In
“Visitors' Choice,” the Resistance learns of an upcoming Visitor conclave in
Playa Del Mar.
There,
Diana (Jane Badler) and other prominent officers in the fleet will be privy to
a demonstration of a new freeze-drying process, one that will allow the
processing of human food at a rate of 100,000 people a week.
If the prototype
goes into production, a new holocaust is in the offing…
Julie
(Faye Grant), Mike (Marc Singer) and Ham (Michael Ironside) head to Playa Del
Mar, and join up with a small resistance cell there. The plan is to use explosives to destroy the
conclave, the prototype, and the Visitor scientist, Mary Kruger (Sybil Dannig)
who created the device.
But
a complication arises when the L.A. resistance heroes learn that humans are
also being held -- in a kitchen freezer -- at the gathering.
Meanwhile,
back in Los Angeles, Nathan Bates establishes a dusk-to-dawn curfew in an
attempt to squash the Resistance. He
also captures his son, Kyle, and orders him “disciplined” by his sadistic major
domo, Mr. Chiang (Aki Aleong).
“Visitors' Choice” has some good, solid moments in it, even though, at times, the episode suffers
from a feeling that it was slapped together at literally the last minute.
Beloved
genre icon Sybil Danning makes an appearance here alongside Jane Badler’s Diana
as Mary Kruger, a brilliant Visitor scientist.
It is a mystery, however, when Visitors began going by two names instead
of generics like “Diana,” “Willie,” “Lydia” and so forth. Mary Kruger?
Danning
doesn’t get much screen-time in “Visitor’s Choice,” but she is perfectly cast
as a villain who can physically stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Diana, and thus
a welcome presence.
Similarly,
I enjoyed this episode because it represents the first occasion in a long while
that Mike and Julie have gone out on a dangerous mission together. They are ostensibly still a couple, and I
like that their resistance code-names are “Romeo and Juliet.” This fact is
announced on Radio Free America at an opportune point in the action, and there
is even a mention of the literary couple’s tragic fate.
One
has to wonder if Mike and Julie were also headed, eventually, for such
heart-break. Apparently, after the end
of the first season, the producers had a plan to kill off Julie…
“Visitors' Choice” also works well in terms of its depiction of Nathan Bates (Lane
Smith). Here, he issues a curfew and
makes it “punishable by death” for
any person in his city to possess fire-arms.
Although,
ostensibly he is neutral in the War for Earth, it is clear that Bates is more
interested in preserving his own power than in helping the Resistance win. He seems to consider the Resistance fighters
criminals in the city, while he treats Diana like a visiting Head of State.
The
scene in which Kyle (Jeff Yagher) confronts Nathan about his behavior and
actions is well-written and well-performed, and it gets at the core conflict
between father and son. Kyle is
rebelling against an authoritarian Dad, it’s true, but he’s also staking out a
position based on morality, whereas Nathan stakes out a position based on his
own personal gain.
The
scene in which Julie fights a huge, cleaver-bearing Visitor chef in close
quarters is also surprisingly effective, and is evidence of what I pointed out
a few weeks ago. V: The Series was not
afraid to let Julie be a fighter and a leader, engaged in out-and-out physical
combat. It’s refreshing to see her fully
integrated into the action. And it’s
cool that Julie does well against the fat chef, but then Donovan leaps in and promptly
gets tossed across a counter-top. Maybe he should have left the fighting to
Julie…
Finally,
“Visitors' Choice” treads into some creepy imagery. It’s weird and unsettling to see half-dressed
humans frozen in walk-in kitchen freezers, and the moment when the processor is
activated is left to the (dreadful…) imagination. The machine goes on, and we cut away as horrible
human screams are heard.
Still,
one has to wonder, did Mary Kruger leave notes regarding the freeze-drying process? If so, then this Resistance win in Playa Del
Mar is really just a brief setback for the Visitors…
In two weeks: “The Overlord.”
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