V: the series

[Nerdius Maximus]

I'd never seen anything other than the two miniseries, but I finally got around to checking out the series after I found it on dvd for 13 bucks. It's not bad at all, really. I don't get why people hated it so much. Sure it was pretty much unnecessary, but it's a fun show.

 

[DarKush]

Wow, I got it for 15 bucks this past weekend and started watching it. I finished the first episode. Sure the FX weren't great, but so far I don't see why the show has gotten such a bad rep.

 

[Wicca who Wonta]

I remember how much I loved it when it aired when I was a kid. Back then we weren't used to sci-fi and I remember how much me and my siblings looked forward to each episode.

But by now we are spoiled with good sci-fi, it's kinda soapy and the effects are pretty bad. It was an amazing show when it aired but it has lost a lot of it's appeal now.

 

[Deckerd]

The problem is that by the end it was being written 5 minutes before they filmed and it was a functionally 8 year-old doing the writing. Hence it resembled a particularly cheap South American soap.

 

[Christopher]

But by now we are spoiled with good sci-fi, it's kinda soapy and the effects are pretty bad. It was an amazing show when it aired but it has lost a lot of it's appeal now.

Actually it was a lousy show when it first aired. It had very little appeal. The original miniseries was great, a smart, thoughtful allegory on the rise of Nazism. The second miniseries downplayed the allegory and social commentary in favor of action, soap opera, and cheesy sci-fi gimmickry. And the weekly series abandoned any pretense of allegory or sophistication altogether. It was poorly regarded at the time for how badly it dumbed down the concept.

Maybe if the premise had been that brainless from the very beginning, V might be remembered today as a bit of mindless, cheesy fluff like Buck Rogers or Knight Rider. But the original miniseries was so much more, and its potential was thoroughly squandered by what came after. That's why the series is so reviled.

 

[Dar70]

Yeah the final battle and tv series are pretty bad. To be truthful the original mini series has it flaws as well. Silly that the visitors have 50 mother ships with thousands of soldiers and advanced weapons and they cant stop a dozen resistance fighters in each city. Yeah I know there are probably more but the way all of the series presents it isnt very believable.
They could of at least shown some government involement after the first half of the original mini, but after that they are almost completely nonexsistant. We never (as far as I remember) see any goverment involment at all, except a fighter pilot in one episode and the President for a couple minutes in the first mini series. Of course we see the police but thats it.(and they are on the side of the visitors)
To top it off at the end of the Final Battle, the news report says the People of the world are finally free. Whaaat. Both miniseries painted the fact that the visitors were mostly accepted by the media and government and at least half the population up until the very end.
You would think the series would have military invovlment once the Visitors return. Right? But guess what? They dont. Its only the resistant fighters again.


Bad execution. Felt so disjointed. Great theme songs though.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

I remember how much I loved it when it aired when I was a kid. Back then we weren't used to sci-fi and I remember how much me and my siblings looked forward to each episode.

But by now we are spoiled with good sci-fi, it's kinda soapy and the effects are pretty bad. It was an amazing show when it aired but it has lost a lot of it's appeal now.

There's good sci-fi now?

 

[Christopher]

Yeah the final battle and tv series are pretty bad. To be truthful the original mini series has it flaws as well. Silly that the visitors have 50 mother ships with thousands of soldiers and advanced weapons and they cant stop a dozen resistance fighters in each city.

And how much luck has the US military had stopping small bands of guerrilla fighters in Iraq or Afghanistan? There's nothing remotely unrealistic about this. The whole reason guerrilla warfare does work is because its forces are small and mobile and can easily disappear, provided they have the support of the general populace. It's why terrorism is so hard to fight, and why guerrilla warfare is so often successful.

Remember that the original V miniseries was an allegory for the rise of Nazism in Europe. Everything in it had a historical equivalent, including the resistance.

They could of at least shown some government involement after the first half of the original mini, but after that they are almost completely nonexsistant. We never (as far as I remember) see any goverment involment at all, except a fighter pilot in one episode and the President for a couple minutes in the first mini series. Of course we see the police but thats it.(and they are on the side of the visitors)

Well, that was one thing that worked about the original miniseries -- the emphasis on ordinary people and how they were affected by all this. Implicitly, the government had fallen under the Visitors' thrall. That's what smart occupiers do; they co-opt the local authority structures to serve their agendas.

As for the second mini and the series, there it's just conceptual sloppiness.

 

[Dar70]

^^^Yeah I get that. But the Visitors had advanced weapons plus the world governments and local authorities on their side. But that isnt the only problem with the series as I mentioned. Seems like they ignored their own internal continuity within the mini series as well as the weekly series. The worst being the Final Battle and the Weekly. I do agree though that the first mini was the best and made more sense. But its still not without its problems.

 

[Christopher]

^^^Yeah I get that. But the Visitors had advanced weapons plus the world governments and local authorities on their side.

Again, the same can be said of most any situation where guerrilla warfare is waged. Heck, that's exactly why guerrilla warfare would be needed in the first place. It's a tactic used against an enemy who has a decided advantage in technology, wealth, numbers, influence, and everything else.

But that isnt the only problem with the series as I mentioned. Seems like they ignored their own internal continuity within the mini series as well as the weekly series. The worst being the Final Battle and the Weekly.

Well, that's a given. Kenneth Johnson created the original miniseries, but NBC took it away from him while the sequel was in production. So the storyline was heavily rewritten into something totally different from what Johnson had in mind. And the weekly series was subject to a lot of network meddling and retooling.

Part of the reason genre shows have so much trouble as a rule is that they're expensive, and the more expensive a series is, the more the network execs feel they have to micromanage it. So they often fall prey to retooling, budget cuts, and so on. The reason V: The Series lost many of its regular cast about halfway through was because the network slashed the budget.

 

[superstring01]

The show has loopholes. I have serious problems with Aliens coming to the Earth. There's no reason why any alien species with the technology to traverse the stars would need our pesky world. But. . . that having been said, I do like the show and it's drama.

~String

 

[Wicca who Wonta]

But by now we are spoiled with good sci-fi, it's kinda soapy and the effects are pretty bad. It was an amazing show when it aired but it has lost a lot of it's appeal now.

Actually it was a lousy show when it first aired. It had very little appeal. The original miniseries was great, a smart, thoughtful allegory on the rise of Nazism. The second miniseries downplayed the allegory and social commentary in favor of action, soap opera, and cheesy sci-fi gimmickry. And the weekly series abandoned any pretense of allegory or sophistication altogether. It was poorly regarded at the time for how badly it dumbed down the concept.

You're right but I wasn't old enough to realize it back then.

 

[Christopher]

The show has loopholes. I have serious problems with Aliens coming to the Earth. There's no reason why any alien species with the technology to traverse the stars would need our pesky world.

Yeah, the whole "they're here to steal our water" thing never made sense. There's millions of times more water (in the form of ice) in the Jovian moons, Kuiper Belt, scattered disk, and Oort Cloud than there is on Earth, and it's a lot easier to get to without the need to fight the gravity of both Earth and Sol. Not to mention all the ice that could be found in every other system between here and Sirius.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

I finished the first episode. Sure the FX weren't great, but so far I don't see why the show has gotten such a bad rep.

Keep watching.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The show has loopholes. I have serious problems with Aliens coming to the Earth. There's no reason why any alien species with the technology to traverse the stars would need our pesky world.

Yeah, the whole "they're here to steal our water" thing never made sense. There's millions of times more water (in the form of ice) in the Jovian moons, Kuiper Belt, scattered disk, and Oort Cloud than there is on Earth, and it's a lot easier to get to without the need to fight the gravity of both Earth and Sol. Not to mention all the ice that could be found in every other system between here and Sirius.

Maybe the Visitors were really interested in humans first (both as a food source and as cannon fodder) and they figured they'd take the water while they were at it?

 

[Christopher]

^If they wanted to take water, there are much easier places to get it from than the bottom of Earth's considerable gravity well. They had a whole fleet hiding behind the Moon; they could've easily sent some ships to mine Ceres or Enceladus for ice. There's believed to be more fresh water on Ceres than on the entire planet Earth (most of our water is salty).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Like I said, though, the Visitors were already on Earth. If their primary mission was to take US, then perhaps they figured they'd grab the water on their way out.

And how do we know they *didn't* take the water from those other places as well?

 

[Greylock Crescent]

The plausibility of the Vs in the original miniseries is certainly in question. But its best parts are, as Christopher said, the elements of allegory. Along with the "rise of Nazism" portion of the story, there was the explicit homage "To the heroism of the Resistance Fighters — past, present, and future." It wasn't just the hows and whys of a people allowing themselves to become oppressed, but it was the fundamental TRUTH in resisting oppression, regardless of how it presented itself. So while parts of the premise may have been questionable, the story itself was so good that the motivations of the Vs weren't as important as how their efforts spoke to some fundamental human truths.

Sadly, the Final Battle and Weekly Series all but abandoned those truths in favor of action and plot (which made the fundamental plausibility become much more prominent factor).

 

[Nerys Myk]

The show has loopholes. I have serious problems with Aliens coming to the Earth. There's no reason why any alien species with the technology to traverse the stars would need our pesky world.

Yeah, the whole "they're here to steal our water" thing never made sense. There's millions of times more water (in the form of ice) in the Jovian moons, Kuiper Belt, scattered disk, and Oort Cloud than there is on Earth, and it's a lot easier to get to without the need to fight the gravity of both Earth and Sol. Not to mention all the ice that could be found in every other system between here and Sirius.

Maybe the Visitors were really interested in humans first (both as a food source and as cannon fodder) and they figured they'd take the water while they were at it?

Human, its what's for dinner.

 

[superstring01]

The show has loopholes. I have serious problems with Aliens coming to the Earth. There's no reason why any alien species with the technology to traverse the stars would need our pesky world.

Yeah, the whole "they're here to steal our water" thing never made sense. There's millions of times more water (in the form of ice) in the Jovian moons, Kuiper Belt, scattered disk, and Oort Cloud than there is on Earth, and it's a lot easier to get to without the need to fight the gravity of both Earth and Sol. Not to mention all the ice that could be found in every other system between here and Sirius.

How about the fact that in the horrid "re-sequel" books written by the original script writer (Kenneth Johnson) he tells how after a few generations, HALF of the Earth's water has been taken by the Visitors!

I wrote a book review on Amazon:

There is roughly 326 million cubic miles (1.34 billion cubic km) of water on the Earth. The original aliens brought 50 motherships that were about 1 mile in diameter each. Individual ships could hold, at maximum, 1/20th of a cubic mile of water (assuming space needed for cargo holds, shuttle bays, engines, quarters and whatnot). Even if the aliens sent an extra MILLION ships (and that's a HUGE exaggeration) to the Earth after the original first series, they would ONLY have taken 50,000 cubic miles of water on that visit alone. While this is, indeed, a lot of water and would have caused notable climate shifts, it would not be more than a drop in the bucket in comparison to the rest of the oceans.

Even with the number of motherships I allow for, the Sirians (Visitors) would need 6,520 trips to haul ALL of it back to their star system. At a 17 year round trip (Sirius and back), it would take 55,400 years just to take HALF of the water on Earth. Then one would have to consider: how could the visitors do without so many ships while at war? Presumably a million ships, with--say--a crew of 20,000 each (total of 20 billion people) would be quite useful in their war against the "bug" aliens.

~String