V, The Original Miniseries 1983

Who remembers when this came out? As a kid it kind of scarred you. Made to look like the Nazi’s invading! The similarities between the V and the Nazi’s were too close to tell apart. (Except maybe the V stuffing human’s into a giant fridge for food!)

The Show :

A race of aliens arrive on Earth in a fleet of 50 huge, saucer-shaped motherships, which hover over major cities across the world. They reveal themselves on the roof of the United Nations building in New York City, appearing human but requiring special glasses to protect their eyes and having a distinctive resonance to their voices. Referred to as the Visitors, they reach out in friendship, ostensibly seeking the help of humans to obtain chemicals and minerals needed to aid their ailing world, which is revealed to be a planet orbiting the star Sirius. In return, the Visitors promise to share their advanced technology with humanity. The governments of Earth accept the arrangement, and the Visitors, commanded by their leader John and his deputy Diana, begin to gain considerable influence with human authorities.

Strange events begin to occur. Scientists in particular become the objects of increasing media and public hostility. They experience government restrictions on their activities and movements. Others, particularly those keen on examining the Visitors more closely, begin to disappear or are discredited. Noted scientists confess to subversive activities; some of them exhibit other unusual behaviors, such as suddenly demonstrating hand preference opposite to the one they were known to have.

Television journalist cameraman Michael Donovan, along with his cameraman and close friend, Tony Wah Chong Leonetti, covertly board one of the Visitors’ motherships. Donovan discovers that beneath their human-like facade—a thin, synthetic skin and human-eye contact lenses—the aliens are carnivorous reptilian humanoids with horned foreheads and green, scaly skin. He also witnesses them eating whole live animals such as rodents and birds. Donovan, who first took footage of one of the alien ships flying overhead while on duty in El Salvador, records some of his findings on videotape and escapes from the mothership with the evidence, but Tony is captured. However, just as the expose is about to air on television, the broadcast is interrupted by the Visitors, who have taken control of the media. Their announcement makes Donovan a fugitive pursued by both the police and the Visitors.

Scientists around the world continue to be persecuted, both to discredit them (as the part of the human population most likely to discover the Visitors’ secrets) and to distract the rest of the population with a scapegoat to whom they can attribute their fears. Key human individuals are subjected to Diana’s special mind control process called “conversion”, which turns them into the Visitors’ pawns, leaving only subtle behavioral clues to this manipulation. Others become subjects of Diana’s horrifying biological experiments.

Some humans (including Mike Donovan’s mother, Eleanor Dupres) willingly collaborate with the Visitors, seduced by their power. Daniel Bernstein, a grandson of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, joins the Visitor Youth and reveals the location of a scientist family, his neighbors the Maxwells, to the alien cause. One teenager, Robin Maxwell, the daughter of a well-known scientist who went into hiding, has a sexual relationship with a male Visitor named Brian, who impregnates her as one of Diana’s “medical experiments”.

A resistance movement is formed, determined to expose and oppose the Visitors. The Los Angeles cell leader is Julie Parrish, herself a biologist. Donovan later joins the group and, again sneaking aboard a mothership in search of Tony, he learns from a Visitor named Martin that the story about the Visitors needing waste chemicals is a cover for a darker mission. The true purpose of the Visitors’ arrival on Earth was to conquer and subdue the planet, steal all of the Earth’s water, and harvest the human race as food, leaving only a few as slaves and cannon fodder for the Visitors’ wars with other alien races. Martin is one of many dissidents among the Visitors (later known as the Fifth Column) who oppose their leader’s plans and would rather co-exist peacefully with the humans. Martin then reveals to Donovan that Tony is dead, a victim of Diana’s monstrous experiments. Afterwards, he befriends Donovan and promises to aid the Resistance. He gives Donovan access to one of their sky-fighter ships, which he quickly learns how to pilot. He escapes from the mothership along with Robin and another prisoner named Sancho, who had aided Robin’s family in their flight out of occupied Los Angeles.

The Resistance strike their first blows against the Visitors, procuring laboratory equipment and modern military weapons from National Guard armories to carry on the fight. The symbol of the resistance is a blood-red letter V (for victory), spray-painted over posters promoting Visitor friendship among humans. The symbol was inspired by Daniel Bernstein’s grandfather Abraham, a Holocaust survivor.

The miniseries ends with the Visitors now virtually controlling the Earth, and Julie and Elias sending a transmission into space to ask other alien races for help in defeating the occupiers.

The show was a tremendous hit back then which spawned the second mini series as a conclusion to the first call ‘V The Final Battle’

The final Battle : Picking up several months after the events of the first miniseries. After beginning a totalitarian occupation of the Earth, they plan to steal all of the planet’s water and kidnap every human being with then intention of using them for food. Many humans have willingly collaborated with the Visitors, some of them even turning in family members as traitors. Scientists and anyone whom are curious about the aliens’ biological or genetic makeup have been captured and tortured, eliminated or simply persecuted. The Resistance members have set up an intricate spy system for themselves: Ruby Engels, a retired actor, poses as a cleaning woman at the Visitor “friendship center” in LA. Another woman, Maggie, has taken up with Daniel Bernstein, carrying on a sexual relationship with him. Daniel, a collaborator and member of the Visitor Youth program, lets it slip to Maggie that an important media event will be held at a local hospital and attended by the aliens’ leader, John. The Resistance leader, Julie Parrish, and her top advisers plan to infiltrate the party and expose John on camera to the world. The announcement comes later that the Visitors plan to share an effective treatment to cure all forms of cancer.

A new plan of attack is formulated. Knowing that Sean Donovan is acting as an unwitting spy, the Resistance leadership holds a meeting to work out the details of the attack: they plan to steal fighter jets from Edwards Air Base and use them to spray the red dust into the atmosphere. Sean overhears and reports back to his grandmother and Steven. The Resistance has an alternate plan to use hot air balloons. The plan is structured to introduce a small quantity of the red dust into the atmosphere for the bacteria to multiply and infest the Earth.

On the morning of the final battle, Steven has his security forces waiting at Edwards. The LA Resistance begins a battle on two fronts: at the Visitors ground HQ where the red dust is launched by mortars and on the LA mothership, where a stolen tanker is used to pump the dust into the ventilation system while another team tries to reach the control room to stop Diana from using the doomsday weapon. Diana, realizing that the Resistance has beaten her demands that John assist her in activating the doomsday weapon. John resists and she shoots him to gain his key. She activates the weapon just as Donovan, Julie, Martin & Barbara enter the room. Diana is held at gunpoint by Julie while the others frantically try to shut off the bomb. Diana is able to draw on Julie’s conversion and convince her of their friendship. Diana is able to slip away before Julie can shoot her. Martin and Mike are unable to deactivate the bomb and in desperation, Martin pilots the ship away from Earth, knowing that it will do little to stop Earth’s destruction. Elizabeth steps up to the control panel and a strange energy surges from her body and disarms the bomb. The world celebrates the departure of their occupiers and Martin steers the ship back to Earth.

Social Media

With over 6400 like this FB page dedicates itself to the original shows. Usually keeps on topic. Has some great pics!