TV cameraman Mike Donovan and his assistant Tony are on location covering a war in El Salvador. The war takes a turn for the strange when Mike and Tony get caught in the crossfire, and the enemy backs off when they see something strange: a UFO that is 3 miles wide. They have popped up everywhere all over the world, and people have mixed reactions to it.

The Visitors say that they come in peace, and in exchange for natural resources, they will provide knowledge that will help Earth out. The truth is that they want to enslave the Earth and make it they're own...slowly.

The Visitors begin to enslave Earthlings that have scientific backgrounds, recruit Earthlings into their program, take over the media, and convince the governments of the world to declare martial law.

It is up to a group that call themselves The Resistance to stop these aliens from taking over Earth. The miniseries focuses on one faction on the West Coast.

A well done story with good acting and good direction. My favorite scene came at the end of part one. Holocast survivor Abraham shows some kids a symbol that becomes the theme for the miniseries, the letter V for victory.

Nostalgic. I watched this the first time around in 1983.

Marc Singer is good as Donovan, who stumbles onto what they are really up to. Keep an eye out for Robert Englund, who plays Willie, a Visitor who would rather learn from the Earthlings than harm them.

This is one of the better miniseries to come out of the 80s. It is a beautiful DVD transfer. The film has been cleaned up, and put into letterbox. It also has commentary by director Kenneth Johnson, and a documentary that shows the making of the mini-series.

1983 was a big year for the mini-series. ABC came out with The Thornbirds and NBC had this one. Johnson dedicates the film to all fighters of The Resistance that have fought for freedom, and that sets this up as a classic. There are plenty of hidden references to World War II such as brainwashing, recruitment, identification tagging, and scare tactics. Posters even show up telling people that Earthlings and the Visitors can live together in harmony (Even to this day, those posters give me the creeps).

V went on to score monster ratings, and the sequel V: The Final Battle aired the next year (It was good, but lacked Johnson's writing and imagery). A TV series came out a few months later, but was cancelled after 19 episodes (The series was placed in the 'time slot of death' against evening soap opera, Dallas).

Johnson has announced he will make another V movie, and the rumor is Marc Singer, Faye Grant and Jane Badler may reprise their roles. If the movie is successful, NBC may opt to make more sequels. For now, check out this one. I loved it as a kid, and love it today.

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Created Aug 25, 2003 at 4:33pm • Submit your own review...