V: The Second Generation

Written by Kenneth Johnson based on his screenplay.

Released: February 5th, 2008

The first thing I had to get past was the sheer enjoyment and nostalgia of being involved in anything in the V universe. To me, hearing that Kenny Johnson was looking into doing a sequel to V, was like the announcement that the Star Wars Prequel trilogy was being made.

I followed the news religiously from the trials and tribulations of NBC wanting a re-make to the announcement that the novelization would come out first. At this point, I just wanted anything new so a novel would certainly hold me over until I got to see something up on my television again.

So forgive me if it took about half the book just to come down from the sheer enjoyment of being immersed in my second favorite universe again (Star Wars still holds #1 in my heart).

Now despite some purists raging, Kenny made a decision that was his alone to make. Kenny wrote and directed theoriginal miniseries and was only marginally involved in the beginnings of the sequel and not at all with the weekly series. So he chose to ignore everything that happened after the original miniseries. This does make for some surreal moments for hardcore fans when characters who were subsequently killed off are alive and well (three). Likewise though there are other characters who were large parts of the original miniseries who are never mentioned even in passing, which is a questionable decision by Johnson despite the fact that it is twenty years later in the storyline as well. Characters such as Elias and Caleb Taylor, Sancho, and Kristine Walsh aren’t mentioned. One other character is not mentioned. Ham Tyler. Ham Tyler who became a true fan favorite of most of V fanatics though was not introduced until the sequel. Kenny did create the character although he was much different than the final product. I had hopes to see a Kenny version of this character, but alas it wasn’t meant to be.

Once you let yourself go into this new V though, there is a lot to love. New ideas are explored and older ones are brought about again in new and fresh ways. Twenty years later and everyone has now swallowed the big lie. Along the way there was a great purge which laid the resistance and fifth column low. At the same time the Visitor Youth has been expanded to become the Teammates (basically a human militia) and the “scis” (scientists) are forced to live in their own communities. The Visitors control less with force and more with subversive media…much like in the real world.

The resistance is still active, although far underground. Juliet Parish and Robert Maxwell are still around as are the fifth columnists Martin and Willy (spelled that way in the novel even though for years it was always Willie.) We are told that Mike Donovan was killed in what is dubbed the London Uprising. There are a few new resistance members introduced (the Second Generation afterall), but mostly these characters are very underdeveloped. There is this generation’s Donovan in Nathan, and a few archetypes such as the bad ass Margarita, and the reluctant hero Charles Elgin, but there are a few colorful characters such as Blue (pardon the colorful pun), the larger than life janitor resistor and Ruby, the half-breed adopted by Juliet.

The half-breed is one of the most important developments of the novel. The whole notion of Elizabeth, the Star-Child and her Jedi powers are gone for good and instead we are left with more of an Alien Nation society where the halfbreeds are men and women without a species. Looked down on by both sides as Dregs, they make for a compelling character set if not individual characters (save for Ruby, and Jon who works on the mothership).

Diana has been elevated to head lizard of the invasion force (as she was in the beginning of the now defunct weekly tv series) but unfortunately she really isn’t given much to do as the focus shifts more towards the Leader and newcomer Jeremy.

Ironically borrowing a page from J. Michael Stracyzinski’s aborted V: The Next Chapter (which of course sprung from the last scene of Johnson’s original miniseries anyways) a big development in the story is the arrival of the Zedti, the alien race that had defeated the Visitors before and Julie had sent out a distress signal to.

Again the Zedti are underdeveloped, but perhaps that is a conscious choice to lend to their air of mystery as well as developing a possible future storyline as this novel seems to do for while there is a climax in the storyline, and a possible ending, there is certainly a very unsubtle reference at the end which leads you to believe that Johnson has more in store. So in that way it’s not the conclusion that V fans have been waiting for, and I hope to see another novel at the very least but hopefully future miniseries .

As far as novels go, it is quite obvious that this is based on a screenplay as many of the descriptions seem to come straight off a script page, as more of a reference point than a narrative. But it is developed well enough that the story is a page turner and you do want to see where it goes, so it is definitely effective.

While I’ve noted that the characters are in someways underdeveloped, something that actually drove the original miniseries, the character sets and the overall tone comes through in shining fashion. The sense of dread and unease that permeated the original miniseries, that true sense of impending doom is very alive here and helps drive the story. You never get the usual ‘Oh the good guys will win in the end feeling’ because you just can’t see how.

The mystery of the new alien race absolutely helps as up until the very end you never know if they are allies or even worse enemies.

There are twists and turns throughout the novel and while the ending is somewhat rushed through to completion, the ride is truly enjoyable and this should make a great piece of sci-fi tv. I hope Kenny has a few more V tales within him, as I really want to see where else he can take us.

B

PREVIOUS – SYMPHONY OF TERROR

After a SecondView, I found myself taking in more of the humanistic elements that was eventually lost from the television sequels to V, but at the same time, I realized I had to work a bit harder for them.

I didn’t like the new characters as much the second time around because it struck me how they didn’t connect to me as quickly as the original mini-series characters did. It seemed as if many of the new characters were variations on the old. Debra Stein seems to be this V’s Daniel Bernstein. Nathan as I noted before is this V’s Donovan although not quite as cool. Blue reminds me a lot of Caleb Taylor, while Street-C is the new and hipper Elias to a degree. Finally Emma is taking Kristine Walsh to the next level. It’s no surprise that these new characters original archetypes are the very characters missing in action from the sequel.

I also am still torn by Kenny’s decision to completely ignore The Final Battle and The Weekly Series. I completely understand where Kenny is coming from and there is a TON of crap that I wouldn’t want to recognize either. However, to a world of V fans out there, this does alienate them a bit and truly unnecessarily so. It wouldn’t have been much of an effort to simply not contradict either, but ignore them just the same. The only major differences that would have changed is:

• The Willy-Harmy storyline, which could have been changed by simply substituting a new character for Harmy.
• Robert Maxwell and Martin simply doesn’t appear
• The Red Dust has been defeated by the aliens discovering an antidote
• The Leader could be a new Leader

And that’s really it. The same storyline could have gone down and although the story frame wouldn’t really gel with where we were at the end of the series, it would be forgivable enough as fiction.

The SecondView makes me slide the grade down a tad, but overall I still enjoyed it immensely and hope to see it filmed someday.

B-