Posted by
CmdrTaco
on from the is-twenty-years-old-classic-yet dept.
Silas writes "According to CNN, twenty years after NBC's hit sci-fi miniseries "V" invaded the small screen, the network is bringing the aliens back with "V: The Second Generation," a three-hour TV movie from the original creator Kenneth Johnson."
I was really interested when they had this news on Saturday. I remember that being a family event for my house.
I did quite a bit of googling and apparently the script will be set 20 years afterwards the last movie, BUT a new ally will come to help us. Rumors on several sites that claimed to be close to Johnson said another alien race that defeated the "lizards" will come to save us. Sort of like an "operation iRaqi Freedom" effort on a planetary scale. The "new aliens" will be like a United States of the Universe that everyone is jealous of for their immense technology and "morality" - I could see how it would make a good commentary, just as the original was good commentary about WWII.
-- Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Already overdone
by
crow
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The original was a lot of fun, but it killed itself with the superbaby junk. But it seems that there aren't enough original ideas out there, so everyone is looking for something to make a sequel of or more to a new medium (e.g., comic books moving to movies).
What about the Red Dust?
by
fudgefactor7
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
If you recall, we humans came up with this red dust stuff that killed the Visitors on contact...so they couldn't be on the surface of the planet--hope they answer that situation in the return.
Re:What about the Red Dust?
by
Jerk+City+Troll
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
If you recall, we humans came up with this red dust stuff that killed the Visitors on contact...so they couldn't be on the surface of the planet--hope they answer that situation in the return.
The Visitors probably will have learned how to synthesize the antidote the humans gave to the traitors.
Forget the synopsis... I want NBC to re-show the original series!
My wife and I have been joking about it forever.
I think this flash of the original would allow people to get "caught-up" on the story enough to enjoy the new story...
Otherwise, the first third of the new series is just going to have to introduce the viewers to the concept.
Bring back the original!
Davak
Re:Effects... Firefly
by
cowsgomoo666
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
They're thinking about making Firefly into a movie. It's a shame they axed Firefly and John Doe, they were the best shoes on TV (next to Smallville).
see http://www.darkhorizons.com/news-n.htm :
Firefly: The Movie: Prospero reports that it looks like the failed Joss Whedon sci-fi/western series "Firefly" may make a comeback on the big screen. Reports coming in indicate that during a recent Net chat, actor Adam Baldwin said "We will see a FF movie! Within 18 months!?". Its a little ambitious of course (even if it got underway now 18 months is still a little soon), but more certain news is fans of the show can pick up the whole series (incl. unaired eps) in an elaborate upcoming DVD box-set later this year. Thanks to 'VP'.
Is this the worst TV skiffy program ever?
by
cabalamat2
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The plot: Aliens come to the earth to steal our water
This is incredibly silly: if they want water, they could simply get it from Europa, or no doubt many places in their own solar system: hydrogen and oxygen aren't exactly rare elements, and if oxygen was rare there, life wouldn't have evolved there anyway.
Re:Is this the worst TV skiffy program ever?
by
PhxBlue
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
. ..and if oxygen was rare there, life wouldn't have evolved there anyway.
Animal life evolved on earth despite the presence of an oxygen atmosphere, not because of it. Prior to that, oxygen was just a corrosive by-product of photosynthesis. Even now, there're far more anoxic lifeforms on Earth than there are lifeforms that require molecular oxygen to live. . . probably by about 10:1 or so.
-- !#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
About the Red Dust
by
razberry636
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
If you recall, we humans came up with this red dust stuff that killed the Visitors on contact...so they couldn't be on the surface of the planet--hope they answer that situation in the return.
NBC had a "V" series that ran for a short while afterward. The "red dust" only worked in temporate climates. The Visitors had to move to tropical places, like the Bahamas, in order to survive.
Sad, huh. To be doomed to live a life in the tropics...
British miners strike
by
pork_spies
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
In the UK "V" was shown at the same time as a national miners strike. Britain's mining communities quickly warmed to the theme - for them the UK was in the grip of an evil alien she-monster and they went arount scrawling red 'V's everywhere
Re:British miners strike
by
el-spectre
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
According to the writer/director, at one point "V" was shown in (then segregated) South Africa, as "an example of white and black people working together peacefully". The next morning, thousands of red "V"s were spraypainted all over the country.
oopsie.
-- "Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
I wonder if there'll be more mouse-eating...
by
tuffy
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Or perhaps the Visitors will start chowing down on lemurs or perhaps a pygmy marmoset. In any case, while the original was entertaining enough when I was much younger, my tolerance for forced allegory has waned in recent years. But as long as there isn't any more "star children", perhaps there's hope for it.
--
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
20 years ago?
by
Washizu
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
"V" came out 20 years ago? Man, I was only four years old, but I remember someone scratching the fake skin off a lizard alien.
oh goody
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
More boring sci-fi from a guy who knows nothing about sci-fi.
Isn't this the same nimrod who made "The Incredible Hulk" boring and watered-down for TV?
What's next? "The Greatest American Hero Still Doesn't Know What He's Doing"?
Here's an idea: have ACTUAL sci-fi and fantasy authors do screenplays instead of hack writers who moonlight writing soap operas. Then see how things go.
Imagine Neil Gamain writing "Sliders". Now that would be weird.
robseth
Re:Great Series - NOT
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
And Star Trek was "Wagon Train in space".
No, you don't understand. V wasn't "Germans as aliens." It was a full-length miniseries about the German invasion of Austria. Completely written, final draft, pitched to the networks. They turned it down, so the writer (guy whose name I forgot AGAIN) tweaked the script, changing the settings and some characters' names and adding a scene here and there. "V" was never conceived as an allegory, or a retelling. It was conceived as a historical drama. The setting and some plot details were changed at the very last minute before production started.
Seriously, wouldn't you have rather they made "Childhoods' End" into a mini-series, instead? The story's timeless.
Uh. There's a lot that's good about "Childhood's End." But it's not the be-all, end-all you seem to think it is. In a lot of ways, it's a very amateurish novel. Clarke wrote it when he was just figuring out how to tell a story. In particular, the ending is just awful. It's deus ex machina of the worst kind. "All of a sudden, a magical hive-mind with supernatural powers emerged. The end."
"Childhood's End" tried to say something about large-scale change and the nature of transcendence. But it cut too many corners, and the story ended up falling flat.
A very different but much better book about the nature of change on a species-wide level is Varley's "Steel Beach." In fact, much of Varley's work deals with the theme of what it means to be human, and where the line is between human and "other," in very interesting ways that ALSO happen to be excellent stories.
Timely and realistic
by
poptones
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
"V" had its weaknesses but I still remember watching it every week even after it went to a series. We used to visit friends every thursday night and I still vividly recall one show starting out with a "fake news" report about motherships over washington that prompted my buddy, who was in the kitchen, to come running out exclaiming "WTF?" It was a wonderful "War of the Worlds" moment.
Anyone notice how many "nazi" films are showing up on TV lately? Gee, you don't think that could have anything at all to do with the atmosphere set by the current administration, do you?
"Childhood's End" - Early Singularity Fable
by
meehawl
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Childhood's aliens are merely subcontractors for another more powerful race with apocalytic intentions
Actually I think the wonderful and majestic Childhood's End was one of the early modern-form Singularity eschataological-themed science fiction books.
Current technological eschatology extensively uses the fictional device of runaway information technology leading to computerised transcendence. In Childhood's End, the theme was that all advanced dominant planetary species throughout the galaxy (except the "devils") inevitably developed their civilisations to a critical biomass of psychic cognition that would prompt the emergence of a new, absorptive group mind. The "demons" didn't hasten the process, or retard it -- they simple arrived to nursemaid the new organism.
In that era, most psychoactive drugs had yet to be prohibited, the "talking cure" of developmental psychoanalysis was at its zenith, and the potential effects of group psychology deployed within advertising and the new mass broadcast media seemed limitless. It was generally assumed that advancing pharmcological technology and increased self-actualization techniques would lead to stronger, mentally fitter humans. Of course, that didn't happen. These days, a lot of people put their faith in computation cycles, encryption, and wireless packet switching. Good luck with that.
Childhood's End is quite similar to a few other books of that 1950s era, especially Poul Anderson's Brainwave, which was one of the first books to advance the notion of different cognitive "zones" within the Galaxy that creates different levels of intelligence and self-awareness. This idea was most famously borrowed by Vernor Vinge for his 1980s Fire On The Deep space opera. I'm also thinking of Fritz Leiber's "The Girl WIth The Hungry Eyes".
Slashdot Mirror
I was really interested when they had this news on Saturday. I remember that being a family event for my house.
I did quite a bit of googling and apparently the script will be set 20 years afterwards the last movie, BUT a new ally will come to help us. Rumors on several sites that claimed to be close to Johnson said another alien race that defeated the "lizards" will come to save us. Sort of like an "operation iRaqi Freedom" effort on a planetary scale. The "new aliens" will be like a United States of the Universe that everyone is jealous of for their immense technology and "morality" - I could see how it would make a good commentary, just as the original was good commentary about WWII.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
The original was a lot of fun, but it killed itself with the superbaby junk. But it seems that there aren't enough original ideas out there, so everyone is looking for something to make a sequel of or more to a new medium (e.g., comic books moving to movies).
If you recall, we humans came up with this red dust stuff that killed the Visitors on contact...so they couldn't be on the surface of the planet--hope they answer that situation in the return.
Forget the synopsis... I want NBC to re-show the original series!
My wife and I have been joking about it forever.
I think this flash of the original would allow people to get "caught-up" on the story enough to enjoy the new story...
Otherwise, the first third of the new series is just going to have to introduce the viewers to the concept.
Bring back the original!
Davak
The plot: Aliens come to the earth to steal our water
This is incredibly silly: if they want water, they could simply get it from Europa, or no doubt many places in their own solar system: hydrogen and oxygen aren't exactly rare elements, and if oxygen was rare there, life wouldn't have evolved there anyway.
Sad, huh. To be doomed to live a life in the tropics...
In the UK "V" was shown at the same time as a national miners strike. Britain's mining communities quickly warmed to the theme - for them the UK was in the grip of an evil alien she-monster and they went arount scrawling red 'V's everywhere
Or perhaps the Visitors will start chowing down on lemurs or perhaps a pygmy marmoset. In any case, while the original was entertaining enough when I was much younger, my tolerance for forced allegory has waned in recent years. But as long as there isn't any more "star children", perhaps there's hope for it.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
"V" came out 20 years ago? Man, I was only four years old, but I remember someone scratching the fake skin off a lizard alien.
OddManIn: A Game of guns and game theory.
More boring sci-fi from a guy who knows nothing about sci-fi.
Isn't this the same nimrod who made "The Incredible Hulk" boring and watered-down for TV?
What's next? "The Greatest American Hero Still Doesn't Know What He's Doing"?
Here's an idea: have ACTUAL sci-fi and fantasy authors do screenplays instead of hack writers who moonlight writing soap operas. Then see how things go.
Imagine Neil Gamain writing "Sliders". Now that would be weird.
robseth
And Star Trek was "Wagon Train in space".
No, you don't understand. V wasn't "Germans as aliens." It was a full-length miniseries about the German invasion of Austria. Completely written, final draft, pitched to the networks. They turned it down, so the writer (guy whose name I forgot AGAIN) tweaked the script, changing the settings and some characters' names and adding a scene here and there. "V" was never conceived as an allegory, or a retelling. It was conceived as a historical drama. The setting and some plot details were changed at the very last minute before production started.
Seriously, wouldn't you have rather they made "Childhoods' End" into a mini-series, instead? The story's timeless.
Uh. There's a lot that's good about "Childhood's End." But it's not the be-all, end-all you seem to think it is. In a lot of ways, it's a very amateurish novel. Clarke wrote it when he was just figuring out how to tell a story. In particular, the ending is just awful. It's deus ex machina of the worst kind. "All of a sudden, a magical hive-mind with supernatural powers emerged. The end."
"Childhood's End" tried to say something about large-scale change and the nature of transcendence. But it cut too many corners, and the story ended up falling flat.
A very different but much better book about the nature of change on a species-wide level is Varley's "Steel Beach." In fact, much of Varley's work deals with the theme of what it means to be human, and where the line is between human and "other," in very interesting ways that ALSO happen to be excellent stories.
Anyone notice how many "nazi" films are showing up on TV lately? Gee, you don't think that could have anything at all to do with the atmosphere set by the current administration, do you?
Current technological eschatology extensively uses the fictional device of runaway information technology leading to computerised transcendence. In Childhood's End, the theme was that all advanced dominant planetary species throughout the galaxy (except the "devils") inevitably developed their civilisations to a critical biomass of psychic cognition that would prompt the emergence of a new, absorptive group mind. The "demons" didn't hasten the process, or retard it -- they simple arrived to nursemaid the new organism.
In that era, most psychoactive drugs had yet to be prohibited, the "talking cure" of developmental psychoanalysis was at its zenith, and the potential effects of group psychology deployed within advertising and the new mass broadcast media seemed limitless. It was generally assumed that advancing pharmcological technology and increased self-actualization techniques would lead to stronger, mentally fitter humans. Of course, that didn't happen. These days, a lot of people put their faith in computation cycles, encryption, and wireless packet switching. Good luck with that.
Childhood's End is quite similar to a few other books of that 1950s era, especially Poul Anderson's Brainwave, which was one of the first books to advance the notion of different cognitive "zones" within the Galaxy that creates different levels of intelligence and self-awareness. This idea was most famously borrowed by Vernor Vinge for his 1980s Fire On The Deep space opera. I'm also thinking of Fritz Leiber's "The Girl WIth The Hungry Eyes".
Da Blog