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."
Here's a little synopsis for those not born when this came out: Kenneth Johnson's brilliant 1983 mini-series takes Nazi Germany to a global scale. A group of aliens calling themselves "The Visitors" have come to Earth asking for aid for what they say is a peaceful mission. It doesn't take long for some humans to discover that they're really a race of lizard creatures intent on taking our water and using humans for food. After gaining public trust, the Visitors begin to seize control by manufacturing a conspiracy involving scientists who, like the Jews a half-century before, find themselves ostracized by the public and hunted.
--
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence. -Xenocrates
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
another alien race that defeated the "lizards" will come to save us. Sort of like an "operation iRaqi Freedom" effort on a planetary scale.
But after they "liberate" the Earth, will they have a hard time finding these so called "weapons of mass water depletion" and "bio-human McNugget processing" equipment that their leaders told the other planets in the federatoin? Will it turn out that the lizard race were simply a bunch of petty power hungry lamers who used their position to simply "live the good life" ignoring the well being of those they oppressed? Will they then speak harshly of the "bird race" that aided the lizard leaders and who themselves are suspected of harboring these water depletion devices?
That was how they ended the second (?) movie, but in the regular series, I vaguely remember they had established that the red chemical was, in fact, harmful to humans, so they had to stop using it, but they tried to keep that facts under wraps from the aliens.
-- "Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life." -- Marcus Aurelius, _Meditations_, Book 9, 37
I remember that being a family event for my house.
I remember it being a big family event at my house too. I was watching it with my mom and two brothers and we were on the final episode. I was in the back of the room, my mom was in a chair in front of me on my left, my younger brother was lying on the couch in front of me on my right, and my older brother was lifting weights in the middle of the room while watching TV (why? I don't know).
Well one of the clamps holding the weights had broken because my brother over-tightened it so he took off that clamp and then took off the other so that it was balanced. You can see what's coming.
During an extremely suspenseful moment, my older brother is standing there just holding the weights at chest level, eyes glued to the screen. The bar on the right slowly tips down to the right. My eyes are diverted from the TV screen by the weight which slides off the bar and "Bam!" right onto my younger brothers head.
"Oh, no!", my older brother cried and tilted the bar the other way causing a weight on the left to slide off and hit my mom's leg causing her to scream in pain. My older brother and I rush to my younger brother who has this dazed look on his face and is holding his head. He doesn't realize that his hand is filling up with blood. He looks at my older brother and says, "You dork" very softly. He then realized that his hand was all wet and pandemonium ensued.
As my family is rushing out the door to go to the hospital, I start arguing with my mom over whether I can stay and watch V. The argument didn't last long. I never did find out what happened.
Sigh!
I have been wanting to rent the whole series for the past 10 years to find out what I missed and if it's as enjoyable as I remember it, but it is too much of a commitment.
...David Icke seen foaming at the mouth and ripping biblically at his turquoise shellsuit. No film at 11 as the Bilderberg Group have confiscated it.
-- --
Proud descendant of semi-nomadic cattle-herders.
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
Dutchmaan
·
· Score: 4, Informative
If you'll recall, later in the series the "red dust" didn't work as well in tropical and temperate zones leaving it only "effective" in the colder polar regions...
So I doubt the red dust issue will even be a factor.
I guess I'm more of a geed than I thought...
Sounds familiar...
by
pir8garth
·
· Score: 4, Funny
"...came to Earth with the promise to solve the world's problems through their high technology, but after gaining control of the planet through subterfuge and media manipulation, began to methodically kill their hosts."
Sounds suspiciously like V could have been predicting Microsoft's rise to power...I think I may go live in a cave
-- Something clever...
Let's see here...
by
Vengeance
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Battlestar Galactica? Check V? Check
Next up: Man from Atlantis
-- It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
Re:Let's see here...
by
HarveyBirdman
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
All three of which are better than more Crossing Over With John (bleeping) Edwards, or Scare (bleeping) Tactics.
-- ---
Ban humanity.
Re:Let's see here...
by
Neil+Watson
·
· Score: 3, Informative
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'.
-- You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
Bring back Molly Ringwald as the V-mom
by
corebreech
·
· Score: 4, Funny
And this time, let's do more than just hearing the lizard-people belch after a meal of human. I want to see somebody get eaten. I want to know what kind of wine goes best with human. Do the lizard-people have anything like the Atkins Diet? How many carbs are in a human anyways?
Re:Bring back Molly Ringwald as the V-mom
by
DreamingReal
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Bring back Molly Ringwald as the V-mom
That was Blair Tefkin, not Molly Ringwald. And that magical visitor kid ending ruined the entire series for me. I'd prefer that they leave it alone.
-- We want some answers and all that we get
Some kind of shit about a terrorist threat
- Ministry
Re:Bring back Molly Ringwald as the V-mom
by
corbettw
·
· Score: 4, Funny
"I want to know what kind of wine goes best with human."
Why, a nice Chianti, of course!
-- God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
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.
History Repeats itself
by
SL33Z3
·
· Score: 3, Funny
The series would be better if Robert England would have an identity crisis and confuse his alien role with his Fredie Kruger role. At least then you could have an interesting plot.
-- SL33ZE
- Artificial Intelligence is No Match For Natural Stupidity -
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...
Did "V" rip-off "Childhood's End"?
by
peter303
·
· Score: 5, Informative
"V" (and "Independence Day") start out the same as Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End", a favorite of mine. A single huge alien ship suddenly appears above each of Earth's major cities. The aliens stay hidden for a while because they are repulsive reptiles. Then the stories diverge. Childhood's aliens are merely subcontractors for another more powerful race with apocalytic intentions. "V" degenerates into a cops-and-robbers action series.
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.
Re:Great Series - NOT
by
tomhudson
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
The series was shit. Tacky, dated, sci-fi at its' worst - with the opening premise ripped off from Clarke's "Childhood's End", and everything going downhill from there. "Original" only to people who can't read.
Guess that's why so many people watched it -
"There's no underestimating the intelligence of the American public." - Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1955)
It wasn't just the water, dummy!
by
EvilStein
·
· Score: 4, Funny
The Visitors had a little trouble finding a Starbucks on Pluto, but you can't swing a dead cat on this planet without hitting one.
C'mon. Visitors need their morning venti latte goodness too. Selfish human!
Wow V.. now I feel old
by
malice95
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Dam has it been 20 yrs? I remember that series like it just aired last year.. I was 12 when it hit the little screen. I remeber the Eating live mice bit and all the lasers... This rag tag humans were just so ingenious compared to the dim witted aliens. Oh.. and the glasses so you could figure out who was a visitor and who wasnt. I remeber on of the big fast food chains gave those out.. Red colored glasses I think.
Malice
Software glitches of the future
by
lightspawn
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Or were they the ones that went "diggity-diggity - hello Dr. Theopolis"?
You mean "BIDI-BIDI-BIDI <obvious comment>, Buck!".
By the 25th century, medical knowledge will have advanced so much that humans will no longer have speech impediments. OTOH, comp sci advances will make robots so humanlike they'll start developing them.
How does a bug like that get out of QA without being caught? Should the vendor be sued? Can a patch be issued? Is Twiki running windows 2491?
Oh, my lunch!
by
codefool
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Lordy, just when I didn't think television couldn't get any worse...
Okay, V was an 'okay' show - just okay. I have a fundamental problem with their story premise that I just can't muster enough suspension of disbelief to swallow.
They come to Earth for two reasons:
Water
Food
So they're saying this alien race can build these huge inter-stellar vehicles but we can't figure out how to generate water and farm food animals? That somehow its easier to mind f*** an entire planet and dress up like humans than just flat out invade? What kind of lazy writing is that?
Kinda reminds me of the pong gag on the Simpson's halloween special a few years back. "All species who have mastered inter-galactic travel raise their tentacles."
Re:V the second generation?
by
tomhudson
·
· Score: 4, Funny
No, after V, there's
VI (roman numerals)
W (alphabetical order)
V2 (bombs away!)
U (the prequel)
V++ (V with classes)
V# (V extended by M$)
V.pm (the perl module)
GNV (GNU V - GNV is Not V)
Got any more?
Worst Thomas Pynchon Adaptation Ever!
by
Tax+Boy
·
· Score: 4, Funny
I mean really. WTF with all the aliens?
the humans are terrorists!
by
Frymaster
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
what the hell are they thinking? v glorifies terrorism! witness:
the humans don't wear uniforms - they are "unclassified combatants"
they wear the visitors' uniforms in combat situations
they win in the first series by using biological weapons of mass destruction
given the current political atmosphere in the united states i find it amazing that anyone could dare glorify the efforts of extremist human terrorists.
Re:synopsis recollections
by
mnemotronic
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
As I recall, the whole alien/nazi earthling/jewish thing was way too haavy-handed and preachy. The "V" insignia was a swastika with a few missing chunks, the uniforms were SS. They may have even had the equivalent of "hitler youth", but my brain is rebelling at trying to remember. No subtlety, too little imagination, really bad dialog, and a limp, hole-ridden plot (i.e. like "Matrix" but without the overly-long fight scenes). Please, if you're going to waste my time and beat me over the head with your same-old message, at least show me some t*t.
-- The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Does this mean I can relive all of my Jane Badler fantasies I had as a kid?
Watching her slowly eat that mouse, just wishing that some part of me were...
Sorry, I'll be right back.
-Goran
-- Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
Re:Nazis? Huh? I just don't see it...
by
grungeKid
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The Nazi paralells were in the way the visitors slowly took over the planet. Remember; they did not take it over with brute force at first, but through manipulation, much like the Nazi party rose to power.
They fabricated a conspiracy in the scientific community, making those in power treat scientists (and later on, anyone related to or in contact with scientist) as criminals, paralelling the way the Nazi's made the german society mistrust the Jews.
They also made sure to control the mass media early on, telling their version of events (paralelling Goebbels quote "If you tell a big enough Lie, and keep on repeating it, in the end people will come to believe it")
Later on, scientists and other visitor enemies were placed in labour camps, which was in reality genocide camps, another paralell.
The visitor friends program was an obvious Hitlerjugend paralell.
In other aspect (such as the human informants), it more resembled East europe communism.
You be overlookin' the obvious
by
Ethelred+Unraed
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Just about every Alien Invasion movie has this problem... they all expect the aliens to come to Earth to grab our "resources" but the fact is earth is a piss poor place to get resources.
Y'all's overlookin' the obvious. "They" don't come here for our resources. They come for our women.
However, if we geeks were to defend the Earth against a large gaggle of female-snatching aliens from the planet Zod, the Zodders would make off with them before we knew what hit us.
Worse, the women would take one look at us (or at the back our Slashdot-reading heads) and go willingly for a little Zodomy.
(I don't know what got into me on that post. I really don't.)
Cheers,
Ethelred
-- Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
Re:Nazis? Huh? I just don't see it...
by
vidarh
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Maybe you should go back and watch it again (it's out on DVD) and look for:
The youth movement used to snitch on their parents.
The arm bands
The Jewish family that had been through Nazi persecution making a big point about how it is "happening again"
How they make a big point about how they are looking after the public good, and stamp all opposition as a threat to the state
How the make excessive use of staged media events for propaganda
The "prisoners" that are really being taken away to be killed (yes, by being used as food, instead of just as mostly waste) instead of serving sentences as people were being told
How they see humans as inferior (as opposed to the Nazi's seeing non-germanic people as inferior)
Breeding programs (lizard - human pregnancies, much as the Nazis had extensive programs to breed the perfect master race through careful selection)
(as you mentioned) The victimisation of scientists and other intellectuals (the lizards shared with the Nazis an excessive program of arresting and discrediting scientists and political opponents, including pegging crimes on their opponents to turn public opinion against them - Reichtags fire, anyone?)
The parallels are so blatant and in your face that it at some points it really disturbs the story, but I guess that's the point.
Yes, you are right, the lizards wanted humans for food, while the Nazis wanted racial purity and power, but it both amounts to a fundamental disrespect for other sentient beings - all of humanity in the case of the lizards, and "just" all non-germanic people and all in political opposition or anyone who for any other reason didn't fit into the Nazi ideal in the case of the Nazis.
Without some twists, there would have been no point making it as a sci fi series instead of making yet another series about the war.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's a little synopsis for those not born when this came out:
Kenneth Johnson's brilliant 1983 mini-series takes Nazi Germany to a global scale. A group of aliens calling themselves "The Visitors" have come to Earth asking for aid for what they say is a peaceful mission. It doesn't take long for some humans to discover that they're really a race of lizard creatures intent on taking our water and using humans for food. After gaining public trust, the Visitors begin to seize control by manufacturing a conspiracy involving scientists who, like the Jews a half-century before, find themselves ostracized by the public and hunted.
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-Xenocrates
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
...David Icke seen foaming at the mouth and ripping biblically at his turquoise shellsuit. No film at 11 as the Bilderberg Group have confiscated it.
-- Proud descendant of semi-nomadic cattle-herders.
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.
"...came to Earth with the promise to solve the world's problems through their high technology, but after gaining control of the planet through subterfuge and media manipulation, began to methodically kill their hosts."
Sounds suspiciously like V could have been predicting Microsoft's rise to power...I think I may go live in a cave
Something clever...
Battlestar Galactica? Check
V? Check
Next up: Man from Atlantis
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
W
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
And this time, let's do more than just hearing the lizard-people belch after a meal of human. I want to see somebody get eaten. I want to know what kind of wine goes best with human. Do the lizard-people have anything like the Atkins Diet? How many carbs are in a human anyways?
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
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.
The series would be better if Robert England would have an identity crisis and confuse his alien role with his Fredie Kruger role. At least then you could have an interesting plot.
SL33ZE - Artificial Intelligence is No Match For Natural Stupidity -
Sad, huh. To be doomed to live a life in the tropics...
"V" (and "Independence Day") start out the same as Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End", a favorite of mine. A single huge alien ship suddenly appears above each of Earth's major cities. The aliens stay hidden for a while because they are repulsive reptiles. Then the stories diverge. Childhood's aliens are merely subcontractors for another more powerful race with apocalytic intentions. "V" degenerates into a cops-and-robbers action series.
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
Guess that's why so many people watched it -
The Visitors had a little trouble finding a Starbucks on Pluto, but you can't swing a dead cat on this planet without hitting one.
C'mon. Visitors need their morning venti latte goodness too. Selfish human!
Dam has it been 20 yrs? I remember that series like it just aired last year.. I was 12 when it hit the little screen. I remeber the Eating live mice bit and all the lasers... This rag tag humans were just so ingenious compared to the dim witted aliens. Oh.. and the glasses so you could figure out who was a visitor and who wasnt. I remeber on of the big fast food chains gave those out.. Red colored glasses I think.
Malice
Or were they the ones that went "diggity-diggity - hello Dr. Theopolis"?
You mean "BIDI-BIDI-BIDI <obvious comment>, Buck!".
By the 25th century, medical knowledge will have advanced so much that humans will no longer have speech impediments. OTOH, comp sci advances will make robots so humanlike they'll start developing them.
How does a bug like that get out of QA without being caught? Should the vendor be sued? Can a patch be issued? Is Twiki running windows 2491?
Okay, V was an 'okay' show - just okay. I have a fundamental problem with their story premise that I just can't muster enough suspension of disbelief to swallow.
They come to Earth for two reasons:
- Water
- Food
So they're saying this alien race can build these huge inter-stellar vehicles but we can't figure out how to generate water and farm food animals? That somehow its easier to mind f*** an entire planet and dress up like humans than just flat out invade? What kind of lazy writing is that?Kinda reminds me of the pong gag on the Simpson's halloween special a few years back. "All species who have mastered inter-galactic travel raise their tentacles."
"Stop whining!" - Arnold, as Mr. Kimble
- VI (roman numerals)
- W (alphabetical order)
- V2 (bombs away!)
- U (the prequel)
- V++ (V with classes)
- V# (V extended by M$)
- V.pm (the perl module)
- GNV (GNU V - GNV is Not V)
Got any more?I mean really. WTF with all the aliens?
- the humans don't wear uniforms - they are "unclassified combatants"
- they wear the visitors' uniforms in combat situations
- they win in the first series by using biological weapons of mass destruction
given the current political atmosphere in the united states i find it amazing that anyone could dare glorify the efforts of extremist human terrorists.now, everyone together: "no blood for water!"
2 1337 4 u!
As I recall, the whole alien/nazi earthling/jewish thing was way too haavy-handed and preachy. The "V" insignia was a swastika with a few missing chunks, the uniforms were SS. They may have even had the equivalent of "hitler youth", but my brain is rebelling at trying to remember. No subtlety, too little imagination, really bad dialog, and a limp, hole-ridden plot (i.e. like "Matrix" but without the overly-long fight scenes). Please, if you're going to waste my time and beat me over the head with your same-old message, at least show me some t*t.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Does this mean I can relive all of my Jane Badler fantasies I had as a kid?
Watching her slowly eat that mouse, just wishing that some part of me were...
Sorry, I'll be right back.
-Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
The Nazi paralells were in the way the visitors slowly took over the planet. Remember; they did not take it over with brute force at first, but through manipulation, much like the Nazi party rose to power.
They fabricated a conspiracy in the scientific community, making those in power treat scientists (and later on, anyone related to or in contact with scientist) as criminals, paralelling the way the Nazi's made the german society mistrust the Jews.
They also made sure to control the mass media early on, telling their version of events (paralelling Goebbels quote "If you tell a big enough Lie, and keep on repeating it, in the end people will come to believe it")
Later on, scientists and other visitor enemies were placed in labour camps, which was in reality genocide camps, another paralell.
The visitor friends program was an obvious Hitlerjugend paralell.
In other aspect (such as the human informants), it more resembled East europe communism.
Y'all's overlookin' the obvious. "They" don't come here for our resources. They come for our women.
However, if we geeks were to defend the Earth against a large gaggle of female-snatching aliens from the planet Zod, the Zodders would make off with them before we knew what hit us.
Worse, the women would take one look at us (or at the back our Slashdot-reading heads) and go willingly for a little Zodomy.
(I don't know what got into me on that post. I really don't.)
Cheers,
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
The parallels are so blatant and in your face that it at some points it really disturbs the story, but I guess that's the point.
Yes, you are right, the lizards wanted humans for food, while the Nazis wanted racial purity and power, but it both amounts to a fundamental disrespect for other sentient beings - all of humanity in the case of the lizards, and "just" all non-germanic people and all in political opposition or anyone who for any other reason didn't fit into the Nazi ideal in the case of the Nazis.
Without some twists, there would have been no point making it as a sci fi series instead of making yet another series about the war.