V (1984 TV series)


V is an American science fiction television series that aired in the United States on NBC from October 26, 1984, to March 22, 1985. It is a continuation of the V franchise about an alien invasion of Earth by a carnivorous race of reptilians known as "Visitors", which was originally conceived by American writer, producer, and director Kenneth Johnson. Johnson, however, was not involved in the production of the weekly series.

Plot

Following directly on from the events of the miniseries V: The Final Battle, the alien Diana escapes from her captured mothership in a shuttle, but is pursued by resistance member Mike Donovan. After a short fight, Donovan captures her.
One year after the day that the Red Dust was deployed, now the international holiday called "Liberation Day", the former members of the Resistance and their Fifth Column allies have gone their separate ways and are each looking forward to prosperous careers and bright futures. As Diana is about to be put on trial for the atrocities she committed during the First Invasion, the company responsible for mass production of the Red Dust, Science Frontiers, has her abducted and taken to a secret cabin in the woods outside Los Angeles, where the company's CEO, Nathan Bates, offers Diana better accommodations in exchange for providing him with access to alien technology.
Donovan and Martin, meanwhile, pursue Nathan's agents in a stolen helicopter. After reaching the cabin, Donovan is knocked unconscious by Martin, who wants Diana dead. Before Martin can kill her, Diana is able to overpower him, stealing his pistol. She forces him to surrender his last antidote pill so she can temporarily survive on Earth and then shoots him, enabling her escape to the Southwest Tracking Station.
Martin tells Donovan about Diana's plan to contact the Visitor Fleet moments before his death, and Donovan sets off after her on foot. Donovan meets Ham Tyler, on Bates' payroll, and the two agree to pursue Diana together. Their attempts to stop her fail, and Diana escapes to a shuttle sent by a Visitor fleet hidden behind the Moon. Diana takes command and launches a full-scale invasion of Earth. She learns that the Red Dust bacterium needs freezing temperatures to regenerate, meaning that Visitor troops can safely attack Los Angeles and other cities in warmer climates.
The Resistance assembles once more, now fighting the Visitors nationwide and also contending with the power-hungry Bates, who has used the power vacuum left behind by the collapse of the government to become governor of Los Angeles, declared an open city to both sides. The Resistance fights however it can, often joined by other rebel groups. Although 50% of the Earth is still protected from The Visitors by the Red Dust, the Resistance cannot use any more of it due to the toxic long-term effects it will have on the environment. Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who has transformed yet again and now looks like a young adult, becomes increasingly important in the cause for Earth's freedom, eventually controlling the destiny of both races and deciding the outcome of the conflict.

Cast and characters

Many of the cast from the original miniseries and V: The Final Battle reprised their role in the weekly series. The only character to be played by a different actor was Sean Donovan.

Main cast

  • Jane Badler as Diana – Supreme Commander of the Visitors
  • Marc Singer as Mike Donovan – Co-Leader of the Resistance
  • Faye Grant as Juliet Parrish – Founder of the Resistance
  • Robert Englund as Willie – Visitor Resistance member
  • June Chadwick as Lydia – Fleet security officer sent by the Leader to Earth to commence the second invasion, she resents Diana's disobedience of command.
  • Michael Wright as Elias Taylor – A now semi-retired Resistance member, Elias runs the Club Creole restaurant, which becomes the informal headquarters of the Resistance.
  • Lane Smith as Nathan Bates – CEO of biotech company Science Frontiers, which mass-produced the Red Dust toxin.
  • Jeff Yagher as Kyle Bates – The disowned rebel son of Nathan Bates, Kyle joins the Resistance, eventually becoming one of its leaders.
  • Michael Ironside as Ham Tyler – A former CIA agent and Resistance hitman, he is actually in the employ of Nathan Bates as a hitman when the series begins.
  • Jennifer Cooke as the post-metamorphosis Elizabeth – She searches for her mother, Robin.
  • Blair Tefkin as Robin Maxwell – Elizabeth's mother.

    Supporting cast

The following cast appear in multiple episodes:
  • Frank Ashmore as Martin and twin brother Philip – A Fifth Column leader and friend of Mike.
  • Aki Aleong as Mr. Chiang – A henchman of Nathan Bates, Chiang is tasked mainly with tracking Kyle.
  • Mickey Jones as Chris Farber – Best friend of Ham Tyler, he continues to aid the Resistance.
  • Jenny Beck as young Elizabeth, the Starchild – She retreats into a cocoon by the end of the first episode to undergo metamorphosis.
  • Michael Durrell as Robert Maxwell – The scientist father of Robin and grandfather of Elizabeth.
  • Duncan Regehr as Charles – Personal envoy of the Leader and a member of the Royal House of Raman.
  • Peter Elbling as Oswald – Visitor underling of Diana, he is a mortician and an interior decorator.
  • Judson Scott as Lieutenant James – Lieutenant Visitor with ambitious goals.
  • Nicky Katt as Sean Donovan – The son of Mike Donovan, previously converted by Diana and released as a spy in the Resistance.
  • Howard K. Smith as himself – Smith appeared briefly at beginning of several episodes playing a newscaster describing recent actions by the Visitors and the Fifth Column, sometimes providing expositional background for events in that night's episode. He did not interact with any of the other characters.

    Intro

The title sequence for Episodes 1–13 featured theme music derived from incidental music previously used in The Final Battle over the main cast credits.
With Episode 14, a new intro was introduced with Michael Ironside, Lane Smith, Blair Tefkin and Michael Wright removed from the credits along with different theme music and a new monologue describing the premise of the show:
They arrived in 50 motherships offering their friendship and advanced technology to Earth. Skeptical of the Visitors, Mike Donovan and Juliet Parrish infiltrated their ranks and soon discovered some startling secrets.
Juliet Parrish: They're shipping food!

''The Resistance is all that stands between us and the Visitors.''

Episodes

Aftermath

Although the show had been cancelled in March 1985, the sets from the production remained in storage for some time as discussions transpired over rendering a conclusion to the V saga. Among the options explored were a stand-alone TV movie or a final miniseries. Several scenarios were discussed:
  • The Resistance goes to the Visitor homeworld and attempt to stop Diana from assassinating the Leader
  • An exploration of the aftermath of the peace treaty in "The Return". A hardline US government would impose harsh conditions on the Visitors who choose to remain behind after their race departed, leaving the Resistance to ally with them
In 1989, there was a proposed sequel series by J. Michael Straczynski entitled "V: The Next Chapter" that would have followed up five years after the conclusion of the original show. Ham Tyler would have been the only character to have returned and would have taken place in Chicago. The rest of the remaining cast had been temporarily or permanently written off, with Mike Donovan captured, Willie executed, Lydia assassinated, Julie living in exile in Australia, Diana reassigned, and Elizabeth having died. Warner Brothers ultimately passed on the project.

Reception

In the Nielsen ratings, V's premiere episode ranked 36th for the week, with a 15.4/26 rating/share. By episode 13, it had slipped to 53rd place. For the season, V finished ranked 57th out of 77 shows, with a 12.8/20 rating/share.
On Rotten Tomatoes, V has an aggregate score of 67% based on 16 positive and 8 negative critic reviews. The website’s consensus reads: "Indefinitely postponing the apocalypse, V fully sheds its original self-seriousness—along with much of its production value -- and settles into solid camp." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote: "... a TV series with so much promise – based on two successful, highly rated science fiction miniseries on NBC in the early 1980s – produced such a silly, loathsome mess ... NBC tried to make a weekly series out of the show so terribly it must surely rank as one of the worst TV sci-fi experiments ever. The cast becomes dangerously unstable. Ironside quits in the middle of the show's run with no apparent reason. Others are killed without meaning. The special effects are cheapened and the use of stock footage – previously filmed scenes used again and again – is maddening. ...
What was once a pretty decent science fiction saga with good drama, humor and suspense ends up becoming "Dynasty" with lizard makeup and laser guns. There's even an episode in which Diana marries her alien boss named Charles."

Production notes

  • Despite the high budget, producers had only half the resources given to the production of V: The Final Battle. Executive Story Consultant David Ambromowitz stated, "The budget for the miniseries was about double what we had per hour, so that's what was really difficult. It's impossible to retain the quality of the show with half the money, half the time to shoot things, half the special effects, half the sets, half the characters and half of everything."
  • Liberation Day's shot of the alien fleet hiding behind the Moon was achieved using models as the budget was insufficient for optical compositing.
  • The TV series' single season was released on LaserDisc in Japan in April 1989 as a massive 10-disc box set, which included a "Diana Special" on side 20. It was later issued on Region 1 DVD in 2004, and Region 2 in 2008.
  • The weekly series reused a lot of action footage from the miniseries. This was especially evident in the Visitor skyfighter chase scene in the pilot episode, where nearly all external shots were lifted from the climax scene of the original miniseries.
  • In the original miniseries and The Final Battle, the Visitors' voices were given, among other post-processing, a pitch shift effect. This was dropped from the weekly series, though no explanation was given as to why the Visitors now sounded like humans.