This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an interplanetary exchange program (though, granted, not always a peaceful one), with music from movies about visitors to and from Mars.

The first half of the show will compare and contrast selections from two film adaptations of H.G. Wells’ Martian invasion novel, “The War of the Worlds” – the classic 1953 version, produced by George Pal, with music by Leith Stevens, and the Steven Spielberg blockbuster, from 2005 (titled, simply, “War of the Worlds”), with music by John Williams.

Then we’ll take it to the Red Planet, when an American astronaut is stranded with his test monkey, in 1964’s “Robinson Crusoe on Mars,” with music by Van Cleave.

And finally, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter gets the big screen treatment, in 2012, a hundred years after the fact, in… well, “John Carter.” (Why Disney dropped “of Mars” from the title – something that would have actually said something about the subject matter – is anybody’s guess.)

Unfortunately the intervening decades robbed Burroughs’ creation of much of its freshness, with dozens, if not hundreds, of science fiction novels and movies having raided the author’s pulp treasure trove, making “John Carter” less striking than it might have been.

And I’m sure you already know where I stand on CGI. I would have loved this film had it been made in the ‘70s or ‘80s, using miniatures and matte paintings. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it, but it didn’t give me a lift, as few movies do these days. That said, it certainly wasn’t the train wreck the press made it out to be.

The music was by Michael Giacchino, who thankfully uses an orchestra and employs leitmotif, though perhaps doesn’t weave so rich a tapestry as might have some of his forebearers. It certainly ends the hour on a romantic note, a welcome relief after dodging so many Martian heat rays.

I hope you’ll accompany me to and from Mars, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6 ET, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6, or that you’ll partake of the webcast (once it’s posted), at http://www.wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Pal’s enemies