I was reminded of something earlier today, and I can't believe that this somehow slipped past the radar screen...
Last week, May 1st, was the fortieth anniversary of the premiere of the NBC television miniseries V.
That doesn't seem possible. It's like it was only yesterday that creator Kenneth Johnson unleashed his nightmarish vision of fascism on a global scale. The Visitors came to major cities across the planet, in fifty ships each three miles in diameter. They looked like us. They came from a dying planet and they needed humanity's help. They came in peace.
And it was all a damnable lie. Their intent was to rape the Earth, seizing every precious natural resource. And the fate of mankind? Something truly horrifying. Four decades later and the scene of all those humans in cold storage still sends a shiver up my spine.
It was a grand endeavor. What if Nazism had conquered the planet? V was about that. Every aspect of true-life fascism was portrayed, magnified through the lens of science-fiction. But it was also about hope, and taking a stand and fighting back. More than it frightened us, V inspired us. The film was dedicated to the resistance fighters, wherever they have been found, past present and future.
This franchise deserved better! Johnson's original plan as he presented it to NBC was that after the original miniseries, there would be three or four television movies each season, depicting the Visitors' occupation of Earth in various places. But the executives didn't want that. They wanted a second miniseries and using that to launch a weekly series. They got that, but the follow-ups lost a lot of the spirit of the original. V wasn't something like Star Wars, it was about a much deeper notion. And then around 2009 ABC tried to reboot the franchise, but it failed for various reasons (I thought it was quite an admirable effort though).
It was an awe-some television experience. So many moments from it that no doubt still stick out in the minds of many.
But here is my favorite moment. Not just of the miniseries, but one of my most favorite moments in television, ever. The final scene of Part One of V, the original miniseries. Abraham, the elderly Holocaust survivor and his friend Ruby, find a group of teenagers who are vandalizing Visitor propaganda posters. He stops them.
No, I won't say anything else. Let the scene speak for itself:
And from that moment, humanity has a symbol of resistance.
It's a little dated now, but what do you expect from a television miniseries forty years old? Don't let that stop you from watching it. And you'll probably be like the rest of us were at the time: wondering how the HECK did any major broadcast network get away with all the stuff that they showed in this movie?
You'll see what I mean when you watch it.
