Message-ID: <8117@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 7-Feb-85 16:15:21 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.8117
Posted: Thu Feb  7 16:15:21 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Feb-85 04:09:43 EST
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Organization: USAMC ALMSA
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Xref: watmath net.sf-lovers:6057 net.tv:2438

Last week's episode of "V" (delayed from an originally-scheduled earlier
airing, showed quite a few changes. The intro/opening credits were
different, and some of the major characters are gone (including
the token crazed-right-wing-CIA-madman Ham Tyler, who hadn't been
killed off in the show, as far as I can recall; just brainwashed into
even-more-dangerous instability). Duncan Regehr managed to get out
of his guest-star slot as Charles (lizards leaving a sinking series?),
and the plot had even more holes than usual (for example, someone
saying that he was there to "shave Diana's body", when her human skin
is only makeup), and a royal lizard wedding where Charles & Diana
(do those names ring a bell?) remained in human disguise while indulging 
in lizardish ritual. A little bit more presence of lizards, and even
a bit of speaking in native tongue, as opposed to English. 

Some nice touches: "cat poison" and "rodent musk" perfume. At least
one of the writers is trying to slip a few bright spots into this mess.
Silly aspect: Charles' poisoning causing his makeup to fall away
and accellerated decomposition. And HOW a lizard-creature could find 
an alien mammalian sexually attractive is beyond me; anthropomorhism
runs amok! (If Lydia wanted to seduce Charles, she should have
stripped off her makeup and been a lady lizard again...)

Bates is simply stated to have "died" in the opening newscast, and there
is no mention of the elaborate pulse-monitor and red-dust caches 
which were supposed to explode and kill off the lizards if he happened
to die. Since much was made of this before, we are now simply
supposed to forget it ever happened? Humph! Also, anyone notice what
seemed to be an abrupt and awkward cut in that opening newscast? It
looks like a segment of that was dropped out at the last minute.

(Using Howard K. Smith (a real newsman) in that opening news broadcast is one
of the best features of this series; a good technique for verisimilitude.
Too bad the following nonsense undercuts this so much. :-)

The series never adequately explained why Bates (a corporate boss)
became a political power, to such a degree that ordinary street cops
used the phrase "Bates' orders" to explain whatever martial-law-type
actions they were taking. If he now is so casually discarded, it is
about time to modify the settings; there has been a lot of pretense
of "carrying on a normal life" while under lizard control, only
allusions to people being rounded up for food in other areas (remember
"The Butcher of Birmingham"?) and various other aspects of a "real" war
of conquest -- why haven't the humans been spewing tons of red dust
into the atmosphere to renew the interdiction of the Visitor presence?
Why haven't the Visitors been nuking pockets of resistance? 

Another bit of evidence the writers have no idea what to do next -- they
are introducing new weaponry every show, as side gimmicks, but then
don't know what to do with it. Nonsense like the lizard patrol waiting
for the people in the bombed-out building to surrender, giving them
an endlessly-extending "5 minutes"... What do they care? Level the block
and move on... The Visitors have had enough time to suck the oceans
dry and fill the ships with corpsicles by now; it's getting harder to
find reasons for dilly-dallying around. 

Well, we'll see what happens next... I vote to put Faye Grant in a
body stocking again and give her another dose of "interrogation";
that had to be one of the highlights of this mess...

Ooops! My dinner's crawling off the table...

Bye! Will