V: "Unholy Alliance - Feb. 1 on ABC - Grading & Discussion

[Aragorn]

It would never happen in a million years, but you know what would be funny? If Anna, in her quest to find and eradicate the human soul, happened to come across an episode of Supernatural. Would she try to apply what she saw to "real life"?

"Father Jack Landry, you will summon Castiel for me immediately or else I'll burn your church down with your congregation inside."

Actually, considering how bad this storyline and the sheer stupidity of the dialog that comes out of Anna's mouth, you could put anything in there and make it sound like it's something she'd say.

"Sam Axe, I know that you used to go by the name Ash and have the Necronomicon in your possession. Give it to me."

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Wait a minute, this episode was written by Rockne S. O'Bannon?? Didn't see much of a improvement here. But maybe even he can't save it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I thought it was very O'Bannon-esque. The characters came across convincingly and compellingly, while the situation was ambitious and completely whacked out. So depending on whether you can buy the insane and silly situation, you'd like or hate the results.

I'd be willing to bet large amounts of quatloos that O'Bannon came up with the "V want to steal human SOULS!" plotline. Doesn't that sound just like a Farscape plot?

 

[DWF]

I thought it was very O'Bannon-esque. The characters came across convincingly and compellingly, while the situation was ambitious and completely whacked out. So depending on whether you can buy the insane and silly situation, you'd like or hate the results.

I'd be willing to bet large amounts of quatloos that O'Bannon came up with the "V want to steal human SOULS!" plotline. Doesn't that sound just like a Farscape plot?

Actually it sounds like a Babylon 5 plot minus the Soul Hunters.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Tyler needs to be hanged.

What sort of idiot thinks that hate crimes are cool?

The best part of DS9 was when that priest hanged herself to remind everyone that living under oppression is bullshit and collaborating is wrong and that you have to break a few eggs to make a soufflé.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I thought it was very O'Bannon-esque. The characters came across convincingly and compellingly, while the situation was ambitious and completely whacked out. So depending on whether you can buy the insane and silly situation, you'd like or hate the results.

I'd be willing to bet large amounts of quatloos that O'Bannon came up with the "V want to steal human SOULS!" plotline. Doesn't that sound just like a Farscape plot?

If this is true, I'd say that stuff like this simply doesn't work on V. You can't introduce it out of the blue. This show was set up in the mold of a gritty police drama, sort of like a "24 with aliens". How weird would have been had Jack Bauer's enemies suddenly started to talk about souls.

And if the show tries to be Farscape it needs a hell of a lot more humor and far more "flamboyant" characters as well. In essence, it would need to be an entirely different show.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I really enjoyed the Stand miniseries.

I thought it was a pretty good ongoing human story dealing with an apocalypse of sorts.

Then the last 5 minutes.

The hand of god came down from the sky, smited the assholes and rescued the virtuous.

A glowing flying disembodied fucking hand.

Anna believes in the soul without believing in god.

That's whack.

God is gonna come on down and kick the shit out of her.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

And if the show tries to be Farscape it needs a hell of a lot more humour and far more "flamboyant" characters as well. In essence, it would need to be an entirely different show.

Yeah, it's too late for a Farscape-infusion to do much more than make the show less tedious. If I were starting from scratch, Ryan would be a much more bizarre and interesting character, a guy who is truly alien, who can barely hide his weirdness enough to fit in with humanity (the same being true for all the AWOL V's).

I'd reveal that Ryan is actually John May, who stole the skin of an agent that Anna sent to kill him (I thought that's where they were going with the episode w/Michael Trucco in it) so he could hide in plain sight, pretending to have killed May.

I'd have someone more similar to Sidney as the main character, a science nerd who stumbles across some unsettling truths about the V's, while the rest of the human race is going ga-ga over them. Somehow he and Ryan run across each other and they form the nucleus of the resistance cell. Both are weird outsiders, and they have no luck getting anyone to believe their claims. Anna can easily discredit Ryan as an escaped mental patient or something.

I'd definitely have Ryan and Sidney team up with some ass-kicking types, but there would be more of a sense that they are dangerous and perhaps xenophobic - the kind of cretins who would be paranoid about aliens regardless of their intent. I'd keep Tyler as a quisling human who is so enamored of the cool aliens, and in their sexual thrall, that he'd cheerfully sell out the human race.

I'm not sure if there's much of a role for Erica (unless she's one of the xenophobic ass-kickers) or Chad. Father Jack might be a peacenik who tries to calm down the Fifth Column (and I wouldn't use that term) until he realizes the V's not only can locate but also steal human souls.

And the human soul thing wouldn't be an afterthought, but rather the reason why the V's have targetted Earth to begin with. Turns out there are many worlds with sentient species, but species with souls are very rare. Since a soul confers immortality, they are highly sought after. The V's have stolen souls before, but since they have to graft them onto their minds (or something like that), they dissapate over time and they have to find new ones.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I thought it was very O'Bannon-esque. The characters came across convincingly and compellingly, while the situation was ambitious and completely whacked out. So depending on whether you can buy the insane and silly situation, you'd like or hate the results.

I'd be willing to bet large amounts of quatloos that O'Bannon came up with the "V want to steal human SOULS!" plotline. Doesn't that sound just like a Farscape plot?

Actually it sounds like a Babylon 5 plot minus the Soul Hunters.

There was a Soul Hunter plot in B5? I've forgotten a lot of it...

 

[Aragorn]

If this is true, I'd say that stuff like this simply doesn't work on V. You can't introduce it out of the blue. This show was set up in the mold of a gritty police drama, sort of like a "24 with aliens". How weird would have been had Jack Bauer's enemies suddenly started to talk about souls.

Hey, "souls" on 24 would've been a nice change of pace after hearing about "moles" about 10,000 times.

 

[Snaploud]

I thought it was very O'Bannon-esque. The characters came across convincingly and compellingly, while the situation was ambitious and completely whacked out. So depending on whether you can buy the insane and silly situation, you'd like or hate the results.

I'd be willing to bet large amounts of quatloos that O'Bannon came up with the "V want to steal human SOULS!" plotline. Doesn't that sound just like a Farscape plot?

Actually it sounds like a Babylon 5 plot minus the Soul Hunters.

There was a Soul Hunter plot in B5? I've forgotten a lot of it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Hunter_(Babylon_5)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5:_The_River_of_Souls

 

[Amaris]

I'd like to watch the episode, but you can't watch it on hulu, and you can't watch it on ABC's website. I don't have a DVR so I can't record the show and watch it later, so they can just do without me.

 

[Iconian]

Why didn't Anna pay a visit to the Pope himself. Would that be too cheesy? :P

Still watching the show due to the V ladies.

 

[Gepard]

Turns out there are many worlds with sentient species, but species with souls are very rare. Since a soul confers immortality, they are highly sought after. The V's have stolen souls before, but since they have to graft them onto their minds (or something like that), they dissapate over time and they have to find new ones.

That's actually a really cool idea. Insane, but cool. Unfortunately, given Anna's comments about souls as a threat, it doesn't look like that's where the storyline is headed.

My best guess is

Spoiler: MASSIVE spoilers and speculation for the final episodes.

Anna wants to remove human souls to prevent the V's being "contaminated" by unwanted human traits. I've seen some footage (minus the audio) from the next-to-last episode that shows Anna, Markus and Joshua examining a live-aboard in the med lab; Anna grabs the woman's head, and apparently sucks the soul out of her or something; Anna's eyes bleed, and the woman becomes responsive to Anan's Bliss. She then gives the woman an immolation pill, and the live-aboard cheerfully kills herself by swallowing it.

There's another scene of Lisa catching her mother doing the same thing to Tyler -- the "soul-sucking" thing, that is, not the immolation-pill thing. So it looks like in episode 209, Anna is going to steal Tyler's soul! I've no idea how this ties into plans for Tyler to die after getting it on with an ersatz Lisa, but there's footage being worked on of Lisa retracting her jaw after apparently eating Tyler.

Also given what's been publicly revealed of the entire Visitor design, with its insect-meets-lizard thing, and the producer's comments about their look giving "hints" of what the Vs have done on other worlds, my guess is they go around world-to-world and absorb desirable traits from those species into their own biology, via breeding, while attempting to weed out and eliminate features they don't like. Kind of like a low-key, organic version of the Borg, or the Krillitaines from Doctor Who.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I guess that showing the Pope getting SUCCESSFULLY bulled by a petty tyrant would just be insulting.

I remember the head of the UN saw through Anna's bullshit about blue energy but couldn't do jack shit about it, and 99 percent of every one else was romanced by Anna through out that bargaining BUT... She out right bullied Christianity into bending over at the highest level.

Bullied.

She wasn't even trying to seduce these guys.

Every one of them knew that they were submitting to a complete asshole.

How did the Vatican get along with the Nazis?

I suppose the college might have contemplated riding this out and spin doctoring the V into the new Romans since it's been a while since the Christians had anything evil to rally against other than the Jews and that's just more bullying.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I've been thinking... with Lisa and Chad Decker, Fifth Column basically has two agents in closest proximity to Anna. Mabye Fifth Column should simply find out what Lisa thinks about killing or incapacitating her own mother. Lisa then becomes the next Queen and she can call off any evil plans the Visitors may have. Problem solved. You could wrap up the entire show in a single episode that way.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You know except for the fact that Anna is propping up and mortaring the brains of every V in the fleet with her bliss.

A changeover in power is not handled diplomatically would be quite traumatic to the entire species, including Lisa.

But that is completely a valid point.

Although, since Anna is barren (all of a sudden), why then is she not already stepped to one side for her more than fertile daughter?

I get the notion that the function of the queen revolves around breeding a thousand times more so than much as governing.

Until that is that the regular soldiers find out that thy can breed with the earth monkeys bypassing Anna feat Lisa completely.

 

[flux_29]

^ It's been said the position of Queen is about the power and control. Anna isn't a monarch like today - where most/all the power is with elected officials, but like Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, who had abosute power:

"What given, he can take away, and what taken away, he can give back!" - The Tudors.

And like many a monarch, Anna doen't intend to give up her throne until she has died of old age. Regardless of Lisa's ability to breed.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I've been thinking... with Lisa and Chad Decker, Fifth Column basically has two agents in closest proximity to Anna. Mabye Fifth Column should simply find out what Lisa thinks about killing or incapacitating her own mother. Lisa then becomes the next Queen and she can call off any evil plans the Visitors may have. Problem solved. You could wrap up the entire show in a single episode that way.

Perhaps the process of becoming Queen makes her "insane"? Why can Anna confer bliss but Lisa and presumably Diana cannot? Something big much happen in the process and that would be not without consequences. There must be some reason that both Diana and Lisa seem more stable and sensible than Anna.