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February 1, 2009 11:11 AM

Previously discussed last fall, ABC has officially greenlit a pilot for its reworking of "V."

This is welcome news to me as a sci-fi fan, especially as BSG is winding down. Here's to hoping that Caprica turns out to be every bit as cool as it should be.

posted by Afroblanco (108 comments total)

::rips skin off with excitement::
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:14 AM on February 1 [10 favorites has favorites]

I can't wait to see who they get to play Stencil.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 11:16 AM on February 1 [3 favorites has favorites]

As a kid, that show fucked me up hard.
posted by billysumday at 11:18 AM on February 1 [10 favorites has favorites]

Is it still going to be about the rise of Nazi Germany or is it about the war on terrorism this time?
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:19 AM on February 1 [4 favorites has favorites]

I welcome our reptilian overlords.
posted by RussHy at 11:21 AM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

God, they just don't make opening title sequences like they used to, huh?
posted by billysumday at 11:21 AM on February 1

This could work if they set it in 1983 and everyone had mullets and wore parachute pants.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:26 AM on February 1 [4 favorites has favorites]

As I've said before, we're just out of new ideas, aren't we?
posted by jonmc at 11:27 AM on February 1 [3 favorites has favorites]

Jesus, the hair.
posted by Caduceus at 11:33 AM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

As a kid, that show fucked me up hard.

Yeah, it made a huge impression on me as well. The scene with the queen-bitch alien eating a live rat is still fresh in my mind, even though I haven't seen it since a replay when I was maybe 12. Or the scene toward the end where Donovan sees the interior of the mothership with all the scary-looking equipment they were going to use to harvest humans for food. Edgy shit for 80s network TV.

Is it still going to be about the rise of Nazi Germany or is it about the war on terrorism this time?

Oh God, I hope not. I can totally see this happening, but it would be utterly lame. The story doesn't work as anything but an allegory of European fascism.
posted by DecemberBoy at 11:33 AM on February 1

Perhaps anyone who might be interested already knows. But just in case: Jane Badler released her debut solo album last year - which was described as "a compulsive mix of fame, sex and solitude, set to a sweeping soundtrack of cold soul and passionate synthetics."
posted by Joe Beese at 11:38 AM on February 1

the rise of Nazi Germany or is it about the war on terrorism this time

Given that it "centers on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with an aimless son", I think you have your answer.

Hopefully some original cast members get to, at the very least, do cameos.
posted by o0o0o at 11:39 AM on February 1

God, they just don't make opening title sequences like they used to, huh?

I was only vaguely aware that V existed before now. But I think I've been sold on it based totally on that epic drums/synth combo in that title sequence.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 11:39 AM on February 1

Surely I am not the only one who thought for a second upon seeing this post: "How the hell could they possible adapt Pynchon for TV?"
posted by ssg at 11:41 AM on February 1 [11 favorites has favorites]

The scene with the queen-bitch alien eating a live rat is still fresh in my mind

HER NAME IS DIANA AND YOU WILL RESPECT OUR REPTILIAN SUPERIORS
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:43 AM on February 1 [6 favorites has favorites]

The scene with the queen-bitch alien eating a live rat is still fresh in my mind, even though I haven't seen it since a replay when I was maybe 12.

It's slightly less convincing than I remembered it.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:44 AM on February 1 [4 favorites has favorites]

srsly, is there any possibility that this remake is going to be anywhere near campy enough?

also, back in the day, we had a betamax, what with its rapid forward/reverse switching and all...let me tell you, watching diana pop that ginormous guinea pig in and out of her mouth was a source of many hours of hilarity for me.

let the animated gifs begin!
posted by sexyrobot at 11:45 AM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

I thought that it was supposed to be a sequel to the original series, set 20 years later.
posted by orme at 11:45 AM on February 1

I've read the pilot (most of it, anyway). It's not campy and it's not a sequel. There's certainly going to be some terrorism/security angles to it, but it's a large ensemble cast with lots of potential themes at this point. I'm interested.
posted by Bookhouse at 11:48 AM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

orme - from what I gather, V (The Second Generation) was written by the original writer of the V series. Apparently, he isn't involved with the upcoming ABC pilot.
posted by Afroblanco at 11:49 AM on February 1

See, here's what's fucked up about V: I was 10. I got to watch the first season, with the rat eating and face ripping and all that, and was totally hooked. By the second season, my parents had caught on and I wasn't allowed to watch it anymore. So I missed the whole halfbreed alien baby birth scene. Years later, I tried to catch up watching the show on DVD and it looked sad and dated.

So I want them to make the V that I imagined in my head when I was 11.
posted by felix betachat at 11:57 AM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

I vaguely remember this series. It ran during my honeymoon. I remember myself & the new wife laying on the bed, watching TV and seeing someone unhinge their jaw to swallow a rat (wouldn't a nice fillet have been easier?) and just looked at each other and went "eeeeww".

Later, she hit me in the nuts with her purse, but that's a story for another post.

I hope that doesn't happen after this sequel.
posted by Mcable at 11:57 AM on February 1 [3 favorites has favorites]

I can see why Alan Moore was so outraged by this adaptation.
posted by panboi at 11:59 AM on February 1 [13 favorites has favorites]

God, they just don't make opening title sequences like they used to, huh?

omg, is that marc singer taking a face to the crotch at 1:21?
posted by sexyrobot at 12:01 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

I <3 Diana.
posted by forallmankind at 12:01 PM on February 1

"centers on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with an aimless son",

Puke!

Here's to hoping that Caprica turns out to be every bit as cool as it should be.

Woohoo! No spaceships! SUPER COOL!
posted by Artw at 12:08 PM on February 1

HER NAME IS DIANA AND YOU WILL RESPECT OUR REPTILIAN SUPERIORS

Uh, s-sorry. "The Visitors Are Our Friends!" heh heh, please don't eat me

It's slightly less convincing than I remembered it.

Oh man, you were right. Well, maybe since they're reptilian aliens they can unhinge their jaws like snakes, and... no, I got nothin'. That was cheesy as hell. Well, it was 1983 network TV, after all.
posted by DecemberBoy at 12:10 PM on February 1

but it's a large ensemble cast

The important question is: does it have Robert Englund?
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:16 PM on February 1 [3 favorites has favorites]

What about Willie, the good-natured "Why don't we just keep the humans as pets?" alien? I really liked him. But wasn't he executed for treason or something? My memory is foggy.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:16 PM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

Ha! Jinx, I owe you a Coke, PG.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:17 PM on February 1

I hope they make it grim and gritty! And have lots of crying!
posted by Artw at 12:17 PM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

So... VI or X?
posted by davemee at 12:17 PM on February 1

cRAPTORica?
posted by Artw at 12:24 PM on February 1

omg, is that marc singer taking a face to the crotch at 1:21?

It just so happens that sliding down the front of a spaceship with your legs spread, slamming your crotch into your opponent's face and knocking him unconscious is also known as a V. Look it up if you don't believe me.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:24 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

"The scene with the queen-bitch alien eating a live rat is still fresh in my mind"

Eep. I remember that scene...

Clearly, V influenced a whole generation of actresses in the adult film industry.
posted by markkraft at 12:24 PM on February 1

What they *SHOULD* do is cancel the plans for this immediately, and buy the rights to make a television show based on the classic X-Com game...
posted by markkraft at 12:26 PM on February 1 [6 favorites has favorites]

There must be a cameo for David Icke!
posted by Abiezer at 12:33 PM on February 1 [9 favorites has favorites]

What they *SHOULD* do is cancel the plans for this immediately, and buy the rights to make a television show based on the classic X-Com game...

There was a Something Awful thread awhile back about ideas for video games, and the best one in the thread was basically an X-COM update centered around fighting vampires, werewolves, and the like.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:33 PM on February 1

The special effects should be much better this time around since they won't need as big a hairspray budget.
posted by fatbird at 12:38 PM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

I still dream of a time when some TV people get round to reading some of the truly excellent SF literature that's been written in the last 50 years and then decide to make a show.... rather than, you know, this stuff...
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 12:42 PM on February 1 [4 favorites has favorites]

The new "V" centers on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with an aimless son.

I suppose I can understand why showing heroic Resistance on the part of a band of freedom fighters and fifth-columnists would be perceived as somewhat inappropriate nowadays. *rolls eyes*
posted by Fruny at 12:43 PM on February 1 [4 favorites has favorites]

The night I was born, 10/27/1984, my sister was watching V on TV (rerun or something). She was 11 and swore up and down I was going to be a V-baby, just like the closing sequence (from what I've been told). So I've grown up with my sister calling me V-baby, and my mom emailed me to show me the remake.

I guess I should watch it considering I've been called V-baby my whole life.
posted by metricfan at 12:47 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

Fruny: "I suppose I can understand why showing heroic Resistance on the part of a band of freedom fighters and fifth-columnists would be perceived as somewhat inappropriate nowadays. *rolls eyes*"

Maybe now that Obama is President, 24 will stop promoting torture as an effective national security tool.
posted by Joe Beese at 12:47 PM on February 1 [4 favorites has favorites]

I remember the mini-series with the big reveal ("food"), which burned into my brain forever, yeah, but the series that followed didn't ever really hold onto me. After one or two episodes, I turned it off and used my TV time for Colecovision instead.

Call me when They Live gets an HBO treatment.
posted by rokusan at 12:48 PM on February 1 [3 favorites has favorites]

The special effects should be much better this time around since they won't need as big a hairspray budget.

Yeah, the whole harvesting humans for food thing was really a ruse. The real plan was to totally deplete the ozone layer with the massive amounts of AquaNet needed for Diana's tremendous mall-hair, thus changing the Earth's climate to one more hospitable to reptiles.
posted by DecemberBoy at 12:48 PM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

le morte de bea arthur: I know, right! You should expand that to include fantasy too. Like the Disc World Series.

Though we can't forget that SF can get out of control...
posted by metricfan at 12:50 PM on February 1

What they *SHOULD* do is cancel the plans for this immediately, and buy the rights to make a television show based on the classic X-Com game...

There was a Something Awful thread awhile back about ideas for video games, and the best one in the thread was basically an X-COM update centered around fighting vampires, werewolves, and the like.

Howabout X-files vs the Cthulhu Mythos, in Delta Green, the TV series.
posted by Artw at 12:55 PM on February 1 [3 favorites has favorites]

The night I was born, 10/27/1984

I feel so very old right now.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:57 PM on February 1 [5 favorites has favorites]

I still dream of a time when some TV people get round to reading some of the truly excellent SF literature that's been written in the last 50 years and then decide to make a show.... rather than, you know, this stuff.

Yes, we can!


But no, they won't.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:58 PM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

I think that Diana eating a rat is embedded in everyone's minds! I do so hope they don't ruin my memories of V with this new version.
posted by Gisela at 12:58 PM on February 1

The special effects should be much better this time around since they won't need as big a hairspray budget.

like i said, not campy enough! they need to triple the budget for hairspray, shoulder pads, and lip gloss...in fact, screw the lip gloss... lip injections and huge implants for everyone! all the actors should be obviously straining under the effort of holding up their massive gold jewelery. all the spaceships should be painted with that car paint that changes color depending on the angle you look at it. inside and out. with hologram decals. and spinny rims. every device should be encrusted in LEDs. even the toaster. and srsly, is there anything more glamourous than a lizard-person in a huge mink coat? with shoulder pads.
posted by sexyrobot at 12:59 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

Call me when They Live gets an HBO treatment.

How could you possibly redo They Live and make it any better than it already was? It is already the perfect cheesy sci-fi/action movie. If they tried to do it all serious-like, it wouldn't work.

"PUT THE GLASSES ON!"
"NO!"
(punch-punch-fight-kick)
"PUT THE GLASSES ON!"
"NO!"
(punch-punch-fight-kick)
"PUT THE GLASSES ON!"
"NO!"
(punch-punch-fight-kick)
(repeat ad infinitum)
posted by DecemberBoy at 1:00 PM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

Wait for Caprica to fail and a few more nostaligia inspired grim and gritty remakes of 80s shows to fail and then maybe they'll try something else.
posted by Artw at 1:00 PM on February 1

I watched this show when I was in kindergarten—my parents had just had my sister and they had their hands full with her, so I got less supervision. I remember two or three episodes very vividly. The rivalry between Visitor commanders Diana and Lydia... well, let's just say that there is a freakin-hawt subtext there that I also remember vividly and fondly today.

Much later, I moved out to Los Angeles and got to meet the writer of one of the episodes I remembered. When I told him how much I enjoyed the episode, he looked at me funny and said "I'm not too proud of that one." Ouch.

Anyway, the new V will probably be super-lame à la NBC's Bionic Woman, but come on, it's American network TV. Do you want to watch a season-length adaptation full of commercials and teh dumb-down of Consider Phlebas, Left Hand of Darkness, etc.?
posted by infinitewindow at 1:05 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

Now I fully expect that someone will remake that truly, stunningly, insultingly execrable TV series War of the Worlds. The rat-eating memory from that show was someone's arm being ripped off by Martians pulling on their legs, while said arm's strangely powerful hand held onto a strangely immobile school chair.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:07 PM on February 1

Woohoo. Can't wait.

Wait.

What is "V"?
posted by fourcheesemac at 1:10 PM on February 1

rokusan: "Call me when They Live gets an HBO treatment."

Remake already in the works.
posted by octothorpe at 1:31 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

exec1: Dammit, they're making a lot of money with BSG

exec2: We should do something like that. What other campy scifi series from the seventies
and eighties can we remake into something hard-hitting

exec5: Hey, I know, we could remake V

1 and 2: what?

exec5: you know, with the reptiles!
posted by oonh at 1:32 PM on February 1

omg, is that marc singer taking a face to the crotch at 1:21?

It just so happens that sliding down the front of a spaceship with your legs spread, slamming your crotch into your opponent's face and knocking him unconscious is also known as a V. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Actually it's called tea-bagging and I was really pumped that he used it as an attack move!
posted by P.o.B. at 1:47 PM on February 1

I hadn't realized it until just now, but Jane Badler/Diana totally looks like James Labrie of Dream Theater.
posted by jbickers at 1:49 PM on February 1

"PUT THE GLASSES ON!"
"NO!"
(punch-punch-fight-kick)

I remember there being more wrestling moves involved...
posted by P.o.B. at 1:53 PM on February 1

P.o.B.: "I remember there being more wrestling moves involved..."

He hit him in the head with a coconut.
posted by Joe Beese at 2:06 PM on February 1

I remember there being more wrestling moves involved...
...and a LOT of knees to the marbles.
posted by Tbola at 2:07 PM on February 1

I would love it if this doesn't suck, but I suspect it will. Galactica is cool and all, but the strip-mining of 70s and 80s shows already took a nose-dive with the Bionic Woman remake, and I'm sure this will only continue the trend, not least because it seems so cooked-from-a-formula.

I can but hope the originals get a release on DVD. Along with Werewolf, which I have been desperately trying to torrent from shitty VHS rips.

I wonder how long it is before someone decides we need a reimiagining of Greatest American Hero.

Surely I am not the only one who thought for a second upon seeing this post: "How the hell could they possible adapt Pynchon for TV?"

Which is funny, because I was young enough that when I heard there was a book called V I assumed that the series must have been based on it.

Boy, was I surprised.
posted by rodgerd at 2:18 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

I adored V as a teen, and remember the big Alien Reveal with fondness, but then I totally forgot about it.
Until I went to a Comic Con (Philly or Baltimore, maybe?) a few years back. You know the typical B-level con, with some interesting panels, a few good guests, a great tradeshow floor, and then the little booths in the back where you can chat up some minor celebrity, get them to sign stuff, take pictures with them, that kind of thing. And lo! There was Marc Singer, hawking photos of himself and signed The Beastmaster and V posters. He was squeezed in next to some soft core porn star -looking girl (no idea who she was) in the corner, looking exceedingly bored. There was not a single person at his booth, but his neighbor was surrounded by guys asking for her autograph. Then the biggest V fanboy I've ever seen showed up to meet him- all decked out in a homemade outfit so that he looked like Mike Donovan in the original series, that red 80:s looking thing. The look on Marc Singer's face was priceless.
posted by gemmy at 2:22 PM on February 1 [5 favorites has favorites]

rodgerd: "I wonder how long it is before someone decides we need a reimiagining of Greatest American Hero"

You knew this was coming.
posted by Joe Beese at 2:24 PM on February 1

exec2: We should do something like that. What other campy scifi series from the seventies
and eighties can we remake into something hard-hitting

Sad thing is, you could make a really good, dark Buck Rogers. One where it's not immediately obvious what the AIs are up to, or whose side they're really on, and where they're clearer about the mutant outcasts and Buck remembers that, oh yeah, everyone he cared about burned in thermonuclear fire.

And Wilma Deering in spandex.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:29 PM on February 1

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, please?

Thank you.
posted by Joe Beese at 2:33 PM on February 1

Or they could remake Manimal. They could set it up as the story of the original Manimal's son. I'm pretty sure Simon McCorkindale is both not real busy and not dead yet, so he could be Fearless Leader who sends his brash, sassy son (named "Ethelred," but the kids will call him Ho-Ju) out on missions.

As Manimal2, Ho-Ju could lead a team of shape-shifting fish called the Garanimals.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:36 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

I wonder how long it is before someone decides we need a reimiagining of Greatest American Hero

Now there is a show you could do some interesting things with the storyline.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:37 PM on February 1

The advertising campaign for "V" was the first "teaser campaign" I ever recall seeing.

Who remembers the posters (a single red V on a black background ... no other information ... nada) plastered in Boston/New York subway stations, etc? A week or two later television ads started appearing. I recall seeing then during episodes of Cheers, etc.
posted by ericb at 2:39 PM on February 1

*seeing them*
posted by ericb at 2:39 PM on February 1

The Future - Together.
posted by jettloe at 2:42 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

mmm...spandex.
also, since the aliens are cold blooded, they'd need stuff to keep warm, right? like thigh-high leg-warmers and fingerless opera gloves...both of which look great bedazzled with rhinestones. they could save money on the special effects budget by just gluing together 2 of those spinny rims for the spaceships, then put the extra money towards swarovski brand rhinestones, which are so much sparkly-er.

also, instead of the rubber human skins, it should be some kind of make-up product (tie-in?) that the aliens use to cover their secret, reptillian identities...you know, like the stuff nancy reagan uses.
posted by sexyrobot at 2:48 PM on February 1

I wonder how could you improve on special effects like these? Although I've heard that our alien lizard baby puppet technology has improved greatly since the early 80s.

This scene fucked me up big time.
posted by bibliowench at 2:54 PM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

All cheese aside, V is a pretty neat idea. The Homeland Security angle has me a little worried that this will just be BSG for wingnuts (they're coming to save us from ourselves? I think I've heard that line before, Mr. Big Government Socialist!! ...I'll be over here, loving God, loving America, hating terror, and eating fried rats as I die from a multitude of easily treatable diseases that I could be rid of if I only had health care, thank you), and I'm already tired of recycled TV, but whatever. I mean, it could be all right. Has anyone seen The 4400? I haven't, but it sounds like these guys were involved in it, so that could be a tip-off...
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:04 PM on February 1

I've heard that our alien lizard baby puppet technology has improved greatly since the early 80s.

sure, but can we afford it? i mean, we have a LOT of eye shadow to buy.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:07 PM on February 1

I'm pretty sure Simon McCorkindale is both not real busy and not dead yet

I'm pretty sure he was all over the last series of Stargate. Didn't turn into a panther once. What a jip that was.
posted by genghis at 3:08 PM on February 1

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, please?

Aw man, Dyna Girl had awesome pigtails. I totally wanted to be her.

The whole alien baby thing was when I kinda stopped watching V, when the human looking twin* was growing up super fast and then had magic powers that neither species had, and I just went "Huh?" and switched over to whatever other crap was on.

*what happened to the lizard twin anyway?
posted by emjaybee at 3:21 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm sure Kenneth Johnson isn't too happy about this, considering he's spent the past 3-5 years negotiating the 20 years later storyline with NBC. Oh, wells...

My original thought was that it's too late for this show, considering Bush is out of office. But if ABC is pushing this, it'll be lucky to make ot halfway through the season.
posted by vhsiv at 3:26 PM on February 1

The new "V" centers on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with an aimless son.

Oh Jesus. I suppose this was a foolish thought for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that TV shows like this were probably greenlit years ago, but somehow I thought maybe the end of the Bush era would give us a break from this.

A break from shows like "24," which I think is the minimum IQ necessary to notice to the pro-Bush/pro-torture messages embedded therein.

A break from the tired, trite, yes-I-agree-with-your-politics-but-this-just-doesn't belong-here "everything symbolizes Bush!" approach of shows like Battlestar Galactica.

Does the Joker HAVE to be Osama bin Laden, no matter how poor a fit it is for the story? Can someone just tell a story without leaning on the stupid worn-out crutch of current events? Can one thing from my childhood be left unfucked-up?

It would seem not.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:28 PM on February 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

exec2: We should do something like that. What other campy scifi series from the seventies
and eighties can we remake into something hard-hitting

The Phoenix & The Secrets of Isis?
posted by Tenuki at 4:08 PM on February 1

Has anyone seen The 4400?

I only watched the first season, so it may have gotten better later on, but there was very much a just-like-the-X-Files-only-not-as-good kind of quality to it.
posted by EarBucket at 4:10 PM on February 1

I hope they bring back Freddie Kruger as the dweeby quisling alien. And Micheal Ironside from the television series as he rocked... well he actually he rocks in everything.

I remember watching the original mini-series with a load of mates and going from 'hey, this could be quite good' to general hilarity as it progressed.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:23 PM on February 1

I enjoyed V in a not at all obsessive way all four (miniseries, sequel miniseries, tie-in book, and deadly dull regular series) of its original incarnations.

They're bringing it back?? Squeee.

infinitewindow, in the mid-90s I unexpectedly became the landlord of one of the former leads. Doing my best for months to maintain the professional veneer, I finally allowed myself a comment one day while we were the only occupants of the elevator. "I really enjoyed your work in V, by the way." The depth of skepticism expressed by that upraised eyebrow said it all.

After that, the rent checks were always slipped under the door in the middle of the night. I'm sure it was just a coincidence.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 4:31 PM on February 1 [2 favorites has favorites]

i think in order to do this properly, we need to bring in john waters to direct...
oh yeah, and we need like five square miles of velour...
and more guinea pigs...
and richard gere...
posted by sexyrobot at 4:35 PM on February 1

How can it be V without Robert Englund, Michael Ironside, Marc Singer and Diana ?

"I'm just!"
"Just what?"
posted by lundman at 4:44 PM on February 1

A remade "V" based on American fascist tendencies is actually closer to the source. Series creator Kenneth Johnson has said that V was inspired by Sinclair Lewis's novel It Can't Happen Here.

The book enjoyed a brief resurgence when it was re-issued at the height of the Bush years. I read it recently and it's highly entertaining, probably more so now that those Bush years have ended.
posted by nev at 5:16 PM on February 1

ZOMG live action Star Blazers plz!
posted by moonbird at 5:16 PM on February 1

During the mid 1990s, the Walt Disney Company purchased the theatrical rights to a live-action Yamato movie. A highly publicized draft of the script by Tab Murphy was leaked on the internet in the late 1990s. It followed a ragtag crew of misfits (most of whom are not named after any of the original show's crew from either the Japanese or English version) aboard the rebuilt United States battleship Arizona on a mission to save Earth. The project is believed to have been shelved following Michael Eisner's departure from the company. In April 2006 it was announced that Benderspink and producer Josh C. Kline had teamed up to make another attempt at creating a live action version of the story.

posted by Tenuki at 6:07 PM on February 1

markkraft - totally, dude. Only set it after X-com's lost funding from a few of the bigger governments (or have the funding changeover happen during the 1 or 2 hour pilot). X-com trying to do it's thing on a limited budget, selling dead aliens on eBay and alien ephemera at tradeshows while Homeland Security (subverted by the aliens) keeps trying to track down X-com agents. Agents being gung-ho to be assigned to anti-terrorism missions because the terror target is where they're loved one is (only they get zombified by a chrysalid).

I always wondered who the buyers of X-com manufactured equipment/arms were...

Might even spin off the research and engineering departments in a CSI/Grey's Anatomy type show (or episodes).

You'd have to have a revolving cast, though. For some stupid regulatory reason, all the most experienced* operatives will the be first off the landing craft at UFO recovery sites who get blasted the moment they step out the door.

*yes, I know there are mods to change 'The Regs' but that could be incorporated into the show, too
posted by porpoise at 6:33 PM on February 1

Personally, I feel like Pynchon would be better suited to cable.
posted by thivaia at 7:47 PM on February 1

In Nu-V the visitors look like reptoids but are actually robot shells piloted by mice.
posted by Artw at 8:24 PM on February 1

a just-like-the-X-Files-only-not-as-good kind of quality to it

You mean Fringe?
posted by kirkaracha at 8:56 PM on February 1

"a just-like-the-X-Files-only-not-as-good kind of quality to it"

You mean Fringe?

Yeah, the X-Files had a bunch of high points that were better than what we've seen of Fringe so far. It also had a heck of a lot of low points... whole seasons worth... which were far worse than what we've seen of Fringe. We've only seen, what, 10 or 11 episodes so far?

It's quite easy to remember the 10 best X-Files episodes and forget the 50 worst.
posted by Justinian at 9:30 PM on February 1

we also need those false eyelashes with the tinsel in them so they're all shiny...

wait, do reptiles even HAVE eyelashes?
posted by sexyrobot at 9:36 PM on February 1

Just finished watching downloaded DVDs of the original miniseries after this thread piqued my nostalgic interest - it holds up pretty well in a cheesy popcorn sci-fi sort of way. If you can look past the cheesy special effects, the copious mall hair and the Visitors' 80s-tastic uniforms (it's like an invasion by the galaxy's biggest new wave band), it's pretty entertaining. The fascism stuff is more heavy-handed and obvious than I remember, especially the inclusion of the old Jewish Holocaust survivor guy whose only purpose in the story is to hit you over the head with allegory, but it's not like it was intended to be profound. Overall, though, it's a fun little flick. Worth a spot in your BitTorrent queue anyway.
posted by DecemberBoy at 3:02 AM on February 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

I loved this miniseries as a kid. I loved the novel when I got around to reading it. Anyone who thinks the TV show wasn't an attempt to televise Pynchon's book is doing something wrong!
posted by OmieWise at 6:42 AM on February 2

They Live also features the best quote in the history of movies:

"I came here to kick ass and chew gum. And we're out of gum."
posted by LilBucner at 7:55 AM on February 2

There was exactly one good scene in V. That's when the alien shuttle craft touched down on the rooftop, with the welcoming band playing the theme from Star Wars.

Other than that -- rabbit pellets.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:28 AM on February 2

Stop with the TV remakes already...

...or else!
posted by markkraft at 10:35 AM on February 2

There was a Something Awful thread awhile back about ideas for video games, and the best one in the thread was basically an X-COM update centered around fighting vampires, werewolves, and the like.

Rumor has it, the Bioshock team (formerly known as Irrational) is off working on an X-COM update.

Does the Joker HAVE to be Osama bin Laden, no matter how poor a fit it is for the story? Can someone just tell a story without leaning on the stupid worn-out crutch of current events? Can one thing from my childhood be left unfucked-up?

Really? I didn't get that at all. I think the "there's no rhyme or reason to the Joker" angle is just a call back to him being the polar opposite of the "all structure and regimen" Batman. Then again, after the first movie changed Batman from a terrorist who trained in the Middle East to a ninja who trained with a Japanese guy in Tibet, anything's possible.
posted by Amanojaku at 12:59 PM on February 2

My most vivid memory of V is, after watching it at a friend of the family's house, we went out to the car to go home, and I slammed my finger in the door. Didn't break it, but I did rip off my nail.
I can't think of V without revisiting the pain and the image of a bloody torn nail. Somehow, it seem appropriate.
posted by sandraregina at 1:11 PM on February 2

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing : What about Willie, the good-natured "Why don't we just keep the humans as pets?" alien? I really liked him. But wasn't he executed for treason or something? My memory is foggy.

It's been a while since I saw it, but if I recall correctly, they burned him in a fire, and he came back to haunt their dreams with some kind of razor glove or something.

It seemed like a strange direction for the show to go, but hey, it was the '80s.
posted by quin at 2:53 PM on February 2 [2 favorites has favorites]

Osama bin Laden would never set a pile of money on fire, or dress like a nurse.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:42 PM on February 2

V was the pinnacle of Robert Englund's career. That, and a couple of Babylon 5 episodes he did later.

As to The 4400, I thought it was a good show. It was a bit like Heroes, but with more thought put into the powers people received. And there was a meta-story about how the powered people were becoming an unstoppable force for social change. They cancelled it right at the point when it was getting most interesting.

A V remake might be a good idea, but it's never going to get the ratings the original did. That first miniseries came out in different time, when viewers didn't have as much choice. Back then, you took the TV they gave you and liked it... or you read a book.

Even at the time, I thought V was a great concept that they completely failed to develop after the intitial miniseries. That first mini was really something. What really struck me about it was the way the Visitors quickly and efficiently conquered the Earth, and no one noticed. So by the time the rebels find each other and a Resistance is formed it's already too late. The Earth's power structures, it's armies, media and the world economy, our politicians and scientists, all under Visitor control - and the only thing the Resistance can do in response to all this is send a message into space in the hope that someone out there will hear them and come help. That was a really bleak ending, and it stayed with me all these years.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:21 PM on February 2 [2 favorites has favorites]

It was kind of like They Live and all those bodysnatcher movies, but played as a straight tragedy and not as a gimmick to set up some kind of action or horror plot. Then they threw that away and did a silly action adventure series.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:38 PM on February 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

ericb: I remember those posters for V, in NYC. But they reminded me of Childhood's End, and I thought they were making a movie of that book.

My favorite memory of V was when the young Visitor smoked some weed with a human, then got the munchies. "Mousy!"
posted by Goofyy at 11:05 AM on February 3