Childhood in the 1980s was so different to that of the modern schoolkids of the new millennium. Not only did we not have mobile phones, but all we had was the very basic Atari video game console and having to live with the very real threat of thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
However, there were some iconic TV moments that affected kids all over the world. I have already mentioned in a previous post the brilliance of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, but another TV event that was just simply earth shattering was a 1983 sci-fi mini series called V.
V was the story of the arrival of 50 alien motherships over the major cities of Earth. The Visitors, as the aliens became known, looked like us and promised to cure disease in return for some much needed gases to help their own world.
But as everyone knows what made this sci-fi programme that little bit different was the real intentions of the aliens and the obvious parallels with the Nazis in the 1930s. The Visitors were not benign. They rounded up scientists and people who did not cooperate to either put them to work or make them disappear just like Hitler and Stalin did.
There was one true ace card that V had that would be hard to replicate now. The shock factor of their true appearance! The Visitors did not look like us at all. Instead they were reptiles and they fed on mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, rats... you name it. Indeed the two scenes ("Mousey, Mousey... and Steven and Diana's feast) with food were replicated on many playgrounds. Also the Visitors were not here for gases, but for our water and to stockpile humans for food!
The heroic resistance fought against the Visitors and while Mike Donovan - a TV cameraman come action hero was a poor man's Han Solo - the real star of the show was the alien's chief science officer, the afore mentioned Diana. Diana became the breakout character of the show and its sequel and subsequent series. She was cool, efficient and rather nasty! But she was easily the most popular character in the show.
Which leads me to the new reimagining by US TV. The new V is being premiered on November the 3rd but rather than the 1930s parallels it will be more relevant to the post-9/11 world. But in this new series the leader of the Visitors is called Anna. It seems Diana has been left alone, which is good in one sense (because who else could play Diana other than Jane Badler?) and bad because she was such a fun character.
There is a very poignant scene in V at the end of the very first episode. Kids are spray painting a poster of the Visitors but it is just like graffiti. An old Holocaust survivor, Abraham, shouts at them and tells them to "do it right!" Abraham sprays the titular 'V' on the poster and in a truly uplifting moment tells them: "V. For victory!"
However, there were some iconic TV moments that affected kids all over the world. I have already mentioned in a previous post the brilliance of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, but another TV event that was just simply earth shattering was a 1983 sci-fi mini series called V.
V was the story of the arrival of 50 alien motherships over the major cities of Earth. The Visitors, as the aliens became known, looked like us and promised to cure disease in return for some much needed gases to help their own world.
But as everyone knows what made this sci-fi programme that little bit different was the real intentions of the aliens and the obvious parallels with the Nazis in the 1930s. The Visitors were not benign. They rounded up scientists and people who did not cooperate to either put them to work or make them disappear just like Hitler and Stalin did.
There was one true ace card that V had that would be hard to replicate now. The shock factor of their true appearance! The Visitors did not look like us at all. Instead they were reptiles and they fed on mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, rats... you name it. Indeed the two scenes ("Mousey, Mousey... and Steven and Diana's feast) with food were replicated on many playgrounds. Also the Visitors were not here for gases, but for our water and to stockpile humans for food!
The heroic resistance fought against the Visitors and while Mike Donovan - a TV cameraman come action hero was a poor man's Han Solo - the real star of the show was the alien's chief science officer, the afore mentioned Diana. Diana became the breakout character of the show and its sequel and subsequent series. She was cool, efficient and rather nasty! But she was easily the most popular character in the show.
Which leads me to the new reimagining by US TV. The new V is being premiered on November the 3rd but rather than the 1930s parallels it will be more relevant to the post-9/11 world. But in this new series the leader of the Visitors is called Anna. It seems Diana has been left alone, which is good in one sense (because who else could play Diana other than Jane Badler?) and bad because she was such a fun character.
There is a very poignant scene in V at the end of the very first episode. Kids are spray painting a poster of the Visitors but it is just like graffiti. An old Holocaust survivor, Abraham, shouts at them and tells them to "do it right!" Abraham sprays the titular 'V' on the poster and in a truly uplifting moment tells them: "V. For victory!"
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