Apr
13
“V: The Second Generation” (Review)
Filed Under Books
I was late to the party for “V.” It was only last year that I watched Kenneth Johnson’s original 2-part mini-series and loved every Marc Singer-filled minute of it. The concept of fascist lizard people taking over Earth by winning hearts and minds rather than blowing up famous buildings is a clever approach to the sci-fi genre. However, due to “creative differences” (i.e. the network wanted things done on the cheap), Johnson wasn’t involved with the misnomered 3-part sequel, “V: The Final Battle,” nor “V: The Series” that lasted only a single, merciful season.
It seemed serendipitous that “V: The Second Generation” hit bookstores only months after I’d become a creepily obsessed fan. Along with all the incarnations of the TV show on DVD, I also proudly own a Visitor doll as well as the 17-part DC Comics series. I even picked up my copy of the novel at a book signing Kenneth Johnson attended; he misspelled my name when he made his autograph out to me, but whatever.
“V: The Second Generation” jettisons (or “retcons,” if you will) the events of “The Final Battle” and “The Series” and picks up some twenty years after the original two-part epic. The Human Resistance have failed to prevent the Visitors from nearly draining our oceans. Scientists — the community whom the Visitors feel are the greatest threat to their occupation — are force to live in ghettos. Young people are encouraged to become Teammates, a sort of Visitor version of the Hitler Youth Movement. And half-breeds (or “dregs”), offspring of humans and Visitors, make up a sort of permanent underclass; Johnson thankfully discards the whole “Star Child” nonsense that was introduced after his departure from the series.
A plot thread that was discarded from the television series after Johnson’s departure — the distress call the Resistance sent to an alien race that’s also at war with the Visitors — is finally paid off in the novel with the introduction of the Zedti. Three of their kind, each having evolved from a different insect species, make contact with the Resistance and join their cause. But soon there’s a lurking fear that the Zedti may not have the best interests of the human race at heart.
Unlike the mini-series, the book doesn’t have to contend with Broadcast Standards & Practices, so there’s plenty of graphic violence, adult language and human-on-lizard sex. It’s war, after all. War isn’t TV-PG.
“V: The Second Generation” is a solid follow-up to Johnson’s original vision. It’s a shame that many fans of “V” have had to wait 20 years to see it. Incidentally, I only had to wait a few short months. Maybe it’s best to be late for the party.
-Brad Lohan
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