# "V" Pilot Tonight — \[Open Spoilers after it airs\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 3, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169 "2009-11-03T16:09:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/161 "2009-11-05T22:07:27Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > So regarding Erica’s son; which way do y’all want that do go? He ends up learning the error of his ways and either joing the Resitance (or at making a noble sacrifice) or will he devolve into an full on collaborator like Daniel Bernstein did the original? Much will depend upon whether that bunch of eggs buried in the sand are really his. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/162 "2009-11-05T23:38:01Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Come to think of it, in the original series, I think the water was the _real_ goal, which the visitors covered up as long as possible. I seem to remember a shot of Donovan gasping in unbelief, “It’s _water_”. Well, in the original the REAL real goal was humans, as food, being kept in suspended animation. As for the new one, I hate that the Visitors are just wearing normal clothes, instead of those snazzy red and black uniforms. The blueblockers I can live without, and while the voices might’ve been cool, can live without, but man, no uniforms? Also, apparently they completely missed the point that V stood for VICTORY in the original, not for Visitors, and spraypainting V was a show of resistance, not “devotion” (a word they seem to like on this version) to the Visitors. I don’t mind all the changes, but something like this, it’s just showing them “not getting it”. Kinda like how the Will Smith movie completely botched the meaning of “I am legend” in the movie of that name. I really didn’t like the infiltrators going all ninja-fu on the proto-resistance meeting, what they don’t get laser guns this time around? And it was pretty f’in obvious that Wash was going to be a Vistor, at least it was to me. Maybe it was supposed to be. I don’t really like the whole “they’ve already been here a while” thing, but see how it can work in the story. It’ll just get annoying when suddenly everyone’s met an infiltrator in the past. It lacked any kind of “HOLY FUCKING SHIT DID I JUST SEE THAT” moment like the original had when Diana gulped down the guinea pig whole. :eek: Still, it was an interesting show, and I’ll at least watch the rest of the three eps this fall. And anyone thinks that’s not enough, at that point it will be equal in length to the original mini. – 4hrs. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/163 "2009-11-06T00:14:18Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > …Also, apparently they completely missed the point that V stood for VICTORY in the original, not for Visitors, and spraypainting V was a show of resistance, not “devotion” (a word they seem to like on this version) to the Visitors. I don’t mind all the changes, but something like this, it’s just showing them “not getting it”. Kinda like how the Will Smith movie completely botched the meaning of “I am legend” in the movie of that name. > > I really didn’t like the infiltrators going all ninja-fu on the proto-resistance meeting, what they don’t get laser guns this time around? And it was pretty f’in obvious that Wash was going to be a Vistor, at least it was to me. Maybe it was supposed to be. I don’t really like the whole “they’ve already been here a while” thing, but see how it can work in the story. It’ll just get annoying when suddenly everyone’s met an infiltrator in the past. > > It lacked any kind of “HOLY FUCKING SHIT DID I JUST SEE THAT” moment like the original had when Diana gulped down the guinea pig whole. :eek:… Totally agreed. If I remember correctly, in the original the teens spraypainted over one of the “WE COME IN PEACE” posters, and old man Egg Head caught them. They thought they were busted for vandalizing, but the old man got a look of determination on his face and said something to the effect of, “V, it doesn’t stand for Visitors anymore… it stands for Victory.” And then became a call sign of the resistance. It was perfect. No need to change that. You’re right… they just don’t get it. And yes… I want to see advanced laser or plasma sidearms (that make the cool SHEEEEWPH noise). And they better be here to eat us or something similarly disturbing. Unless, they just want to take over our planet for theirs. Also, In the episode, during Anna’s interview, she was talking about what their planet looked like. Why the fuck didn’t they show some pictures?! What star system are they from (in the original, it was the 4th planet out from Sirius)? What kind of indiginous species? Geology? Solar System, etc… why isn’t anyone asking those questions, and want to take a look at their Vikipedia? ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/164 "2009-11-06T01:15:53Z")
I was starting to think that Flashforward was just an advertising vehicle for V. I just watched V. Major suckage. As one who loves sf, I found it totally implausible. Sure we trust them right away, let’s let our kids play in their spaceship! Purged from the dvr lineup. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/165 "2009-11-06T01:27:56Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Well, in the original the REAL real goal was humans, as food, being kept in suspended animation. Humans for food; water for drink. They were after both. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/166 "2009-11-06T03:33:57Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > want to take a look at their Vikipedia? Dude, buy that domain right now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/167 "2009-11-06T05:10:42Z")
😃 ---
**Author:** ![BKReporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@BKReporter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BKReporter)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/168 "2009-11-06T14:23:22Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > As for the C4, my guess is that they are going to fake a series of terrorist attacks against the aliens to make them look more sympathetic to the majority of humanity. That’s kind of what I was thinking also, sort of like what the 9/11 truthers accuse the Bush administration of doing - stage an attack against their own fleet and then use that as an excuse to institute martial law and turn Earth into their fiefdom. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/169 "2009-11-06T15:58:34Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > …It lacked any kind of “HOLY FUCKING SHIT DID I JUST SEE THAT” moment like the original had when Diana gulped down the guinea pig whole. :eek: I saw that scene again last weekend we they were replaying the originals on Syfy. Anyway, the effect did not hold up. That was one cheesy-looking special effect. ---
**Author:** ![BKReporter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@BKReporter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BKReporter)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/170 "2009-11-06T16:47:44Z")
> [@robby](#): > > I saw that scene again last weekend we they were replaying the originals on Syfy. > > Anyway, the effect did not hold up. That was one cheesy-looking special effect. Yeah, I agree. The cartoonishness of it kind of ruined the big reveal. I actually laughed when I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/171 "2009-11-06T17:33:26Z")
I watched this last night. I found it a little painfully, self-consciously imitative of _Battlestar Galactica_ – and it fell very short of the mark. Maybe give it a bit more (cuz it held the wife’s attention) but I’m not optimistic. The right-wing propaganda is a little angry-making, too. Bleah. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/172 "2009-11-06T17:38:41Z")
Good entertaining is all I can say. Why a space traveling race would need our ressources? - Depleted during travel - running out of space on their planet - blow it up - exiled form their planet - somebody else beat the crap out of them and they had to run and pick on a weaker one But as we noticed the sleepercell, they are not the nice people they portray to be. The Universal Health Care thingy was a giggly, at least for me… The Earthquake was completly bollocks, but it made for nice effects… …no sqirrles eaten yet…damn big plus… aired here (Ireland) the same week as the US on TV3 Thursday ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/173 "2009-11-06T18:23:07Z")
I can think of 3 or 4 things they might realistically “need” as space travelers that they would want to take and would cause significant uproar in the world. Also, if they were galactic antique collectors with a B and B in the galactic core, taking all our historical and Og forbid all our religious artifacts would cause quite the uproar as well. Heck, even wanting all our buried dead might be a deal breaker. I doubt we can pay em off with velvet Elvis paintings. I am sure it will be something rather stupid they want though… ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/174 "2009-11-06T18:34:40Z")
The Wife and I watched it and came away disinterested. It’s an inauspicious debut when a TV show about alien visitors leaves you not caring if you miss the next episode. Also, I’m predisposed to be harsh on remakes. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/175 "2009-11-08T08:28:13Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The appeals to the more craven side of David Frost (or whatever the characters name was) about his career fell rather flat. The guy has to be the dumbest shiite around to want to work for a “boss” who (1) is an alien species with unknown motivations, and (2) argues for the sacrifice of professional and ethical principles so baldly… and so lamely. I think reporter-dude (Decker) is just lousy at his job. Remember the throw-away lines about how the network kept passing his story ideas on to be done by someone else? They might have very good reasons for doing that. Also, jumping in with “show some respect” in response to an absolutely legitimate question. Then his first attempt at a hard-hitting question is “Dur, why y’all so hawt?!” And then he apparently doesn’t even notice that (with his inept assistance) Anna dodges _both_ questions. No wonder Anna loved him. It was a perfect demonstration of how easy he is to manipulate. She’s probably smart enough to realize that he’s a shitty reporter, too, which was why she asked for him. She had him figured out. Being a bad reporter, this was going to be his ONLY chance to make it big on the TeeVee. And he’s easily manipulated. She didn’t have to argue it well – he’s doing most of the work for her. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/176 "2009-11-08T20:39:04Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > I think reporter-dude (Decker) is just lousy at his job. Remember the throw-away lines about how the network kept passing his story ideas on to be done by someone else? They might have very good reasons for doing that… Didn’t the woman who became the Visitors’ Press Secretary (Mike Donovan’s girlfriend) in the original turn out to have a drug problem? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/177 "2009-11-08T22:07:51Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > :rolleyes: Good god. Not everything is political and you’d think someone doing a write-up of a sci-fi show would realize that “We bring gifts/change for humanity” is not exactly a new trope. > > It was even part of the plot of the original V! That was my feeling. The visitors are pretty much like they were in the original. They just look sexier. There have been a lot of [villians with good publicity](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainWithGoodPublicity), both in history and in fiction, so it’s not like that’s a specific shot at Obama(though conservatives seem to think it is). And the word “Universal Health Care” didn’t spring into existance with Obama. That it’s been in the news lately makes it a nice joke. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/178 "2009-11-08T22:10:21Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > But this is the first time in history the US has had an alien for president 🙂 Nah, Cheney was a Great Old One. Those guys are from other Dimensions. Evil Dimensions. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/179 "2009-11-08T22:12:09Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > Nope, Wash not only didn’t make it, he was a gorram lizard to boot! Called it. Particularly when the cell kept seeing the FBI coming. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169/180 "2009-11-08T22:44:55Z")
> [@Meltdown](#): > > My memory of the original series is kind of sketchy. Did the original series include the idea that the Visitors had come to earth (secretly) many years before so that they could infiltrate all aspects of society? > > I liked that idea, and that they intentionally lead us all down the road of economic collapse, unnecessary wars, etc., so that we’d be more open to them when they finally revealed themselves. I would, except how utterly vague and meaningless that really is. Unnessacry wars and econimic collaspe? Those things have been happening throughout human history. You don’t need infiltrating aliens, just human nature. OTOH, that makes it the perfect cover. Maybe they are trying to save David Icke has been right all along?(I hope not) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-pilot-tonight-open-spoilers-after-it-airs/516169.md?page=10)