When I was in college, a mini-series called "V" was made– it stood for Visitors, aliens who came to Earth claiming they wanted to help us. It was a decent-enough miniseries which ended in a totally hokey way, and was then made into a forgettable TV series.
The premise wasn’t bad, though it could have used work. So why not do that work (in these days of Battlestar and Doctor Who and Trek)? Surprise!
Spoilers for the original series:
In the old show, the aliens were actually lizards wearing fake human skin, which is maybe really silly, since it was never clear why the fake human skin hid the actual shape of their decidedly reptilian heads. The aliens came here to steal our water — dumb, since there’s a LOT of water in space in the form of comet nuclei which are a lot easier to get to — and to eat us — also dumb, since the likelihood of aliens being able to ingest our proteins without poisoning themselves is really really low.
Plus, they came from Sirius, a star very unlikely to have habitable planets; the primary star is orbited by a white dwarf that would make it hard to have stable orbits at the right distance… plus the star that formed the white dwarf must have gone through a red giant phase that would’ve wreaked havoc on the system. I am an optimist when it comes to habitable planets, and even I find it hard to look toward Sirius as a potential nursery for life.
The worst part was that an alien male and a human female had sex and she got pregnant. Um. Really? A friend of mine in school at the time didn’t see any problem with that, and I asked her if having sex with an iguana was likely to result in a pregnancy.
And don’t even get me started on the hybrid baby that glowed with sparkly thingies and has psychokinesis and could land the big ship at the final dramatic moment so that the day was saved.
Barf.
Still. I’ll watch, Why? Aliens, spaceships, and Morena Baccarin? C’mon, I’m only human!
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
Meh. Reminds me of Earth Final Conflict.
Edit:
Not to knock it or anything, I might give it a looksee. Still, I think I’m holding out hopes for Stargate Universe. Foolish I know, but it might not be a tragic failure! Back when it first started SG-1 was a lot of fun.
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:51 am
Morena Baccarin! Joel Gretsch! Elizabeth Mitchell! Oh my… Mmmmmmmmmm…
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:51 am
Well I’m guessing Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) won’t be in the final season of Lost then… unless they’ve already shot it.
Oh, I guess I’m only human too!
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:56 am
Forget Morena Baccarin, I’ll take Elizabeth Mitchell.
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
She’s going to be in certain episodes, but isn’t returning as a regular character.
I loved the original series & sequel – but the TV show was pretty lame. I mean, come on, they could have leveled the infected portions of the planet from orbit – or at least rendered all resistance fairly useless (destruction of power grids, industry, etc).
I also always wondered where the military was in all of that. Well, good luck to them – I will check it out and see if it passes muster.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:05 am
I’m more excited about Laura Vandervoort, although Morena is nice. Never saw the original, so I’ll probably check this out
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
Actually, “V” stood for “victory.”
As in victory over the alien occupation.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
I could always forgive V for it’s flaws as really, it’s classic sci-fi allegory. As I recall, the origianl series was dedicated in general to freedom fighters and a lot of specific Nazi and WWII references from the V swastika-like symbol to the uniforms, boots, etc.
If anything what worries me is that they may lose the allegory and the message. The original series had a Jewish family whose elders had lived through the Holocaust (80’s TV wasn’t exactly subtle) to really drive the point home. All I can hope for is that they’ve watched Verhoven’s “Black Book” for some inspiration and more complex theme’s.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 am
‘V’ started out standing for Visitors, but then it changed to Victory as the story progressed to mankind’s fight for survival. The show was very multifaceted that way.
All right, no it wasn’t. But it was still damn cool when I was a kid. I won’t watch it unless there’s a Martin analogue, though. He was always my favorite character, as it was the first time I’d ever been introduced to the concept of a fifth columnist.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
OT: Has the “Recent Comments” section that’s usually under “Recent Posts” disappeared for anyone else?
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:33 am
Where do I sign the petition for Robert Englund to get his cameo as Willie?
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Does anyone else find it the least bit ironic that the people first urging skepticism in the preview are…. the clergy?
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:36 am
There’s a trailer up over here: http://www.fancast.com/tv/V/104617/1129097000/V%3A-We-Mean-No-Harm/videos
It looks like they’re searching for water again. Oh boy.
I wasn’t thrilled by the original series and don’t hold much hope for this one.
I’m still waiting for the re-imagining of Space:1999 – Space 2099 anyone?
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
What Lauren said!
also, i watched the series as a kid. i remember liking it, though i wasn’t too picky. i liked the original BSG too.
i wonder if the visitors bring along a book titled “To Serve Man?”
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
V is for Vendetta. The House of Parliament will soon fall!!!!
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 am
I can distinctly remember watching the original miniseries with my roommates in college and when duped teenage girl went into a deep kiss with alien dude (who had already been shown to have a really long snaky tongue), we all screamed, “Can’t she tell?!” Niven and Pournelle tried to clean up the premise for a novelization and Pournelle claims they were at least marginally successful. If the new version at least borrows from them a little, it might not suck too hard. But I don’t hold out any hopes at all.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 am
Being picky: I remember that the aliens actually wanted our water for the hydrogen, to power their space ships – even worse science than just wanting the water. And I hated the psychic hybrid kid as well – didn’t it develop from new-born to to something like 5 years old in about a fortnight?
But the scene I shall always treasure is the one where the gorgeous (disguised) lizard lady picked up a cute fluffy liddle kitten, opened up her mouth wide – and popped it in. I hope they keep that one in!
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:57 am
I liked the miniseries, the TV series was hokey.
The arrival scene struck me as remarkably similar to Childhood’s End.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
Comment deleted.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:59 am
Ah, Phil. I hate to break it to you, but Sirius is merely a way station for the reptilian Draconians from Orion. They didn’t evolve there. In fact, Andromedans and Pleidians have told us that they reptilians originated in a different Universe and were dumped here because of their insolence.
Seriously. I looked it up on the internet, so it must be true.
I’m intrigued by your friend with the Iguana. I’d like to meet her. Research purposes.
BTW, the giant talking head reminds me of a Far Side comic where the crew of the Enterprise was looking at the viewscreen that had the giant floating head of Zsa Zsa Gabor.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:59 am
Jane Badler. Can they equal her…
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
‘V’ and ‘V: The Final Battle’ were very cool to see when I was a kid. But when you’re a kid you’re not very picky. I had the chance to see both series again a few years back and while some of the ideas in them are interesting (The way the Visitors use the media to implicate the scientific community in false frauds and turn the public against them), BA is right that much of the series were a little silly. Even as a kid I knew aliens and humans could never interbreed. Still, the original Battlestar Galactica was awful and the remake was largely excellent, maybe they can do the same with this. There’s certainly more then enough material in a scenario like this for some compelling drama AND a cool sci-fi show.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
@IVAN3MAN
Weird. I’m using Firefox 3.0.10, too, but the recent comments section is nowhere to be seen. It was there this morning…
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Phil,
You forgot to mention that any alien race coming to Earth would certainly be so much more advanced than us that they wouldn’t have to disguise themselves in order to take over the human race and steal our water. I guess that notion would wipe out a lot of sci-fi, though.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
#15 – That actually isn’t bad science, if they wanted the water to get deuterium to fuel fusion reactors.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Aliens, spaceships, Morena Baccarin… can I have one Summer Glau with that? You can even keep aliens if you add space-western setting.
[edit]
Ooooohhhh… I can edit my comments… shiny!!!
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
There are two things I’m really tired of.
1 the constant recycling of scifi actors. The guy in the photo is from the 4400 for example. After awhile your memory plays tricks.
2 Finding out that my favorite is being canceled with no wrapup of story line. I don’t trust the scifi channel anymore and I won’t allow myself to become invested in their programs. They’re not fans, just beancounters.
Thank you for letting me vent.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
@ Todd W.,
Err… I deleted my original comment because now I, too, find that the “Recent Comments” section has disappeared after refreshing the page!
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Science fiction is fun. It used to be a lot more fun in book form but new technology has made the visual aspect of TV and movies so much better. And on top of that good casting can make watching really easy on the eye. After all won’t science give humans of the future all the best physical attributes in addtion to more intelligience and better technology?
I was an avid Star Trek viewer, but as I’ve aged I’ve swung more to the Spock (logical) side of that argument than the Kirk (feeling) side. As a young person I always sided with Kirk. Now I would side with Spock. Either I’m smarter or my testosterone continues to decline. (Combination of both?)
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:44 pm
1 the constant recycling of scifi actors. The guy in the photo is from the 4400 for example. After awhile your memory plays tricks.
I think there are two forces at play here, one is that genre actors do develop a following within the scifi community and they hope they will help draw bigger audiences. In this trailer alone, “The 4400″, “Lost”, and “Firefly” are represented, and it looks as though Elizabeth Mitchell is there specifically as stunt casting for the initial promo push.
The second is, I suspect, simply a case of the actors using the contacts they have within the industry, and since many of the directors and producers tend to work on projects with a similar theme (scifi, soap, crime drama, etc) then they usually bring along the actors with whom they are familiar. This happens in the corporate world all the time, and doesn’t seem to be any different in Hollywood either.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I liked the original mini-series, so this one might get a look-see from me.
BTW, anyone else find it funny that a preacher was the one telling people to examine something before jumping on its bandwagon? [it starts at 1m:20s]
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I still remember “V” the first time around too. I can still picture scenes like the rat swallowings, the motherships hovering above the cities and, yes, the birth of the hybrid baby. It may have been a little ridiculous, but I still remember being shocked by its appearance, so from a dramatic angle, it worked well.
The only thing I remember about the dreadful series that followed was that they recycled all the special effects from the miniseries. I doubt there was one new effects scene in the whole series. In particular, I remember them using this one clip over and over again of humans driving into a tunnel to escape pursuing alien fighter craft which crashed into the side of the mountain when they could not pull up in time.
Got those dumb alien fighter pilots every time.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it’s got a bit of a right wing ‘obama’s says he’s here to give us hope and change but he’s actually a fascist who’s building re-education camps’ vibe.
maybe it’s the timing.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I’ve read that Alan Tudyk will be in it as well.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Any real aliens who might be tuning in would be forgiven if they had second thoughts about revealing their existence to us, given our love for the paranoia and thrill of the fear this type of “meet the aliens” production engenders!
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I’m a big fan of cheesy sci-fi, so I’ll have no problem with it, I’m sure.
AND… I’ll also probably watch pretty much anything with Morena Baccarin in it, too. Ha!
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:30 pm
“… and to eat us — also dumb, since the likelihood of aliens being able to ingest our proteins without poisoning themselves is really really low.” And you know this how?
Since we have not encountered any alien life forms, how can you/we say categorically what they can or cannot ingest? That statement might be accurate but we won’t know for sure until we run across some aliens that try to eat us.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
@arkonbey
Come on, do you actually expect anything even remotely right wing to come out of Hollywood? They are so far left it is amazing the country doesn’t tilt into the Pacific.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Wow, I thought i was the only one who remembered that show. I never watched it, I was a little kid when it was on, but I remember that big red “V” used to scare the life out of me.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
“Since we have not encountered any alien life forms, how can you/we say categorically what they can or cannot ingest? That statement might be accurate but we won’t know for sure until we run across some aliens that try to eat us.”
I think the point Phil was trying to make is that aliens would almost certainly have a different protein structure than we do (seeing as how they would have evolved on a different world with a different biology). Which is probably a good thing since we won’t be able to catch each other’s diseases (which was another science goof in the original V).
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
For the first 46 seconds of that trailer, I thought I was looking at a remake of _Independence Day_.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
The real question is when will we get a remake of Alien Nation?
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Um… ever heard of “24″? Torture porn at its finest.
I do agree that it’s unlikely that the “V” producers had any specific political agenda in mind, not that it will stop the conspiracy theorist from going at it.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I for one welcome our new reptilian overlords.
Seriously though, I was in HS when the first mini-series aired. As others said if you accepted it as an allegory it wasn’t a bad little show.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I would much rather they invest in some entirely new concepts for scifi rather than recycling the old ideas over and over again. I understand the incentives involved in remakes — they do tend to be less risky than brand new shows, but without investment in brand new genre shows like Dollhouse, and Firefly, the whole genre will eventually become very stale.
For example, the idea behind Caprica—the prequel to Battlestar Galactica—was initially going to be a brand new show exploring the ramifications of the invention of artificial intelligence on society. But the idea was a no-go until it was suggested it be part of the BSG universe. It’s great that the show was green-lit, don’t get me wrong, but I think the concept loses something because we already know what the final outcome will be.
Just something to think about.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Thanks, Romeo. That explanation was helpful. Cheers!
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Tacitus;
I agree. I’d love to see HBO or, maybe, SciFi Channel, do a series(mini series possibly) of David Brins double trilogy of Uplift novels. They were so cool. Or Harry HArrisons Stainless Steal Rat or,,,well, there are a zillion really good stories out there that could make a good series.
GAry 7
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
@tacitus
I will defer to you on 24, since I do not watch it.
I remember the original V, and I actually enjoyed it. Of course, I was a teenager who really didn’t care if things were scientifically valid or not. This looks pretty good, but then so do other trailers for new shows and movies, so who really knows. I am more of a nitpicker for historical movies with fictional stories based in historical times. I guess it’s the same with Phil and science fiction movies.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
When I saw the beginning of the trailer/preview the other day, I had no idea who was in the series. Having seen much of the original (with Freddie pre-makeup and claws), I was not terribly excited about its return. Then I saw Ms. Baccarin. Game.Set.Match. I’ll be watching.
(Bonus points for the appearance of Supergirl.)
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Tony:
I watch 24,,,whenever Chuck and Heros aren’t on,,,the acting was acceptable, but the gimmicks(the bad guys are always two steps ahead, for no particular reason) were very distracting. I have to admit, I don’t know what I would do to elicit info from a terrorist if I had 30 minutes to find a WMD in the town in which my kids live. On the other hand, institutional torture( as in Gitmo) is just plain stupid. When you have months in which to work, sugar is a better attitude changer than pain,,,
GAry 7
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
[...] 10:33 pm on May 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply Tags: tv (52) Woah, they are remaking V. § [...]
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Ha! I knew all the guys would be drooling over Morena…….. I hope the new version is better. I did watch the original because I pretty much watched anything SciFi when I was younger. It had its moments, but overall it was a bit of a downer.
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I knew all the guys would be drooling over Morena
I’m appalled that you would believe us guys to be that shallow…!!
Er…
Well…
OK. You got me. (Elizabeth Mitchell’s presence on the show certainly helps too,
)
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Iason:
This from io9 website:
“Remember the spotty headed alien cop and his racist partner, in the classic Alien Nation? Well, the rumors about a remake won’t die out online, and now Producer Gale Anne Hurd (Terminator) is apparently super serious about the idea to remake this buddy alien cop movie. The super producer isn’t all talk, either — apparently she’s pitching the idea hard to the powers that be.”
Be careful what you ask for!
Actually, the show I would love to see re-made is Gerry Anderson’s U.F.O., a classic British Sci-Fi show from the early ’70’s.
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
“… also dumb, since the likelihood of aliens being able to ingest our proteins without poisoning themselves is really really low.”
I’d like to know why that would be the case. Given the chemistry of carbon, it is the most likely basis for life. We know that all life on earth is carbon-based and that the bases A-T-G-C on a sugar/phosphate string control everything.
Here on earth we can eat most animals without worrying about dying; in many cases we can even eat venomous animals (for example, rattlesnake but I wouldn’t recommend the blowfish or various rainforest frogs).
I like the Bugs Bunny defense best: “Look doc, no meat!”
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
With all the Sci-Fi remakes and whatnot, here’s a story that Phil can really get behind: Patrick Stewart may play the “Meddling Monk”, a character not seen since the 60’s, on Doctor Who.
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Don’t worry too much about spoilers, Phil; the trailer gives a huge plot point away (the lizard thing)! I hate it when trailers do that.
also:
12. Jeremy Says:
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Does anyone else find it the least bit ironic that the people first urging skepticism in the preview are…. the clergy?
Not really; if anything, I could imagine they wouldn’t be too happy about having to compete for worship with the space aliens.
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Re: 18, Childhood’s End
Definitely. I thought the same thing, and not just from the arrival scene. Anyone who’s a V fan should pick up a copy in your local used bookstore. It’s classic hard sci fi and the aliens most definitely aren’t looking to steal water or play dress up. The ending is far from hokey too.
To 17, wanting water for hydrogen to power a spaceship isn’t that unreasonable. Presumably you wouldn’t be flying between stars using good old chemical rockets but rather using the hydrogen for fusion. As Phil pointed out, it would still be easier to get it elsewhere though.
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:48 pm
The BA :
A friend of mine in school at the time didn’t see any problem with that, and I asked her if having sex with an iguana was likely to result in a pregnancy.
Indirectly, yes, it is.
Any girl who has sex with an iguana must be *really* desperate and *really* not thinking – making it far more likely she’ll fall for anything and, consequently, fall preggas!
Think I saw a bit of the old ‘V’ TV series & have read the book. Not overly impressed by either.
H20 is common, Sirius isn’t a likely candidate for habitable life, aliens with the technology to travel between the stars and morph shapes are unlikely to need or want to eat kittens and humans or breed with them … as already noted.
I can allow for the odd unlikely premise but pile too many up on top of each other (especially needlessly) and it just gets too dumb …
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:36 pm
@Michael L
It would be hard to mess up too, since it was one of the cheesy ones.
Yessss, UFO was one of the greats when I was growing up. It was to Space 1999 as Captain Scarlet was to Thunderbirds
One story I’d always wanted to see made into film was Foundation, however after the abysmal mess they made of Dune, I’m not so sure. In the right hands it would make a superb TV series, much as Babylon 5 did, with it’s overlapping story arcs, deep backstory and attention to detail…. Now, back to reality.
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:21 pm
AWESOME!!!! Now, when do we get to see some clips with Morena Baccarin’s Firefly co-star, Alan Tudyk?
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Bazza, Foundation is being made into a Film… by none other than Roland Emmerlich… the guy responsible for the upcoming movie, 2012, and who made Day After Tomorrow
Aside from the crazy purple wigs, I think UFO was better than the original Trek! When I was a kid, I had one of the Green Dinky Toy Interceptors. No one could ever figure out why they made them green, since they were white in the show.
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
So, what have we really learned here: that the Bad Astronomer will ignore any amount of bad science and astronomy in a series he LIKES (Star Trek), and point out every detail that’s wrong in a series he DOES NOT LIKE (V). Ah, that’s the kind of consistent skeptic one can really respect.
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:34 am
Reptilians who want to eat humans? Did David Icke write for this show?
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:44 am
Hi there.
Kenneth Johnson created the original V miniseries. He had nothing to do with the second miniseries or the weekly series. Kenneth also created The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, and Alien Nation television series.
You can read about his history on all of his shows, as well as check out his recent sequel book to the original V miniseries at his website: http://www.kennethjohnson.us/
-Derek
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:37 am
Oh geez, more religious crap. I had enough of that BSG and the Caprica movie.
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:15 am
@Jeremy #12: I see no irony at all. After all the clergy denounce all gods but one, yet anyone who goes one further and says they believe in one less god than the clergy is immediately pronounced to be one of the most evil creatures on the planet. So there is nothing ironic in priests spouting nonsense, nor anything unusual for that matter. I would expect to see pigs sprout wings and fly before priests purposely say sensible things. Over 400 years ago Christopher Marlowe wrote in his play Faustus:
“Ack! Thou art too ugly to serve me! Be gone and return in the form of a Franciscan friar, for it is that holy shape which best fits the devil.”
400 years on and there hasn’t been much if any fundamental change in the priests. I suspect if we go back 2000 years we would see that little has changed other than the names and numbers of gods.
May 23rd, 2009 at 6:30 am
@Sky#63: I’m certain that this series provided the seed-idea of the “shape-changing reptiles from Reticula 19 are running things behind the scenes” conspiracy theory.
Icke didn’t actually dream it up all by himself though; he picked up Illuminati / Protocols of Zion ideas from US far-far-right conspiracy kooks , mixed them in with some Theosophy, added in some New Age channelled stuff about White Light Star Brotherhoods from space battling Teh Evil, watched ‘V’. And thus he got the lizards – basically a mashup of ideas that were floating around at the time. Somebody else would have come up with it if he hadn’t, although they probably wouldn’t have marketed it anything like as well as he did.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:17 am
Uh, Mathmanprime, you know these are TV shows, right? They aren’t political parties, or religious beliefs, or anything like that? I suggest you cool off and relax. Maybe watch some TV.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:24 am
Thoughts from trailer:
1. Space craft hovering over major cities was totally stolen from ID; even the craft had striking similarities.
2. Lead Alien actress reminds me of Halle Berry, I’d rather have Halle
3. Blond girl … meh.
4. I watched the old series, but it got boring fast; I hope they do better with this one, but I’m not going to hold my breath
5. Maybe the lizard alien chicks just want some oil of olay … dry skin and all that ya know.
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 am
54. Michael L Says:
Actually, the show I would love to see re-made is Gerry Anderson’s U.F.O., a classic British Sci-Fi show from the early ’70’s.
Check your theater listings: from SciFi (SyFy?) Wire: Robert Evans is teaming with ITV Global on a feature film based on the 1970s British TV series UFO, Variety reported.
Evans is producing with Avi Haas and Henri M. Kessler. Ryan Gaudet and Joseph Kanarek are penning a script.
60. Bazza Says:
One story I’d always wanted to see made into film was Foundation, however after the abysmal mess they made of Dune, I’m not so sure.
Which Dune.. David Lynch theatrical, David Lynch extended (disowned) or the SciFi Channel version? And yet another version is supposedly in the works
70. dhtroy Says:
Thoughts from trailer:
1. Space craft hovering over major cities was totally stolen from ID; even the craft had striking similarities.
But ID stole it from the original V.
[BTW... the original miniseries and 'The Final Battle" followup are a total of seven hours, with commercial breaks removed. I know because I dubbed both to an 8hour cassette (thanks to GoVideo's dual VCR) ]
J/P=?
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:22 am
[cynical]Aliens who came to Earth like that would actually be much more at risk than the crafty Humans because we, (the monkey descendants,) would eventually stop at nothing to get their tools and technology.[/cynical]
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Skipping the ‘hot actress’ comments for the moment (I haven’t watched enough TV or seen enough movies to have any idea who most of them are) I want to pick on the “poisonous proteins” comment as well.
The argument from my college days went as follows:
Carbon is carbon, everywhere in the universe. Ditto nitrogen etc.
Sugars are the simplest energy storage, so they’re probably universal. Levo- vs. Dextro- for the high-order stuff, we assume is random, so the ’sweet’ parts of aliens may be less than completely digestible.
Likewise, amino acids seem to be pretty trivial to generate (have Miller’s lightning-in-methane experiments held up?) so they’re probably the building blocks on Zeta Reticulii 7 (or where ever the latest “UFO Home World” is these days) as well.
You can expect oddities in the ‘higher end’ of the energy scale, but it should be like the sugars; if you try to live on just alien protein, you might get some vitamin deficiencies but most of it should be digestible.
On the other hand, there’s a lot on Earth that will make you sick if you don’t cook it to denature the proteins, so when Freddie eats the guinea pig raw (alive), that might not be so smart. But a big vat of stew should be just fine.
But as somebody said up stream, we won’t really know unless we get to sample a live ecosystem. I’m not holding my breath…
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Chip:
Check out Poul Anderson’s THE HIGH CRUSADE for an example of human ‘barbarians’ defeating extraterrestrial ‘civilization’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Crusade
J/P=?
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
“1. Space craft hovering over major cities was totally stolen from ID; even the craft had striking similarities.”
“But ID stole it from the original V.”
(From #70 and 71 above)
I’m glad someone else fielded this. I was going to say it, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen “V” that I couldn’t be sure. Normally I wouldn’t get so annoyed with an error like this, but Independence Day was (IMHO) such an atrocious movie that I have a “V”endetta against it*. Note that I”m not claiming that V was any better
(* see what I did there? HA! Just like Phil did with creationist astronomy!)
Pete
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:08 pm
42. Iason Ouabache Says:
The real question is when will we get a remake of Alien Nation?
Followed by:54. Michael L Says:
Iason:
This from io9 website:
“Remember the spotty headed alien cop and his racist partner, in the classic Alien Nation? Well, the rumors about a remake won’t die out online, and now Producer Gale Anne Hurd (Terminator) is apparently super serious about the idea to remake this buddy alien cop movie. The super producer isn’t all talk, either — apparently she’s pitching the idea hard to the powers that be.”
Apparently Peter Jackson is producing another(?) ‘alien refugee’ movie: Teaser trailer at SciFi Wire:
http://scifiwire.com/2009/05/trailer-now-live-for-alie.php
J/P=?
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
[...] V for Vremake Posted on May 24, 2009 by Chris (title cheerfuly stolen from badastronomy.com!) [...]
May 24th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Paul @13: The latest I’ve heard is that the guy doing the Space:2099 CGI-remastering thing was asked by the series’ rights owners to remove the video, but still kind of has his foot in the door and is hoping to persuade them to do something with the work he’s largely completed for them.
Back when “The Incredible Hulk” was on TV, Stan Lee once said that a consultant is someone who’s on call for advice that will be ignored. Apparently scientific consultants to TV series producers are still getting short shrift after all these years.
May 25th, 2009 at 7:13 am
70: Space craft hovering over major cities was totally stolen from ID.
71: But ID stole it from the original V.
Both came after the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy TV series, with the Vogon constructor fleet hovering over London
May 25th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
“Still. I’ll watch, Why? Aliens, spaceships, and Morena Baccarin? C’mon, I’m only human!”
Plus, you’re a geek. Me too. That’s exactly why I watched the original, and why I’ll be watching the remake!
May 25th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
What we really need is a continuation of Firefly/Serenity. That’s fresh territory. This will do in a pinch, though, until someone gets smart and gives us back our BigDamnHeroes.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Did Arthur C. Clarke ever sue V for the image of giant spaceships hovering over major cities, which he had written about in Childhood’s End?
Did he sue Independence Day too for that matter?
Aliens as hostile visitors – hasn’t that idea long worn out its welcome? Same thing with the aware computer that wants to take over the world.
May 26th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
[...] Here’s a recent BA blog entry about this. __________________ "A witty saying proves nothing" Voltaire. "All your bias are belong to us" Ara Pacis. [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Heh, this whole “V” thing (and any sci-fi story with aliens in large, overbearing spaceships) is all a rip-off of Arthur C. Clarke’s famous novel “Childhood’s End”. Read it, love it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Just watched it. Not bad for a remake of one of the tackiest so-called sci-fi shows of the 80s. Kinda liked that they didn’t bother to stretch it out into 4 hours of bad acting and tacky lines. Right to the point in 1 hour, why bother with the dribble? Might just have a shot at being decent.
But they still “come for the water”. Ah well. It’s V, whatayaexpect?
And Morena Baccarin… Gorgeous and creepy, works well.
November 6th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I’d heard (can’t recall where) that one excuse/explanation that could cover most of the listed flaws was that the Visitors were descendants of dinosaurs– that’s why they “really” wanted Earth (water was an excuse), that’s why they could eat us and catch our diseases, they didn’t evolve on Sirius but just used it as a waystation (assuming they were telling the truth about where they came from at all), etc. And the hybrid was, after all, an experiment and not the natural product of unaided breeding.