Click here or on the above screen capture for one of two clips from ABC's upcoming sci-fi drama V, a remake of the 1983-85 miniseries and television show about an alien race who call themselves "The Visitors" seeking to conquer of Earth. (Hat tip @TrekMovie)Not bad, I must admit. And not nearly as campy as the original. Heh, I vaguely remember walking through the halls of my dorm in college hearing this series coming from multiple rooms as students huddled around their televisions--and the genuine disappointment when it was cancelled after just one year. Looks like this one just might hang on longer than that.
According to ABC, this rendition is thus:
Today, the world woke up to find spaceships over every major city. The Visitors claim to have come in peace, bringing gifts of medical miracles and technological breakthroughs. They promise to do no harm. They're lying.
Most people believe the aliens have arrived just when we needed them most. We're eager to embrace their generous offers of help, but while tracking a terrorist cell, Homeland Security agent Erica Evans stumbles upon something far more sinister. Erica discovers that the aliens have plans to infiltrate our governments and businesses, planting seeds for their plot to control mankind. Convincing anyone of the truth will be impossible because the Visitors have two powerful weapons. First, they've given the people faith with their reassuring presence and gifts. Second, they've rallied our youth. Thousands of teens, including Erica's son, have been recruited as 'Peace Ambassadors' but they're actually serving as unwitting spies. When Erica gets thrust into the resistance movement, she'll have to balance her covert activities with her job and her role as a mother, fighting to protect her son Tyler - even as he joins forces with the enemy.
Interestingly, Evans (center in cast picture above) is played by Elizabeth Mitchell, whom this blogger truly enjoys as Dr. Juliet Burke on Lost. Also of interest to a God-talk blog is the character Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch, far left). I haven't been able to find much about the character, other than this at the fansite VisitorSite.net:
... 30 years old, a Catholic priest, Father Jack is the assistant pastor at All Saints Church in Los Angeles, a parish that has seen its ranks of followers dwindle to almost nothing. On the verge of being reassigned, Father Jack sees a renaissance of faith when the Visitors arrive, as fallen-away Catholics return to church in droves, initially fearful of this brave new world. Unimpressed by the surge of hope and devotion that follows the arrival of the Visitors, Father Jack fears that his parishioners are relating to the aliens as god-substitutes...
At i09 (HT VisitorSite.net), Charlie Jane Anders says about the character (caution: contains some potential spoilers):
Father Jack, a Catholic priest, gives a sermon warning people not to trust the aliens, and the church tells him to cut it out. "We are all God's creatures," the Vatican says. "Rattlesnakes are God's creatures too," Jack remarks. "People need to hear that the visitors are part of God's plan," says another priest, Father Travis. And then a formerly wheelchair bound guy turns up, having been miraculously healed by the Visitors. But a visitor to Jack's confession booth tells him to keep up the anti-alien sermonizing, because people are going to need to wake up to the alien threat. All of a sudden, Jack's normally empty church is full of fearful people. Jack winds up helping to organize the anti-alien resistance, and visits a secret meeting where a doctor injects them with anesthetic at the base of their scalp, and then tests them to make sure they're really humans. Jack says he's a coward, but then later he gives a huge speech about how we need to stand up and fight.
(Images: ABC)