Following the huge success of the miniseries V, NBC followed up a year later with the sequel to the saga, V: THE FINAL BATTLE. V: THE FINAL BATTLE begins not long after where V ended. Even after their successful attacks by resistance fighters, the Visitors are still in control of Earth and most of the world's population still believes the Big Lie: that the Visitors are here for purely peaceful purposes. In reality, the Visitors are giant reptiles who have come to drain the Earth of water and take away humans as food. The Resistance in L.A. has had the most success of any around the globe, but after a failed attack on a food processing plant, the group realizes they must go for a much larger mission.



Led by Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) and Julie Parish (Faye Grant) and assisted with the covert Fifth Column (Visitors who truly want peace) the L.A. Resistance hatches a plan to literally unmask the Visitors to the whole world. Other important events in the mini-series include the introduction of Ham Tyler (Michael Ironside), a former special operations operative that joins the Resistance and gives them the discipline, training, and weapons they need to become a major player in the fight for freedom; Robin has her baby, but "it" turns out to be twins; Julie is captured; and Mike's son, Sean is released from containment and returned to Earth.



I remember watching V: THE FINAL BATTLE when I was a kid. It was an amazing mini-series that captured my imagination. There are certain parts that I didn't quite understand as a kid (for instance, why is it that Robin's daughter, Elizabeth, has magical powers?) that still don't make sense today. Also, some of the effects that I was so impressed with as a youngster, such as the birth of Robin's twins (I had nightmares of that baby for weeks), seem downright cheesy and laughable now. However, overall V: THE FINAL BATTLE still holds up rather well as a piece of great science-fiction. There have been many technological advances since the series first aired, e.g. the Internet and cell phones, but despite that the allegorical components of the story (how would the U.S. turn from a democratic republic into a fascist state) hold up just as well today as they did in the early 1980s.



Anyone who has an interest in science fiction should see V and V: THE FINAL BATTLE.