In May, 1983, NBC unleashed
a 4-hour mini-series simply called "V". A ratings hit, and wildly popular among science fiction fans, it was followed up a year later by its
6-hour sequel, V: The Final Battle. But it wasn't over yet!
As the Fall 1984 season started,
V: The Series began airing on Friday nights, in hour-long episodes. The initial story, "Liberation Day", picked up exactly where
The Final Battle left off: with Diana sneaking away from Mike Donovan, Julie Parrish, Martin, and the others on the bridge of the captured mothership. After a few minutes of showing "what happens next", though, the timeline jumps to a year later, as all of Earth readies to celebrate the anniversary of their liberation from the Visitors. And that's where things start to go wrong once more...
They came for water. And for food. And as it turned out, we were the food. But humanity bravely resisted - a struggle seen in the two hit miniseries V: The Original Miniseries and V: The Final Battle. Yet the war continues.
As it turned out, things didn't go well for the weekly series. An initial ratings success, the writing on the show didn't match the level that fans had come to expect from the two mini-series, and it quickly slid in the ratings. Adjustments were made to show that the good guys were in more and more peril, but it didn't seem to help at that point. After 19 episodes, the show was cancelled in the Spring of 1985.
Still, along the way, many of us tuned in week after week to find out what happened next in the struggle our heroes were facing, and the cast certainly seemed to be trying their hardest to impress. Returning actors included Marc Singer (Mike Donovan), Jane Badler (Diana), Faye Grant (Julie Parrish), Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund (Willie), Michael Ironside (Ham Tyler), Michael Wright (Elias Taylor), Blair Tefkin (Robin Maxwell), and Frank Ashmore (Martin). Joining for the weekly series was Lane Smith (Nathan Bates), June Chadwick (Lydia), Jeff Yagher (Kyle Bates), Duncan Regehr (Charles), Judson Scott (Lt. James), and Jennifer Cooke taking over the role of Elizabeth Maxwell.
Now, after
a teasing pre-announcement during a March online chat, and with word of
a new mini-series being in-the-works, Warner Home Video brings
V: The Series home in a new 3-DVD set:
July 27th is the day you can get your D
VD package of
V: The Complete Series, featuring all 19-episodes of the original television series
V for the first time ever in a 3-disc DVD collector's set. The list price is $39.98.
Episodes on this release are:
- Disc 1 - SIDE A: Liberation Day, Dreadnought, The Deception, The Sanction.
- Disc 1 - SIDE B: Visitor's Choice, The Overlord, The Dissident.
- Disc 2 - SIDE A: Reflections in Terror, The Conversion, The Hero.
- Disc 2 - SIDE B: The Beytrayal, The Rescue. The Champion
- Disc 3 - SIDE A: The Wildcats, The Littlest Dragon, War of Illusions.
- Disc 3 - SIDE B: The Secret Underground, The Return, Breakout.
*UPDATE*
Warner has provided some additional information for us. We've replaced the graphic above with a larger one that's more detailed, and also replaced the episode list with a disc-by-disc breakdown.
Note that the episode "Breakout" was actually supposed to be the 3rd one shown in the series, but was originally pulled because it was considered too violent for the audience, which consisted of many younger viewers. It was first broadcast when the series was in network reruns, and so it is "correctly" placed on the DVD set in it's actual "airdate" order. Chronologically, though, it will make more sense to watch that episode between "Dreadnaught" and "The Deception". The only confusing thing after that is the redundancy of a new character being introduced "twice".
Warner also sent us the technical specs for this release. Fans will be very happy to know that it is being correctly presented as originally broadcast: in 1.33:1 "fullscreen" video. Audio is the original 1.0 Mono as well. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are available, and it is closed captioned for the hearing impaired. The running time is 897 minutes. The packaging is going to be a "digi-pack" case, similar to
V: The Final Battle.
There are, unfortunately, no extras announced for this release.
Finally, above in italics are a piece of the back-of-the-box marketing that was sent over for this release. Here now is the full text of that:
They came for water. And for food. And as it turned out, we were the food. But humanity bravely resisted - a struggle seen in the hit miniseries V and V: The Final Battle. Yet the war continues. The heroic conflict comes to a surprising outcome in V: The Series, presented complete and uncut in this 3-disc, 19-episode set. Once again, Earth is the main battleground. But now the aliens whose human guise hides their true reptilian natures are wiser. They believe the secret to their survival on Earth lies in the DNA of the newly born half-human, half-spaceling Starchild. They intend to capture her. But that's something the world's Resistance Fighters cannot allow.
