'V' Classic Or Dud?

http://io9.com/5147422/green-alien-infiltrators-call-your-agents-now

Casting has begun on the revamped series, filming in Vancouver in March.

Basic character descriptions at link.

And behold a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahjPQjQGdbU

No I don't think they're taking any inspiration from the Battlestar revamp or anything, oh no.

(It probably doesn't help at all that when the ships turn into broadcast screens and the alien leader starts talking to everyone watching that pretty much I just thought of the Vogons.)

I wonder how much anti-fascist stuff this series will have, and if any of the original cast will do cameos.

lol how many alien invasion shows can joel gretsch do?

effects aren't great but it still looks like it has a surprisingly huge budget for TV - aren't they all supposed to be scaling back right now?

What I read of the pilot script was decent enough.

Some great comments on that YouTube.

good to know they're keeping the vllains as classic lizard people

effects aren't great but it still looks like it has a surprisingly huge budget for TV - aren't they all supposed to be scaling back right now?

No doubt producers heard this a lot in 1983 too.

fx in that trailer look decent imo

Just thinking back on the original's special effects makes me think complaining about these effects is kinda crazy. (But expectations/standards shift, etc.)

The original's special effects hold up rather well, I think.

Products of their time but there are a couple of the looming saucer shots that remain pretty imposing. (In contrast these new ships seem pretty dull and clunky.)

Stepping back a bit:

lol how many alien invasion shows can joel gretsch do?

Not too surprising -- the guy behind The 4400 is also doing the revamp.

A newish fansite but little information. Lots of avatars from the old series though.

http://thevisitors.wordpress.com/

Io9's tag link will probably be the best thing for general tracking:

http://io9.com/tag/v/

i hope this will be cool, this was one of the first "TV events" I was absolutely glued to as a kid.

Yeah I remember the ads for it vividly -- it ended up that my dad and I saw it because the whole family was on vacation (visiting Colonial Williamsburg of all places) and while my mom and sis turned in early we both weren't too sleepy and I got to see the whole thing. My dad felt it was interesting up to a point until it turned into a shoot-em-up, which is a fair criticism.

That episode of HIMYM was right, Morena Baccarin has a serious case of the crazy eyes here.

Or maybe that's supposed to read as "lizard".

lol that's where she's from. i was trying to figure it out earlier.

fx in that trailer look decent imo

just watched it a second time and it doesn't seem as bad now but i dunno, still looks a bit... flat. thing that bothers me most about cgi on tv - it just looks light and depthless. the ships don't appear threatening enough. the rest of it seems like it could be good though - i'll watch anything if the characters/writing is interesting enough.

The original's special effects hold up rather well, I think.

ummmmm ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VObQfWMgmIM

I did that last week.

HAHAHAHAx100000

Products of their time but there are a couple of the looming saucer shots that remain pretty imposing. (In contrast these new ships seem pretty dull and clunky.)

Agreed. You can't really can't go wrong with the classic Ginormous Flying Saucer even if it's been done dozens of times (Childhood's End, Alien Nation, Independence Day, etc.

Juliet! Does this mean she's really gone from Lost? (I guessan H-bomb'll do that to ya.)

I liked the original and will surely give this one a chance.

omg that diana clip hahaha

tonight

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/V-2009_TV_series_logo.png

been catching a bunch of the old series (mostly the '84 season) -- man this show is painfully dated now

still gonna try to catch the new one, which has its own thread finally:
The new ABC TV series of "V"

left out - they've been marathoning the old V series on Scifi the last few days and still right now, if you're curious

yeah caught some of it over the weekend. megalolz at alien baby birth scene

also so weird how the original series couldn't really decide what it wanted to be - Falcon Crest? Holocaust allegory? Gross-out horror? Action movie? Let's just do all of em!

I'm gonna watch this, cuz I'm a sucker for sci-fi, but I don't have high hopes...

"Yes, they are lizard people who are trying to establish UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE and in so doing destroy the human race"

Ohhhhhh maaaaaaaaan. Whaaaaaaat the fuuuuuuuuuck.

this [new version] is coming to freeview channel "channel 1" ! yay

pretty terrible show. i don't find it unwatchable but it's really stupid and goofy.

^^^^

I really tried, but gave up about 3/4s of the way through the season.

watching the original miniseries on netflix instant after reading about it in robert englund's autobiography. Was enjoying it a lot until the endless Nazi metaphors came fast and hard. having the old jewish guy basically going "DO U SEE?" to the camera isn't helping.

Is it worth sticking with it or is it nothing but WWII with lizards and FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE SCIENTISTS stuff from here on out?

It's that crossed with human/lizard sex, yeah.

Actually what did Englund have to say about it in his book?

yowsa! Nothing too profound, just that he had a wild wingding of a time, made a lot of fans and worked with some awesome people (which is basically the tone of the whole book)

Hahaha nice, very Bruce Campbell of him and why not. I have the DVD around somewhere, might see if the commentary from the guy behind it is any good. (I attempted and failed a rewatch a couple of years ago -- I remember when I first saw it thinking how it was 'so cool' that the opening scene was supposed to be El Salvador because it was 1983 and it was in the news and all, but the rewatch just made me go 'oh right, scrub ground north of LA next to where they filmed any number of Star Trek episodes past and present'.)

Found it and apparently the writer/director says the script was written in iambic meter. And don't you feel Shakespearean now.

Very good Vanity Fair piece on the original miniseries today, lots of interviews with key creative folks.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/05/the-v-files-legacy

I turned 11 in 1983, which means I loved this show. I thought Michael Ironside was the coolest, lol.

Haha yeah I was saying on FB how this was how I first learned about him! And Robert Englund as well.

Ah I loved that show as a kid in the 80s. And Diana was an early crush !

I remember Melania Trump rocking some big shades definitely had a bit of a Diana look

I can see her eating rats, yes.

I was stoked about this and watched avidly until i got freaked out by the girl having the baby alien and i never saw the end.

Jane Badler (Diana) ended up living in Australia (perhaps still does) - and made a few loungey albums with Melbourne indie types - at the time I thought it was a fun idea that didn't quite work, not sure how they've aged tho

Per Wikipedia, still there (married an Australian dude). Sadly lost one of her kids a few years back to fentanyl.

I was stoked about this and watched avidly until i got freaked out by the girl having the baby alien and i never saw the end.

Pretty much as Johnson says in the interview, you want the original miniseries and that's about it.

We watched the miniseries again recently and it is definitely great to revisit as a cultural relic. I was 13 when this came out, and distinctly remember feeling a bit short-changed as a hetero teenage girl. Marc Singer, really? This is what you're giving me? My brothers got a much better deal than I did out of this show.

I can't describe how awful V: The Dynasty Ripoff was. I watched it because in the pre-VCR days I'd missed the original miniseries and the first half of The Final Battle.

My wife is commonly known as V and I find this thread a bit disconcerting when it pops up

Johnson's wrong about The Final Battle. It kicks ass.

This was one of those shows, like Star Blazers or, later, I dunno, Knight Rider or something, where I was absolutely convinced I saw every episode, and followed the broader narrative from start to finish, but I have a feeling I have more memories of the idea of watching "V" than I do of the show itself. (Fwiw, I was 8 in 1983.) I should definitely watch it again and see if it rings any bells!

xpost Yeah it ends the initial story more quickly than I figure Johnson had vaguely planned (and left the final scene of the original as a go-nowhere hook, at least prior to the regular series), but it's not flat out terrible (and as I muttered elsewhere, Michael Ironside) -- still, it could have been a little something more.

By which you mean, "Hey, let's rethink Elizabeth's magic powers saving our asses"?

To begin with!

V and Final Battle were still fun to rewatch a cpl years back

even back in 85 (tho of course watched religiously) thought the TV show was crap, theywere both (esp Final Battle as the return/sequal) such events! or maybe events for my 8th grade classmates but remember anticipation

This was a Big Deal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfbMx9lNGZM

So many Mac-10s.