Yeah, it really felt like 2 (maybe 3 hours) shoved in a 1 hour show. I was hoping to see a more realistic reaction to aliens showing up. Like the scene where they come to the UN. The Vs would’ve been surrounded by the military and the press could not have gotten that close. I guess they really wanted to get to the “Vs are bad” right away so they don’t lost anyone.
At least in the original miniseries and the sequel miniseries the Visitors had weird echoing voices (dropped from TV series without explanation). The original miniseries(es) also had infiltration at the highest levels of government and society, but intead of Visitors posing as humans it took the form of brainwashed humans and the odd unbrainwashed collaborator (eg Eleanor Dupres). I hope we see humans willingly collaborating in this series too. It’s so much fun to watch when they finally get what’s coming to them. 
After the show was killed, they got to wrap up Firefly with a big-screen movie.
Coming back around to the new V: how long until a Visitor gets unmasked on live national television? Any bets? I mean, it only takes one time, and from what we saw in this episode they’re really, really really bad at not getting knocked down by people who start enthusiastically peeling masks off.
From what I could tell, it’s not a mask. It’s part of their skin. And if they’ve been on Earth for years, infiltrating, in all that time did no Visitor have to have surgery? I mean, it’s not like the mothership was hovering nearby (cloaking device?!) in case some V had to have their lizard appendix removed.
How do you figure? We got a pretty good look at the FBI agent’s lizard-skin-under-the-human-skin face (complete with lizard eye) – and, for bonus points, we got a pretty good look at the deserter’s lizard-skin-under-the-human-skin arm.
Nope. There are a number of Dopers who hated the show and we weren’t driven away with pitchforks, so as a non-viewer you’re safe.
I was really disappointed by the big reveals in Episode I
That the Visitors are actually big lizards and that they’ve already infiltrated
because we already know that makes them the bad guys. Honestly, this is supposed to be a series. So now, if the Visitors do something good, we’ll all just figure “yeah, but they’re the villans” instead of having any kind of moral ambiguity about them and their purposes.
Sure, universal health care SOUNDS like a good idea, but how many of us would knowingly go to a lizard-gynecologist?
But don’t watch that.
The Darn Link I Can’t Find in which a hybrid child was mentioned said the lizard disguise was some sort of living tissue.
So gotta wonder how the er, naughty bits work, though.
So, the cold-blooded fake black lizard fell in love with a warm-blooded real black human and was going to marry her? Seems that they’ve got the naughty bits worked out. Niven was right. Rishathra lives! Sorta.
No, we’ll be wondering if they’re renegade Visitors.
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.
Nope. The original just had them arrive. All the subversion was done by fellow-travellers, collaborators and dupes.
Come to think of how did he manage to past the test they gave everyone? 
The cell leader was very surprised when he found out about he was a Visitor.
BTW I know that ABC’s ordered 13 episodes, but it the wiki seems to indicate that the remaining episodes to air aftet the Olympics will " complete the 13 episode series." I know anything on Wikipedia should be taken with a grain of salt, but if this is a planned single season show with a beginning, middle & end my confidence level in it goes way up.
Overall, I liked it. It was about what I expected.
It was rushed though! By the end of the hour we already learned they have sleeper cells, their lizardy goodness underneath and who the baddies and the traitors for the resistance are.
I’m down with the show, but at the same time, it’s nothing new… just an updated tone and appearance.
I did like the “V” shaped incision they make to see if you’re human or not. Nice touch. I also like the thicker, more visceral human flesh on top. I hope we get to see a Visitor fully exposed. I mean, to make a fully-functional human flesh suit work on top of another alien being (humanoid or not), well, they must be pretty wiry under there. It would be cool to get some sort of explaination how that works, rather than the hand-waving from the original series. To fanwank, the human flesh must have a nervous system that’s somehow integrated into their own. And, how convenient for the Vs that their bodies fit perfectly within a human form-factor. In reality, the Edgar Suit comes to mind from Men In Black. So, let’s see what these guys really look like! Unless they’re really limber and fantastic contortionists (or had biologic reconstructive surgery), their shape better fall nicely inside a human’s exterior… no cheating, ABC!
I did like the idea of sleeper cells that have been around for ages. I wonder how long they’ve really been here.
I really wish they would’ve gone with a 2-hour premiere. It seemed way too short and rushed for such a tent-post drama opener for ABC. Can’t wait to see how these next 3 eps resolve themselves. Sucks about the hiatus. But, at least we’ll have LOST in between.
He wasn’t there, he showed up later and joined the fight.
My ear is still giving me problems, so I missed some of the dialogue. Cell Leader was trying to get Good Visitor to “join,” there were mysterious references to his past, blah blah blah. Are we to assume Good Visitor and Cell Leader were maybe in the military together? Special Ops or something?
I believe they’re riffing on David Icke.
I think we will see a pregnancy or two. The blonde female V will get knocked up by the 17 year old son and the female human will get pregnant by the black human-sympathizer V. Then everyone will wonder what the kid will look like coming out.
It worked for the BSG remake. I hope they don’t go for the “who’s the secret lizard” plot though.
Don’t many politicians go to government hospitals in DC? Where the doctors can deal with their “special needs.”
“I can’t be the only one to wish there was a Doctor Who reference with the scene of the Mothership hovering over Big Ben/Parliament, maybe a scene of Ten on the top of the ship in a swordfight?”
I couldn’t stop myself from thinking V stood for Vogon, and when the constructor fleet showed up we were going to hear some really awful poetry. Lame, I know. I need to get out more, read new books.
eta: forgot to say we enjoyed the show and will keep watching.