V: The Visitors Return

Back in the 80′s there was one thing I was allowed to stay up late to watch on TV and that was V. Imagine my joy when ABC announced that they planned to resurrect the Visitors for a new adventure, well an old adventure, the same adventure.  The original series touched on many subjects, the Visitors created a youth movement to weed out those that would speak out against them and I loved that part of the storyline.  It looks like ABC are planning to make a step by step remake if the Pilot is anything to go by.

Morena Baccarin who played the escort in Firefly takes up the role of Anna who I am to guess is Diana from the original series, a woman who comes across as simple, serene and welcoming but in fact has a venomous nature that could disarm any man in an instant.  She creeps me out in the way she can seem complacent and normal but in her serene emotionless delivery, seem alien all at the same time.  I loved her in Firefly/Serenity and it looks like she’s prepared to go from strength to strength with this show.

Now Morena Baccarin is not the only name in TV to appear on this show, Scott Wolf from Partyof Five plays a career hungry journalist and Alan Tudyk plays an FBI agent who isn’t quite what he seems.

The pilot episode makes short work of setting up the various complicated storylines that made this show awesome in the 70′s/80′s.  In fact you could say that Torchwood’s last series could have pulled a lot from the V story.  The Visitors are here to replenish themselves, a resource that they need in exchange for technology… it soon becomes clear that they need food to carry on their journey but they’re no vegetarians!

As I said above, the original series had strong connotations to the Visitors representing the nazi’s, creating a youth movement to snitch on those who speak out against them, they silence any opposition in the media which can be seen in the pilot episode of the updated version.  However the pilot never clearly defines a stand out presence among the humans but we’re introduced to a very strong alien character in the form of Anna.

ABC will need to make sure they spend a little more time on character development as eventually this show will become Us Vs. Them… a fight to save the human race as the Visitors shed their skin once more and show their true nature.

It’s a rather sedate start to the reboot but the glory of my childhood compels me to watch until the end.  This was ABC highest ever rated première last week!  Hopefully the sedate start won’t have switched some people off… the original reached out beyond the fans of Sci-Fi and gripped the family audience, not many sci-fi shows can claim that mantle.