KAMN Show #20: V
Welcome to Show #20!
The feature topic for this show is a pair of cult classic television miniseries, “V: The Miniseries”, and “V: The Final Battle”. The original miniseries, which first aired on NBC in 1983, and the continuation miniseries that aired in 1984, were created by Kenneth Johnson, and initially conceived of as an allegorical tale about the rise of fascism in the United States. But NBC wanted a scifi themed miniseries, and the rest is history.
The Ninjas go into the details about how the first series wanted to really hammer home a more modern warning against how easily a society could fall into being a fascist state (emphasis on hammer). But underneath the Holocaust metaphors, and the creator’s desire to showcase humanity’s need to fight for freedom, is an entertaining scifi-action adventure.
There is some nitpicking about story writing and the loss of story consistency between “V” and “V: The Final Battle”, but all in all, we enjoyed the first miniseries, and had some disappointment with the second one. We don’t talk about the television series at all. Ever.
If you have a comment on anything we’ve discussed, let us know! You can call us at 206-666-5266, or send us an email us and let us what you think.
Movies mentioned:
Link: Kenneth Johson Official Site
Link: Ilana’s V Celebrity Site
Link: Wikipedia: V
Link: Wikipedia: V: The Final Battle (stub entry)
Love the podcast, but one comment I’d like to make.
If you read the V novels the explanations for some of the plot holes make more sense.
The alien child at the end, she doesn’t absorb any energy from the ship handles. In the novel, she uses her incredible intellect to decode the ship’s access code to deactivate the destruct codes.
Also, the rebels in the book are very proficient at firearms. The biologist father claims that he could barely shoot an m16 in the beginnings, but by the final battle he can nail an aliens knee at 500 yards.
Sorry for the long comment, I really love your casts and keep it up!
Well, that’s not fair. You shouldn’t have to read the novelization in order to correct apparent holes that appear in the filmed version.
I’m guessing that’s the best they could do, because nowhere in the miniseries was she touted as having an amazing intellect, so showing her doing something technical would have been a stretch. Though why they thought showing her glowing and disarming the bombs also was a pull.
And it seems that we may have gotten the air dates of Final Battle and the series mixed up… I’m still double-checking that.
I was pretty young, but I enjoyed “V”. You guys repeatedly stated how incredulous you were at the level of stupidity of the humans. I hate to get all political and all, but look around you and see what people believe about terrorism, Iraq, politicians, religion, etc.. People believe anything and it doesn’t take years of convincing.
Anyway, IMDB has an entry for the sequel.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366112/maindetails
ah v.
nothing better for a teenaged boy in ‘83-’84 than the julie conversion scenes.
just disagree with joe’s comments that people aren’t stupid & wouldn’t fall for the demonising of scientists.
have you seen anyone wearing a hijab lately & had the word “terrorist” popped into your head?
i suffered through the tv series 1st time around & sympathise with summer not being able to watch it again. it was the first show ever that i wished would get cancelled so that i could stop watching it.
great trip down memory lane.
“A person can be smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”
I didn’t have that much of an issue with people falling for the line being fed to them…now.
When I first saw “V”, I was incredulous that people would fall for the bullshit. Having lived through a couple of WTF eras since then, and seen the bullshit get swallowed wholesale, I know better. I think it’s time for me to read “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis… it’s been in the middle of my TBR stack for a couple years now.
What I began to wonder about was if the stupidity was catching… I’m with Dave in wondering why the Visitors would so easily believe that Daniel had turned traitor was a bit of a stretch for me.
As for the updated sequel, I am curious to see it, if it gets completed.
I actually enjoyed the tv series when I first watched it. Though I agree I don’t think it stands the test of time so well.
My main memory of V was watching it for Faye Grant who played Julie, I had a bit of a crush on her at the time from when she was on the Greatest American Hero.
Anyway, great podcast, keep up the good work.
Great podcast as usual. I’m glad you all didn’t forget to mention that the Visitors also wanted humanity as a food source. That’s pretty rare in pop sci-fi. You’d kind of expect that if the invading species are “bug-eyed”, semi-intelligent monsters; but an advanced, interstellar species consuming humans was just creepy.
The Daniel thing didn’t bother me that much. It just seemed like misdirected anger from Steven for the lost of one of his (or Diane’s) best soldiers (Brian). Don’t forget the Nazi parallels to the Visitors. Even a shadow of a doubt in someone’s loyalty, especially from a human collaborator, would have been enough for Steven to nix him.
Daniel got served.
Hey there everyone,
I just listened to the V podcast and really enjoyed it.When I first watched this I did not get the link with WW2 and was really just excited to see people shooting laser guns.
One of the biggest moments in it was when you saw Diana eating that, was it a mouse that was still alive?? I agree the series wasnt as good as the original mini series but at the time I just loved the idea of the show and I do remember being dissapointed it came to a sudden end.
Im not sure much would be gained by doing a reimagining, if they did do it I think it would be nice if they brought back some of the orginal cast in bit parts that would be kind of fun.
Anyway keep up the good work
Gary
Ahhh… I LOVED the 2 miniseries.
And the first few books.
I agree that you shouldn’t HAVE to read the book to clean up plot holes. However it does clean up some. But then, so did the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The book also gave a reason why the spoke English on board. Something about the native language slitting the mask. But I’m not sure why they had to wear the human suits. I suspect so they were better able to act human(ish).
I am still looking for the TV series on DVD. I was able to get the mini series while visiting the US of A last year. And I was so joyed to finally get it again (since some so-and-so never returned my videos).
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Philip
Actually, there was a later remake of V. It was called “Earth: Final Conflict”.