I was out shopping in a used bookstore and I came across the two original “V” mini-series, “V” (1983) and “V: The Final Battle” (1984), on VHS. I loved those when I was a kid and I remember that some of the theme music creeped me out. “These’ll be a hoot!” I said to myself, and happily made the purchase.
snort
What a blast from the past!
Okay, in all honesty they did not age well. But in a couple of ways, they didn’t age all that badly for sci-fi TV mini-series that are 20 years old. The dialogue of “V” was hysterical, I certainly didn’t remember the parallels to Nazis being that blatant when I was a kid – and oh, my were they ever! “V: The Final Battle” fared a bit better in that respect (dialogue). I got the impression that the dialogue would have been better if they’d had more time, but that they had to keep it short and accessible. “Meaningful-lite.”
The special FX surprised me because they held up pretty well for effects from 20 years ago and for TV. The prosthetic make-up was still top notch, some of the mat effects and blue screens for the space ships was still better than some TV shows today, and the costumes didn’t look as silly as I would have expected.
I actually appreciated the fact that the alien race had a technology that wasn’t that much farther ahead then our own. Say whereas the original Star Trek series has “futuristic” technology that looked obsoletely silly by 1985 and not advanced at all, the “V” aliens didn’t have anything that was trying too hard to be much more advanced, so there was nothing overly distracting and silly and outdated today.
Seeing a young and very innocent-looking Robert Englund was funny, and it was great to see a younger, bad-ass Michael Ironside. Marc Singer was unintentionally hilarious in way-too-tight jeans and his bare, hairless chest. His shirt was unbuttoned even farther than David Hasselhoof ever would have dared.
I got the DVD last year. One scene where the effects are really cheesy: when Marc Singer, hiding in the conveniently human-sized vent duct (aliens are not immune to this phenomenon), sees the alien suck down a guinea pig whole.
They’re supposed to be making a sequel titled V: The Second Generation.
I actually have the original two on DVD - I rewatch it every once in a while (maybe once or twice a year when I’m looking for something to run in the background while I do other stuff). You’re right in saying that it didn’t age too badly. Sure, there are moments that stand out, but since they didn’t typically do major flashy special effects, I don’t think “that would be done SO much better now”.
The Nazi symbolism definitely seemed stronger when I saw it again than when I saw it the first time - almost overwhelming at some points.
True, true, that aged goofily. Also in “V: The Final Battle” when they did a lazer show for Julie’s “conversion” it was kind of silly, but worse were her “conversion nightmares” where they had really cheesy monsters chasing her, and at one point a real-life lizard breaking through a scale model wall – way too Land of the Lost there.
The monster baby looked like a bad Godzilla puppet too. But, hey, it was 20 years ago. Even the original Yoda puppet looks a little stiff.
I’ve seen “V” is out on DVD, is “V: The Final Battle” available as a DVD or no?
Oh, and there was one espcape in the air ducts that ticked me off. Martin, the friendly alien is helping Mike Donovan escape. He opens the airduct grating, they climb inside, and then he doesn’t bother to close it behind them! :rolleyes:
Way to tell the bad guys who are chaising you which way you went!
Really? Neat-o! I hope they don’t make it stupid. I used to like the weekly series as a kid, but I think I’d get tired of it fast if I watched it as an adult. I was 11 when the first series came out, so I didn’t have such dsicriminating standards as I do now.
Oh, and back then I had the novelisation of the two series in paperback too!
Ah, that answers my question, then.
IIRC, I actually missed Part One of the first mini-series, so that may be the reason I don’t remember it as extreme as it is now that I see it again.
Not only is the sequel on DVD, the entire series is, too.
I didn’t care for the series much. It would be interesting see a sequel to the minis after 20+ years. I wonder if the lizards will have forehead ridges?
Pet peeve about the TV series was Robin and Elizabeth. The whole “accelerated growth” thing where Elizabeth looked the same age as her mom and they both had the hots for the same guy. Yuck! Stupid, stupid plot!
Confession: My friend and I used to pretend play “V” in the schoolyard at recess. We pretended we were 5th Column human recruits (kinda like that Daniel Hilter-youth guy, only we were good-guys) who were really resistance fighters. We’d run around the playground equipment pretending it was a spaceship.
If they do, then that means twenty years from now, they’ll have to have an episode where they travel back in time with a forehead ridged lizard, and when they ask him why he looks different from the others, he’ll have to come up with some kind of lame-ass response!
Just looked up info on the “Next Generation” mini-series and it looks like a no-go. I found an on-line source that quotes a Pittsburgh newspaper:
Ah, well. It would have been fun so see an updated version with modern F/X. But Marc Singer is getting a littel long in the tooth for the Mike Donovan role. Afte 20 years could Diana be so vampy? Would Willie age considering he’s really a lizard wearing a rubber human suit?
(Though I got a kick out of seeing marc Singer guest star on the TV series “Beatmaster” all things considered…)
Ha, that was exactly my reaction when I saw it on Space last year. I chalked it up to being a kid when I first saw them.
I have to say though, back then I thought that Marc Singer was cute, and he had a cool voice. Now, well, I still like the gravellyness of Marc Singer’s voice. Though he’s no Patrick Stewart.
I think it was one of the Showtime channels kept showing the entire series a few years back. It was great because they played the entire thing from start to finish with no commercials.
Michael Ironsides did kick ass.
Now if the kid had been some kind of super-genius (y’know, genetically superior to both species) and was able to use the decode machine to figure out how to stop the countdown, okay, then maybe.
And all the more irksome is that her “powers” where never as “powerful” in the weekly TV series. She was more a Misfits of Science type.
The whokle accelereated growth thing was stupid (she’d die of old age in a month) and there was nothing about either species that would give her powers like that. They were lizards, we’re run-of-the-mill mammals.
I hated everything about Elizabeth. Actually I hated the whole whiny Robin, “Look at that visitor, Brian. He’s so dreamy…” vomit-inducing plot, but they needed it for the grand finale hybrid bacteria thing.
I can handle aliens having special power. Hell, I can even handle aliens have brain control waves and magic disappearing/invisibility powers. My problem with the girl can be boiled down to the following: Alien lizard with no magic power taps whiny human teenage girl who has no magic powers. Their offspring is a human baby with magic powers that can save a doomed spaceship.
Up until that point, I was really enjoying the series. I am trying hard to think of another movie/mini-series which was so enjoyable until a horrible ending.
Just looked up info on the “Next Generation” mini-series and it looks like a no-go. I found an on-line source that quotes a Pittsburgh newspaper: