The ending, why? - V: The Final Battle (1984) Discussion

[–] Ryu_2 20 years ago

One interpretation I've heard of the ending was that it was in reference to the biblical passage, A little child shall lead them. Elizabeth actually didn't bring about world peace (unless you somehow credit her just for being part of a birth that led to the war's end), she only managed to save the lives of Donovan, Julie, and co. The ending has never exactly rubbed me the right way either; they probably should've just avoided the whole self-destruct thing or found another way to resolve it.

As a fan of both miniseries, I highly suggest you not watch the ongoing series if you haven't already. The first two episodes are good, but for the most part after that, it has some notoriety (well deserved IMO) for being the overall weakest part of the V story.

My favorite chapters, in order, are The Final Battle, the original, and just some parts of the series.

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[–] billyad2000 20 years ago

I know what you mean -

I preferred the version that was released in the book V written by A C Crispin
The story is almost identical, however in this part of the story Elizabeth - who is actually show to be a child prodigy alters the programming so that the clock loops infinatly - far better in my oppinion

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[–] mistermorcus 19 years ago

SPOILERS

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I can't believe how much that ending sucked! I have the miniseries and the final battle and its hard for me to watch it now because of this ending. As far as I can reason I can't come up with a logical explanation as to how a half lizard half person would start to glow and save everyone with her ESP. It just doesn't make any sense.

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[–] Li-1 19 years ago

(Spoilers)
Man, that ending truly sucked. I mean, it was already weak enough that the whole plot boiled down to stopping the ultimate weapon (were parts 1 and 2 of TFB really even that necessary other than the birthing? We could have started at part 3 without feeling too lost), but resolving it all with a glowing half-lizard girl saving the day was just awful.

But I was willing to forgive it if they could pull off it in exciting fashion. No dice, the last battle was mostly pretty weak: how did all those resistance members end up on the Vistor Headquarter's lawn without being noticed, how did Steven and that other Visitor in the HQ not perish along with the rest of the Visitors from the dust (before Ham spread the dust on him personally, that is), how did the human resistance members become such perfect aims with laser guns, and how come no one bothers to bring up the possible effects the dust could have on Earth's own indigenous reptiles?

A lot of the best aspects of V, be it the Nazi allegory, the rather careful plotting and attention to detail (did the writers of TFB even remember that the Visitors could spit poisonous venom), the action scenes that involved genuine strategy (using mirrors during shootouts) and even some realism (the armory raid, for instance), and even the amount of sheer effort it took just to kill one of the alien visitors, all felt ditched in this rushed sequel. Heck, most of V actually looked like an 80s theatrical release, something not even TFB can lay claim to thanks to the darker lighting and flat camerawork.

Seriously, I had to watch DS9's Final Chapter story arc (Penumbra-What You Leave Behind) to see how a sci-fi war saga comes to a truly spectacular and satisfactory close.

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] RockGrey 17 years ago

I remember this ending. I too liked it better for the more realistic approach it had towards the saving of the Earth as well as the overall more detail it had in the story the book had of what happened in the miniseries.

Anybody want a peanut ?

- Fezzik, " The Princess Bride " ( 1987 )

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[–] stevenackerman69 15 years ago

Yeah, well, how can you show that on TV? I remember that. Also, notice how much cursing there was in the book? It was like David Mamet wrote it. Guess it was to make it more interesting. The book also changed some things that weren't in Final Battle:
1. Chris is killed in a raid.
2. Characters from the original are mentioned, like Abraham and Ben.
3. Brad does not become Mark.
4. Stanley and Lynn are still with Daniel.
5. Willie touches both of Robin's babies after they come out.
6. Robin does not see Elizabeth when she is born.
7. Michael and Ham see the second ship approach LA on their way to meet Martin.
8. Martin, once exposed as the contact, is living on Earth, but not in Visitor clothes.
9. Robin takes Elizabeth to Brian in his cell right after they bring Brian in and they see Robin kill Brian.
10. They don't move to a lighthouse, but a dairy, after they evacuate the jail.
11. The exchange between Mike and Sean is on a bridge, not in a tunnel, plus, Mike gives Sean his baseball cap.
12. After that exchange, Mike is up on the ship for a longer time, which is told by him growing a beard. He also has dreams that he isn't on Earth anymore and that the ship has left, taking him to Sirius.
13. After Robin makes the announcement that she wants the abortion, it is handled differently, where they talk about topical stuff and Willie mentions what the band is around Robin's neck. Mike also doesn't jump into the conversation for awhile as he did on TV.
14. It takes longer for Robert to accept Willie and there is a whole thing about blaming all the Visitors for one Visitor is like blaming all the Germans for Dachau or all Americans for Hiroshima.

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[–] tusk56 19 years ago

I agree with you if you can miss the 19 epsiode series if you can and watch the original and the final battle as you said the 1st 2 episodes of the series are good but the rest weaken the whole series and do not in anyway resemble the original or final batttle.

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[–] jpowell180 13 years ago

The "Star Child" (played by actress Brandy Gold (V: The final Battle is listed on her IMDB page, however the IMDB page for V: The Final Battle does not list HER, one of the main characters in the finale), sister of actresses Melissa and Tracey Gold, from Benson and Growing Pains)was supposed to, in addition to her rapid growth, also possess incredible intelligence; this was what interested Diana.
The ending was originally supposed to have Elizabeth hack into the Mother Ship's computer to disarm the "Doomsday Device"; NBC execs thought this to be a bit sophisticated for their viewers, so they pulled the Duex Ex Machina deal and had the kid's hands get all "sparkly-glowy" when she grabbed the controls, thus resolving things with some sort of "Force".
I rather think the hacking idea would have been better, to hell with the geewizbang of "space magic"!

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[–] tusk56 19 years ago

In the book of the series written by A.C.Crispin the ending is very different and totally believable Diana has left the doomsday device on a timer to give herself time to escape and Elizabeth uses this so that she can change the programme diana wrote for the timer and instead of minutes she puts it into a loop which just keeps running and means they can take there time trying to stop the explosion, I think they used her in the tv series glowing with sparkles all around her for not only effect which was stupid but to show that she had special powers but they should have stuck to what was written in the book cause it is more believable and it would still leave everyone impressed that this little girl who was a baby a few episodes earlier could reprogramme a computer.

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[–] jarsen95 18 years ago

V was also one of my most memorable and favorite sci-fi series of all time. I had no idea, that they came out with a book. Are there any more books relating to the series and where can i get my hands on one???

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[–] starwarsgod45 18 years ago

There were ten or twelve books published in the mid 80s. I'm not sure if you can still get them though. Some of them were about the LA resistance, and others were about resistance groups around the world. Some of the later ones got a little stupid other than those it was a good series of books overall.

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[–] sumdenguy 18 years ago

Oh endings SHMENDINGS!!!!!

Most movies have trouble putting an end to things.Most endings suck. The best endings are usually ones where the bad guys win or the antagonist loses. It seems to be hard to wrap things up in a way that pleases everyone(test audiences anyone?).

I'd compare this ending to James Cameron's The Abyss ending. Wow, everything is neatly wrapped and saved by aliens who know better than our dumb-asses. It''s basically just get it over with...however V went on to be a series...endings usually blow so cut it some slack.

When was the last time you saw a mini-series of this scale, and as enjoyable as this mini-series was, on TV anyway? I grew up in the era of mini-series(V, Salem's Lot, Shogun, The Thornbirds, Roots, The Martian Chronicles, North and South etc.) They just don't make 'em like they used to.

So if you're gonna whine about the last 10 minutes of a 272 minute show(not to menton the 197min V that preceded it, w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-WAKEUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It would be friggin awesome to see more mini-series on TV....bring them back, all of your shows are failing anywayz{networks}.

V be da cool, icanhascheezeburger?

M O'T

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[–] JediColt 15 years ago

How could you leave out Lonesome Dove? Best of the bunch, but yeah, I saw all those as a kid except Salem's lot, and I've seen it as an adult.

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[–] stevenackerman69 15 years ago

It was a marketing thing to capitalize on the miniseries. There were some changes, which I listed in another post in this subject. There was also cursing in the book, I guess to make it more interesting. Try looking at amazon.com to see a list of them. I might be able to find it for you as well.

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[–] Meldove 15 years ago

In the book of the series written by A.C.Crispin the ending is very different and totally believable Diana has left the doomsday device on a timer to give herself time to escape and Elizabeth uses this so that she can change the programme diana wrote for the timer and instead of minutes she puts it into a loop which just keeps running and means they can take there time trying to stop the explosion, I think they used her in the tv series glowing with sparkles all around her for not only effect which was stupid but to show that she had special powers but they should have stuck to what was written in the book cause it is more believable and it would still leave everyone impressed that this little girl who was a baby a few episodes earlier could reprogramme a computer.

I agree, they should have stuck with what was written in the book. It also would have made some sense continuity wise, because earlier on we saw Elizabeth next to Diana using the computer. I would have liked that ending a lot better!

The more I talk to you, the more the pain floods back.

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[–] harryplatt33702 15 years ago

The book was a TV-Tie in that was based upon the mini-series, not the other way around. There was nothing for them to 'stick with'. Kudos to the author of the book for improving upon a weak ending, though. It's a bit surprising she was given such leeway and allowed to make the change.

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[–] jamiemctaggart2003-1 18 years ago

I agree. The end ruined it a little. Hopefully she wont be in 2nd genaration.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Darkholme8 17 years ago

They had me right up to that part... I pretty much ignore the whole star child junk and the TV show as if they never happened. I tried to watch the TV show and barely made it through it, and afterward I wish I hadn't.

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[–] sylvia67 15 years ago

Yeah I was only 17 when i saw the ending to final battle, i thought at that time that it was silly and still do. I did enjoy the action of final battle and the storyline of the original miniseries. The final battle had better action but the original was more developed as a whole.

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[–] sparky736 15 years ago

I just finished this mini for the first time a couple minutes ago... loved both it and the original. Considered getting them both and watching them about once a year... Then that happened...

All I could think was "Human + Evil Alien Lizard = Deus Ex Machina"

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[–] stevenackerman69 15 years ago

It isn't that she brought world peace, Elizabeth just happened to have powers inside of her that could stop the doomsday device that Diana started to destroy Earth after she was defeated. I guess it was supposed to give her something to do.

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[–] virgon035 15 years ago

Pink teddy bears and rainbows would have been better than the silliness that was V - The Series. Big hair, overacting, overused special effects.

The Starchild got older and sexier, then she got more powerful Many of the characters disappeared.

In every episode, a visitor ripped off his face, someone ate a rodent, a bird and at one point a gummy worm.

In every episode, Willy messed up a word. "I am just" was believable, but "Who grows there?" and "I don;t eat rodents, I'm a veterenarian" just got silly.

Don't watch it!!

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