V (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| V: The Series | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science Fiction |
| Running time | 893 min (19 episodes x 47 min) (V: The Series) |
| Creator | Kenneth Johnson |
| Starring | Marc Singer Faye Grant Jane Badler Lane Smith Blair Tefkin Jennifer Cooke Frank Ashmore Michael Ironside Michael Wright Robert Englund Jeff Yagher June Chadwick Howard K. Smith Aki Aleong Michael Durrell Jason Bernard |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Original run | October 26, 1984 – March 22, 1985 |
| No. of episodes | 19 (V: The Series) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
V: The Series was a one-hour weekly television series based on American producer and director Kenneth Johnson's science fiction franchise concerning aliens known as "The Visitors" trying to take over Earth. It aired in the United States on NBC during the 1984–85 TV season.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
 |
Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
Shortly after her ship's capture by the Resistance, Diana escapes in a shuttle but is pursued by Donovan. The two engage in combat in the atmosphere, and Donovan successfully shoots her down and, after a short fight, captures her.
One year after the day when the Red Dust was deployed, now the international holiday called "Liberation Day", the former members of the Resistance and their Fifth Column allies have gone their separate ways and are each looking forward to prosperous careers and bright futures. When Diana is finally put on trial for the atrocities she committed during the First Invasion, Science Frontiers, the company responsible for mass production of the Red Dust, at the behest of its CEO Nathan Bates, arranged for Ham Tyler and his security firm to publicly "assassinate" Diana on her way to the trial and take her to a secret cabin in the woods outside L.A. After this is done, Nathan offers Diana better accommodations in exchange for helping to solving problems such as disease and environmental failure on Earth by providing Visitor technological information.
Donovan and Martin, having witnessed her supposed assassination, sense something isn't right and pursue Tyler's agents in a stolen helicopter. After reaching the cabin, Donovan is knocked unconscious by Martin, who wants Diana dead. Before Martin can kill her, Diana is able to overpower him and steal his pistol. She forces him to surrender his last antidote pill so she can temporarily survive on Earth and then shoots him, effecting her escape to the Southwest Tracking Station.
Martin tells Donovan about Diana's plan to make the Visitor Fleet return moments before his death, and Donovan sets off on foot. Donovan meets Tyler and agree to pursue Diana together. Attempts to stop her fail, and Diana escapes to a Visitor Shuttle arrived from a new fleet hidden behind the Moon, and Diana proceeds to launch the Second Invasion of the Earth.
The Resistance assembles once more, now fighting the Visitors nationwide and also contending with the power-hungry Nathan who has used the power vacuum of the collapse of the government and authorities to become Governor of Los Angeles. The Resistance fights however it can, often joined by other rebel groups, but cannot use their Red Dust super weapon, due to toxic long-term effects it will have on the Earth. However, 50 percent of the planet remains safe from Visitor occupation due to the Red Dust bacterium. Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who has transformed yet again and is now looking 18-years-old, becomes increasingly important in the cause for Earth's freedom and eventually leads her to control the destiny of either race and decide the outcome of the conflict.
[edit] List Of Episodes
1 (1-01) : Liberation Day
2 (1-02) : Dreadnought
3 (1-03) : Breakout
4 (1-04) : The Deception
5 (1-05) : Sanction
6 (1-06) : Visitor's Choice
7 (1-07) : Showdown in Rawlinsville
8 (1-08) : The Dissident
9 (1-09) : A Reflection in Terror
10 (1-10) : The Conversion
11 (1-11) : The Hero
12 (1-12) : The Betrayal
13 (1-13) : The Rescue
14 (1-14) : The Champion
15 (1-15) : The Wildcats
16 (1-16) : The Littlest Dragon
17 (1-17) : War of Illusion
18 (1-18) : The Secret Underground
19 (1-19) : The Return
[edit] Notes
.jpg/180px-JaneBadler(Diana).jpg)
- The cancellation of the TV series in the spring of 1985 appeared to have caught its producers by surprise,[citation needed] as the season ends with a cliffhanger. The TV series' single season was released on DVD in 2004.
- In a variation on "Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome," the character of Mike Donovan's son Sean inexplicably aged 4-5 years between the miniseries and the weekly series, despite the fact that the weekly series takes place only one year after the miniseries ended. It is presumed that this was not a planned plot change, but rather just an age difference between the original miniseries actor, Eric Johnston, and Nicky Katt, the series actor.
- Due to budget constraints, the weekly series reused a lot of action footage from the miniseries. This was especially evident in the Visitor fighter craft chase scene in the pilot episode, where nearly all external shots were lifted from the climax scene of the original miniseries.
- In the original miniseries and The Final Battle, the Visitors' voices were given, among other post-processing, a pitch shift effect - to give them an otherworldly demeanor even though they looked (outwardly, at least) like normal human beings. This was dropped from the weekly series, evidently due to budgetary constraints. No explanation was ever given for the change; it was simply treated as if the Visitors never had unusual-sounding voices at all. However this did create a plot conflict, as in the miniseries, part of the plot involved simulating alien voices, but in the TV series aliens are easily mistaken for humans. In certain dubbed versions, like the French, the Visitors had a deep bass voice, while in German, the pitch shift was maintained throughout the entire series.
- Frank Ashmore's popular character "Martin" was killed off in the weekly series' pilot episode, angering many fans. When the series struggled in the ratings, Ashmore was brought back as Martin's twin brother, Philip.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- V: The Series (1984-85) at the Internet Movie Database
- First three acts of J. Michael Straczynski's script for V: The Next Chapter episode "Rebirth"
- V (TV series) at the Open Directory Project
- V at RottenTomatoes
|
|||||||||||||||||
