V (series)

The V series is a series of works, originally from the mid-1980s, about an alien visitation / planned occupation of earth. V stands for "Visitors". The series was created by Kenneth Johnson, who left after the miniseries. It includes:

• V - The original two-part TV miniseries, directed by Kenneth Johnson (197 min.)
• V: The Final Battle - A three-part miniseries in 1984 (272 min.)
• V: The Series - A TV series that aired from 1984-85
• A new TV movie planned for 2007

A number of novels:

• V by Ann C. Crispin (1984)
• a dozen or so other novels
• V (comic book series, 1985-86, from DC Comics)
• A manga adaptation written by Go Nagai with art by Tatsuya Yasuda
• A video game from Ocean Software (1986)

In the original miniseries, the Visitors show up at Earth with a cover story about needing assistance and being willing to share their technology. Journalist Michael Donovan (played by Marc Singer) however discovers that the Visitors are actually a reptilian species who intend to conquer Earth, steal its water, and eat or enslave its inhabitants. There are dissidents within the Visitors (the Fifth Column), but the Visitors manage to stop Donovan from sharing his story. A resistance movement is formed, with Julie Parrish as the leader of the LA cell; Donovan joins this cell.

In V: The Final Battle, the military situation is getting worse, but an experiment to crossbreed the species (being run by Diana (played by Jane Badler), a Mengele-like alien) using resistance member Robin Maxwell) generates two offspring: Elizabeth, a human-looking hybrid, and a boy who dies. An autopsy of the boy uncovers the substance "red dust" which is lethal to Visitors. The Resistance strikes, releasing Red Dust on earth, and attacking the mothership in space; Elizabeth, who has rapidly aged into a physiological adult, is vital to the effort.

In V: The Series, a year has passed since the Red Dust was deployed, and Earth is apparently free of the bad Visitors. However, villainous Diana escapes and helps the Visitor Fleet launch a second invasion. Red Dust turns out to not be a panacea, since it can have long-term harmful effects on Earth life, and is less effective in warm climates.

The planned new series is V: The Second Generation, in which humans complacently follow the Visitors, and the Resistance is foundering.

Characters

The leading cast of "V: The Series": top row, Diana, Kyle Bates, Robin Maxwell, Lydia; bottom row: Julie Parrish, Mike Donovan

V's leading characters included a number of female characters. However, there were no people of color among the leading roles, and the minor roles were disproportionately populated by white men; government officials, for instance, were invariably white men. However, in the news reports of the Resistance, numerous women were described as leading heroic raids or charges. The story took place in the US, with little information about the rest of the world. Notable female and characters of color include:

• Angela - a Visitor
• Anna Horowitz - A leader of a "Grey Panthers" Resistance raid
• Barbara - a Visitor Fifth Columnist
• Mr. Chiang - a Collaborator (killed)
• Diana - evil Visitor scientist
• Eleanor Dupres - Mike Donovan's mother; a Collaborator
• Elizabeth Maxwell aka "Starchild" - hybrid offspring of Robin Maxwell; superpowers
• Glenda - a Visitor Fifth Columnist
• Glenda - a Collaborator (killed)
• Harmony "Harmy" Moore - credulous dead woman
• Janet Weinberg - a Resistance leader who earned a "Medal of Valour"
• Jenny - a Resistance member who led a failed attack
• Jessie Courtney & Kathy Courtney - Resistance leaders near Tucson
• Joanne Davis - Resistance
• Dr. Juliet "Julie" Parrish - played by Faye Grant; a medical student who founded the Resistance in LA; she discovered the Red Dust.
• Dr. Kathleen Maxwell
• Katie Maxwell - Robin's sister
• Kristine Walsh - Mike Donovan's former lover; initially a believer in the Visitors
• Lorraine - a Visitor Fifth Columnist
• Lydia - a Visitor
• Lynn Bernstein - Resistance members
• Maggie Blodgett - Resistance member
• Marilyn McGeorge - Resistance member; winner "Medal of Valour"
• Marta - a Visitor who is killed
• Mary Kruger - a Visitor who is killed
• Mike Donovan - male lead
• Miguel Ramirez - a migrant worker
• Pamela - a Visitor
• Robin Maxwell ("Binna") - resistance fighter and mother of hybrid offspring Elizabeth
• Ruby Engels - Resistance member
• Sancho Gomez - Resistance member
• Thelma - a Visitor Fifth Columnist
• Tony Wah Cong Leonetti - friend of Mike Donovan; died horribly

Further reading

• wikipedia
• Anthony Leong, Nazis from Space: Looking Back at V (2001, Frontier)

Influences

Kenneth Johnson, series creator, was inspired by It Can't Happen Here, the 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis about a fascist dictatorship in the USA, and the initial miniseries serves as a political allegory to the Nazi Germany and occupied Europe.

Similarities have also been noticed to Bertolt Brecht's play The Private Life of the Master Race; a Damon Knight short story, "To Serve Man" (also a Twilight Zone episode) in which aliens cultivate humans for food — to serve man is not to help humanity, but to serve humanity for dinner.