There's a relevance here: beware of visitors who wear the guise of friendship, it isn't altogether wrong to question and not fully trust. We have seen movies about how the Nazis invaded Europe, coldbloodedly sending innumerable amounts of Jews to their unspeakable deaths, seemingly polite and not necessarily hostile, but their evil eradication of human lives is still record. So this miniseries, with an old Jewish character who immediately fears the worst because of what he himself witnessed first-hand and is correct, uses the alien invaders (calling themselves visitors, slowly, methodically, and cleverly infiltrating every country, using a "conversion" process to masquerade as human members of political and social power) as a new oppressor, currying favor with certain gullible humans, planting false evidence on some scientists while killing others who threaten to expose their physiological secret, and, most importantly, labeling anyone related to science or the medical field that might prove that behind the mask of humanoid flesh is something quite reptilian, perhaps part of a faux conspiracy.
I will gather my thoughts and add another blog post later, talking about the cast.
The original mini is Kenny Johnson at the absolute top of his form. For my money, he's right in there with Serling, Nigel Kneale, and Dan Curtis as one of the most talented genre people ever to work in television. He didn't look down on genre work--he took it seriously, and tried to tell real, adult stories using it. His influence on subsequent film and television--usually unacknowledged--is enormous.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyone who would dismiss the original mini as either "cheesy" or "campy" never watched two minutes of it. Unfortunately the property was taken out of Johnson's hands after the mini. He had nothing to do with THE FINAL BATTLE or the subsequent series, which is both cheesy and campy, and just plain sucked. Loved it as a kid, but it sucked.
Johnson did a commentary for the entire original mini; if you haven't listened to it, I strongly recommend you do.
I would like to hear what he had to say. I haven't watched the second side of my V disc yet so I look forward to getting back into the show. I almost picked up the short-lived series today at Best Buy but recanted. I haven't seen The Final Battle in ages so I can't really say how I will react.
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