Today in the Childhood Recovery Project we re-visit (pun alert) the mini- and TV series "V" which aired in a period spanning 1983 to 1985. This is all the more apropos in view of the fact the ABC television network has recently rebooted the show.The original "V" was a 4-hour miniseries on NBC in spring 1983 and was followed in spring 1984 by a 6-hour miniseries sequel, "V: The Final Battle." Of course the "battle" wasn't final at all, as groundwork was already being laid for "V: The Series" in the fall of 1984. But, like all the other Sci-Fi TV series that came between the original "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation," that series was done after about half a season.
As NBC might have learned had they been paying attention, particularly to 1978's "Man From Atlantis," a miniseries or TV movie that hauls in bang-up ratings does not necessarily translate into a weekly series of the same caliber. Do any of you even remember "Man From Atlantis?" Didn't think so. Point made.
Especially by 1983 television standards, the special effects of "V" were superb. Footage of the sleek white visitor spaceships landing in terrestrial locations was quite convincing. The star of the show was Marc Singer as news combat photographer turned resistance fighter Mike Donovan. Singer never had much of a chance to display killer acting chops in this show, as his character is mainly "tough guy/action hero who squints grimly at camera." For characters like this, acting skills play second fiddle to gunslinging skills, tight jeans skills, and (at least in the '80's) parting-hair-in-the-middle skills. If there's one cameo appearance from the original series I'd like to see in the new version, it would be Michael Ironside, the central casting go-to tough-ass muttafukka who played mercenary resistance fighter Ham Tyler.
And surely the new series could create a part suitable for Robert Englund, who played the goofy, friendly lizard named Willie back in the '80's and went on to terrorize a generation as Freddy Krueger.
I won't attempt a critical review of the original series, as it's simply been way too long since I've actually seen any of it. (Maybe after I download a few of them from iTunes. . .) But it used an allegory of the rise of Hitler and the persecution of the Jews (The visitors wore an emblem which is clearly a stylized swastika) as a backdrop for good solid action adventure and the gross out factor of the Visitors, actually reptilians concealed inside a human-like skin, detaching their jaws and swallowing rats whole. They claim to have come as friends here to help us. But be warned! Much as in the old Twilight Zone episode based on a short story by Damon Knight, if the Visitors present you with a gold-embossed volume titled "To Serve Man," it's probably a cookbook.
I've watched the first two episodes of the new series and so far find it quite serviceable, but in the early going I can't call it outstanding. The second episode especially contained some dialog that had me inwardly groaning. But the mystery of "who's a good guy, who's a bad guy" is being unwound in a fairly compelling way. The special effects are excellent, but in these days of CGI, that is not an especially challenging achievement.
Series like this are always hobbled somewhat at the start because writers must not only introduce characters and settings, but also a large body of science, physics, political and dramatic machinations, in short all the "rules of the game" that make a Sci Fi series work. This causes substance to temporarily take a back seat to form. But I think the main problem the new "V" faces is that the yardstick by which all classic series re-boots are measured, irrevocably and for all time, will be Ronald D. Moore's "Battlestar Galactica." I'm not seeing Galactica-caliber episodes yet, but it's still very early.
It was reported for years that original series producer Kenneth Johnson has been shopping around plans for a continuation of the original "V" with the original cast, much the same way as there was once a hope for a Battlestar Galactica series in the same mold. I always think this is a bad idea. How do you fill in 25 missing years of story? Less important creatively, but more important in the almighty Nielsons is the question of how you appeal to younger viewers if the actors playing your main characters are all eligible for Medicare? Or dead? (R.I.P., Lorne Greene.)
Johnson is listed as a writer on the new show. I don't know if that means he has actual creative input or if it's just a courtesy title, as Glen Larson was given on Moore's "Galactica." Perhaps his only connection to the show is that his contact info is gathering dust in the producer's cell phone. But this series has steered almost entirely away from the original's characters and locations. The original was set mainly in Los Angeles, the new one is in New York. I can detect no original characters being re-created. The closest I can see to a re-created character is that the Visitor "queen bitch" is named "Anna" in the new show and was called "Diana" in the original, a tenuous connection at best. Kudos for wiping the slate clean.
