TV Cream

TV: V is for...

V

BLOCKBUSTING SCI-FI excursion rooted in “humaniods coming in peace – oh, no! They’re lizardy Nazis with false eyes and protruding tongues and rubbery masks come to eat us!” premise, with subsequent alien day trip to earth causing much damage to LA and the ratings. Hovering saucers over the world’s cities wreaking vengeance a-plenty much copied by inferior productions. Broadcast by ITV over one week in July 1984, opposite the BBC’s marathon Olympic coverage. Effects and make-up deemed “revalatory” in ’84 TV terms. The V stood for Visitors. Based on the rise of fascism in Germany, with the aliens even decked out in swastika-esque branding. Robert Englund was among the cast. Spoiler: the humans discovered that dust killed the invaders. It didn’t kill off the chance of a lousy sequel, though: V: THE FINAL BATTLE.

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. The Critchster

    August 26, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    Is that right? I though “V”, a two part miniseries from 1983; and “V: The Final Battle”, a three part miniseries from 1984 were broadcast by ITV on five consecutive nights in 1984. It was the latter that had the red dust. A year or so later, there was a one hour long weekly series, which WAS dire.

  2. borgduck

    August 17, 2012 at 10:29 am

    I thought “V” stood for victory?!

  3. Richard16378

    August 11, 2013 at 4:34 pm

    I’ve never seen this but I’ve often heard about the rat eating sequence & the half alien girl.

  4. THX 1139

    August 11, 2013 at 9:39 pm

    There was also a bit where a workman’s arm gets frozen then smashed during an industrial accident which shocked me at the time. The half alien girl was the finale of the second miniseries, Channel 5 showed them both when they started up and were desperate for viewers (plus ca change) but they hadn’t dated very well.

    The first miniseries is the best, still good fun and the intro with the huge saucers is pretty decent, but it went downhill after that, not that this stopped me from taping every episode of the following series and watching it when I got in from school the next day.

    Also there was the computer game version which I found utterly baffling and couldn’t do anything except have Donovan run from left to right and back again, then go in a lift.

  5. Richard16378

    August 12, 2013 at 10:33 pm

    I don’t remember the Channel 5 repeats, though C5 seemed to dig out a few oldies in it’s early years.

  6. George White

    February 14, 2024 at 8:36 am

    The Final Battle bizarrely features Edward Heath, via stock footage of his arrival at Downing Street in 1970 used to portray London during Freedom Day.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To Top