“V” updates ’80s alien saga, bringing lizards and allegory with it

By Stacey Harrison

© 2009 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. Credit: Bob D'Amico
© 2009 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. Credit: Bob D'Amico

Like many who were young when they saw the V miniseries back in 1983, one scene in particular was permanently seared into the psyche of Morena Baccarin.

“I remember watching it when I was really little with my brother and being totally freaked out by the hamster-eating scene,” she says. This is when the head alien, Diana, picks up a cute little rodent and, through the use of now-schlocky special effects, expands her jaw to an absurd length and stuffs it home. As shocking as it was, the statuesque actress also admits watching it all was “pretty great.”

That’s the essential appeal of V, which later spawned a sequel miniseries and a short-lived weekly series. It’s now looking to freak out a whole new generation when it debuts as one of ABC’s most anticipated new shows Nov. 3. Baccarin — who has shorn her signature long, flowing locks seen on Firefly for a cropped, icy cut — takes over the role of lead Visitor, now named Anna. She can’t say yet whether there’s any rodent eating in her future.

For the most part, however, V remains the same story. The world wakes up one day to find several massive spaceships floating over its major cities, carrying a message from Anna saying that the Visitors have come in peace, but are in need of water for their home planet. In exchange, they will provide their superior technology to help humanity fight disease and advance its civilization. While much of the population is on board, viewing the Visitors as saviors from the heavens, there is a patch of resistance that suspects ulterior motives.

The ensemble cast also includes Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) as an FBI agent and single mom who joins the resistance, only to find her teenage son (Logan Huffman) seduced by the Visitors; Morris Chestnut (Boyz n the Hood) as a man whose mysterious past keeps coming back to haunt him; Joel Gretsch as a priest who has trouble reconciling the Visitors’ presence with his faith; and Scott Wolf as a shallow TV journalist who struggles with a newfound sense of ethics after becoming the Visitors’ media mouthpiece.

Aside from the leaps forward in special effects, Baccarin says this version of V, while faithful to the original setup, also reflects changes in society in the past 26 years.

“I feel like they really captured the idea and the sense that we’re looking for hope at this time in our lives, and we’re looking for somebody or someone to rescue us in a way, which is I think a lot of the reason why Obama got elected,” she says. “The Visitors offer that kind of fantasy and that ideal for us that we seemed to have lost as the human race. I really like that idea that there are these people from a different planet who can show us how to be human beings better than we can remember.”

Executive producer Jeff Bell puts a finer point on it, bringing up the significance of the show being conceived during the Bush administration but airing during Obama’s presidency.

“The original focused on a Nazi allegory. These were evil reptiles bent on taking over the world,” he says. “But this isn’t a war show. One of the themes is blind devotion. This is a bigger, broader questioning of authority, calling into question anyone who goes along too easily with whoever is in charge.”

The Visitors’ infiltration of the human race goes far beyond the spaceships. They all are physically attractive, and have studied how to best play with our emotions and get us on their side. In the pilot, Baccarin’s character shows a deft media prowess as well, enticing her interviewer (Wolf) into avoiding questions that could cast the Visitors in a negative light. It will make his career, she tells him, and give him a global audience. What’s a few shredded journalistic ethics next to that?

The pilot pretty much sums up the original miniseries, using it as a jumping point to tell a much larger story, one to which Bell and the rest of the writers reportedly know the ultimate ending. But it should be a thrill getting there.

“There’s really the element of surprise and fear in it that’s a total hook,” Baccarin says. “While I was watching it, I really wanted to know what was going to happen in the next few episodes, because it was so incredibly scary as you start to discover how long they’ve really been here and what’s been going on.”

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