V - The
Original Miniseries / The Final Battle
3 Disc Set
Via Vision
R4 DVD
V - The Original Miniseries was the 1983
miniseries written by Kenneth Johnson about aliens known as "The
Visitors" trying to take over Earth. At first they are welcomed with open
arms, but soon their hidden agenda becomes known and a resistance movement
develops.
The governments of the Earth are surprised
when fifty one huge alien spacecraft hover over their major cities. Their
leader John introduces their people as a friendly species which look
surprisingly human and are seeking interstellar cooperation with mankind. Since
their own planet is dying, they need access to a share of earth's resources;
however they offer technology and medical advancement in return.
However, soon they start to blame
scientists and academics for various uprisings and start “disappearing” anyone
who stands in their way. These people return "brainwashed" singing
the Visitors praises. Journalist Mike Donovan and medical student Julie Parrish
uncover their real intentions and reveal the fact that they are actually a
reptilian race. It seems they want the water of earth for their home planet and
intend to use mankind as food ! They regularly "process" humans
storing them "snap frozen" as a food supply to send back to their
home world and they have no desire to share the resources of our planet, they
want it all for themselves.
A resistance movement is formed which must
fight against the visitors. Luckily for them there is also a fifth column
within “The Visitors” who disagrees with their leaders genocidal policy and is
also fighting to save mankind.
The original minseries was followed by V:
The Final Battle in 1984. Johnson, left the production in its early stages due
to a clash with NBC. The Final Battle was raced into production to take
advantage of the success of the first series. While it lacks the depth of the
first series, it does have higher production values and more action.
V was marked by its simplistic allegorical
vision of the world under a fascist/Nazi regime. At times its dialogue and plot
bordered on the hysterical with overwrought scenes and simplistic twists and
turns. The script reads like World War II simply replacing Nazis with Aliens,
it includes everything from medical experiments to colloborators, work camps to
racism.
At the same time V did attempt to explore
all manner of social issues from religion and science to abortion, nuclear
weapons to loyalty versus collaboration.
V was celebrated for being a major Science
Fiction series which utilized quite cutting edge special effects and attracted
a large audience. It is interesting to critically watch the series and see its
resonance in later science fiction cinema, from the look of the ships on
Independence Day to the storage of bodies in The Matrix. For many of a “certain
age” V has a strong nostalgic feel, however, it is normally a hollow memory
when it is revisited. It is not a series which has aged especially well.
One of the most amusing aspects of the
series is the Eighties look from the constantly open shirt of Marc Singer (of
Beastmaster) to the overuse of hairspray. It seems that no matter how fast you
run or how much action you get into your hair cannot move (and this applies to
the men as well as the women !)
V now works as a cult Sci Fi experience.
It is cliched, dated and very silly but in many ways this makes it all the more
amusing. I found myself strangely compelled to watch the whole damn thing even
when I was laughing throughout !
Kenneth Johnson has also written a
follow-up novel entitled V: The Second Generation, published in 2008 by Tor
Books. The story is set twenty years after the events of the original
miniseries. There is a rumour about a follow up TV series based on this book,
but don't hold your breath !
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
If you came to this page directly (and
missed our menu), click here
to go to the Synergy Magazine front page. (http://www.synergy-magazine.com)