The enemy within
The '80s alien-invasion series V returns - in a troubling new disguise
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 | 4:36 PM ET
By Flannery Dean, CBC News
Anna (Morena Baccarin, left) is the charismatic leader of the Visitors, aliens who invade Earth in the new sci-fi series V. (ABC/CTV) It's been more than 25 years since V first aired. A bona fide "TV event" at a time when the term still meant something, it riveted and terrified a generation.
V, which began as a 1983 mini-series and eventually became a weekly show (1984-85), concerned a group of aliens who appear human but are in fact lizard-like creatures underneath, and marked a definite change from standard tube fare in the early '80s (Mama's Family, The A-Team, Webster). It also offered its fair share of ghoulish thrills. The creators had lots of fun devising ways to get under alien skin — literally. And the scene in which one character drops a "live" guinea pig into her gaping maw lives on in TV infamy.
Created by Kenneth Johnson, the man behind series like The Incredible Hulk and The Bionic Woman, V told a simple tale: aliens known as "Visitors" invade Earth and present themselves as a race of kindly, benevolent beings. Their real intent, however, is to rob our planet of its natural resources. What's even more macabre is that they intend to enslave and harvest human beings for food. These extra-terrestrials aren't visiting — they're grocery shopping. The aliens' peaceful claims are soon challenged by a group of skeptical humans led by a journalist. Known as the "Resistance," they commence a battle for nothing less than the survival of mankind.
Now, two decades after it first aired, comes a "reimagining" of the iconic '80s series. Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) stars as the show's new heroine, glum FBI agent Erica Evans, a good-guy status she shares with the slightly more buoyant Father Jack (Joel Gretsch), a Catholic priest undergoing a crisis of faith. Scott Wolf (Party of Five) joins the cast as an ambitious TV journalist.
The aliens are as comely as ever. In the original series, the Visitors' deputy leader was played by actress Jane Badler, an über-babe who could have passed for Jacqueline Bissett's younger sister. In the new V, stunner Morena Baccarin (Heartland) portrays Anna, the leader of the Visitors, while the alien-human liaison, Lisa (Lisa Vandervoort), is an equally fetching extraterrestrial. (She lets the zipper ride low on her jumpsuit, fellas.) Though credited with the story, creator Kenneth Johnson isn't involved.
The cast is new, but the story remains largely intact. Aliens invade Earth. They say one thing and mean another. They appear to be human but are not. Many humans are won over by their seeming goodness; others remain skeptical. Let the resistance commence. Yes, the plot feels that lifeless in action.
The original V is often viewed as an allegory for the rise of fascism in Germany, with the aliens standing in for the propaganda-loving Nazis and humankind representing every nation that tumbled to their treachery. The new V replaces fascism with the rise of global terrorism. Consequently our heroine isn't just any old FBI agent; she's in Counter Terrorism. Her investigation soon dovetails with the invasion. The implication is clear: aliens and acts of global terrorism are connected.
Earthlings are pitted against aliens who intend to rob earth of its natural resources in V. (ABC/CTV) This fanciful take on the ills that plague the modern world would be easier to swallow if it weren't already so played out to sci-fi-watching nerds like me. The slight changes in character, tone and perspective on V aren't innovations, mainly just echoes of plots from a handful of current TV shows, most notably FlashForward and Fringe. (V should be called D — for Derivative.) Both Flashforward and Fringe toy with fantastic conspiracy theories to explain terrorist attacks — or what appears to be the work of terrorists, anyway. They also position an FBI agent and their investigation at the centre of the show. (How many FBI agents we need on TV at any given time is not an impertinent question; frankly, it's a discussion that needs to be tabled at the next Comic-Con.)
The original V reflected the preoccupations and stylistic conventions of its era — in their red-and-black jumpsuits, the Visitors could easily pass for backup dancers in the Jackson Five Victory Tour. The revamped V is equally a product of its time. The plodding pace of the procedural drama, which so dominates the TV landscape, is evident. Dramatic action is distilled to event, reaction and investigation. The result: more plot than drama. It feels like a loss.
Nowhere is the lack of energy more apparent than when the aliens invade Earth in the new V's pilot. This apocalyptic event is represented as nothing more than a slight earthquake, the likes of which wouldn't even shatter the tungsten wire in a porch light. Even more odd is the seemingly benign reaction the cast has to an ALIEN INVASION!, an occasion that should call for CAPS, ITALS and exclamation points. As it is, all we get are a few weak screams before everyone calms down and goes back to work as if nothing of any real significance had happened. I'm positive there was more hullabaloo in the streets after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004.
The familiarity of the story line and the less-than-original terrorist slant on the action make for a fairly tepid debut. But there are hints of greater complication to come. Media corruption appears to be a relatively fresh target in the new V. TV journalist Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) is morally flexible, to say the least. He co-operates with the aliens in order to further his career, a choice that will have epic consequences for human beings. How Decker and the implied criticism of contemporary news media will develop remains to be seen. Personally, I'm hoping he stays on the wrong side of heroism for a while, if only to mark a change from the original. But novelty on TV is a problem even Kenneth Johnson might have trouble solving. Is it too late to ask him for a little help?
V premieres Nov. 3 on CTV.
Flannery Dean is a writer based in Hamilton, Ont.
