The two V mini series that hit TV in 1983 (V and V: The Final Battle) were great science fiction TV. They featured interesting characters in interesting situations and hit just the right level of tension, action, and weirdness to really work. The aliens were cool and disgusting at the same time and those two mini series won over a lot of fans.

So with the success of the two mini series under their belt, it made perfect sense for the producers to go ahead and launch V as a regular series. Unfortunately, they did this by recycling a lot of the same ideas and a lot of the same effects footage in order to churn the series out quickly and presumably at a lower budget – and the series suffered because of it.

The show wasn't all bad though – there are a few stand out episodes that make it worth watching and it was cool to see them follow through with some of the ideas and themes that they didn't get to go too in depth with in the mini series. There are quite a few continuity blunders that are hard to miss though, and while the acting is pretty solid, these do give the series a cheaper, more careless feel than the first generation of V had, which is a shame.

Episode 1 – Liberation Day: Taking place right after the end of V: The Final Battle, it turns out that Diana has escaped from the mothership and that Donovan has gone after her. He captures here, and things seem to sort of go back to normal. He resumes his job as a reporter and the scientists begin examining the alien technology. Sadly, when it comes time for Diana's trial, things get complicated and a whole lot of betrayal goes down, and Elizabeth is beginning to undergo some strange changes.

Episode 2 – Dreadnought: Donovan and Tyler are running from the cops, but they're not sure what they're wanted for. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's changes become more noticeable and Robert and Julie try and take care of her. Diana has made it back to a mothership only to find out her home world is totally barren and now more than ever they need Earth to ensure the survival of their species. The Resistance makes their way to the mothership Diana is using, and a dying Robert decides to pilot it into the Alien super weapon that Diana has called down to use against the humans.

Episode 3 – Breakout: The alien visitors have tossed Robin into a slave camp that is impossible to escape from. Sean, Kyle, Mike and Ham find themselves locked up in the same camp. They plan their escape, but things don't go as planned and Robin and Kyle never do meet up in the camp as they originally intended. Interestingly enough, this episode was never aired in order with the rest of the series and it wasn't seen until the reruns hit in 1985. It is presented here in its proper sequence.

Episode 4 – The Deception: While trying to make her way home, Robin is picked up by Kyle and the two of them make a delivery to the headquarters of the Resistance. Kyle later meets up with Elizabeth and becomes more involved in the Resistance because of her, trying to get her to NYC before the aliens can find her. Diana sends some troops out after Donovan but he escapes.

Episode 5 – The Sanction: Diana recruits a deadly hired killer named Klaus to take out anyone she gets miffed at. Mike finds out that Klaus is in charge of training the Youth Corp. and so sneaks in to get his son out of there before it's too late. While all this is going on, Elizabeth becomes more in tune with her new self, and begins to take control over her new found powers.

Episode 6 – Visitor's Choice: The Resistance finds out about a big meeting of Visitor head honchos at a beach resort to discuss their new Encapsulator. Donovan and Julie head up the local Resistance to try and get some explosives out there in time to take the bad guys down. Diana figures that the Encapsulator will be able to eat least triple their food production, so the humans want to stop this as soon as they can. The Encapsulator is successfully destroyed along with a good portion of Visitors, but of course, Diana is not counted among the dead.

Episode 7 – The Overlord: Garrison is using slave labor inside the red dust contamination zone to mine cobalt, which he in turn trades to Diana for gold. A slave named Glenna escapes and meets up with the Resistance, requesting that they help her and everyone else enslaved there. Meanwhile, Diana discovers one of the Visitors is engaging in the forbidden practice of Zon worship, and deals with him accordingly.

Episode 8 – The Dissident: Tyler and Kyle are supposed to intercept a supply truck but Diana blows it up before they can get to it. She sets a plan in motion to get total control of the supply routes going in and coming out of Los Angeles. Donovan and Tyler kidnap a higher up Visitor scientist only to find out he's a Zon worshipping pacifist and believes Elizabeth to be the chosen one.

Episode 9 – Reflections In Terror: Diana gets ahold of some of Elizabeth's blood and tries to clone her, but the clone soon escapes and starts going postal across the city. Donovan and Tyler are smuggling human children out of the city underground, and Julie's cover as a Resistance member is blown. The only one who can stop the crazed clone is the real Elizabeth, and so she sets out to do what she must do.

Episode 10 – The Conversion: Tyler and Kyle get captured by Diana during a raid. The Leader's right hand man, Charles, shows up and demotes Diana in spite of this, and Charles beings to turn Tyler against Donovan by brainwashing him. Lydia is kidnapped and held hostage by the Resistance, and a hostage exchange is arranged – Lydia for Tyler and Kyle.

Episode 11 – The Hero: A group of Visitors pose as Resistance fighters and they bring the real Resistance fighters out into the open during an attack. Donovan pretends to surrender in order to free the hostages the Visitors have taken, but Diana has a spy planted among the seemingly innocent hostages who plans to mess things up for the humans.

Episode 12 – The Betrayal: When Willie is shot, a pacifist Visitor saves him and tells him that Diana is secretly stockpiling weapons at the hospital. Donovan and Tyler set out to stop this, but are taken down by another one of Diana's pesky spies. Meanwhile, Kyle tries to help his father escape from the Science Base, but his plan backfires and blood is shed.

Episode 13 – The Rescue: The Visitors finally make their move on Los Angeles and successfully take over the city. Resistance headquarters is discovered and destroyed, but not before Donovan and company can escape with their lives. Charles and Diana end up getting married and Lydia ends up accidentally poisoning him when he drinks the wine originally intended for Diana.

Episode 14 – The Champion: Lydia is on trial for Charles' murder and sentenced to death but is saved at the last minute by General Philip. Kyle and Donovan try to get some weapons to Tucson but the Sheriff there has a deal going with the Visitors. Meanwhile, Philip offers Lydia trial by combat against Diana, but Philip interrupts the battle at the last minute when he finds new evidence in the case.

Episode 15 – The Wildcats: There's a nasty virus making its way through the valley that the Resistance is hiding out in, and the Visitors control the only drug that can keep it in check. The Resistance fighters enlist the help of a group of teenagers called The Wildcats to help steal the drug, but when one of them turns out to be a traitor, things don't look so good for our heroes.

Episode 16 – The Littlest Dragon: A Visitor family escapes from the mothership and heads to Earth to birth their new baby. They take the power source from the ship with them to use as a bargaining chip. Philip has followed them to Earth to kill them, unaware that Diana, while all this is going on, has arranged to have Philip killed as well and also arranges to have Lydia arrested for murder.

Episode 17 – War Of Illusions: A young computer hacker breaks into the Visitors' computer network. Once this happens, everyone wants a piece of him. He agrees to help the Resistance if they free his mother, who has been captured by the Visitors and is enslaved on their mothership. He's got to be careful though, because the Visitors want nothing more than to kill him, as he now poses a serious threat to them.

Episode 18 – Secret Underground: The Visitors have gathered up a list of prominent Resistance members, and Donovan and Julie are going to sneak on board the mothership and get rid of it. Once they get on board, Julie runs into an old flame that may or may not be working with the aliens. Meanwhile, Diana tries to have Lydia's brother killed off as he is the only one Lydia claims to care about anymore.

Episode 19 – The Return: The Visitor leader declares an official, albeit temporary, truce to the war. He heads to Earth himself and stops the war between the Visitors and the humans. He brings Elizabeth aboard his personal ship, but little do they know that Diana has secretly planted a high power explosive on the craft so that she can take his place once he's killed.

Video:

As with most television series, this one is presented in the aspect ratio in which the original broadcasts happened, which is fullframe. The picture quality is good, but not flawless. There is some wear and tear noticeable throughout as well as some edge enhancement in more than a few scenes. Colors look pretty good though, and there is a moderately high level of detail present throughout each episode. Black levels are not quite as dark as they maybe should be but they still look pretty solid, and flesh tones (both human and alien!) look pretty natural.