I want to say "awesome" but I have a hard time rooting for the main villain on Dollhouse moving to another show. :( I'm still holding out some glimmer of hope.

anjee | May 14, 04:17 CET

Well, I doubt Alpha was gonna show up in most of season 2 anyway. I think they just kept him around because, well, that'd be killing a lot of potential stories to just get rid of him.

Jobo | May 14, 04:22 CET

I had been reading almost nothing about V in the Upfront reports until just about now. Since I have no faith in Herc's sources, I'll just have to lean on The Hollywood Reporter. They report tonight that V might be a mid-season pickup, but that is not certain. Nikki Finke did not even mention the show in her afternoon update, so the situation remains very unclear. And yes, it appears to be a quiet night on the Dollhouse Renewal Watch(tm) front.

THR
Deadline Hollywood Daily

Qixotl | May 14, 05:01 CET

Whoa! We are getting ahead of ourselves here. V has not been picked up and is far from a sure thing. Even if it is ordered to series, there's no indication that it will be a fall show.

aeval | May 14, 05:31 CET

Oh, I hope it gets picked up. WW II tropes and duplicitous sexy evil alien lizards; what's not to like? It's ideal material for a remake/update; good bones but plenty of room for improvement. Like all successful fi-sci-horror, it fits the anxieties of the times. Keep it low budget with CGI like the B-material it is; my God, how the money rolls in.

janef | May 14, 06:00 CET

I enjoyed the bits of the mini-series I caught as a kid and appreciated it just as much when I rented the DVDs. The idea has potential, they could do something even better with a remake in this property's case.

Was the V series any good (which I assume picked up where the mini-series left off) ? Wasn't there a "final battle"-type movie to cap it all off too ? I never rented those.

Kris | May 14, 06:52 CET

Edited the title to remove the "premieres this Fall" language, in light of comments here.

SoddingNancyTribe | May 14, 07:16 CET

This could be an awesome re-imagining. I can't wait to see it.

electricspacegirl | May 14, 07:31 CET

Yeah, looking forward to seeing it. I never actually saw the original, but I did read the books when I was young. Not quite sure if they were novelizations, or if they were the source material the series was based on, as it's been ages since I read 'em. Did make a big impression on my, I think, about 12 year old self, though.

Also, if there's one thing television is sorely lacking, it's Alan Tudyk. So anything that gets more of him on our screens is pretty much a good thing (and I'm sure they'll be able to work something out for a guest spot on Dollhouse in the future and if not, well, than the show's premise lends plenty of opportunity to recast, although that'd be a huge shame).

GVH | May 14, 15:08 CET

I just hope Morena Baccarin got rid of her buzz cut she had in Medium :::puke:::

seermagicx | May 14, 15:23 CET

Whoa - does Zoe know about this?

barboo | May 14, 15:49 CET

I just hope Morena Baccarin got rid of her buzz cut she had in Medium :::puke:::

Glad to know I'm not the only one who's lamented Morena's extremely short hair, seermagicx...though I haven't gone as far as wanting to puke. Abject horror a time or two...

;)

I personally curse the Sci-Fi Channel, since she had her luscious locks shorn off for one of their TV movies a couple of years back - Sands of Oblivion, I think - though why it's still that short is a mystery...probably just ease of maintenance.

BlueEyedBrigadier | May 14, 17:42 CET

Morena's short hair is adorable and the woman would be gorgeous no matter what her hair is like.

TamaraC | May 14, 18:00 CET

Oh, make no mistake, TamaraC...Ms. Baccarin would be gorgeous in a gunny sack, in my humble opinion. I was just noting that I had a stronger preference for her pre-2005/2006 look (with long hair) than I do for the haircut she had in Sands of Oblivion or the fairly recent episode of Medium. She's still fabulous with the short hair...just think her features are framed better by longer hair ;)

BlueEyedBrigadier | May 14, 20:42 CET

Kris -

V: The Final Battle was actually a direct sequel to the original V two-part movie/miniseries. Airing over three nights, it provided a resolution to most of the story points, but enough room was left (or created) to launch a series the following season. Unfortunately, the budgetary and technological constraints of a weekly TV show at the time were visible - besides some use of stock effects footage, the Visitors suddenly became very fond of Jeeps ;) And while most of the major players from the miniseries carried over, new characters were also added, sometimes at the cost of stealing air time from existing favorites. As the show struggled in the ratings, re-tooling and unhappiness led to cast departures... Basically, it ended up being a pretty uneven show, with a near-resolution final episode which still attempted to end on a cliffhanger (though it's at least easy enough to guess how it would have played out). I enjoyed it well enough at the time (though not when my local NBC affiliate pre-epted the LAST episode - grr...), but I would say that it's not up to the quality - certainly not with consistency - of the two minis.

And those miniseries were the original source material, btw, GVH. I'm familiar with the book series of which you speak - looks like I have eight or nine of those novels on my bookshelf right now. The first book, a fat volume by A.C. Crispin simply titled _V_, is an adaptation of both the V and V: The Final Battle miniseries. (Possibly there was a smaller edition just adapting the first two-parter, but mine features "the full, ten hour NBC-TV miniseries", as the cover puts it.) The other novels are works inspired by the television work - I believe some of the characters created for the ongoing show did appear in some of these books, though, AFAIK, none of them directly tied in to specific episodes or provided final closure to the V universe (version 1 ;) ). (As I recall, some of them were good reads, though - some probably better quality writing than at least some eps of the TV series.)

So, yeah, V definitely had some impact on me. It hasn't stayed with me as strongly as some other interests of my youth, but I was interested when there were rumblings of a revival with members of the original cast years ago; and I'm definitely interested in a new version with a cast including some of our Firefly crew. Hopefully Morena (as the Diana analogue, it sounds like!), Alan, and the rest of the impressive group will make it to the air with this new imagining *fingers crossed*

LKW | May 14, 21:22 CET

Thanks for the info LKW. I wish I'd rented The Final Battle and the TV series while I still had the opening mini-series fresh in my mind, but I was going to rent the TV series first and save The Final Battle for last (its title made it sound like the end), so at least I know the correct viewing order now.

Big money in re-makes/re-imaginings and the studios know this (re: BSG, various cartoons, and tons of films). Some fail (Flash Gordon). We'll see. What will they re-do next ? (sometimes continuations seem like a better course, though only if the source material is strong enough to build another series on).

Kris | May 14, 23:26 CET

Well, "Land of the Lost" is about to come out in theaters as a Will Ferrell comedy....

And I see how the titling of the V projects can be confusing. If they'd had an inkling at the time that they might be getting a full-fledged series - and I've gotten the impression somewhere along the line that they did - they really should have changed that "Final Battle" title. I'm glad I was able to help clear up their muddying for you, anyway.

LKW | May 15, 01:57 CET

Thanks for the info, LKW! I remember reading that A.C. Crispin novel (as I tried another of his books after reading it) and one other novel, probably the next one in the series. Might have to dig that book up again, for sentimental purposes.

GVH | May 15, 01:58 CET

Glad I could help, GVH!

LKW | May 15, 02:27 CET

@SoddingNancyTribe

Well you can put it back in, ABC has picked it, but the initial order is only for 6 episodes (very confident about this, aren't they)

Hunted | May 16, 13:16 CET