BY ALEX ISRAEL

In print | Published November 12, 2009

The other day, while watching the pilot episode of ABC’s “V: The Reimagined Series,” a.k.a. the network’s second attempt to find an appropriate replacement for “Lost” (after the excellent “FlashForward”), I learned two things: Elizabeth Mitchell can say anything at all in her soothing-yet-steely voice and I will be instantly reassured, and two, seeing the flesh of someone’s face peeled back to reveal scaly reptilian skin is unbelievably disgusting, particularly when the individual whose face is getting peeled is best known as Pastor Veal from “Arrested Development.” (For those of you who are too lame to watch “Arrested,” the actor’s name is Alan Tudyk, and he played Steve the Pirate in “Dodgeball” as well as starring in “Firefly”).

The emergence of the true, reptilian form of the Visitors — the alien race whose spectacular arrival and promises that they are “of peace” set off the series’ central conflict — is another in the long line of revolting transformations in alien movies. These transformations began with the emergence of the pod people in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” and they continued with the chest-bursting aliens in “Alien” and its various sequels. Just this summer, “District 9” added another indelible transformation image: the poignant and disturbing site of Sharlto Copley’s hapless Wikus Van de Merwe slowly and painfully turning into an alien as a result of a tragic accident.

I bring up “District 9” because, while watching the stylish and effects-laden “V” pilot, I was haunted by the dirt, pain and gritty realism that suffused the former and which was, with the exception of the aforementioned face peeling, conspicuously absent from the new series. The ships that deliver the Visitors in “V” are curved and elegant, designed with the steel-and-glass aesthetic common in the early, optimistic sci-fi of the 1950s and 60s. The spaceship that delivers the derogatively named, degraded Prawns (no one wants to call these creatures, with their inhuman appearance and incomprehensible language of guttural clicks, anything as nice as Visitors) is far from elegant; its sharp angles and protruding engines are a stark contrast to the sinuous curves and freshly polished chrome of the Visitors’ ship. Think about the way that the dank interior of the Romulan ship in the new “Star Trek” contrasts with that ultimate symbol of sci-fi utopia, the Enterprise, and you’ll get the idea.

The clever conceit of the Visitors’ technology is that it draws parallels, consciously or otherwise, with the Enterprise. It’s hard not to; the imagery of Star Trek is so embedded in pop culture that almost any shiny, white spaceship will call up an association with the crew of the Enterprise and their humanitarian mission. “V” has the opportunity to draw on this capital and subvert it, making the technologically advanced, impossibly good-looking Visitors the villains despite their message of peace and the cleanliness of their ship. It’s the mirror image of what Neill Blomkamp, the director of “District 9,” did by presenting his Prawns, whose reptilian form and gritty ship recalled the aliens of “Alien,” as a persecuted minority who, like the much cuddlier E.T., just wanted to go home.

If the creators of “V” can pull off this subversion of sci-fi norms, the show will be elevated from merely a well-made, serviceable remake to a compelling series in its own right. The series already has one advantage going for it, and that is the presence of Mitchell in the lead role of FBI agent Erica Evans. (The fact that she shares her name with a member of the class of 2011 is, I assume, just a fun coincidence). Mitchell, who was phenomenal as Juliet on “Lost,” brings her brand of quiet confidence to Evans, and lets her character remain calm in a crisis rather than overdoing it. Her particular style of underplaying everything makes her sympathetic even when she spars sarcastically with her troublemaking, Visitor-loving son Tyler (Logan Huffman). In the hands of a lesser actress the moment would have come across as grating, but Mitchell lets you see the pain in her eyes even as her words turn nasty. Plus, Tyler is an annoying little shit, although his entrance into the Visitor’s Peace Ambassador program promises some serious familial tension to come.

It is lucky that Mitchell’s understated delivery and soothing voice make almost anything she says believable, because she is forced to utter some unfortunately heavy-handed expository dialogue. It appears that the writers of “V” don’t think their audience can make inferences by themselves, and therefore choose to write connections explicitly into the script when an implication would have sufficed. This style works when Mitchell is talking, but becomes difficult to listen to when articulated by Joel Gretsch’s Father Jack Landry. Gretsch is a classic action-hero type — I have never seen a Catholic priest who can kick ass like Father Jack — but, as a man of God who is trying to sort out the appearance of the Visitors in terms of his own faith, he is given far too many meaningful speeches. Hopefully within a few episodes the writers will stop pestering the audience with speeches about the danger of devotion and let the philosophy take a backseat to the action, like it does in “Alien” and “District 9.” Only then can the new “V” really live up to its potential.

Alex is a junior. She can be reached at aisrael1@swarthmore.edu.

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