Tyrrany of a Construct, Pt.6

First, Morena Baccarin is hawt.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I just finished watching the new "re-imagined" V. Like a lot of what is going on in Hollywood, it takes an older property and remakes it. Of course this creates a conundrum when the remake ends up being better than the original.

The original V miniseries graced the airwaves in the early '80s, and featured a story about intergalactic alien lizards (disguised as humans) who come claiming they need water, but are really here to eat us for lunch.

So far we're into the first episode, which does a good job setting up the initial conflicts and establishes the characters. Baccarin plays Anna, leader of the Visitors, who have come to earth with a message of peace and friendship. Of course all is not well as we learn there have been Visitors here all along, and indeed a few have gone AWOL and are involved helping humanity (this time with genuine concern).

But is it Science Fiction? One of the interesting ideas the first episode has already touched upon (ironically -- and deliberately, I think) using a Catholic priest as a foil, is the idea of what happens when a technologically advanced and sophisticated culture encounters ours? From history, we know that often this results in annihilation, and there are plenty of examples from both the Americas, as well as Africa, the Pacific islands, etc. While this annihilation may not neccessarily be genocidal in nature, what often happens is the uniqueness of the native culture is subsumed by the superior culture, and often requires a concious rebirth or revival in order to survive. I definitely hope the writers and producers of V continue to develop this element, and take it to a logical conclusion.

While my reaction to any sort of "reboot" is typically negative, looking back at the original miniseries of V, I can recognize how dated it is by current standards, how unsophisticated the story was, and in this context perhaps a re-imagining isn't so bad. I liked the first episode, and will definitely tune in next week. Hopefully the series can stay strong, in an environment that is typically unfriendly to SF programming.