Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Remember when INDEPENDENCE DAY was called V and it was on TV instead of at the theaters, and it starred the Beastmaster instead of the Fresh Prince? Well, I do, and so does Jimmy James of WNYX, owner of one of the finest newsradio stations in New York, and a scholar and a gentleman. He's been after rumors on this V revival for a long time, and it looks like he's finally tracked it down with the help of a friend. I'll let them tell you all about it...
Philboitis And The Visitors!!!
Hey gang, your favorite stranger Philboitis here. Today, I got a special treat for you as I review a script that was to be a new V miniseries. For you young people out there who might not know what V is, this is a quick rundown...
V started out as a miniseries for NBC in 1983 and was developed by Kenneth Johnson, the mastermind behind Alien Nation. The plot involved aliens called "Visitors" who came to Earth and claimed that they wanted to bring peace between humans and the Visitors. They said they had cures to all of our diseases and such... but soon a small group of people discover their true intentions...they have come to steal our water and EAT US. Yep, you heard me. They actually harvested humans. At the time V became the highest rated miniseries ever for NBC. Of course, a second miniseries arrived the next year in the form of V: The Final Battle. After that a television show arrived. Unfortunately the transition from a miniseries and a weekly tv show was bad; the series was plagued with an over use of stock footage and soap opera storylines. It was quickly cancelled.
The public was still hungry for V though...and novels and comic books based on the show were doing great. Years after the letter campaign of Star Trek, the writers of the show demanded more V. David Abromowitz, a writer for V, had several ideas for a new V series....and in 1986 the members of V's creative staff approached NBC with the idea of producing a third miniseries entitled V: The Closing Chapter, but the network had absolutely no interest in it.
"We actually had two ideas,' explains Abromowitz. "The first was to go to the Visitors' homeworld, where people like Willie and Philip would overthrow Diana, who is attempting to take over from the Leader. We could have shot it in Utah or somewhere else very dry to represent a waterless planet, a place reptiles would find comfortable. We would have had the resistance lead a small underground group of lizards against Diana. The other idea was that the Leader takes his people home, leaving a peaceful understanding between the aliens who live here and the humans. All of a sudden a new President of the United States is elected and he tries to establish a former South Africa apartheid-like situation against Willie and the rest of the Visitors living in the United States. A law is passed that all aliens have to wear their human garb. Willie feels this is highly racist, so he removes his mask and with a bunch of whites and blacks he leads a peace march. The peace march is broken up and they're arrested. Eventually the president has all Visitors put in concentration camps, very much like what they did during the second World War to the Japanese. What happens," he continues, "is that the resistance joins forces with the aliens and lead a revolution against this guy, so it becomes a different kind of story. But it ends with, once again, some sense of peace. The situation is that humans are the villains this time, and not the aliens. You also have Donovan and Ham Tyler on opposite sides, with Donovan working with Philip and eventually having to kill Ham. Obviously it would have played from 9:00-11:00 p.m., but we couldn't get it off the ground which is a shame, because it would have been a real good show."
Rumors have been circulating for years that tons of writers have attempted to write a new chapter of V. One rumor I heard was that Eric Singer, co-writer of The Sky Is Falling wrote one. Even Joe Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame took a shot at writing one. His script entitled V: The Next Chapter- "Rebirth" is the script that I'm reviewing. Also, before going further let me inform you that all hopes for a V revival are not dead. Not by a long shot...even 17 years after the first installment. V fandom is still going strong. A convention was held this past summer in which I attended. Over the years I have heard certain things about Warner Brothers wanting to revive this franchise. Even Moriarty of Aint It Cool News said to me, "I've heard things..." I got a major tip over the summer that a new V series was in pre-production stages, but it doesn't look like that panned out...
On to the review...
V: THE NEXT CHAPTER
"Rebirth"
A Four-Hour Miniseries
Written by
J. Michael Straczynski
The script begins with the Visitors surrender to Earth and suddenly they launch a new offensive on Earth, we are unable to sustain this attack and then the governments of Earth surrender to the Visitors. We see scenes of carnage all around the globe including the entire city of San Diego being completely vaporized.
Damon Mallory is our main character in the script. To my knowledge, he has not been featured in any other installment of V before. Damon is a man on the run. After serving in the Earth/Visitor war, he was discharged and told that when the Visitors forgot about him, then he would be recruited again. It is five years after that and after killing several Visitors in a bar brawl, he is told he is now back on active duty. The scene ends with the figure of Ham Taylor, a resistance fighter from the past chapters of V, only he looks different...almost haunted as the script describes him.
The first 2 acts of the script show Damon recruiting members for his mission. The action is fast paced and easy to get into. Very well written. The members of Damon's team are a former computer technician and a former Visitor prisoner turned underground leader.
Digger, the woman who is a vital part of Damon's team as the underground(literally underground, she leads a group of people under the city...in the sewer) leader who has many contacts and also a mysterious past.
Throughout the script we learn more and more of what she is all about and what exactly transpired in the work camp she was in.
Jordan was a computer technician before the Earth/Visitor war. After the aftermath of the war, it is hard to get work repairing computers so he is forced to become a common "fix it" man. To say he is pissed as to what has happened to his life, his world, would be an understatment. Early on, we get the impression he is a loose cannon.
The script presents itself in a way that the reader gets the real impression that a war has taken place and people are scared. We see some familiar faces in the script from previous parts of the V saga. It presents a nice transition from the old to the new.
The finale of the 4 hour saga presents itself fairly well...though it seems a bit rushed.
The official reason this script was rejected by Warner Brothers because anticipated costs were too high.
Eventually, JMS says, it might be made into a novel. As to when, he doesn't know.
This is Philboitis out.
