V - The Mini Series (DVD)

...and remind people of what V was all about.

In El Salvador Mike Donovan with his colleague and friend Tony are reporters working on a piece about uprising in the country. During a death cheating fire fight the duo are amazed when a group that were pursuing them disappears in rather a hurry. But then Donovan realises the reason for the disappearance may be shortly rejoiced as a giant UFO the size of a city appears over their heads.
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In 1983 V was possibly the biggest thing to hit TV screens across the world, everybody was talking about it. Over 80 Million homes tuned in to see the story unfold. The promotion wagon went into overdrive as posters appeared in bus stops and train stations across the world simply saying "The Visitors are our friends" with no reference to what the posters were about. In New York the Mayors office was inundated with complaints ... more

With just less than a year to go until the brand new series of V, 24 years after the first series. I thought it an apt time to introduce and remind people of what V was all about.

In El Salvador Mike Donovan with his colleague and friend Tony are reporters working on a piece about uprising in the country. During a death cheating fire fight the duo are amazed when a group that were pursuing them disappears in rather a hurry. But then Donovan realises the reason for the disappearance may be shortly rejoiced as a giant UFO the size of a city appears over their heads.

All across the world UFO's appear over the top of every major city, just hovering in the sky in silence. The silence is kept for a whole day before a strange signal begins within this signal is a hidden vocal transmission. As officials hurry to decipher the transmission they find that they are hearing a countdown.

After many initially thinking that they were witnessing the countdown to the end of the world, the Earths residents are pleased to hear the words "We Come In Peace". A meeting later with the American Secretary General reveals that these visitors are in trouble, a rare mineral which they need for survival has exhausted its supply on their planet. The same mineral can be produced easily on Earth. In exchange for our assistance the visitors will share knowledge with the people of Earth, and show them how to irradiate diseases such as Cancer. More surprising is that the visitors even look like human beings, rather than bug eyed monsters.

The people welcome the visitors into their lives, and it's not long before they have become integrated with our society. For a time all seems well, but it appears that some scientists are against the new found friends. Plants processing the minerals they need are bombed by underground factions. The visitors quickly agree with the government to enforce a state of martial law. But this martial law makes anyone with any scientific knowledge an outsider. The scientific community become ostracised by the people who they deemed as their friends as well as the visitors.

When Donovan smuggles himself aboard the Mothership in search of answers he discovers the true purpose of the visitors presence. They don't want the mineral, in fact they pump it straight back out into the Earth's atmosphere. What they want is our water, their own supplies are exhausted. But they don't want some water, they want it all. They are also lacking in food, and what better food for our new "friends" than the human race itself, Donovan witnesses millions of containers containing prisoners taken from Earth.

As Donovan hurries to get back to Earth he makes one more discovery, the visitor's don't quite look as human as was thought.

Cast

Marc Singer - Mike Donovan
Faye Grant - Juliet Parrish
Jane Badler - Diana
Evan C. Kim - Tony
Robert Englund - Willie
Michael Durrell - Robert Maxwell
Leonardo Cimino - Abraham Bernstein
Richard Herd - John
Blair Tefkin - Robin Maxwell

In 1983 V was possibly the biggest thing to hit TV screens across the world, everybody was talking about it. Over 80 Million homes tuned in to see the story unfold. The promotion wagon went into overdrive as posters appeared in bus stops and train stations across the world simply saying "The Visitors are our friends" with no reference to what the posters were about. In New York the Mayors office was inundated with complaints and enquiries as to what the posters meant but had no clue either. V had some of the highest production values in television history. Massive sets were created, and one of the biggest regular casts was also assembled.

Initially V rolled out as a two part mini series, in the early 80's mini series were the stable diet of American television networks. Normally these consisted of Sidney Sheldon adaptations, or the likes of Roots, Ellis Island, and Rich Man Poor Man. Many of the producers at Warner had doubts it would work, so they created an opening to test the audience. At the end of the second episode, the story ended with a slight taste of victory but ultimately left the door open for something bigger. After the success, 6 months later V - The Final Battle was screened, this second three part mini series created an end for the story. After the success of The Final Battle a full length series went into production. Initially each series was planned to tell a different story from a different group in America. But the rating flagged as the series dragged out for too long, and V was sent to an early grave.

The story of V is not a new tale, in fact it's the story of history retelling itself. The story was loosely based on the Nazi occupancy, told in modern times with Aliens replacing the Nazi's. There are long scenes with very tragic music where obvious comparisons are being drawn between fact and fiction.

V draws you in slowly, and really plays with your emotions, although you don't want to see the visitors win, you don't want them gone in a hurry. And as members of the cast are lost in the fight you do feel emotion towards their characters. I'll admit that I got watery eyed on occasion watching this, but that was some time ago.

The characters are formed in a similar style to Lost, although the main lead characters Donovan and Julie lead the resistance, each of the other characters has similar performance weight. And because of this structuring you feel empathy for more characters.

Although a great monument for television V was indeed a cursed series, one of the leads Dominique Dunne was murdered during the filming and all of her scenes needed to be filmed again, several cast members went sick due to a mystery illness as a result their characters just disappeared. And 6 minor cast, stuntmen, and crew died during the filming. The success of the ongoing series was an oddity also, from being the most watched show on the planet ratings reduced to less than 10% over night without real explanation.

Onto the DVD,

There is an audio commentary with Kenneth Johnson, who tells the off-screen tales behind V. A short Behind the Scenes Documentary screened originally in the build up to the first episode. A conversion to widescreen from the normal 4.3 was easily achieved as Johnson filmed the series in widescreen and edited it down later. You can enjoy V in the following languages English, Finnish and German.
Subtitles are available in English, Finnish, German, Greek, Dutch, Polish and Swedish.

The DVD is now deleted, and becomming difficult to buy Amazon are currently selling it from £14.99
 

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