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Humanoid (even human-looking) aliens arrive on Earth from the sixth planet of Sirius in fleet of huge saucer ships that park over the major cities of the planet. They act friendly and seek the help of humans to obtain needed chemicals to aid their own planet. In return, the Visitors promise to share their advanced technology with humanity. The governments of the planet accept and the Visitors gain considerable influence with the native authorities.
However, strange things are noted such as scientists that find themselves facing increasing media hostility and government restrictions on their activities and movements. This includes confessions of subversive activities by noted scientists whom alert viewers noted are acting strangely beyond their confessions, such as they suddenly demonstrate the opposite hand preference than they are known to have.
Photojournalist Michael Donovan (played by Singer) sneaks aboard one of the Visitors' mothership and discovers beneath their humanlike covering, the aliens are reptilian in nature and carnivorous, preferring to eat food, like white mice, alive. However, when Donovan tries to air this expose, the broadcast is blocked and Donovan becomes a wanted fugitive pursued by both the police and the Visitors.As the series progresses, the true designs of the Visitors' agenda is revealed, they plan to steal all the water of the planet and harvest the human race as a food source, leaving only a few as slaves. The scientists are persecuted both to discredit the population most likely to detect the Visitors secrets and to distract the human population with a scapegoat they could focus their fears on. Furthermore, needed individuals are subjected to a special mind control process called conversion which makes them obey the commands of the Visitors while leaving only subtle clues as their manipulation. However, there are numerous humans who willingly collaborate, including Donovan's own mother, who either are ignorant or refuse to accept the truth.
A resistance movement is formed which is determined to expose and oppose the Visitors as much as possible with the Los Angeles cell leader being Dr. Juliette Parish. Eventually, Donovan joins their group and together, the resistance strike their first blows against the Visitors. Meanwhile, there is a small group of dissidents among the Visitors, including one called Martin, who are opposed to their leader's plans and attempts to help the Resistance by any way possible.
Johnson has said that the story was inspired by the 1935Events January January 1 Italian colonies of Tripoli and Kyrenaika are joined together as Libya January 7 World War II: Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French foreign minister Pierre Laval conclude agreement in which each power undertakes not to oppo novel It Can't Happen HereIt Can't Happen Here is a satirical political novel by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1935. It features newspaperman Doremus Jessup struggling against the fascist regime of President Buzz Windrip. It serves as a warning that political movements akin to Nazi by Sinclair LewisSinclair Lewis ( February 7, 1885 January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. Born Harry Sinclair Lewis in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, he began reading books at a young age and kept a diary. A dreamer, at age 13 he unsuccessfully ran away from, but a quick check at the library will show that several scenes from the original TV pilot were lifted directly from the Bertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht ( February 10, 1898 August 14, 1956) was an influential German dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century. His life and career Brecht was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, studied medicine and worked briefly as an orderly in a hospita play The Private Life of the Master Race The series begins as an allegoryAn allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos "other", and αγορευειν, agoreuein "to speak in public") is a figurative representation conveying a meaning other than and in ad about the rise of Nazismswastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). Black, white, and red were in fact the colors of the old North German Confederation flag (invented by Otto von Bismarck, based on the Prussian co (right down to the emblem used by the Visitors, which hints at the swastikaThe swastika is a cross with its arms bent 90° to either right or left. It is usually oriented horizontally or at a 45° angle. Geometrically, the swastika might be regarded as an irregular icosagon, a 20-sided polygon. Its Indian form typically features a). There are very clear references to the Holocaust, the dangers of appeasement and the rise of organised resistance in occupied countries. During the course of the series, the Resistance Network's TV news bulletins report stories of erstwhile enemies, such as black and white South Africans, or Israels and Palestinians, uniting in common cause against the alien occupiers. In addition, direct figure analogies are used such as the senior Visitor scientist, Diana, who is an direct analogy of Dr. Josef Mengele.
The series ran for 200 minutes and was successful enough to spawn a sequel, V: The Final Battle and a television series in 1984– 85. Johnson left V during the sequel but went on to work on other science fiction shows such as Alien Nation. Perhaps as a result, the sequel and TV series had less of an emphasis on historical allegory, and were more action-oriented.
The cancellation of the TV series in the spring of 1985 appeared to have caught its producers by surprise, as the season ends with a cliffhanger. The show's single season was released on DVD in 2004. That same year, Kenneth Johnson announced plans to produce a sequel to the first V miniseries, but one that would disregard both the second miniseries and the subsequent weekly series. In October 2004 Kenneth Johnson made it known that NBC has decided it wants a remake of the original V miniseries rather than a sequel. The possibility of a sequel of the original would remain open but would be contingent on the success of the remake.
For the story depicted by the V miniseries in an historical context, see reptiloid.