This begins with a behind-the-scenes story from network
television. In 1982 a prolific television producer was pitching a script
for a new television mini-series that he had written. The producer's
name was Kenneth Johnson who had worked on successful television
programs such as The Six-Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and The Incredible Hulk. The script was entitled "Storm Warnings" and was an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here
about the rise of a fascist regime in the United States. When the
script was submitted to NBC it was initially rejected as being too
cerebral for the average
American viewer. The script was tweaked and resubmitted, this time with the fascists portrayed as extraterrestrials who suddenly make first contact with the human race. This greatly increased NBC's interest in its marketability value due to the massive success of the new Star Wars franchise.
On May 1, 1983 the new mini-series, V, premiered on NBC. As the first episode begins to unfold, the world is stunned as fifty gigantic saucer-shaped alien spacecraft appear over major cities around the world. After making initial communication with a worldwide broadcast, the Supreme Commander descends from the mother ship over New York City in a shuttle-craft to the roof of the United Nations building where he meets personally with the Secretary General. On live television it is revealed that these "Visitors" are practically identical to humans except for sensitivity to light and a deep resonance in their voices. The Supreme Commander introduces himself as John, the human name he has chosen, and announces that they have come to Earth in order to manufacture a unique chemical that will enable them to solve environmental problems on their home planet orbiting the star Sirius. In return, he promises to share their advanced technology with mankind and to leave in peace when their work is completed.
Unfortunately what seems like a dream come true for humanity quickly descends into a nightmare. Soon it is revealed from the confessions of Nobel Prize winning scientists that there is a conspiracy among the scientific community against the Visitors. Scientists around the world are denounced, arrested, or simply disappear. News reports begin to flood in that the conspiracy has turned violent, spawning terrorist attacks against the Visitors around the world. The Visitor sponsored technological seminars are cancelled and scientists are required to register themselves and their whereabouts with world governments. At this point Mike Donovan, a news cameraman played by Marc Singer, sneaks onto a Visitor shuttle and secretly boards the Los Angeles mother ship. There he captures some shocking footage: the chemical compound being manufactured is simply vented into the air once aboard; The Visitors are using a "conversion" process on scientists and world leaders causing them to believe in, or even that they are part of, a fictitious conspiracy; and most importantly, that the Visitors themselves are not human-like at all, but rather reptilians that use elaborate make-up to appear human in order to facilitate their acceptance among our species. When Donovan tries to air his tape on a national broadcast, the Visitors preempt it by seizing planetary communication networks and announcing that at the request of world authorities they will be "assisting" in ending the crisis by establishing global martial law and subordinating law enforcement to their own military units.
As the show progresses a resistance movement against the Visitors is formed by Dr. Juliet Parrish, played by Faye Grant, an aspiring biochemist. It is also revealed that the true agenda behind the Visitors' arrival is to steal Earth's water and harvest its human population to serve as janissaries and a food source. Aided by a fifth column of aliens within the Visitors' ranks, the Resistance stages a successful raid on a local National Guard armory and fights off a Visitor attack on their temporary mountain base. Having been told by the fifth column of another alien race that had defeated their Leader before, the second and final episode concludes with Juliet and a fellow resistance member sending a distress signal into space using a transmitter. In the last scene they paint a red "V" on the transmitting station door, for victory.
Last year, ABC aired a remake of V as a new television series in their fall line-up. I was inspired to write this when Jane Badler who played Diana, the Josef Mengele inspired Visitor from the original mini-series, has recently guest-starred on the new show playing a wholly dissimilar character with the same name. While I'm glad to see the tribute paid to its origins, I would have to say that the new V is only halfway-decent science fiction. To be sure there are plenty of aliens, fantastic technology, and spaceships on the show. However the Visitors' hidden agenda is like something out of a bad X-Files episode. Their soldiers don't sport the storm-trooper uniforms and laser rifles of their original incarnation, but rather appear to be nothing more than black-ops style ninjas. Although the human resistance has Visitor allies they are all, generally and incorrectly, referred to as the fifth column. In addition "V" no longer stands for victory but refers to "Visitors" used in slang as "vees" which sounds more like bad drug withdrawal symptoms than a respectable alien race. I don't even know how to start comparing the so-called uniforms, if you can call them that, of the new Visitors to the originals. They look more like business attire; in fact the Visitor second-in-command wears a suit appearing no more menacing than your average accountant.
On the positive side, the show has two fantastic female leads. Morena Baccarin, giving what I think is perhaps her best performance to date, plays the sinister Visitor queen Anna and Elizabeth Mitchell plays fifth column member and FBI agent Erica Evans. These actresses have expertly seasoned bland writing as much as they can with their performances, and I wish they could be given something more worthy with which to showcase their talent. Also, although the actor that plays him brings nothing special to the character, it is nice to see a Catholic priest as a character on a television show for a change.
Science fiction has always been an excellent genre for telling great stories. However I think it at its best when used for morality plays. Unfortunately the new V series is only a mediocre story with no moral subtext whatsoever. This is why I think the original mini-series is superior. Much like the original Star Trek tackled the issues of racism, sexism, and world peace in the 1960's, so the original V reminded us that fascism could rear its ugly head anytime, anywhere, even in our beloved United States. Although packaged in a cool sci-fi wrapper, V the mini-series was not at all subtle about this allegory. The Visitors used a half-swastika as their emblem and wore jackboots. There was even a youth-league called "Friends of the Visitors" that recruited teenagers into a paramilitary organization, turning them into informers. This is perhaps my favorite subplot of the show because it is chilling in the way it develops. Daniel Bernstein, played by David Packer, joins the group with destructive consequences for his family. I remember first seeing this when I was seven and being horrified as I watched this boy inform on his parents, having them arrested and tortured. To this day I consider it to be very dark and very well executed. Whereas the remake might try to produce the same effect with gore, the original was able to generate more fear with only its writing and acting. When it comes to storytelling, either in books, on television, or in the cinema, I am always more impressed when maximum emotional effect is achieved using only the simplest of methods.
Perhaps I am being premature in my assessment of the new V. It is only early into the second season and its quality may yet improve. That being said, given the direction of its storyline I do not think it will rise to the level of the original classic. However as much as I enjoy good science fiction, I don't think even a rehash of the original Nazi allegory would have worked either as it had already been done. What has not been done though, is a program along the line of Kenneth Johnson's original script. A realistic show about the descent of the United States into fascism, done well, would have made for much more interesting and compelling TV. Maybe more so than the tale of the Nazis that came from outer space.
American viewer. The script was tweaked and resubmitted, this time with the fascists portrayed as extraterrestrials who suddenly make first contact with the human race. This greatly increased NBC's interest in its marketability value due to the massive success of the new Star Wars franchise.
On May 1, 1983 the new mini-series, V, premiered on NBC. As the first episode begins to unfold, the world is stunned as fifty gigantic saucer-shaped alien spacecraft appear over major cities around the world. After making initial communication with a worldwide broadcast, the Supreme Commander descends from the mother ship over New York City in a shuttle-craft to the roof of the United Nations building where he meets personally with the Secretary General. On live television it is revealed that these "Visitors" are practically identical to humans except for sensitivity to light and a deep resonance in their voices. The Supreme Commander introduces himself as John, the human name he has chosen, and announces that they have come to Earth in order to manufacture a unique chemical that will enable them to solve environmental problems on their home planet orbiting the star Sirius. In return, he promises to share their advanced technology with mankind and to leave in peace when their work is completed.
Unfortunately what seems like a dream come true for humanity quickly descends into a nightmare. Soon it is revealed from the confessions of Nobel Prize winning scientists that there is a conspiracy among the scientific community against the Visitors. Scientists around the world are denounced, arrested, or simply disappear. News reports begin to flood in that the conspiracy has turned violent, spawning terrorist attacks against the Visitors around the world. The Visitor sponsored technological seminars are cancelled and scientists are required to register themselves and their whereabouts with world governments. At this point Mike Donovan, a news cameraman played by Marc Singer, sneaks onto a Visitor shuttle and secretly boards the Los Angeles mother ship. There he captures some shocking footage: the chemical compound being manufactured is simply vented into the air once aboard; The Visitors are using a "conversion" process on scientists and world leaders causing them to believe in, or even that they are part of, a fictitious conspiracy; and most importantly, that the Visitors themselves are not human-like at all, but rather reptilians that use elaborate make-up to appear human in order to facilitate their acceptance among our species. When Donovan tries to air his tape on a national broadcast, the Visitors preempt it by seizing planetary communication networks and announcing that at the request of world authorities they will be "assisting" in ending the crisis by establishing global martial law and subordinating law enforcement to their own military units.
As the show progresses a resistance movement against the Visitors is formed by Dr. Juliet Parrish, played by Faye Grant, an aspiring biochemist. It is also revealed that the true agenda behind the Visitors' arrival is to steal Earth's water and harvest its human population to serve as janissaries and a food source. Aided by a fifth column of aliens within the Visitors' ranks, the Resistance stages a successful raid on a local National Guard armory and fights off a Visitor attack on their temporary mountain base. Having been told by the fifth column of another alien race that had defeated their Leader before, the second and final episode concludes with Juliet and a fellow resistance member sending a distress signal into space using a transmitter. In the last scene they paint a red "V" on the transmitting station door, for victory.
Last year, ABC aired a remake of V as a new television series in their fall line-up. I was inspired to write this when Jane Badler who played Diana, the Josef Mengele inspired Visitor from the original mini-series, has recently guest-starred on the new show playing a wholly dissimilar character with the same name. While I'm glad to see the tribute paid to its origins, I would have to say that the new V is only halfway-decent science fiction. To be sure there are plenty of aliens, fantastic technology, and spaceships on the show. However the Visitors' hidden agenda is like something out of a bad X-Files episode. Their soldiers don't sport the storm-trooper uniforms and laser rifles of their original incarnation, but rather appear to be nothing more than black-ops style ninjas. Although the human resistance has Visitor allies they are all, generally and incorrectly, referred to as the fifth column. In addition "V" no longer stands for victory but refers to "Visitors" used in slang as "vees" which sounds more like bad drug withdrawal symptoms than a respectable alien race. I don't even know how to start comparing the so-called uniforms, if you can call them that, of the new Visitors to the originals. They look more like business attire; in fact the Visitor second-in-command wears a suit appearing no more menacing than your average accountant.
On the positive side, the show has two fantastic female leads. Morena Baccarin, giving what I think is perhaps her best performance to date, plays the sinister Visitor queen Anna and Elizabeth Mitchell plays fifth column member and FBI agent Erica Evans. These actresses have expertly seasoned bland writing as much as they can with their performances, and I wish they could be given something more worthy with which to showcase their talent. Also, although the actor that plays him brings nothing special to the character, it is nice to see a Catholic priest as a character on a television show for a change.
Science fiction has always been an excellent genre for telling great stories. However I think it at its best when used for morality plays. Unfortunately the new V series is only a mediocre story with no moral subtext whatsoever. This is why I think the original mini-series is superior. Much like the original Star Trek tackled the issues of racism, sexism, and world peace in the 1960's, so the original V reminded us that fascism could rear its ugly head anytime, anywhere, even in our beloved United States. Although packaged in a cool sci-fi wrapper, V the mini-series was not at all subtle about this allegory. The Visitors used a half-swastika as their emblem and wore jackboots. There was even a youth-league called "Friends of the Visitors" that recruited teenagers into a paramilitary organization, turning them into informers. This is perhaps my favorite subplot of the show because it is chilling in the way it develops. Daniel Bernstein, played by David Packer, joins the group with destructive consequences for his family. I remember first seeing this when I was seven and being horrified as I watched this boy inform on his parents, having them arrested and tortured. To this day I consider it to be very dark and very well executed. Whereas the remake might try to produce the same effect with gore, the original was able to generate more fear with only its writing and acting. When it comes to storytelling, either in books, on television, or in the cinema, I am always more impressed when maximum emotional effect is achieved using only the simplest of methods.
Perhaps I am being premature in my assessment of the new V. It is only early into the second season and its quality may yet improve. That being said, given the direction of its storyline I do not think it will rise to the level of the original classic. However as much as I enjoy good science fiction, I don't think even a rehash of the original Nazi allegory would have worked either as it had already been done. What has not been done though, is a program along the line of Kenneth Johnson's original script. A realistic show about the descent of the United States into fascism, done well, would have made for much more interesting and compelling TV. Maybe more so than the tale of the Nazis that came from outer space.
Jim Paquette lives in Indiana with his wife and two kids. He writes about politics, religion, movies, and television on his blog: jimdom.NET ( http://www.jimdom.net ).
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