V

2 US tv miniseries followed by a series. NBC. The 1st miniseries (1983), 2 100min episodes, was titled "V" and created/written/dir Kenneth Johnson. The 2nd miniseries (1984), 3 100min episodes, was titled V: The Final Battle and dir Richard T. Heffron, written Brian Taggert, Peggy Goldman, from a story by Lillian Weezer, Goldman, Faustus Buck, Diane Frolow, Harry and Renee Longstreet. The series (1984-5), titled "V", had 19 50min episodes, prod Dean O'Brien, Garner Simmons; dirs included Gilbert Shilton, Kevin Hooks, John Florea; writers included David Braff, BrianTaggert, Simmons, David Abramowitz.

   The main cast members throughout were Marc Singer as Mike Donovan, Faye Grant as Julie, Jane Badler as Diana, Blair Tefkin as Robin, Michael Ironside as Ham Tyler, Robert Englund as Willy, Jennifer Cooke as Elizabeth.Kenneth Johnson's track record included The INCREDIBLE HULK and The BIONIC WOMAN , so it was surprising that "V" started as well as it did. He based the story on Sinclair LEWIS's It Can't Happen Here (1935), about a fascist takeover in the USA, but substitutedalien invaders - at first seemingly friendly, but actually after our water, and ourselves for food - for the fascists. The carnivorous, saurian invaders, as in the tv series The INVADERS (1967-8) and many films, are disguised to look just like us, but with jackboots. A resistance movement grows, whose "V" (for "Victory") is daubed on walls everywhere, but many humans become collaborators; SCIENTISTS become objects of persecution (the comparison being with Jews under the Nazis); some aliens are worse than others.The first half of the initial mini-series was quite good, but afterwards the series became an object lesson in US tv's remorseless appetite for CLICHE - especially in its programmes for younger viewers - and its reduction of all controversial issues to moral stereotypes: the latter half of this miniseries lost direction; the second miniseries was absurd; and the series was infantile hackwork and cancelled before the story was completed. The two mini-series were expensive and - especially the first - had quite spectacular sets and special effects.

   PN