MovieChat Forums > V (1984) Discussion > V the series overview.

V the series overview.

posted 18 years ago by Darnadoe
12 replies | jump to latest

The series was as a whole unfourtunatly a failure, I will say however before out hink this is an attack on it I still find some of the episodes are brilliant. the first two or three? or four even episodes seem fine we have the excellently(for the budget) done return of the visitors diana and so on. But we have the intorduction of Lydia who seems to be there just to be for eye candy and to annoy and really were either of them high ranking enough to control the whole fleet? we have some great fights and battles most notably in Visitors choice but that really dones seem like the last gasp of it, after then nothing seems that memerable theres that clouse guy who should have stayed around then charles who I actully liked as he refocussed the visitors and he died way too early. But the over reuse of old stuff, some terrible acting, the visitors turning more and more into idiots, their inability to find a cuire for red dust, or apparently even invent the gas mask after seeing it worked to keep diana alive in the first episode! The utter uselessness of the visitor troops. The wacking plot holes that have been mentioned here already in the end through budget and inconsistant writing it was destined to fail. But despite all this I still watch it sometiems as I have it on vid and maybe in the end thats all that matters its campy and it was a failure yet its fun in its own way.

[–] Kahnite 18 years ago

You failed to mention the stupidest of the plot ploys, the "starchild"! That's what really killed the series (even before the series premiered with "V: The Final Battle"). I had several problems with this character:

A.) She was nothing but eye-candy. At least Lydia was a foil, Elizabeth just bumbled around the sets so much you half expected her to knock a prop over. Her character would have done well along side Tor Johnson in "Plan 9 from Outer Space".

B.) What's with the supernatural powers, powers neither the visitors, nor the humans possessed! Apparently the hybrid of a human/lizard combination results in runway model fresh off the cover of "Seventeen", with all the powers of Gandalf and then some.

C.) Her powers were a lame excuse for "deus ex machina" so the lazy @$$ writers could just invent some dumb new superpower each week instead of figuring a cleaver way out for our intrepid freedom fighters.

As for other aspects of the series, I have to agree with another poster about Ham. I liked his character a lot, but you really have to wonder after the first couple of episodes why he didn't just throw rest of the group under the bus. Was he really that lonely that he would stick with a group of misfits that consistently endangered his own survival with some gross act of stupidity each week? You gotta wonder.

Sincerely,
Kahnite

[–] Darnadoe 18 years ago

Oh yes I forgot about the star child nonsense, as far as I can tell in the final battle they were trying for the shes the universal missiah trick, But it never worked it looked stupid and exactly as you say if shes got all these powers why don't any of the Visitors or humans have half or limited pwoers. I know in the tv series they had that Jacob who made the forcefield who apparently had some power but, I don't know it seemed stretching it all way too far, things like that do give writers an easy way out and also gives Sci fi its quirky laughed at reputation.

And to also agree on the Ham tyler thing, thats pretty fair to say and when he went the show died, he held it togeather and to a lesser extent so did the charles charecter. I lvoed the itnerplay between mike and Ham though and I missed that when he went, and the killing of Elias was too much and really silly when it happened jsut oh look a laser I will run into its line of fire to see what it does AAAAAHHHH!

Overall its a damn shame as I think with better management and coordinated writing it could ahve been brilliant.But whast we got is a entertaining mess Diana seemed so weak. and also a failing from the final battle was yet again what became known as stormtrooper syndrome. The visitors were lousy fighters the only one that seemed to be able to hold his own was charles.

[–] raindog517 17 years ago

Was it ever explained WHY she was suddenly 16 years old a year after being born? Or was this an extreme case of "speed-aging" a la Andrew from Family Ties?

Who was the ad wizard who came up with this one?

[–] m-bachand 15 years ago

It was a result of her hybrid nature, and if you think about it, it does make a weird sort of sense, reptiles "age" at a much faster rate than humans, and since she was half reptile it make sense that she would take after her daddy :-)

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] dpcole7 13 years ago

About C.):

Given the number of humans and visitors, it's even more bizarre Diana doesn't try to make another starchild... there is nothing special about the current one, and if anything they could be lazy and say how the red dust helped make Elizabeth special... wait, that sounds tacky, too... there is nothing majorly unique about Elizabeth; nothing that could not be re-created. Writing in the Xon religion fluff with the tattoo on the inner-thumb, as means to explain it (or not), is a bit rubbish as well...

Maybe what you say is why Michael Ironside left - why would his character constantly hang around this merry band of nitwits, more concerned about their offspring than the big picture... (they tried to play the "walk a mile in my shoes" routine and it worked, which might be why Ham stayed as long as he had...)

[–] lorri789 13 years ago

That's what I thought. Why just the one?

[–] stormlord-2 17 years ago

I agree. If they wanted to do another V they should have continues with another mini-series. The whole series idea was doomed to fail.

[–] brianwolters 17 years ago

I agree...the first half of the series was pretty good and approached classic at times. While I liked the new credits, all of the episodes with them got worse...

[–] SCY385-1 17 years ago

I remember having high hopes for this show when it first aired. It had all the makings for one of the greats. I consider the two mini-series to be very clever, and smart. But, after the first four episodes, things got off track, and by December of 1984, it was off the air. I have always wished that someone would realize how much potential V has, and give it another shot. If it can be done with Battlestar Galactica, why not V.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Diamond97 15 years ago

I actually liked the series.

However, I did have a few dislikes:

I disliked Robert, Martin and Elias being killed on the show.

I felt that Elias was not being used enough on the show, and I really liked Elias.

I also felt that Robin was not being used enough, and I missed Blair Tefkin/Robin when she left.

I disliked Brian not being on the series. I know he died in the V: The Final Battle, (I hated when Brian was killed), but I liked his character and thought it would be interesting seeing Brian with his child, and with Robin. I thought he and Robin were interesting together.