MovieChat Forums > V: The Final Battle (1984) Discussion > After re watching a few episodes of the ...

After re watching a few episodes of the short lived series....

posted 15 years ago by cataclysm1071
14 replies | jump to latest

I was recently watching one or two episodes of the short lived series that followed "The Final Battle". I noticed that the writers were seriously trying to capitalize on the popularity of nighttime soaps that were so popular back in 1985....ie. "Dynasty", "Dallas", etc.. This was evident with the catty comments and cat fights between Jane Badler and June Chadwick. The big hair, streaky red blush on the cheeks, etc...

This series tanked because they had strayed far from the original by introducing "eye candy", soap opera esque story lines, and idiotic plot lines in which to showcase the affore mentioned eye candy.

[–] TheSolarSailor 15 years ago

All true, though I think the series' fall already started to rear it's head in V The Final Battle. VTFB was still good because it directly continues very good plot threads that were started in the first mini-series...the story of Daniel, Donovan's search for his son, the building resistance, Donovan's mother, getting the truth out to more people. But then we have the new elements, the worst of which was Julie in the conversion chamber. This could have been a great scene that really played on psychology, but instead we got giant lizards and a Godzilla head rolling down the hallway after Julie, hissing her name like a serial killer from the movies! Let's not forget the really bad way they used the starchild as well. It was juvenile and pathetic. It started becoming cheap science fiction, a real let down from the high brow relevant approach of the first mini-series. VTFB still managed to be enjoyable thanks to it's direct links to the first series, but it set the stage for the nonsense that was to come.

- - - - - - -
Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

[–] jackiechad 15 years ago

Hard to argue with anything you said, SolarSailor. Seems like the more they got away from Kenny Johnson's influence the faster it went downhill. I still enjoyed Final Battle, but it can't touch the first one.
Going to go rewatch the following series soon.

Stand by for Ludicrous Speed......

[–] Colonel-T 15 years ago

I don't know, people are very hard on the weekly series, but I do think the first dozen or so episodes have more than enough good stuff to outweigh the bad, particularly the whole 'Casablanca'/Open City scenario.

[–] giamatt02 15 years ago

I agree, I just recently re-watched the series and the first 4 or five episodes really aren't all that bad, if you overlook some of the inconsistencies. I think you notice some of the silliness taking hold in the 5th (?) episode where the Visitors gather together for the food processing convention, haha.

[–] Colonel-T 15 years ago

>> I think you notice some of the silliness taking hold in the 5th (?) episode where the Visitors gather together for the food processing convention, haha. <<

Ha ha, I know what you mean, although I do think that episode features some of the best action sequences in all 19 episodes.

The series hits a peak in Episode 10 'The Conversion'; I honestly think if they could have carried on like that, the show might have lasted longer. However, within a few episodes of that, with a drastically reduced cast and a shift in the show's 'format', they're scraping the bottom with crap like 'The Champion' and 'The Wildcats'.

[–] giamatt02 15 years ago

Oh, even as a 13 year old kid at the time, I knew that the episodes after Ham and Robin left were absolutely horrible... I used to say it seemed like the A-Team with aliens. Every week they'd come to some town and help a few people and be on their way...

[–] Colonel-T 15 years ago

I couldn't agree more. I was 9 when we got the weekly TV series here in the UK, and every week I'd pray that Ham and some of the other characters would return in this episode and restore the quality. However, I do think Episodes 13, 16 and 19 are pretty decent, despite the odd cringey moment.

It's funny to think that Ham was always meant to return in the unfilmed 20th episode.

[–] dpcole7 11 years ago

The first 7 or 8 were remarkably good, considering...

Though martin gets killed off, and that's the beginning of the problems. Ham was one of the better aspects to VTFB, so his departure is a blow... the lack of resonance in the Visitors' voices is lame as well.

There's an episode later on where - spoiler alert - Julie and Donovan wear human masks over alien masks -- seriously??? And yet only in the ill-fated series do we see native Visitor heads unmasked for real...

The use of the Visitor language word "pretenawah" gets altered...

Best of all, there is a Visitor ritual has friz-hair Diana and competitor putting on face paint... over their human masks?!! It's nice to see them try to flesh out Visitor culture, but to not bother with native Visitor heads... it's embarrassing.

The last episode or two showed improvement, even with a new title sequence that hits a home run, but it was too late.

There's an alternate version of the 2nd episode that was NOT put on the DVD set

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dpcole7 11 years ago

VTFB definitely coasted. Even in part 1, it was too simply for Earth beings to quickly forge Visitor credentials, especially with all the exposition telling us of how hard it would be to get the card to copy it, changing codes if one card was missed, etc. Would the fifth column have really been able to help out in any worthwhile detail to get the equipment (complete with Star Trek sound effects!) ready for the Resistance?

Yet part 1 is otherwise rock solid, with a fantastic cliffhanger.

Then it goes downhill. and as you said, the attempted conversion is one big fail. They can't show nudity so let's use a peach colored bodysuit that leaves virtually nothing to the imagination anyway... then the B-level horror movie talking lizard... the sub-B-level Robyn giving birth routine, revenge against the lizard boyfriend that knocked her up, the soap opera between the cop and his girlfriend and hating her getting busy with Daniel - it was trite, though the action sequences were fairly cleverly done...

Kenneth Johnson's original miniseries and ideas that he'd wanted were far better...

[–] stevenackerman69 15 years ago

I think the other problem with making it a series was that every episode was basically the same with the resistance outwitting the Visitors' plans. In the miniseries, like Final Battle, we got to know the resistance characters so when one died, we cared. It wasn't just fighting.

[–] ladyMoonEclipse 14 years ago

i just got my hands on this series, i vaguely remember seeing it as a very young kid in the late 80's, somehow the birth scene was way more terrifying back then,one thing though seeing the visitors eat rodents still makes me squirm and turn away from screen, i've watch 2episodes so far of the tv series , not so bad, if ur willing to suspend belief beyond belief, like say:

i'm suppose to believe that the "death star"ish ship could nuke one of jupiter's moon poof but can't get rid of one pesky mothership on a collision course with it? in this instance i'll agree with diana, poor judgement on blondie who made stupid mistakes for the little while she left her in command of fleet, what else can u say?

[–] wallacesawyer 11 years ago

I remember watching the show on TV years ago. I bought the DVD set in fact, but actually haven't gotten around to watching any episode. I watched the mini-series last night, and will watch THE FINAL BATTLE tonight, so maybe I'll be bumped for more. But from what I remember I was most disappointed by it killing off or writing out so many characters from the mini-series'. And the lack of closure in the final episode, but sadly it was cancelled.

http://www.freewebs.com/demonictoys/

[–] Mattfinbell 10 years ago

well it was a couple of reasons money

it become only the star child and then the fighting of the leaders in the ship

TheSolarSailor
But then we have the new elements, the worst of which was Julie in the conversion chamber. This could have been a great scene that really played on psychology, but instead we got giant lizards and a Godzilla head rolling down the hallway after Julie, hissing her name like a serial killer from the movies!

what was wrong with that!?? yeah to make sure she stays there remember the control Diane had over Julia Parrish in the end

giamatt02
I agree, I just recently re-watched the series and the first 4 or five episodes really aren't all that bad, if you overlook some of the inconsistencies. I think you notice some of the silliness taking hold in the 5th (?) episode where the Visitors gather together for the food processing convention, haha.

How was that not good?

dpcole7 »Kenneth Johnson's original miniseries and ideas that he'd wanted were far better...

If you read the book he wrote no it wasnt Taylor was hardly in the book and there was another alien species but it was so stupid

Look like Tarzan talk like Jane! HAHA