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V (1983 miniseries)

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V: The Original Miniseries is a 1983 TV miniseries, airing on NBC, in which aliens come to Earth to ask for our help, but a few suspicious humans discover their horrific true intentions and prepare to resist.

Michael Donovan

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  • You always said it couldn't happen here... Then one day we woke up and we were living in a Fascist state.
  • You know, you're only as free as the leash they keep you on. You tug hard enough, and they'll hang you with it.

Dialogue

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Episode 1

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John: We have come in peace, to all mankind. Our planet is the fourth in distance from the star you call Sirius, some 8.7 light years from Earth. This is the first time we have left our system, and you the first intelligent life we've encountered. We're pleased to meet you. We have come on behalf of our great Leader, him who governs our united planet with benevolence and wisdom. We have come because we need your help. Our planet is in serious environmental difficulty, far far worse than yours, it's reached the stage where we will be unable to survive without immediate assistance. There are certain chemicals and compounds which we must manufacture, which alone can save our struggling civilization. And you can help us manufacture these and in return, we will gladly share with you the fruits of our knowledge.
Kristine Walsh: Unbelievable...
Michael Donovan: Yeah...
John: Now that we have established contact, we will like to meet with individual governments to make requests for certain operating plants to be retooled for the manufacture of the compound which we need.
Eleanor Dupres: I hope they pick your plant!
John: And we'll reward your generosity as I have said by educating your industrial and scientific complex to the limits of our knowledge, helping to solve your environmental, agricultural and health dilemmas. Then we'll leave you as we came... In peace.
Denny: Talk about an offer we can't refuse, huh!
Juliet Parrish: I wonder what would happen if we did...
John: Now if our circumstances were reversed, and you had come to visit us, I know that I would feel a burning curiosity to see the inside your of spacecraft right away.
Robert Maxwell: An understatement!
John: With that in mind, I'd like to have the Secretary-General and several of your journalists accompany us back aboard our Mother Ship, for the first of many opportunities to get to know us better. My name is John.
Ruby Engels: Abraham, don't get so wound up. Nothing's going to happen. Not to you or your family. They're not doctors or biologists, or even scientists. You're not involved. Anyway, it's going to pass.
Abraham Bernstein: That's what I said in 1938, back in Berlin.
Ruby: But this is different.
Abraham: [glances at his grandson Daniel wearing a Visitor Friends uniform and congratulated by Brian] Is it?
Diana: Yes, but you know how impatient our Leader can be.
Steven: Even with you? [Diana glares at him] I just thought that given the intimacy of your relationship, he might...
Diana: Be very careful, Steven.
Steven: I just hate to see you maybe so distressed.
Diana: He doesn't understand that my conversion process is still limited. Doesn't work the same on every subject.
Steven: Yes, but when it does work, like Dividier, Jankowski, and the others, it's remarkable.
Diana: Yes, it is.
Steven: They actually believe that a conspiracy exists or even their part on it.
Diana: And of course, the evidence we planted reinforces their beliefs.
Steven: The operation is working perfectly. Scientists are be ostracized, disorganized throughout the world.
Diana: Problem is, our beloved Leader says, "Why not just convert them all?" He doesn't understand that the human will is much, much tougher than we bargained for. To convert them all would take forever. However, we will continue to refine the process.
Steven: Yes, I'm sure you will, successfully.
Diana: We must find the most effective and efficient methods to be used against them.
Steven: Oh I don't think our Leader could have possibly chosen anyone who could do a better job than you.
[Having escaped the LA Mothership, Mike Donovan reaches the local station and is allowed a chance to be in a special report for the 11PM news. The crew scrambles to prepare]
Anchorman: [walks to the set with Mike Donovan] Mike why in the world would they carry that chemical up to the mothership and just gonna dump it into the air?
Mike Donovan: Beats me.
Studio Director: [in booth] All right here they come. Get double mikes on them right now. I want the lavs right now.
Anchorman: [guides Mike on set as crew puts their lapel mics on] I'll do the setup, intro you and we roll the tape and you just -
Assistant Director: [to director] 30 seconds. [over own channel] now, roll VTR..
Studio Director: Andy please, we got 30 seconds, give me lights now.
Technical Director: Coming up.
Studio Director: Now camera one, [to technical director] I want to start with two, then go back to one. [to Mike on camera 3] You okay, Mike? [Mike nods] Okay get me a closeup.
Assistant Director: [overlap with studio director] Ten seconds... quiet on the line! You're breaking up [counts down] five seconds! Four, three, two...one.
Studio Director: [signals] Cue New York, take your slide [SPECIAL BULLETIN card kicks] and cue announce.
Voiceover: The following is a special report from Los Angeles.
Studio Director: Camera two, and [snaps signal] take two. Cue please.
Anchorman: An astonishing occurrence just took place board the Mothership just off - [screen goes to static just as the director was about to signal another cue]
Studio Director: Hey what the hell happened!? [to Mike] Hold on kid, we got a problem on the line [to assistant director] What the hell is going on?
Assistant Director: [as studio director is speaking] Hello New York? They what? Are you getting us? Hello? [as studio director speaks to her] They WHAT? We lost Ma Bell.
Studio Director: We've what?
Assistant Director: Somebody's pulled AT&T right out from under us. They pulled the plug. The whole damn network's off the air.
Technical Director: [sees ABC and CBS monitors are out] So are both the others.
Assistant Director: [on her channel] What's that Bert? Hello? Hello!? [to studio director] Now I've lost New York.
Technical Director: [sees screen flicker on] There's something... [the Visitor logo appears]
[Stanley Bernstein discovers that his father, Abraham, hid the Maxwells in their pool house]
Stanley Bernstein: I really don't believe you brought them here.
Abraham Bernstein: They have nowhere to go. Their house is being watched now.
Stanley: And so is ours! By Daniel! Tell them that we're sorry...
Abraham: Stanley, you don't understand. They have to stay. They need a place to hide!
Stanley: And why is that?
Abraham: Because the father is a scientist -
Stanley: - and therefore suspect! And a fugitive, I take it, which would make them doubly dangerous.
Abraham: They have to stay.
Stanley: And I'm telling you to get them out, before I...
Abraham: I won't.
Stanley: Then I will!
Abraham: [shouts] NO, YOU WON'T! [approaches him] We had to put you in a suitcase. In a suitcase! You were eight months old. That's how we smuggled you out.
Stanley: I know the story!
Abraham: No, you don't! You don't. Your mother, aluv shalom...your mother didn't have a heart attack in the boxcar. She made it with me, to the camp. I can still see her, standing naked in the freezing cold. Her beautiful black hair was gone. They'd shaved her head. I can still see her waving to me, as they marched her off with the others to the showers - the showers with no water. Perhaps, if somebody had given us a place to hide... [pleads] don't you see, Stanley? They have to stay. Or else, we haven't learned a thing!
[Daniel Bernstein saunters up to Robin Maxwell.]
Robin Maxwell: Is he still a virgin, do you think?
Daniel Bernstein: Who?
Robin: [smiles] Brian.
[Abraham Bernstein and Ruby Engels see a group of kids spray painting a row of Visitor propaganda posters]
Abraham Bernstein: No! [stops kid] If you are going to do it, do it right. I'll show you. [takes the hand of the kid with the spray paint and draws a large red "V" on the FRIENDSHIP IS UNIVERSAL poster] You understand? For Victory! Go tell your friends...[walks away]

Episode 2

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[The morning after Daniel Bernstein learns that the Maxwells are in their poolhouse]
Daniel Bernstein: [pours champagne into parents and grandfather's glasses] Pretty classy, huh? Champagne for breakfast.
Stanley Bernstein: Where'd you get it?
Daniel: From a local merchant. One who knows the value of having friends. And now a toast-to my engagement.
Lynn Maxwell: To whom?
Daniel: Robin Maxwell.
Lynn: [after looking at Stanley] But she's gone away, Danny.
Daniel: Oh, not that far away.
Stanley: How does Robin feel about this, Daniel?
Daniel: She doesn't know about it, yet. You don't realize it. But I want her, so I'll get her, just as much as I wanted this champagne... and I got it. Otherwise, I'll just have to turn the whole damned family in.
[Abraham Bernstein splashes his champagne into Daniel's face before walking out of the dining room.]
Martin: You know Diana, rather than putting Mr. Donovan away, he might prove very useful to us as a convert.
Diana: My instincts tell me he'd be too difficult as a subject. That's why I decided not to bother. Take him to the final area.
Martin: I always thought you thrived on challenges...
Diana: I do, but I like better odds.
Martin: That's curious, I would've have thought you'd find the difficult game far more interesting. But anyway, you're probably right. I don't think even you with all your abilities could ever turn this head of his...[Turns to walk out of the room]
Diana: Martin wait. Don't take him to the final area just yet... Perhaps I would enjoy the challenge of converting him.
Martin: Well, as you wish, Diana.
Mike Donovan: That damn dragon lady can bend people's minds around, what the hell does she need a blowtorch for!?
Martin: Conversion is a very difficult and time-consuming operation. When Diana simply needs some information, she'll do whatever's most effective and efficient... And she likes to do it.
Diana: I need your help.
Brian: Of course, whatever I -
Diana: It has come to my attention that you developed a relationship. [referring to Robin Maxwell] This young lady.
Brian: Well, I know her, but I -
Diana: Is she attractive to you?
Brian: Not like you are.
Diana: I see now how you've risen through the ranks so quickly.
Brian: I'm quite serious.
Diana: That's very interesting. Because I've had my eye on you for quite sometime.
Brian: How can I be of service?
Diana: Presently. I want your help with an experiment, medical experiment, unusual. Involving you... and her.
[Mike sees the long rows of humans inside cryostasis tanks]
Martin: The Leader needs them living. Some of them will be made into troops for battles with his enemy.
Mike Donovan: What enemy?
Martin: A force that has defeated him before.
Mike: His enemy? That makes him our friends right? That's something to go on!
Martin: [over Mike's comments] I don't know about that.
Mike: You said some of them will be his troops. Not all. What about the others?
Martin: In addition to the water... there is another basic shortage on our planet.
Mike: [understanding in horror] Food!
Mike Donovan: How'd someone like that get to be your leader anyway?
Martin: Charisma. Circumstances, promises... Not enough of us spoke out to question him until it was too late. It happens on your planet, doesn't it?
[During Mike's second escape from the mothership, where he brings out Robin and Sancho aboard a Skyfighter with Martin's help]
Mike Donovan: Martin. Say it man! You're scared.
Martin: Yeah. It's very, very dangerous for me here now.
Mike: [points to Sancho] What does he look like, a Sunday afternoon in Disneyland? I'm sure Barbara was scared and Tony too. Hell man, we're all scared, every last damn one of us! But we've each gotta help out in the best way we can. Now how about it, man? Are you game?
Martin: You'll have a tendency to overcompensate. The controls are very, very sensitive. If you let it, Mike, it will almost fly itself.
Mike: I hope so. [Just before settling at the controls, he reaches his hand to Martin] Hey. I'm proud to have you as a friend.
Martin: [shakes hand] I hope we live to be old friends.
Eleanor Dupres: I know the Visitors aren't saints, but they're in power! They are power...You and I are in unique positions, don't you see that? Why not take advantage of-
Mike Donovan: Because I can't survive at the expense of other people, it's not right! [pauses] You know, when I was a kid, there was a woman who taught me what was right and what was wrong...I wonder what became of her. [Eleanor smirks]
[Lynn Bernstein is made to read Abraham Bernstein's farewell letter as she refuses Robert Maxwell's pleas for help]
Lynn Bernstein: 'My dear family, it's painful knowing that I will not see your faces anymore. I must take this stand for what I know is right. You may think that an old man wouldn't be afraid to die, but this old man is very frightened. I'm hoping that I'll find a little of your mother's [slows down as the gravity of his words take effect] dignity and strength. So far, I'm as frightened as a child who fears the dark. But we must fight this darkness that is threatening to engulf us. Each of us must be a ray of hope and do our part and join with the others till we've become a blinding light, triumphant over darkness. Until that task is accomplished, life will have no meaning. More than anything, you must remember always which side you're on and fight for it. Your mother and I will march beside you, holding hands again. We'll sing your song of victory. You'll feel us in your hearts. Our spirit...' [nearly breaks down]
Stanley Bernstein: 'Our spirits will be with you always. And our love.' We have to help, or else we won't have learned a thing.

About V (1983 miniseries)

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  • Well, it’s funny…when I did ‘V’ originally, I of course went back and looked at Triumph Of The Will and the kind of propaganda films that Leni Riefenstahl had made for Hitler. There are a number of shots in ‘V’ that are actually framed the way that she framed some of the shots that she made in Triumph Of The Will.
  • Kenneth Johnson [1]

Cast

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