In this age where everything old is new again, we shouldn’t be
too surprised to see a new version of V, the saga of Kenneth Johnson’s venerable
SF mini-series from the 1980s which has aliens visiting earth--becoming known as
the Visitors--and, instead of conquest, propose a peaceful union between two
species that are seemingly alike. These guys sure know how to make an entrance:
their massive, city-size spaceships appear while hovering over every major city
on the planet; an intimidating scenario that was first introduced by Johnson in
his classic miniseries, and used to great effect here in the remake, thanks to
the spiffy CGI effects used to render the immense ships. And, just like in the
original miniseries, the kind and benevolent aliens, led by Anna (Firefly’s Morena Baccarin)
are soon shown to have a very nasty side.
The Fay Grant role of the leader of the human resistance, known as the Fifth
Column, belongs to Elizabeth Mitchell (LOST) this time. As Erica Evans, she
portrays a tough FBI agent who’s busy chasing terrorists when the aliens arrive,
charming her unusually dense teenage son into becoming a Peace Ambassador, which
is the Visitors’ version of the Brown Shirt-like faction depicted in the original
miniseries. Of course, the kid’s lust for the Visitors may have something to do
with Lisa, played by Laura Vandervoot (Into The Blue 2, Smallville), the hot
young Visitor he falls for.
The rough and tumble Mike Donovan, who was played with 80’s action hero panache
by Marc Singer (Beastmaster), has been watered down this time into the character
of Chad Decker, played by Scott Wolf as a greedy, smarmy opportunist who happily
joins the Visitors as their official spokesman/lapdog. The cast are all very
good in their roles, but this is a clear case of where the actors are much better
than the material they’re given to work with. The pilot episode is actually very
good, save for the fact that it could have been a little longer. The arrival of
the Visitors, along with the revelation that they may not be as decent as they
portray themselves to be, is just too much storyline to try an squash into an
hour episode.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t get much better. Once the Fifth Column get rolling,
our heroes begin to plot, and plot, and plot…and then they plot some more.
Nothing really happens, except whiny, sappy melodrama that’s reminiscent of a
daytime soap opera, as Mitchell struggles to keep her dullard of a son from
falling into the clutches of the evil Anna. Writer/producer Ron Moore took
Battlestar Galactica, a certified cheesy SF entry from the disco mutant era of
the 1970s, and turned it into a brilliantly dark reflection of the post-9/11
times that we live in now. The writers of the new V are trying very hard to do
the same thing here, but it just isn’t working, because the writing falls short.
Despite all of the machinations by the Visitors, we are never really told why
they are truly here on earth. Apparently, that juicy tidbit is being saved for
some big sweeps reveal during the second season, but if the writing on V was
halfway decent, this blatant ploy shouldn’t even be noticeable. There’s a telling
scene where Mitchell and her cronies have captured a human who’s sympathetic to
the V’s. When he demands to know what horrible things the V’s did, Mitchell and
the others just stare at him blankly, offering no answer.
If our heroes can’t even answer a simple question as to why are they fighting their
enemy, then what the hell are we all doing here? The remake may still be light
years better than the awful original V TV series (which Johnson had no part of),
but cardboard characters, shallow drama and spiffy effects just don’t hack it
anymore.
--SF
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