V, Season 1 (2009)

V, SEASON 1 (DVD)

Release Date: November 8th, 2010
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 499 minutes

Created by: Kenneth Johnson

Cast: Elizabeth Mitchell, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Logan Huffman, Laura Vandervoort, Morena Baccarin, Scott Wolf, Christopher Shyer, Lourdes Benedicto, Mark Hildreth

Following the success of the Battlestar Galactica reboot, it was only a matter of time before another sci-fi television series was picked up for a makeover and this time round, it’s V. The original was first aired in 1983 as a two-part miniseries written and directed by Kenneth Johnson who was inspired by the novel It Can’t Happen Here (1935) by Sinclair Lewis.

The story was about the rise of fascism in America but when Johnson presented the script to NBC they thought it would be too much for the average audience at the time. He re-worked it and changed the fascist government to a race of flesh eating aliens wanting to take over planet Earth. NBC being pleased with the science fiction direction after the recent successes with the Star Wars movies approved it for a miniseries. Its success spawned a sequel, V: The Final Battle (1984) and then the television series which ran until 1985. It is also notable for being one of Robert Englund’s early roles, playing Willie, the innocent alien, before going on to play the Springwood Slasher on Elm Street.

V 2009 retains for the most part, the original plot elements. Visitors from outer space arrive on Earth and their leader, Anna (Morena Baccarin), is keen to build friendships with the world’s leaders and offer advance healthcare and safe energy to everyone while hiding their true agenda.

FBI agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) doesn’t trust the visitors and tries her best to keep her son, Tyler (Logan Huffman) away from them. Together with Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch) and a group of fighters, Erica starts to learn about the Visitors’ real agenda and they soon realise not everyone is what they seem to be; humans can be Visitors in disguise, but Visitors can also be allies.

The worlds of 2010 and 1983 differ so drastically in terms of technology, fashion, current affairs and events, but people and politics are still basically the same. One group always has power over another and somebody else always wants it. It’s a struggle which is as old as the human race, so what V gives us is nothing new.

Whereas Battlestar Galactica remained relevant to the issues of today with the lines between terrorism and freedom fighting constantly blurring and artificial intelligence, consciousness and origins of religion an alaways present focus in the episodes, V seems to fall short of having anything important to tell us about the world we live in today or offering anything of high entertainment value. I would be interested to see how things go in Season 2, but as a first season, this one is rather poor.