V Returns to Television After a 20 Year Absence–and It May Have Been Worth the Wait.

Posted by ScuzzBuster

November 4, 2009

It’s with mixed emotion and cautious optimism that I had been anticipating the premiere of ABC’s “re-imagining” of the classic 1980s mini-series V. For those younger than me, which is with each passing moment becoming a larger percentage of the world’s population, I can’t describe how huge the original V was for boys of my age at that time. It fell right in the mind-numbing void that was growing exponentially as we began to realize that the Star Wars saga was over and there was really nothing on the horizon to take it’s place.

It also caught me just as my burgeoning interest in astronomy was starting to peak. The original mini-series was simply a two-night run of consecutive two hour TV-movies. Unlike the new incarnation, the original didn’t have the demon of the internet to ruin it, so the marketing was much more coy than what ABC has been pushing intensely over the past month or so. The anticipation was intense and I was suckered in completely by the first 30 or 45 minutes of the original. I was totally sold on the fact that this was going to be an optimistic alien story. Even as the characters in the show started get uneasy on the first night of the original I kept telling myself it was all silly fear. I figured that this was going to be about how human fear ruined our relationship with a potentially peaceful alien culture. But that entire dream was crushed by engaging storytelling. Weird things didn’t seem to fit. Suddenly , the UN ambassador who was the first human inside the mother ship was suddenly using his non-dominant hand in public. The Visitors were starting to subversively brew discrimination against scientists. And of course, my twelve-year old brain wasn’t even smart enough to see that swastika that WAS the alien’s logo staring me in the face.

But for all the weirdness, nothing compared to the piece de-resistance of that first night of television in 1983. The best kept secret on network television that literally had millions of adult and kid jaws on the floor that night. The moment was when investigative journalist Mike Donovan, played by Marc Singer, snuck on board the mothership with his TV camera only to be blown away secretly watching the friendly aliens dropping live rodents down their gullets. In retrospect, the effects were not outstanding, but definitely passable. However, it was that moment when Diana, played by Jane Badler unhinged her jaw and dropped a huge and kicking guinea pig into her mouth we realized that we were watching something incredibly cool. Of course, that was nothing compared to what happened a few minutes later when Mike Donovan got caught creeping around the air vents only to get into a struggle with one of the aliens in its living quarters. As he clawed at the alien’s face, the skin starts to come off in his hands revealing a scaly green reptile underneath the phony human exterior. Donovan’s only thought as his life was on the verge of being snuffed out by this lizard was to grab its neck and force it’s face toward the lens of the still running TV camera that had been dropped onto the floor in the struggle.

I’ll probably mix more thoughts about the original series versus this new incarnation as the series runs through these first initial four episodes, but the difference between them is rather stark and not entirely all that bad. After all these years, the only thing running through my mind is that without that hook, that big reveal that the aliens are lizards beneath the human exteriors there’s going to be that missing element that reeled the audience for good in the beginning. Instead, in the new Pilot, it’s revealed through dialogue a few minutes before we have any real evidence of this fact, not to mention we see glimpses of the reptile skin even in the 15 and 30 second spots advertising the new program.

The sadness for me, was that over the past two years or so, ABC had pretty much secured all the original cast to at least some sort of commitment to return to continue the story started in the original. While the original mini-series and it’s follow-up hold up remarkably well over the last 25 years (not to mention THE best laser blaster effects in the history of sci-fi) it still has a pretty distinct 80s flavor. The real problem comes in the form of the outlandishly mediocre weekly drama series that followed the two mini-series. They killed off a fair amount of the regulars in the first few episodes, ignored at least one huge major key plot element that was a pivotal piece in both mini-series and it quickly became the low budget cheese-fest of the week.. I don’t want to rehash all my feelings in a blog post, especially since I already rehashed them in a post back in January when the show was officially put on the schedule (see link at the end of this article).

As I was driving home from work this evening, I suddenly felt myself getting a slight twinge of anticipation. Granted, nothing like the anticipation a kid my age may have had standing in that long line on the opening day of Return of the Jedi, but still, I was slightly jazzed, but almost as much disappointed.

Leaving all comparison’s behind, the new pilot was actually very engaging, well-played and promising. There were a couple of little groaners here and there like having to get that “cute” teenage boy angle in there to replace the simply psychotic loaner Daniel –played excellently by David Packer in the original—to try to appeal to some semblance of lopsided gender demographic this type of program attracts. In fact, having the lead character played by one of the leading female actresses from Lost, Elizabeth Mitchell and having the cute teenage boy element says desperately that ABC refuses to let this show fall victim to filling a niche for male teenage geeks and closet middle aged sci-fi geeks like me even if 18-35 males are the gold medal demographic.

If you passed on this remake and you’re a fan of the original, I can honestly recommend giving this a chance. Painstaking measures have been employed this time to make the entire scenario seem just a tad more plausible than the original. The Visitors have allegedly already been here for years learning how best to subvert any efforts to resist them. In one incredibly cool turn (granted that could go bad if handled poorly) is that rather than playing up the “Nazi” parallels like the original shot straight down the middle for, the new V seems to be aiming it’s sights directly on the forehead of organized religion. Obviously having seen the only thing that makes human shut the hell up, believe whatever they’re told and never question anything, they came to the quick conclusion that their best chance of subjugating the human race is to simply swoop in and position themselves as a new place for humans to put blind faith. This is actually a brilliant little plot twist. In the pilot, as scared masses pack churches because they don’t know what else to do, it’s easy to see how simple it will be for these advanced aliens to take the place of religion. Because, unlike most or all organized religion which takes a ton without giving much more than some semblance of comfort, the Visitors of the new show can not only swoop in to steal that loyalty, but they can actually put some money where their scaly little lizard mouths are by opening up health clinics where the can do some medical parlor tricks healing people of maladies that are still perplexing to modern medicine.

A perfect example of this comes about midway through the program when we get a wheel-chair bound church patron that shows up after a service to the two parish priests who very obviously used to seeing this man week in and out in their services confined to that wheel chair. After one visit to a Visitor health clinic he’s completely cured. Hard to argue for even the most devout of lifelong churchgoers where you’re going to put you’re cash on the betting table for whether he spends more faith with the Pope or the Visitors.

Overall, I am not only pretty excited about where this show could potentially go from here, but it’s just in time to fill the void in my life left by finally breaking with Heroes after two seasons of extremely painful television. For those that don’t know–and this really isn’t any sort of spoiler–just like the original mini-series, the title “V” has dual meanings. For the story’s exposition, “V” is the abbreviated designation for the “Visitors,” or what the aliens call themselves to make them sound more friendly. By the end of the first two hours of the original, it’s revealed that the true meaning of “V” harkens back to World War 2 and the symbol of the resistance against German oppression in Europe. “V” is for Victory over oppression. Either way, in the first hour of the new series, there’s very little grey area left by the end. The opener clearly defines the lines of right and wrong, with the only question marks being left for how many of the weak populace the Visitors can win over when the real war begins. As stated by Elizabeth Mitchell’s character in the closing moments of the pilot, the aliens already have started building the most powerful and dangerous ally they could possibly have against the human race: devotion. There’s no doubt left that the strength of the devotion they are building with the human race is definitely the kind that leads people turning commercial airliners into flying human bombs as opposed to any positive examples or connotations you can attach to the word.

So far, they’ve established 75% of the key elements that the two hour original TV movie did in it’s first airing. The Visitors are not what they appear to be and have not so nice motives. There’s a need for an organized movement to against them. And in probably the best reworking of the original concept, there’s a slight and satisfying new twist on the whole initial concept of the resistance within the aliens own ranks. I won’t give that away if you haven’t caught the episode yet.

Granted, I have a couple of minor nags that I will address as time goes on, but probably the most ridiculous thing that I couldn’t accept in the pilot was that as the ships are coming in and we see scenes all over Los Angeles of people at home and in shops when things start vibrating, shaking and falling off walls, we have several quick cuts to people asking “what’s that” and every response is “I don’t know” or “I have no idea.” Granted, I don’t live in LA, but for those of you that do, if you wake up in the morning to your apartment or house vibrating midly does EARTHQUAKE or TREMOR not even cross your mind? Silly criticism I know.

In any case, Bravo on the premiere of V. They’ve managed to take a huge fan and V purist of the original mini-series and convince me that this whole experiment just might work after all. While I’ll never ever get over never getting to see Marc Singer, Faye Grant, Jane Badler and Robert Englund grace our screens in their roles that turned them all into overnight TV stars again, I could get used to this new version if the writing stays solid. Hopefully we can see some of the originals back in new roles. In the one slightly disappointing aspect of the pilot there was almost no homage at all paid the original. But there’s a long way to go over the next three weeks.