V The TV series Episode 1 Liberation Day review
I'm watching this episode off of the Columbia House VHS collector's edition set. Which was released in 1997 as a part of Columbia Houses Re-TV collection. At the time Columbia House released a whole bunch of old TV series' in their entirety on VHS.
This set consists of 9 tapes and is the entire series. I have to say that the tapes are some of THE cheapest tapes that I have ever come across. I am of the belief that Columbia House knew that DVDs were on the horizon so they were just looking to cash in as much as they could while they still had time left.
I should note that I do have this set on DVD too, but I have a preference for VHS. So, I am turning my vintage TV to channel 3, pressing play on my VCR and off I go.
It starts off with an advertisement for Columbia House's aforementioned Re-TV releases. Quotes and videos of old TV series are shown. Unfortunately, the background music is annoying. It's a VERY up-tempo boogie with an overly joyous Saxophone solo. The song completely removes me from what is to come and actually makes me want to not watch any further. It's so bad that I want to throw away the tape! Still, at least it was performed by actual musicians, sans autotune and there's no willowy female singer making me cringe.
Liberation Day airdate: 10-26-1984
The opening is good. It uses a lot of stock footage from both the original V miniseries and V The Final Battle. It sums up a lot of what happened. So, for those who were tuning in for the first time back in 1984 they won't be too lost.
The TV series music starts off very serious and sinister. I especially like when it kicks into double time and the entire orchestra starts playing an up-tempo theme. It then transitions back to the original half time sinister melody. This was a great theme. It really fits the tone of the show.
It picks up right where V The Final Battle (V TFB) ended. Donovan hops into a space ship and chases after Diana who is trying to escape in her own space ship. Then Donovan shoots her down over a desert in California. The bad part of this is that the entire "dog fight" used nothing but stock footage from V TFB. Still, it did propel the show further.
Robin's Maxwell and her father (Robert Maxwell) are raising her alien/human hybrid daughter in a remote area in California. The remaining living family members from V TFB are missing which is odd. Robin had two sisters who survived. No explanation is given about their absence.
A news reporting helicopter starts filming Elizabeth from the air. Elizabeth uses her Starchild superpowers to make the wind blow the helicopter away. The Starchild superpowers are still dumb.
Nathan Bates is introduced as the crooked owner of Science Frontiers and is a GREAT addition to the show. He is in control of the captured Mother Ship from V TFB and his team led by Julie Parish are studying it.
Robin Maxwell decides to go on vacation and leave her alien/human hybrid daughter behind. This is dumb. A better plot device could have been used to get her away from her daughter to move the plot forward. Instead, Robin comes across as someone who cares more about her feelings than those of her daughter.
Nathan meets with Ham Tyler and offers him a lot of money to "kill" and then kidnap Diana. This is dumb. Ham was a mercenary yes, but he had a code of honor. He wouldn't have taken the money. Given the chance he would have straight up killed Diania.
Elias running his own restaurant, endorsing his own line of footwear and being an advisor on the film "Alien Attack" shows that his time on the streets taught him to capitalize on every opportunity that he could. He became a capitalist to the extreme. Willie is still very kind (Probably the kindest character in the entire cast).
Diania (now sporting some HUGE 80stastic hair) is "executed" before she reaches the courthouse, and her body is smuggled away in a truck. Donovan who is there with Martin, steal a helicopter, take to the skies and chase after the truck.
The aerial shots from the helicopter of California are really a fantastic representation of the 1980s. It's such an 80s looking shot that despite it being a city-scape it's quite beautiful.
Eizabeth is starting to mutate into something else. She begins tearing off the skin on her arm and underneath it looks like lizard skin. There's some really good makeup work on her bad arm. It looks gross.
Donovan and Martin (who are now traveling in a jeep) follow the truck carrying Diana to a shed in the woods. Nathan Bates and Ham Tyler are really using shed in the woods to hide Diana? Really?! With all of that money that Nathan game to Ham, the two of them couldn’t come up with a better place to keep her?!