V - The Final Battle - Part 3 [VHS] [1984]

The story is rather simple. A fleet of giant alien motherships appears out of nowhere to hover over the world's major cities. When communication is established, the aliens announce they come in peace and want to share their knowledge with Earth in exchange for assistance in producing chemicals needed on their home planet in the Sirius system. Reporter Christine Walsh soon becomes the spokesperson for the Visitors, but her colleague Mike Donovan becomes suspicious when charges of a vast conspiracy of scientists against the Visitors is announced. He manages to sneak on board a mothership and obtains visual evidence of the true natures of Earth's so-called friends. When he tries to present this evidence, the Visitors take control of all the networks and announce the fact they are going to work in conjunction with the government in order to maintain law and order. Having established martial law, the Visitors begin taking large numbers of people away, especially scientists. L.A.'s remaining scientists start a Resistance movement to protect themselves and to work to thwart the aliens' intentions, eventually incorporating Donovan in their ranks. The second half of the miniseries deals with the Resistance and the stepped-up efforts of the Visitors to destroy it. There are many characters and many subplots thrown into the mix. Comparisons to the Holocaust are both obvious and explicit, represented powerfully and eloquently by a Jewish survivor of a Nazi concentration camp. A crucial plot point in terms of setting the stage for the follow-up miniseries revolves an anthropologist's teenaged daughter who is smitten with one of the young Visitors; Diana, the second in command and most attractive Visitor, arranges for a biological "experiment" between the human girl and her alien friend.

Marc Singer (better known as that guy you recognize in other stuff but cannot remember where you've seen him before) stars as Donovan. Faye Grant is the reluctant leader of the band of resisting scientists; her balancing act between victim and revolutionary gets a little sappy at times, but overall she plays her part well. Jane Badler is wonderful as the beautifully devious alien Diana. Robert, Englund (yes, Freddy Krueger himself) is quite funny as a clumsy, bumbling alien who has yet to learn the nuances of the English language (you see, he learned Arabic for his mission, but a screwup led to him being assigned to Los Angeles instead of the Persian Gulf area). Leonardo Cimino as Abraham serves as the moral voice of the Resistance effort and clarifies the point that V stands for victory. One thing to keep in mind is that this is only the original miniseries, and, as Faye Grant's character says, the war is just beginning. Resolution and a sense of completion are to be found only in the V: The Final Battle miniseries.

This is a brilliant series that ought to be on DVD and available for all to experience, it takes Sci-Fi to a level never before achieved and without the reliance on stupid or excessive stunts and gives the viewer something to think on.

This ranks as the best, and certainly with the likes of 2001 and Dune for sheer quality.