TV I Can't Wait to See: V

Image from source, TV Squad

Do you remember V and V: The Final Battle, back in the 80s? It starred Faye Grant (from The Greatest American Hero), and Marc Singer (Beastmaster) who was fully clothed here, but in very tight jeans. They were the leaders of a resistance against an alien invasion. The twist was, the aliens presented themselves as our friends, here to help us eradicate all disease. But they were really ugly lizard people who were rounding us up for food!

The first miniseries was true event television for me, and I ate it up. But it was oddly unresolved at the end. Fortunately, it was successful, and the sequel was produced. It was just as engrossing, and wrapped with the defeat of the alien overlords. Except it wasn't. V: The Series premiered soon after, and then things went down hill.

The low budgets, and the difficulty sustaining a storyline where some humans were still on the aliens' side sunk the show. Still, I watched every episode. Jane Badler as the creepy lizard leader, Diana was bitch-tastic. And one of the aliens was on our side, Willie, played by Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street). The characters were great, but the re-used footage from the mini-series, and the cheapness of the production just killed it.

These days, budgets may not be as much of an issue, with CGI effects instead of models. The same might be said for the makeup, where it might be made more believable that the lizard faces under the skin could actually be under the skin. In the original, the shape of the lizard head bore no resemblance to the human faces stretched over them. Maybe they'll fix that.

Anyway, I'm as excited for the remake as I was for the original, so I hope they get it right. My suggestion: Cindy McCain for the part of Diana!

[Excerpt]

ABC's V series remake -- will it really happen?

. . .The possible good news is that ABC sees the future and it is sci fi. They've done well with Lost (OK, that's borderline sci fi but becoming more so with this time travel stuff they've introduced) and even Life on Mars has that little bit of sci fi element to it. But that's it for anything even remotely sci fi on ABC's winter schedule. . .

Read more at: TV Squad

And now a clip of Diana from the original V: