 "Photo: All new photos courtesy of ABC")
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 "Photo: Old photos courtesy of Kenneth Johnson")
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The New Series
Alien ships hover a few hundred feet above all the world’s major cities. A big-eyed, short-haired, attractive woman who calls herself Anna appears on a screen and informs Earthlings that she represents these visitors and is here on a mission of peace. The world sighs and cheers, and everyone is relieved that first contact has been made.
But was it truly first contact?
What if first contact was made a long time ago, and some aliens have been lying dormant in our society, observing us and planning, as if they were a terrorist cell?
That’s the premise of V, the new sci-fi show on ABC based on a cult classic 1983 miniseries by the same name.
FBI agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell, Lost), assigned to the anti-terrorism unit, notices that all the sleeper cells acting inside the United States see a huge drop in communication when the aliens arrive — except one.
She and her partner investigate this group and find out that a secret meeting is being held concerning them. After sneaking in, she and a handful of other attendees are given anesthetic shots and they have part of the skin on their head pulled back, to make sure they have a skull underneath.
The leader of the resistance informs the meeting’s attendees that there have been aliens living among us for 10 years. This isn’t a mission of peace, he says — it’s a takeover.
He knows this because, as we learn shortly after, his close friend Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut, Boyz N the Hood) is actually an alien. Ryan has turned against his orders, though, and has taken up the cause of assisting mankind in resisting the invasion.
Then after a quick scuffle we learn the reason for the skin-cutting: under their human facades, the aliens have reptilian skin and scary snake eyes. Ryan, injured in the row, has a gash on his arm revealing his scaly interior that he must hide from his unknowing fiancée.
Erica’s son Tyler (Logan Huffman) is also involved with the Visitors. After taking a sanctioned trip to the mothership to stand in awe of their technology, he is recruited by a cute blonde alien who asks him to join an ambassador program. Erica soon finds videos of Tyler online spray-painting walls in support of the aliens.
Meanwhile, Anna (Morena Baccarin, Firefly) has found a puppet she can use to spread the Visitors’ message. Newsman Chad Decker (Scott Wolf, Party of Five) interrupts her first press conference to scold reporters for asking her tough (meaning relevant) questions and says something awful, along the lines of “Are all the aliens as pretty as you?” Anna, realizing his journalistic skills are weak, asks him to conduct her first major TV interview.
Before the interview, Chad informs Anna that he’s going to be tough. She tells him that if that’s the case, the interview is off. Chad backs down, lobs softballs the whole time, and his performance is celebrated by the Visitors’ public relations machine.
It is in this interview, though, that the show bogs itself down a bit in current politics. Anna pointedly talks about “change,” overtly referencing President Barack Obama’s campaign slogan. She then says that their medical technology can heal everyone on Earth — if the point isn’t obvious enough, Chad clears it up by asking, “You’re talking about universal health care?”
So what political message is V trying to make? It makes some sense to use the leader of the Visitors to represent Obama. Like Anna, Obama rose to national attention despite a great deal of mistrust of his motives or background by much of America. But clearly Anna’s motives are evil — after all, she represents a group of secret-lizard people who have been stocking up on C4 and spying on Earthlings for a decade. Is the show really trying to equate our president to an evil creature plotting our doom while presenting an attractive public persona?
If you look past its trying-too-hard political theme, though, V gets it right on every level. Its special effects and CGI resemble those of a summer blockbuster, the acting and writing are spot-on, and like its predecessor, it weaves topical and classic political themes into its message.
But to fully understand what makes the new V an excellent show, it helps to understand what made the original so brilliant.
The Original
Kenneth Johnson’s V was a huge success in 1983. In its first run, the miniseries pulled in more than 40 million viewers. Originally intended to be a political thriller about the rise of fascism in America, V was tweaked to include aliens due to the recent surge in E.T.-centric films.
The change worked well, though. In fact, it worked perfectly. In the original V, the events played out a bit differently. There was no FBI investigation; the Visitors had everyone wrapped around their thumb. That is, everyone but scientists and one rogue cameraman.
With general ease, the Visitors took over the newspapers and TV stations and used them as propaganda machines. They also very quietly got all the world’s governments on their side. Without much delay, they began publicly shaming scientists. After spreading a lie about how scientists were planning a conspiracy against the Visitors, they convinced mankind to turn in any scientists they could.
Happily, people began turning in their neighbors. A brave few hid scientists and their families in their garages and helped transport them through police barricades. This invasion had turned into the holocaust, and anyone who could figure out the aliens’ sinister plan was weeded out.
A group of scientists escaped and set up shop in an abandoned building. There they began building a resistance. Their symbol was a red “V” spray-painted on the propaganda posters plastered all over the world.
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