Lower Decks

In the interests of time, I’m going to go ahead and assume that most of the readers here at Lower Decks know enough about the history of V to get by in a conversation.  That eliminates the need for me to get into all of the details of the original series.  Which is a good thing, it seems, because that’s pretty much what the writers did in this updated version of the classic sci-fi story.

I remember first watching V on the Sci-Fi channel about 1996.  Independence Day had put me into a sci-fi mood, and V looked enough like that movie to quench my thirst.  What I found was a lot deeper than anything Independence Day ever came up with, and I found myself watching the original movie and the concluding mini-series.  I loved it.

And when I heard that ABC was going to do a remake of the series, I was excited.  Cautiously excited because “remakes” seem to screw up a lot of the value of older, cooler things.  But as things started to leak out (casting and eventually scenes from this episode), I started to allow myself to get excited.  Because, if done right, I think the world is ready for V again.

In addition to the original series, I kept thinking about this summer’s District 9 while I was watching last night.  Just like that movie, this series takes a different stance on the alien invasion.  Instead of coming in with guns blazing, both of these sets of aliens hover their motherships above a city in need of our help.  It’s a much more interesting approach, as opposed to the tired formula where the aliens come, blow up a lot of our stuff, and we narrowly defeat them by the seat of our pants.

In this series, the fight is much more behind the scenes because these aliens don’t even have their guns out.  And why would they when they give us so many good reasons to love them?

But I did find it interesting that, at the end of the Pilot, we already know so much about the dark side of the Visitors.  With the original TV miniseries, there wasn’t enough time to trick the audience into thinking the Visitors were being honest – they only had two hours to tell their story.

This time, they’re starting off with an entire series to work with, and I thought they might trick some of the people who don’t know a lot about V (a pretty large group) into thinking that the Visitors are, indeed, God’s gift to mankind.  I thought there would be clues that they’re not here to help us (the interview with the Visitor’s leader, Anna (Morena Baccarin), is something like I was thinking) and doubters (for example, Jack, the priest played by 4400‘s Joel Gretsch).  But I didn’t think we’d know, for certain, that the Visitors have ulterior motives until a few episodes into the series.

Not so much.  By the time the credits rolled last night, we knew that the Visitors are up to no good.  We know that they’re reptiles that are simply disguised as humans.  We know that some of the Visitors are good and actually trying to help humanity.  We even have the beginning of the resistance, whose concerns are confirmed by an open attack at a meeting.

Outside of the blood-red V symbol, we’re basically all caught up with the plot of the original series, and we’re only one episode in.  That was surprising.

Of course, things aren’t identical.  There are a couple of updates, including the idea that the Visitors have been on Earth for years getting ready for the arrival of the motherships.  I love the idea that the Visitors have been destabilizing our world for years, making it easy to fix with their arrival.  So not only are the Visitors not here to fix our problems, they’re the cause of them.  That’s a nice addition to the original plot.

Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s talk about the plot.  Like the original series, the Visitors arrive on Earth, and their leader preaches about peace.  From the beginning, some people are skeptical (Jack and FBI agent Erica Evans, played by LOST’s Elizabeth Mitchell) about the Visitors, but the rest of humanity (including Erica’s young son, Tyler, played by Logan Huffman) immediately falls in love with the saviors from space.

And why wouldn’t they?  The Visitors immediately bring cures to many Earth-borne diseases, and they promise to share other Visitor technology with humanity in exchange for a mineral that is abundant on Earth.  When people get upset or scared by the Visitors, they reach out to the media (headlined by Chad Decker, played by Scott Wolf) to help calm the public before things get out of control.

Decker isn’t seen a lot, but I really liked the scene he was in.  Anna pushes hard on him, making sure that he doesn’t “ask any questions that would paint (the Visitors) in a negative light.”  When Decker’s journalistic integrity gets in the way, Anna assures him that she can help make his career.

And even though Decker sells out in the end, it’s obvious that he wasn’t comfortable with it.  You have to think that the battle between his morals and his career goals will play a huge part in the series, although I’m not quite sure that Decker is a complete mirror of the original series’ Mike Donovan, despite their common careers.

Then there’s Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut), a Visitor who has been on Earth for a long time.  It seems he’s been helped the resistance in the past, but he’s kept his identity from everyone in the past (including the resistance).  He’s fallen in love with a human woman, but the arrival of the Visitors makes him choose between his mission (to overthrow the current Visitor government) and the love of his life.

The “Visitors helping humans” storyline was always one of my favorites in the original series, and I hope they can capture that same feel in the new one.

One part of the update that is hard to miss is the allusions to the current political climate.  It’s hard to see a show with a bright and attractive figure arriving onto the scene with a banner cry of hope, change, and peace without thinking of President Barack Obama.  The Visitors even promise to deliver Universal Heath Care, furthering the comparison.

And, honestly, I don’t really worry about that stuff.  I don’t think the show is coming at us with any agenda, and I don’t think they want us to think that President Obama is an evil reptile.  We have to remember that this is a remake of a show that was originally supposed to be about the Nazis.  And if there’s a message in the show, it’s simply that you need to think for yourself.

Just my thoughts on that – since it’s being discussed a lot in the media.

Altogether, I thought the series got off to a pretty good start.  Because of all of the revelations in the first episode, it felt a bit rushed.  I think it might have been a better idea to stretch the Pilot into a two-hour event, but I’m guessing that wasn’t an option.  And since it wasn’t, the writers did the best they could.

But it was a good start, I thought.  Where they go from here is the important part, and from the looks of the promo at the end of the episode, they have some pretty good ideas.  Hopefully they’ll be able to act on them.