But I must thank “Independence Day” for one thing – it provided the impetus for the Sci-Fi Channel to show the entire “V” series, so that I could finally fill out my fragmentary collection, begun so long ago in 1985.

In sharp contrast to “Independence Day,” “V” is a story not merely consumed with impressing its audience with a big budget and admittedly impressive CGI show, but instead enticing the viewer in with a frightening vision of a believable alien invasion with believable objectives and methods, made all the more disturbing because of its similarities to the darkest period in recent history – Nazi Germany.

Creator Kenneth Johnson withdrew from the series after the original miniseries, apparently due to disagreements with Blatt-Singer Productions.  As a result, “V:  The Final Battle” and the weekly series do not always address the fascist parallel (exceptions include “The Final Battle” part one, “Breakout,” “The Sanction,” “The Hero,” and “War of Illusion), but I don’t consider that a weakness.  Good science fiction should be allowed to be science fiction, not merely an allegory about historical or current events.  “V” draws strongly on H. G. Wells’s “The War of the Worlds” and Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End,” neither of which are allegories for contemporary issues.  They’re actually about alien invasions.  And anyone who stops to consider the matter seriously will realize that the possibility of an alien invasion is not as laughable as some of the ‘50’s B-movies.  Consider the motivations and techniques of Wells’s Martians, Clarke’s Overlords, or Johnson’s Visitors, and you can see how such an invasion could indeed come about, and why – assuming astronomical predictions of the likelihood of advanced civilizations Out There are correct.  While not as prevalent as more immediate concerns, like near-Earth asteroids, solar flares, the fluorocarbons eating the ozone, or the slow and inexorable decline of our space program, it remains a titillating possibility – and one which I sometimes wonder might do our planet some good (read the chapter “Concerning E. T.s” in Clarke’s “2001:  A Space Odyssey”).

In the first “V” miniseries we see the initial excitement and curiosity which would accompany that first breathtaking contact – as well as the extensive media coverage, which becomes the Visitors’ greatest weapon – and then the mingling of Visitors and humans and the psychological adjustment that follows, before the Visitors’ real objectives become clear.

It surprises me how many people, including some “V” fans, are under the misconception that V stands for Visitors.  It does not, and it really annoys me when I hear people refer to the Visitors as the Vs.  As any World War II veteran will tell you, V stands for Victory.  Just as in the series, the underground in World War II Europe would spraypaint V graffiti on walls.

The second miniseries, erroneously titled “V:  The Final Battle,” introduces Michael Ironside as Ham Tyler, and thus is born the Donovan-Tyler action duo which is at least forty percent of the fuel of my “V” addiction.

What makes Donovan and Tyler so successful together – as, no doubt, has been stated before by many a “V” fan -- is their opposing personalities.  With Tyler’s cold, vicious dedication to destroying the Visitors, along with anyone or anything that helps them, contrasted with Donovan’s more trusting, sympathetic warmth, the two of them together are unstoppable by virtue of sheer audacity.  One of my favorite Donovan-Tyler moments is in “The Dissident,” when a delivery truck drives onto the grounds of the Visitor legation, is passed by the sentry on guard, and cruises on in – then we see Donovan and Tyler arrogantly lying side-by-side on top of the truck, just as it drives past the heavily guarded main entrance.

I really don’t think Donovan is aware that he’s a hero.  Judging by the brief glimpse we see of his pre-invasion life in the original miniseries, he has always lived on the edge, battling evil and oppression in every corner of the world.  He nonchalantly tells the newly formed Resistance, “While you’re raising hell down here, I’m gonna infiltrate the Mother Ship and try to get a handle on their plans.”  It just doesn’t occur to him that everybody doesn’t live like that.  He’s the Indiana Jones of  newsmen.

Tyler, on the other hand, couldn’t care less whether the world sees him as a hero or a villain.  He’s simply fixed on accomplishing whatever he’s trying to accomplish, possibly in revenge against the world for taking away his wife and daughter, and also to mask his own pain.  Not to simplify his motivations, which are undoubtedly rooted in a lifetime of experiences, but the loss of his family is the only hidden pain or experience in his past that we’re introduced to in the series.

The explosive Donovan-Tyler mixture is but one example of a motif that’s often visited in “V,” and that’s a William Blakean Romanticism – “Without contraries is no progression.”

I’ve often thought that, if everyone in the world were to join the Resistance, the Visitors wouldn’t have a prayer, despite the laser weapons and skyfighters.  How many Visitors can one Mother Ship carry?  Even fifty Mother Ships carrying thousands of Visitors cannot possibly match the overcrowded human population, even accounting for war casualties.

As Blake said, “He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence.”  The real enemy in “V” is inaction.  The disgusting do-nothingness which is the Visitors’ most fervent ally is most strongly seen in Eleanor Dupres, who is content to allow herself to be ruled by the Visitors in order to secure for herself an advantageous position in relation to other people.  “I know the Visitors aren’t saints,” she says, “but they’re in power.”

Perhaps a more appropriate example is Annie’s mother in “Breakout.”  She sits contentedly under the Visitors’ rule and betrays Donovan and Tyler even though she would rather see the Visitors defeated.  “We can’t fight them, Annie,” she says.  “All we can do is try to survive.”

Now, onto more personal and less philosophical thoughts on “V.”  Why is it a fun show?  Why do we faithfully watch our reruns until our tapes wear out?  I think the Visitors represent not only historical Nazis, but any authority figure against whom we’d like to rebel now and then – whether it be the boss, the police, the government, or, as it was with me back in 1985, teachers.  I had a friend who looked just like Marc Singer, and he even feathered his hair to increase the similarity.  During recess each day, we were supposed to meet with a math tutor.  Instead, we were Donovan and Tyler, unscrupulously hiding in the halls, in the bathrooms, under the stairs, anywhere, while this poor schmuck looked for us.  We’d dart in and out of hiding places, whistling the “V” theme and blasting away at imaginary Visitors.

Later in my life, when “V” was (finally!) running on the Sci-Fi Channel, the Visitors again represented the authority fgures in my life.  At the time, I was in my last semester at college, a university run by either utter nincompoops or the Visitors, and I was working part-time at a grocery store which could have easily fallen into the conglomerate of Nathan Bates.

I had matured somewhat (but only somewhat), so I didn’t hide under stairs, but I started to see that “V” provides a similar but opposite escapism as “Star Trek.”  Instead of an escape into a better world, “V” provides an escape into one that’s even worse, one in which we can genuinely root for the Resistance because the Visitors exist in the form of whatever oppression we the viewers choose to see them as.

Maybe that’s why I can enjoy even the most simplistic “V” episodes, when I usually lose patience with mindless action TV shows and movies.  Even at its most brainless, there’s something more to “V.”  And at its most intelligent, it’s some of the best science fiction ever to hit TV – far better than “Star Trek:  The Next Generation,” “Battlestar Galactica,” or “The X-Files.”

(Actually, I’m something of a “Battlestar Galactica” fan, but that’s totally beside the point.)

So, some of the best episodes:

I’ll exclude the obvious choice of the original miniseries.

“The Sanction” could have come right out of the annals of M*A*S*H.  Two similar plotlines compose the majority of this fine episode, both of which concern a bittersweet and slightly pathetic attempt to escape from the war for a while.  One is the surprisingly well-handled romance between Kyle and Elizabeth, and the other is Donovan’s attempt to get Sean back – again.

Even in the midst of the terror and suffering of the Visitor invasion, Kyle and Elizabeth manage to retreat to a beautiful setting and jumpstart their relationship probably more quickly than they would have had they not been on the run from a Visitor patrol.

Donovan really makes a poor showing – as I’m sure any father would.  He’s blind to the fact that the Visitors own Sean.  I have to congratulate Dennis McCarthy on his wistful music during the scene at the safe house when a smiling Donovan shows the cold, brainwashed Sean a family picture, Donovan desperately trying to recapture a time that he should well know is irretrievably gone.

The climax of the episode is the nightmare of anyone who loves someone – perfectly choreographed with Donovan on one end of the hall, Diana on the other, and Sean in between.  As both Diana and Donovan beckon to Sean, I’m sure I saw Sean just barely start to move toward Donovan – before he finally makes his ultimate choice of going to Diana.

“A Reflection in Terror.”  Funny how effective a holiday episode is in a show about a fascist takeover of our planet.  Rather than a cliché celebration of the Christmas season, this episode turns the holiday upside-down, playing as a juxtaposition of the Resistance’s feeble efforts to enjoy Christmas while the Visitor onslaught goes on.  When Tyler notes that it’s quiet for Christmas, Donovan says, “With Diana picking their kids up off the streets, people don’t have much to celebrate.”

This episode also provides our deepest look into Tyler’s character, and one of the most carefully constructed scenarios in the series.  Donovan and Tyler smuggle orphaned children into Los Angeles and hide them in a church.  The church is subsequently destroyed by the Visitors.  Why is Tyler so angry?  Why does Chris hold Donovan back from stopping Tyler as he brutally beats an unsuspecting Visitor scout to death?  Well, I won’t rehash the story that every “V” fan knows, but the parallel between that chapter of Tyler’s life and the present situation is ingenious.

It’s also about time Bates finds out about Julie’s involvement with the Resistance.  It really shouldn’t have taken this long.  Not only did Julie form the Resistance in the first place, but she has been involved in numerous suspicious activities.  For heaven’s sake, in “The Deception,” she escaped being found out because she’s the only Resistance member wearing a motorcycle helmet!  I could never swallow her being lucky so often – or a man like Nathan Bates being so easily deceived.

Do I have to say anything about “The Conversion?”  Consensus among “V” fans that “The Conversion” is the best episode seems as unanimous as that among Trekkies regarding “The City on the Edge of Forever.”  In this episode we’re introduced to Charles, the Leader’s envoy, and the most brilliant war strategist to command the Visitor fleet.  I don’t know whether  I’m sorry he left the show four episodes later – or glad, because he would have conquered the Earth before too long!  Charles has a funny way of devising plans so deviously brilliant that, even if he is defeated, he manages to turn the defeat into a victory.  That scaly head of his is always in operation, and he never loses his temper.  I think that’s why he’s a more formidable enemy than the impetuous Diana.

My wife, who has a degree is social studies, is particularly impressed with the conversion of Ham Tyler, which she says is a perfect example of  “operant conditioning.”  The conversion process plays upon Tyler’s weaknesses more perfectly than it did  on Julie in “V:  The Final Battle.”  It’s no wonder the process works on Tyler where it failed on Julie.

The fact that Tyler shoots Nathan Bates instead of Donovan makes no difference to Charles’s plan.  So Donovan is still alive.  That doesn’t change the fact that Tyler gunned down an unarmed man at a peace summit on national television.  Thus we enter the darkest period in the history of “V.”

Until Diana messes things up in “The Rescue,” Bates’s convalescence provides Charles the perfect opportunity to win over the faith of the citizens of Los Angeles, which brings me to “The Hero.”

I think the Nazi parallel is stronger in this episode than it has been since the original miniseries.  With Robin and other underground members – not Resistance fighters, but simple dissidents – held prisoner in the newspaper building, and a computer impersonation of Nathan Bates speaking for Charles, the feel of oppression and terror is at its peak.  Emotions run high in the scenes between Robin, George Canniff, and John Langley.

Considering what we later learn about John, I’m fascinated by the scene in which Robin says to him, “Don’t ever leave me.”

John says, “Never, not even if I could,” at which time he promptly gets up and walks away.  Is this subtle foreshadowing?

Undoubtedly the biggest shock in this episode is the sudden and totally unexpected death of Elias.  I suspect the title “The Hero” ironically refers to the apparently altruistic John, but I’ve chosen to attribute it to good old Elias.  He deserves an award for Most Improved Character.  The owner of the Club Creole, the hottest restaurant in Los Angeles, who provided the Resistance with its headquarters at the risk of his life and his lucrative business, started out, if you’ll recall, as a common street hood.  When we first meet him in the original miniseries, he’s breaking into someone’s house.  He learns about the arrival of the Visitors when he flips on a television set he intends to steal.  I think killing him was a mistake, but his death does add to the power and emotion of this episode.

Following the next episode, “The Betrayal,” and what I refer to as the Mid-Season Massacre, in which we lose Elias, Tyler, Chris, Robin, Nathan Bates, Mr. Chiang, and Charles, “V” took a slight but noticeable downhill slide.  An excellent series became a very good series, then a pretty good series, and finally, for two episodes, a bad series.

But there are some gems.  “The Champion” does a good job with the spirit of resistance, and has some good dialogue and neat guest stars.  And the combat to the death between Diana and Lydia is the moment long waited for by “V” fans, and is the cat fight to end all cat fights.

“The Littlest Dragon” is a delight.  It would be simplistic of me to say “it’s just like having Martin back,” so I’ll point out that, though Martin and Philip are very similar, there are also some intriguing differences.  Can you really see Martin twirling a heavy iron bar the way Philip does?  I wonder what kind of relationship the twins had.  Philip must have been the dominant sibling.  Maybe he was born ten seconds earlier.

I always wanted to see Donovan and Philip reminisce about Martin.

While on the subject of Martin and Philip, I’ll bring up “War of Illusion,” another episode I have a fondness for.  In that episode, Philip is reluctant to give information to Donovan about the Leader’s planned blitzkrieg.  I wonder if Philip really fully believes in the cause of the Resistance.  How much of his involvement with the Fifth Column is from his own motivations and how much is purely because “it’s what Martin would do?”

I’ve cited some of my favorite episodes here, but I love them all.  My worst are “The Rescue,” “The Secret Underground,” and “The Return,” which I think are silly and inconsistent with the “V” tradition.

But the episodes I haven’t mentioned have a treasured place in my collection, and I only wish I had the series without syndication cuts.  May the battle for freedom go on.

And that’s where we stand tonight.  From the Freedom Network in Canonsburg, our hopes are with you.  Good night.
 

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