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V-The Original Miniseries/Final Battle


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I was home today, and happened to catch a marathon of V-The Series (sucked) and V-The Original Minisaeries and V-The Final Battle, from the early 80's. Of course, I ahhh...hmmmm...didn't sit down the whole time, watched it as I was doing....things...around the place..... ;)

Not bad, and it holds up well for 25 years. The effects are quite good for their time (some of the shots of the small Visitor fighters manuvering among the skyscrapers of LA are quite comprable to more recent effects), the story is good (if a little derived from the Nazis) with a very nice WW2 feel to it. A good cast, if a bit dated, but Michael Ironside's Ham Tyler is a favorite of mine, I thought he was a lot more interesting than Marc Singer's charactor (MS played the perfect, wavy-haired, politically correct hero of the time, Tyler was a mercenary, chunky, balding, no predjudices-he hated everybody!). I always thought the regular series would have been more interesting if they killed off Marc Singer's Mike Donovan and focused on Michael Ironside's Tyler and his sidekick Chris-hey, anyone who thinks no problem in the world can't be solved by enough plastic explosive is ok by me.

One quibble, if anyone else caught this-I recall the Visitors unique voices as being, well, toned down in this viewing, my wife noticed the same thing. The voice effect was their distinctivness as well as their Achilles Heel, kind of a warbling, just-off-beat echo. Part of the problem for the resistance was dealing with this-of course, in the dreadful regular TV series, they lost this, due to budgetary restraints B) . Just my 'magination, or did anyone else notice this?

But all in all, it was a good trip back to the early 80's! BTW, I have never seen the remake-any thoughts on this?

Felinoid

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I didn't get a chance to watch today so I wasn't able to notice if the voices got altered back or not. I haven't had a chance to sit down and watch the new show, but with V being in the spotlight again I was able to acquire all three of the original DVD sets (original, Final Battle, series) for a song at store chain sales over the past couple months.

Kenneth Johnson revisited the first V series in a new novel, but he bypasses events in The Final Battle and the TV series. I haven't brought myself to read it since that likely means no Ham Tyler. He indeed is also my favorite anti-hero of the series.

The novel series based on the originals makes for good reading IMHO since they covered stories that usually didn't involve the LA resistance. One book even had a Skyfighter getting shot down by a P-51 Mustang ("The Texas Run" I believe was the book). I agree that the TV series could have been so much better, but part of the problem as I see it was the series didn't get green lighted until after "The Final Battle" and as a result the story premise suffered a bit as they had to band aid over a couple things such as the red dust toxin. But, even with the limitations, the series still could have been better then it was (and at least we got Ham Tyler).

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I didn't get to catch the V marathon but own the original mini series, The Final Battle & TV series on DVD. I feel Kenneth Johnson's original mini series is by far the best of all 3 but I still have a place in my heart for all 3. Kenneth left after having written the Final Battle's story, NBC wanted to rush it out in May of '84 but Kenneth said he needed more time and there were other creative differences.

I read Kenneth Johnson's new V novel, V The Second Generation. I really liked it. Of course you, the reader, has to forget The Final Battle and the TV series existed but it doesn't take long to adjust to that. In fact the same thing happenned when Halloween:H20 came out in theaters in '98. It was a sequal to the original.

Well, back to V...The Chicago Conversion, from the V novel series is a great book. I remember when I first read it I picked it up and didn't put it down till I was done. This was my favorite.

I have been following the new re-imagined series and like it. It's different then the 80's series but is still very watchable. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that Kenneth Johnson gets to make his V movie. He's planning on bringing his vision of V to the big screen.

Edited by crowe-t
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I've been enjoying the remake series so far ... Maybe not quite as much as the Original miniseries when it first aired but it's not bad ...

Gregg

Last nites was pretty good, they introduced the charactor that would be the Ham Tyler type charactor they needed in my mind, merc who knows how to fight....

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I read V-The Second Generation when it first came out. Not a bad effort, sort of an alternative-universe version, of course since Kenneth johnson wasn't involved with V-The Final Battle, anything goes.

I liked how he updated The Visitors weaponry and ships, and the whole popular culture towards their 20+ year occupation. Certainly a good effort, well worth reading, at least up to the last third.

BTW, a simple, male-type observation-Diana (Jane Badler) and Lydia-(June Chadwick in the single most redeeming thing in the series-) were the absolute hottest women on TV at the time :wacko:

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