V: The Original TV Miniseries
|V: The Original TV Miniseries
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V: The Original Miniseries (DVD)
Aliens pretending to be friendly come to Earth and are received openly. The aliens have masqueraded themselves to look just like humans. When it is discovered that the aliens’ planet is dying and that they have come to rape the Earth of its natural resources, the war for Earth begins. An important key to the humans’ success is distinguishing their own from the aliens.
]]>In its day, V was a monumental event that for one generation remains a pop-culture touchstone. Close Encounters of the Third Kind may have reassured us that perhaps we have nothing to fear from alien visitors and E.T. introduced us to a benign extraterrestrial who only wanted to go home, but Kenneth Johnson’s 1983 television miniseries knew better. Visitors who claim to come in peace are revealed to be nothing but human-looking reptilians on human conversion and conquest. As in the dark days of fascism, some collaborate with the enemy; others form the resistance.
At the time, the epic scale of this production was unprecedented. Those 50 motherships that hover over Earth’s major cities anticipate Independence Day by more than a decade. The special effects and makeup are still awesome. Less so is the often-hackneyed dialogue. But thanks to their signature roles, the mostly no-star cast, most of whom would be reunited for a sequel and subsequent television series, have ensured themselves standing invitations to sci-fi conventions. Marc Singer is cameraman-turned-freedom-fighter Mike Donovan. Julie Parrish is a medical student-turned-rebel. Richard Herd is the aliens’ supreme commander. Jane Bradler is Diana, the ravishing but ruthlessly ambitious alien science officer. Leonardo Cimino lends dignity to his heavy-handed allegorical role as a Holocaust survivor. Look for a pre-Freddy Krueger Robert Englund as one of the aliens.
The DVD is presented for the first time in widescreen format. Supplemental features include an amiable and enlightening director’s commentary and a brief “making of” segment. –Donald Liebenson
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“To V or not to V”,
film a few of the visitors and captures their TRUE nature in a startling scene which left me (and viewers) stunned and talking about the show around the water cooler the next few days! But that’s just the beginning as Donovan, once again on board the mothership, learns the REAL reason for the vistor’s arrival in a mind bending scene that leaves him reeling from shock, both visually and intellectually as his mind slowly absorbs what he sees and the unearthly insideous and horrifying plot becomes clear! A plan so vile, and vast in its scope and ambition that it even surpasses what happened in Nazi Germany, and makes abundantly clear the depth of humankind’s peril as a consequence of intering into this unholy alliance with a superior extraterrestrial race.
Our leaders have signed our death warrants and it’s up to Donovan and a ragtag resistance force led by a bright young med student/biologist named Julie Parrish played by the lovely Faye Grant (who I met and teased about her diminutive stature and tiny feet while doing security at a summer theater festival in the Berkshires) to stop these interstellar fascists who have infiltrated the highest levels of global governments down to the local levels of law enforcement. And, remember, the special effects as well as the miniseries itself, helped to inspire the blockbuster film “Independence Day” and many of the current Sci Fi television shows of today. So I give “V” a strong recommendation and hope you enjoy it too.
V: The Original TV Mini-series from the 1980’s,
I’m glad I revisited this series,