I figured I'd start a new thread rather than post in the other one so there could be a spoiler warning on it.

I thought it was pretty good. I found it interesting that they wrote it so the Visitors had agents here on Earth for some time - didn't require spending any screen time on exactly how people found out they were reptiles.

One thing I noticed, though - the FBI agent woman recognized the creepy guy in the priest's pictures from the unidentifiable passport, right? But the only reason she knew about the unidentifiable passport was because her partner showed it to her - her partner who was an undercover Visitor! Seems like he should've maybe not pointed that kind of thing out to her in the first place.

Also, I liked the little dig at "Independence Day" being a rip off...

Hope and change and universal health care - who'da thunk it?

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Interesting remix of the original themes. The 80's series character concepts are all present and accounted for, while very few openly ape them.

The only character that irks me is the new white collar studboy. He kinda fits with the current demographic's mentality, I suppose. Pitiful that instead of a rational mind seeing through the deception, we get a witch doctor jealous of the Conquistadors horning in on his spiritual turf... On the other hand, our new Mike Donovan stand-in works very well, and our alien traitor's a nice spin on the old character Martin.

Overall, I'm cool with the new arrangement. Definitely more shades of the Galactica reboot than some of the other crass nonsense we've seen in the "remakes/reimaginings" category.

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Hmm. He was the one character that I thought was almost a carbon copy of the same character in the original miniseries - Daniel Bernstein, the young man enthralled by the Visitors and becoming a charter member of the "Visitor Youth." Of course, we'll have to wait to see if his character develops the same way Daniel's did. If so, I don't think the current demographic will much appreciate it.

And poor Alan Tudyk keeps getting killed by abdominal impalement. The teaser for next week's episode suggests all may not be as it seems, there, but that immediately put me in mind of Philip from the 80s series, too.

EDIT: Should we start a poll on which original series castmember will be the first to pull a Richard Hatch and show up on the new show?

EDITED TO CORRECT ACTOR/CHARACTER MISTAKE

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

She found/saw the passports at the site where they found the C4 and the body. We did not see the passport picture until the back at the FBI office.

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"Ten percent of nothin' is, let me do the math here... nothin' and a nothin', carry the nothin'"

"There are four lights!"

Yes, but it was her partner who was working on the passports and made a point of telling her that he couldn't find any information on that person in any of their databases. That's what I was referring to - he didn't show her the picture initially, but he did tell her the guy was a phantom.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

But she did look at them (at least some of them) when she found them. It is reasonable to think that that was one of the ones she saw. Also it would be odd if back at the office he was did not let her near or to see the passports, not good for your cover.

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"Ten percent of nothin' is, let me do the math here... nothin' and a nothin', carry the nothin'"

"There are four lights!"

SPOILER

Why didn't either FBI agent have a gun on them during the killing spree?

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smile, and the Universe smiles with you

She gave the other agent her gun and ID so she could go into the meeting even if they searched her. Why He did not use a gun I do not know

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"Ten percent of nothin' is, let me do the math here... nothin' and a nothin', carry the nothin'"

"There are four lights!"

Interesting that the new CT element (they started all our wars, created the economic meltdown) is aligning the series more closely to David Icke's ideas, which were more than likely inspired by V.

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Maybe the guy they were looking for, the old hippy-looking terrorist, is actually a member/leader of an anti-V group. So, Tudyk's character wants to find him because he's either a human who knows the truth or is a renegade/rebel Visitor. The other rebel human groups may not know who's side he's on except to know that he's somehow involved.

I still don't get the thing about needing water. Water is about the simplest compound to make in the universe. Some character should have stepped up and said "huh?" or "Go to Jupiter and hang a right, Europa's ripe for the picking."

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Yes, it's not unreasonable that she saw the picture. But the specific point was made that this guy does not exist in any of their databases. He's a nobody, a phantom, and she wouldn't have known that unless her partner had told her.

Oooh, I like that.

Yeah, that's the biggest suspension of belief in the whole thing...

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Well, everybody knows that all the worlds troubles are caused by a secret organization that wants us scared, so they can take over.

We just didn't know it was reptilians. Thanks to TV shows, when somebody actually discovers that reptilian aliens are the cause of our trouble, who's going to believe them? Huh? Huh?

These aliens, very clever.

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smile, and the Universe smiles with you

Once she saw the picture in a fake passport found with a dead body and a lot of C4 she would know that he is not a boy scout.

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"Ten percent of nothin' is, let me do the math here... nothin' and a nothin', carry the nothin'"

"There are four lights!"

She didn't know he was non-existent in the entirety of the FBI databases.

The photos weren't presented in the context of him being a bad man. They were presented in the context of him being an alien from another planet.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

I remember watching the original series back in the 80's; I enjoyed it. This past weekend, I watched the entire original miniseries on SYFY and enjoyed watching it again. Most of it was pretty rediculous, but it was still entertaining.

I got some good laughs seeing how incompetent the Visitor's military operations were depicted. Before rewatching this, I was pretty sure that Star Wars Stromtropers were the worse soldiers in science fiction; but I've never seen soldiers who couldn't aim their weapons, like the Vistors. I mean, these guys couldn't shoot you, even if you were standing right in front of them.

I watched the new version on Tuesday night and enjoyed it.

Yeah, but they still don't know how to shoot. They were using big scary knives to kill humans.

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smile, and the Universe smiles with you

Maybe they didn't want to make a loud ruckus when a quiet ruckus would do. Besides, blade weapons are scarier and make for better psychological warfare. Also, guns have this annoying ballistics fingerprint problem.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Not alien guns!

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smile, and the Universe smiles with you

I liked the pilot. It started the new series off strong and fast. Hopefully, the momentum will continue. Anyone who knows about the original V knows the Visitors are automatically up to no good, and I'm glad the producers of the new show didn't waste time in establishing that.

I agree with Doodler about the character concepts being there.

Erica Evans - Seems to be Mike Donovan and Julie Parrish rolled into one.

Father Jack Landry - Father Andrew Doyle

Ryan Nichols - Martin; rather than rallying a Fifth Column, Ryan is rallying the Visitor infiltrators who have gone native.

Chad Decker - Christine Sullivan; the Visitors' mouthpiece

Anna - Diana; though Anna has not yet shown the vicious and vile behavior of the original V femme fatale.

Lisa - Brian; the recruiter for the Visitors

Tyler Evans - Daniel Bernstein; the troubled youth drawn in to the Visitors' web. I also envisioned a scenario where Tyler hooks up with Lisa and becomes a reverse of the Robin Maxwell character--instead of being the lizard baby momma, he's the lizard baby daddy. (I know, I know, it isn't possible) My worry with Tyler is that he might reach Wesley Crusher levels of annoying.

I don't remember a "conspiracy theorist" character from the original miniseries that would be an analog to Georgie Sutton though.

I found this to be similar to the John Carpenter movie They Live.

That movie has also been cited as a possible influence on David Icke.

But then, who's to say what inspires that guy.

She seems for now to be a hybrid of Diana and John (not surprising, since John, as a character, was fairly pointless).

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Maybe a sideways fitted version of Micheal Ironside's character in the original.

For the differences between Anna and Diana, I think it has to do with the approach the writers are taking. The 1980's Visitors were clearly military in nature, and Diana's more visceral, cunning presentation fit the idea of an ambitious officer looking to advance tooth and claw. Anna looks to already be on top of the game, and with these Visitors coming across more like Amnesty International on high tech steriods, the holder of the reigns being so crassly aggressive wouldn't fit the part.

Diana was a cartoonish analogue of Mengele (what with her interest in unethical research and all).

Anna is more of a mix of Jim Bakker with shades of Gerd Leipold.

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

*chuckle* Alan Tudyk may be getting typecast.

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And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling [faces] lyin' to ye' everywhere ye' go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

So if there's ever a remake of Alien we can expect him to have John Hurt's role

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

We might as well sign him up now as Ming the Merciless if they remake Flash Gordon....

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So many bugs, so little thyme.

Bennett in the remake of "Commando"?

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Since I like lizards, I must object to them being stereotyped as always bad.

Why not make them weasels? Nasty little creatures.

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

Never mind lizards or weasels -- I think the Visitors are going to turn out to be an intergalactic Human Resources department.

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So many bugs, so little thyme.

A lot of science fiction is really about current social realities. This series is no different.

H.G. Wells would digg it.

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smile, and the Universe smiles with you

This past weekend, I watched about 10 episodes of "V" the 1980's tv series, that I had recorded earlier. In my previous post on the original miniseries, I mentioned the incredible incompetence of the Visitor soldiers and how amazed I was that they were even worse than Star Wars Stromtropers.

Well, after rewatching the tv series, I realised that the soldiers in the miniseries were very competent indeed, compared to the series guys. Not only could these guys not shoot, but they also suffered from bad vision, hearing, and judgemen. I've never seen soldiers soo easily fooled into making bad decisions. I think Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schultz would have fit in very nicely.

I do look forward to the new episode this week.