science fiction TV

The Visitors Arrive Tomorrow

Tomorrow the Visitors arrive and they’re here to stay… again.  On Tuesday at 8:00pm the Visitors of “V” once again grace our screens after a 24 year absence. Long time readers of ONCE UPON A GEEK may remember that I’m a big fan of the 1980s phenom “V” (click here for other “V” related posts), so I’m pretty interested in this new series.  Check out the sneak peek below.

Looks pretty cool, right?  Good news is that early reviews of the pilot have been positive.  You can also view the first 8 minutes of the new pilot over at io9.  If that’s not enough Visitor action for you, check out ABC’s official site for the show.

If you’re jonesing for some classic “V” action, here are some memory joggers for you:

Recap of the original mini-series that ran in front of V: The Final Battle (greatest voice over guy EVER!)

V: The Comic Book

V: The Novels

V: The Video Game (in all fairness, I had never heard of this until today)

Ahhhh… good times.

Worth noting is that Kenneth Johnson, the writer-producer-director of the original “V” mini-series, is not involved in this new “V” television series.  In fact, he’s hoping to produce his own theatrical movie that continues his original story.  He wrote a novel fairly recently entitled V: The Second Generation that follows a similar premise.  You can read my review of the book by clicking here.

This isn’t the first time a relaunch of “V” has been attempted. Back in 1989 Warner Brothers commissioned J. Michael Straczynski (who would later go on to create Babylon 5, and write several successful comic books) to write a pilot screenplay for a proposed new series, tentatively titled V: The Next Chapter, that would have continued the “V” storyline. Picking up five years after the end of the NBC series, it would have followed the efforts of a new Resistance movement on a conquered Earth to make contact with the “Outsiders”, the faction of the Visitors’ own people who oppose their Leader, who had finally responded to a summons put out at the end of the original miniseries. The only character from the older “V” to appear in this script was Ham Tyler. After numerous drafts, the script, entitled “The Rebirth”, was finally abandoned when the studio decided it would be too cost-prohibitive to produce. You can find the first three acts of that script here.

Remake attempt after remake attempt.  Well… ABC gets the first shot and I’m really looking forward to it.

11 thoughts on “The Visitors Arrive Tomorrow

  1. I am very excited for this to premiere, but only so I can stop seeing so many commercials for it. I’m sorry to say that I can’t see this lasting very long.

  2. Wait a minute! They’re lizards disguised as humans?! Spoiled! I have been spoiled! Kidding. Wouldn’t it be a cool twist though if they were humans masquerading as lizards who were masquerading as humans!? And then they reveal that it actually is a cookbook! Awesome! Why am I not writing for television is beyond me.

  3. Shag:

    I was a huge fan of the original, but wasn’t too excited about this at first; I didn’t think they rolled out very good PR for it at Comic-Con. But the previews have looked pretty good and the early critical buzz has been solid. I’ll certainly give it a chance. Lord knows I need a post-BSG fix!

    Cheers,
    Andrew

  4. Shag:

    What did you think. I only made it through the first half hour before I moved on to other things. I thought the pacing was just terribly rushed.

    Cheers,
    Andrew

  5. Andrew – Sorry to hear that. I enjoyed it. I agree the pace was very rushed for the first one, however, I think that was intended to get all the “last series” big reveals out of the way. Since most viewers already know about the lizard truth, it was a plot point they shouldn’t drag out.

    I imagine the pacing for subsequent episodes will be a lot more reasonable. I’m going to keep watching.

    Thanks for commenting!

  6. Shag:

    May I suggest another post in a month or so, then? I’d love to read an update. If you’re still enjoying it, it might be one to Netflix in the future. (Right now I’m Netflixing the first season of True Blood. Just two episodes into it but loving it so far.)

    Cheers,
    Andrew

  7. I liked the pilot pretty well, before I had the chance to think about how stupid it was. The second episode just spun its wheels. I love V, but this is looking to be Dan Quayle instead.

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