to watch the demonstration. What they get instead is an aetheric rift, a threatening Martian entity, and the not-so-surprising realization that Challenger’s “scientific breakthroughs” are, more often than not, indistinguishable from natural disasters.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells meet steampunk adventure!