Conventional wisdom holds that the original incarnation of V was a pair of pretty good TV miniseries that got converted into one of the lamer regular series of the '80s. Now, 25 years later, V is back, reimagined by The 4400 creator Scott Peters (Nov. 3, 2009 on ABC). And the pilot, at least, shows every sign that the '80s version has been carefully scrutinized for lessons about what to do, and what not to do.
A New Roadmap
Factors involved in the degeneration of the '80s version include (a) the fact that the excitement of the arrival of, war with, and defeat of the Visitors is all packed into the miniseries, leaving the series with no choice but to anticlimactically undo the victory; and (b) the ensemble plotlines of the source material gave way in the series to two poorly acted storylines: one involving the proto-Delta Burke campiness of Jane Badler as Diana, on the one hand, and the wooden performances of Marc Singer as Mike Donovan on the other. The lack of participation of creator Kenneth Johnson, who was sacked partway through the second miniseries, and the low budget NBC accorded the series did not help matters.
As with FlashForward, the creators of V have realized that reactions to a worldwide event like the arrival of the Visitors can only be effectively told through multiple storylines and characters. (Of course, the series is only interested in American reactions. Apart from a few shots of Highly Visible International Landmarks when the Visitors arrive, viewers can be forgiven for thinking the aliens have only visited the United States.)
V brings together a number of interesting characters, and takes the trouble to install intelligent, thoughtful actors in them. There's clearly a long-term plan for the series, developing characters and turning points along the long road to war. And the new show has been provided with enough of a budget begin to create a real alternate present in which aliens have arrived and begun to interact with the people of Earth.
This Has Happened Before
A particular standout in the pilot is Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans, an FBI counterterrorism agent who features in an at-first unconnected subplot involving the only terrorist group whose "chatter" spikes after the aliens arrive. Her pursuit of this story leads to the revelation of a number of secrets the Visitors don't want us to know. Mitchell is solid and grounded, an excellent anchor for the show both in the FBI storyline and as mother of a rebellious son, Tyler (Logan Huffman, compelling as a realistically obsessive and independence-minded teenager), who becomes fascinated by the Vs -- and, in particular, by the fresh-scrubbed and alluring Visitor played by Laura Vandervoort.
It's interesting approaching V from the standpoint of already knowing the aliens are hiding something behind their beatific smiles and promises of peace, technology, and medicine (and ABC is making no secret of this, quite apart from this information having been revealed a quarter-century ago). Even trying to lay aside this foreknowledge, it has the dual effect of making the excited humans deriving hope from the Visitors seem naive, and the skeptical ones oddly prescient. The fun side, though, is watching concerns develop in the characters who were initially hot on the Vs, like Chad Decker (the excellently smarmy Scott Wolf), a news anchor who wants to use the Vs as a ticket to greater fame but becomes annoyed on realizing that they want to use him in return.
Future Fighters
Also of note in the pilot is Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols, who's getting married and consequently trying to back away from old associations with an underground group led by Georgie (Vancouver veteran David Richmond-Peck), and 4400 alum Joel Gretsch as Father Jack, a Catholic priest who isn't quite sure what to do with his suspicions of the aliens. (Once again we must ponder why only Catholics are allowed to suffer crises of faith in science fiction. Can't we have a troubled Methodist minister for once?) Gretsch is positioned here to become one of the moral pillars of the series, and he nicely conveys the problems involved in adapting old beliefs to new situations.
At the center of all this is the serene mastermind, Anna, a welcome return for Firefly's Morena Baccarin. Baccarin brings across a beautiful woman whose exotic vibes come partly from an alien veneer and partly from the chessmaster we can sense lies beneath her limitless friend-to-man warmth. (Interesting to note that everyone talks about "mankind" in this series. I thought science-fiction wasn't supposed to use gender-marked words like that anymore.) Even her close-cropped hair contributes to Baccarin's glamor here, but really does it are her amazingly expressive eyes and how carefully she uses them.
And speaking of Firefly, we also get a good guest role from Alan Tudyk, as Erica's FBI partner. Having just watched A Knight's Tale again the other day, I am now reconvinced that Tudyk should appear at least once in every movie and TV show that gets made.
The Visitors' Advantage
The special effects are excellent and unobtrusive; the ships are fairly impressive on the outside, looming over major cities (doesn't that make anyone nervous? or annoyed about blocking the sunlight?), and there's a great shot of the city-like interior of the New York mother ship. The costuming and set design -- called on to make the aliens and their environs just a little different -- are excellent. The writing is crisp, and is not too sarcastic or stylized. There's a nice setup involving someone mentioning Independence Day a few minutes before the bottoms of the mother ships start to open up. Everyone on the ground thinks they're about to be fried by an ID4-style energy weapon, but it turns out just to be a big multi-panel TV screen being set up so Morena Baccarin can say hi!
The pilot launches a long storyline for V, and because we already know some of the broad strokes we can get on the ride with some confidence. The Visitors have a huge advantage, and it isn't their advanced technology: they've positioned themselves as humanity's friends and saviors, and there are huge swaths of people who want to believe. The most provocative aspect of the original material stands to be even more effective here in the new series: the resistance will have a lot of trouble mounting any kind of threat to the aliens, because they'll be too busy being persecuted by their own fellow humans.
