V (TV miniseries 1983)

V was a two-part 1983 American TV mini-series which gave birth to a franchise. It originally aired on the NBC network. I must confess that I had until now never seen the mini-series or any other parts of this franchise.

Flying saucers suddenly appear over major cities across the globe. But it’s OK. They’re friendly. We know they’re friendly because that’s what they told us.

They look just like regular humans except they always wear sunglasses. And they sound just a bit odd.

The aliens become known as Visitors. Everybody is excited to welcome them. No-one has the least suspicion that they might not be friendly. I have to say that I thought this was wildly implausible. Even with the media assuring everyone that the aliens are our friends nobody has any doubts?

It’s also odd that apparently the CIA, the FBI and the military take no interest in the arrival of the aliens. In fact the government plays no part whatsoever in this series.

The aliens then proceed to act in a way that would have made a five-year-old child suspicious but nobody does get suspicious.

Pretty soon, without anybody realising it, the aliens are in complete control. There are fifty gigantic mother ships and thousands of the Visitors. An invading army has been welcomed in.

TV journalist Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) develops some suspicions. He sneaks aboard one of the mother ships and discovers the truth about the alien Visitors. Meanwhile his ex-girlfriend has become the chief PR officers for the aliens.

Eventually a few people figure out that they’ll have to take a stand but their numbers are few and they’re disorganised.

While there are a few weaknesses to this mini-series there are some real strengths. The aliens do not take control by taking over the military. They take over the mass media instead. Once you control the mass media you control society.

Of course a critical difference between this series and an alien invasion series like The Invaders is that because of their weird voices the aliens in V cannot just blend in with humans. They cannot infiltrate human society. They must find another way to seize control and hijacking the media makes sense. And it does give this series a different flavour compared to other alien invasion series. The aliens have to operate in the open whilst using deception and manipulation.

And of course there are journalists who are only too happy to sell us out and help the invaders. There are also cops who are willing to sell out.

There’s a realistic dark and cynical edge. When the chips are down your co-workers, your friends, your family and your neighbours are all likely to betray you if the media tells them to. The basic human instinct for social conformity makes things easy for the alien invaders.

There’s a very effective atmosphere of paranoia and the paranoia levels rise inexorably.

There’s also a mind control angle which is handled skilfully. Giving the aliens unlimited mind-control powers would have made them too formidable. Their mind-control powers have limitations. It was essential that the aliens be seen as extremely difficult but perhaps not entirely impossible to defeat. 

I don’t want to any more about the ending other then the fact that it allowed for a follow-up series.

There are some pretty reasonable action scenes.

The mother ships are not miniatures but matte paintings (they had neither the time nor the money to build miniatures). When judging the special effects you have have to keep in mind (in this and in all science fiction TV series up to the 90s) that in 1983 people were going to be watching V on relatively small cathode ray TV sets. The deficiencies in the special effects would have been a lot less obvious than they are today when viewed on Blu-Ray. Some of the special effects are very iffy and have a cheap 80s arcade game look.

The budget was huge by 1980s television standards but the series was rushed into production so time was more of a problem than money.

Jane Badler as Diana makes a fine sexy villainess. The acting overall is quite adequate.

V is quite entertaining if you enjoy alien invasion stories (which I do) although I think the alien invasion idea was handled better in several other series both American (such as The Invaders) and British (such as Undermind). V is recommended.

V is available on Blu-Ray and DVD.