The Visitors are Coming: V: The Series: "The Deception" (November 9, 1984)

In “The Deception,” Diana (Jane Badler) is determined to get her hands on Elizabeth (Jennifer Cooke) – the Star Child -- but is unaware that the child’s accelerated growth has transformed her into an adult. 

Unaware that her information is faulty, Diana captures Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) and with a combination of powerful drugs and holograms, attempts to convince the Resistance fighter that the war is long over, he is married to Julie, and that his delivery of Elizabeth to a rendezvous point on the way to New York was crucial in defeating the Visitors.

When Donovan spies a mock-up newspaper trumpeting the victory -- but revealing Elizabeth as a child --he recognizes Diana’s plot.  He also realizes that his son, Sean (Nick Katt) has betrayed him…

“The Deception” is a pretty strong episode of V: The Series (1984 – 1985).  The early episodes of the NBC series are the best of the bunch, and it is apparent here that neither money nor imagination has yet entirely run out.  

A replacement for “Break Out,” which went unaired in the original schedule, “The Deception” concocts a more appealing back-drop for Kyle Bates (Jeff Yagher), and ramps up the series’ sense of kink.

In terms of Kyle, he’s less combative and more heroic here than the man we met at the prison camp in “Break Out.”  He is clearly being set up by series writers’ as a maverick-type character, one who works with the Resistance, but isn’t a joiner.

In regards to kink, this quality seems a crucial aspect of the TV series, frankly. The kinkiness arises from Diana’s avaricious nature.  She is clearly a sexual being, but one that -- as we shall see -- is curious about humanity in that regard. 

This is a disturbing (and even a bit arousing…) character trait because Diana also devours humans as a food source. Thus when attractive humans are captured by Diana, it’s an open question whether she will serve them up on a dinner platter, or sleep with them…or perhaps both.

Diana gives new meaning to the term “bi-curious,” since she feels sexual attraction both towards Visitors and human beings.

In “The Deception,” Diana pretends to be Julie, Mike Donovan’s wife, in the deception scenario described in the synopsis above.  She kisses him passionately while they are in bed together, and doesn’t seem bothered at all by the intimacy, though Lydia (June Chadwick) -- watching from behind a two-way mirror -- is clearly disgusted by Diana’s fraternization with a lowly human being.   

In their previous encounters (in the two mini-series), there has been an odd undercurrent of attraction between Singer and Badler, so it is amusing and appropriate that the series almost immediately plays into that unspoken chemistry.  It’s too bad the scenes didn’t go further…

The kinky aspects of “The Deception” make it extremely entertaining, though even this story -- of deception and deceit -- is a far cry from the franchise’s original task of documenting the nature of a fascist state. 

V has officially and permanently moved into soap opera territory here, with smattering of action (mostly in the form of car and motor-bike chases).  So while “The Deception” doesn’t represent the franchise at its best, it does represent the series at its apex of quality.  Future episodes begin the down-hill descent, especially after the cast-massacre mid-way through.

That established, I couldn’t help but notice in “The Deception,” again, that to its credit, V features many strong, individual female characters.  There’s the charismatic Diana, of course, but Julie is also a leader, and one who -- in the tradition of male heroes like Captain Kirk on Star Trek -- reckons with self-doubt and worries over her decisions. 

Similarly, we have Elizabeth, a woman in the process of seeking and finding her own identity outside the constraints of her society. She is determined to be someone that she likes, not what Diana or anyone else expects her to be.

Beyond those three significant female characters, we also have the power-hungry Lydia, and insecure Robin Maxwell (Blair Tefkin).

Off-hand, I can’t think of another science fiction TV program in the 1980s that features such significant -- and numerous -- female roles.  Basically, the action in the series is driven by women, and their choices, on both sides of the combat divide.

By point of comparison, Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 – 1994) features women characters mainly in care-taker/nurturer roles, especially after the early death of Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby).  As late as the fourth season of that series, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) are breaking crockery over bad guys’ heads (“Q-Pid”) instead of showing competency in hand-to-hand combat or taking charge of away teams.  V: The Series may degenerate into soap opera silliness in short order, but it was also forward-thinking in terms of women’s roles and characterizations.

Next week: “The Sanction.”