During the events of V
and
V: The Final Battle,
the New York resistance group known as White Christmas deals
with the
Visitor invasion both on their own and in conjunction with the
L.A. resistance.
Didja Know?
Not only does
East Coast Crisis take place concurrently with
V and
V: The Final Battle, the characters and events depicted
seem to thematically parallel the two mini-series as well:
- New York=Los Angeles: each is the major city on the east and
west coasts of the U.S.
- Pete Forsythe=Juliet Parrish: both characters are medical
students and both become the leader of their respective
resistance groups.
- Denise Daltrey=Kristine Walsh: both are newswomen
reporting on the Visitor presence.
- Eleanor's party=Mayor O'Connor's party: both parties are
thrown in honor of the newly-arrived Visitors and their
avoidance of cooked food is noticed at both.
- Cardinal Palazzo=Father Andrew: both are religious figures of
the Catholic faith who join the resistance.
- Alexander Garr=Eleanor Dupres: both seek power and stability by
cozying up to the Visitors.
- Lisa=Willy: both are Visitors who befriend a human and become
attracted and eventually join the resistance/Fifth Column to
oppose their own people's plans for Earth.
- Dr. Mary Chu=Dr. Ruth Barnes: Both obtain Visitor skin
samples (actually syntho-skin) and are killed for it.
- Reporter Denise Daltrey chased through the woods by
Visitors, escaping on horseback=News cameraman Mike Donovan
chased through the woods by Visitors, escaping on horseback.
- Diablos=Angels: The Diablos are a New York street gang
that reluctantly helps the resistance; the Angels are an
L.A. street gang that reluctantly helps the resistance.
Plus, Diablos is Spanish for Devils, obviously the opposite
of Angels!
- The L.A. resistance mounts a successful raid on an
armory=White Christmas
mounts a successful raid on an armory
- Donovan learns the Visitors' true plan to take water and
humans as food from Fifth Columnist Martin=White Christmas
learns the Visitors true plan to take
water and humans as food from Fifth Columnist Jennifer.
- The L.A. resistance blows up a
Visitor water pumping plant=White
Christmas blows up a Visitor chemical plant and a
nitroglycerin factory that sit side-by-side
- The L.A. resistance suffers a humiliating defeat
attempting to shut down a Visitor processing plant,
losing one of their own in the process
and realizing the shock troopers are wearing stronger armor=White
Christmas
suffers a humiliating defeat attempting
to shut down a Visitor processing plant, losing one of their
own in the process and realizing the shock troopers are
wearing stronger armor
- Roger's mass kidnapping plot in New York on
V-day=Diana's nuclear detonation plan in L.A. on V-day
- The L.A. mothership returns to the city, commanded by
the Fifth Column to return the captive humans aboard=The
New York mothership returns to the city, commanded by the
Fifth Column to return the captive humans aboard
Many of the chapter titles in this book seem to be borrowed from
movies, plays, television, and music. They are noted in the story
summary below.
Story Summary
Prologue: Journey's End
(Title is possibly
borrowed from the 1928 play
Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff about British
Army officers in WWI.)
The fleet of Visitor motherships enters the solar system. On
board one of the ships, command crew members Angela and Jennifer
bicker over protocol.
Chapter 1: Where Were You When the UFOs Landed?
(Title is possibly borrowed from the 1968 comedy film
Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? which is set
in New York City during the great blackout of November 9, 1965.)
Yankees baseball players Pete Forsythe and Joey Vitale
participate in training at Yankees
stadium under team manager Bobby Neal, while Yankees owner
Alex Garr observes and kibitzes. We learn that Pete is
also a medical student and recovering alcoholic. They witness the
New York mothership come in over the city.
New York City Mayor Daniel O'Connor is at a photo op at the
Bronx Zoo with City Council President Alison Stein as the
mothership parks itself over his city. In
Washington D.C.
President William Morrow is awakened by his wife and aides and
informed of the UFOs arriving over the major cities of Earth. In
Manhattan, CBS newswoman Denise Daltrey is told by her co-worker
Dan Rather about the UFOs. Dr. George Stewart and his daughter
Lauren (assistant to the U.N. Secretary-General) witness the
mothership's arrival.
Chapter 2: Alarums and Excursions
(Title comes from the stage direction in Elizabethan
dramas for the movement of soldiers across the
stage.)
We learn that President Morrow was a bomber pilot in WWII.
Denise Daltrey interviews Isaac Asimov about the alien presence
just before the Visitors make their announcement to meet at the
top of the U.N. building.
Chapter 3: The Visitors
(Title obviously refers to our alien antagonists, but
may also be a reference to any of a number of other
inspirations, possibly the 1980 science-fiction novel The
Visitors by Clifford D. Simak about a perplexing alien
visitation of Earth.)
The Visitors, U.N. personnel, and news media all prepare for
Earth's first extraterrestrial meeting in their own way and then
the meeting atop the U.N. building takes place.
Chapter 4: Party Time
(I am unaware of a specific outside influence to which
this title may refer other than it being a fairly common phrase)
Mayor O'Connor throws a party for the Visitors at Gracie
Mansion. Jennifer has a discussion with Cardinal Palazzo about
religion in their respective societies. The human party guests
discuss, among themselves, some of the strange aspects of the
Visitors.
Chapter 5: Make New Friends, Lose the Old
(I am unaware of a specific outside influence to which
this title may refer)
Joey visits his old childhood neighborhood for dinner with his
parents and bumps into an old flame. Denise reports on the
retooling of various industrial plants to produce the Visitors' needed
chemical; after offering some questioning commentary on the
Visitors, she and her producer are chewed out by the network
president. While discussing the news incident with Roger and
Jennifer, Angela reveals that the CBS network president has
undergone conversion by the Visitors.
The first meeting of the Visitor Friends group of New York City
takes place at Yankees Stadium, sponsored by owner Alex Garr.
Pete and Joey are required to attend and they meet the Visitor
Lisa.
Dr. Mary Chu complains about the Visitors' introductory lecture
of advanced scientific knowledge but reveals she got some
Visitor skin samples on her long fingernails which she intends
to examine; shortly after, Mary goes missing.
Chapter 6: Rat Patrol
(Title is from the 1966-1968 television series about an Allied
long-range desert patrol group in North Africa during WWII.)
Joey and Lisa begin to feel attraction for each other. Pete
catches some of the Visitor Youth group getting drunk and tells
them the story of his drunk driving accident. He witnesses a
drunk Visitor grab and eat a live rat.
Chapter 7: Conversations in the
Park
(Title is possibly inspired by the 1969
novel Conversation in the Cathedral by Peruvian writer
Mario Vargas Llosa, about life in Peru during the dictatorship
of Manuel A. Odría in the 1950s.)
Dr. Stewart tells Lauren his suspicions about the Visitors'
involvement in Mary's disappearance. Pete tells Dr. Stewart
about the rat-eating Visitor.
Chapter 8: "I Suggest a New
Strategy..."
(Title is a partial quote from Star Wars: A New Hope
made by C-3PO. The full quote is "I suggest a new strategy,
Artoo. Let the Wookiee win.")
The President and some of his closest advisors along with U.N.
Secretary-General Olav Lindstrom, meet with Roger and Angela who
express concern that some Earth scientists may try to hamper
Visitor activity. The aliens suggest a registration of
scientists to which the President is hostile, but is convinced
to investigate the matter further.
Chapter 9: "I Never Knew There'd
Be Days Like These..."
(Possibly this title is a paraphrase of a
lyric from the John Lennon song "Nobody Told Me", the lyric
being "Nobody told me there'd be days like these"; in this song
Lennon alludes to things happening that aren't really happening.)
Newscasts break the story of an alleged conspiracy of the
world's scientists against the Visitors. The U.S. Congress
passes the scientist registration act proposed by the Visitors,
overriding the President's veto. The Visitors present "evidence"
that Dr. Mary Chu was part of the conspiracy before her
disappearance.
With Pete's help, Dr. Stewart finds "evidence" that has been
planted in his office. They also find where Mary hid slides of
the Visitor skin samples. Pete takes the slides and promises
that if anything happens to Dr. Stewart he will get them to Dr.
Hannah Donnenfeld at Brook Cove Lab in Oyster Bay on Long
Island.
Chapter 10: Spiderweb
(I am unaware of a specific outside influence to which
this title may refer)
Denise Daltrey is getting fed up with the propaganda in favor of
the Visitors in news reports. Mayor O'Connor makes some negative
comments about the Visitors to reporters. Pete witnesses Dr.
Stewart being led away from his office by cops and Visitors;
Pete retreats to his apartment and gets drunk until he passes
out. The next day he informs Lauren of what happened to her
father and she sets out to investigate using her U.N. status.
Chapter 11: Revelations
(I am unaware of a specific outside influence to which
this title may refer unless it is the Biblical book of
Revelations)
Lauren requests an audience with Roger regarding her father's
arrest. The scientists at the Brook Cove Lab spy on Visitor
activities. Pete takes the slides to Brook Cove and meets the
scientists there and they discover the artificial nature of the
skin.
Chapter 12: Power Play
(Title is probably a reference to the concept of a political
power play, the use of power or threats for coercion)
With the President being held for conversion, the converted U.S.
Secretary of Defense signs a cooperation agreement with the
Visitors to hunt down rogue scientists and martial law is
declared. Lauren begins to notice political figures becoming
wrong-handed. Denise takes part in the aborted broadcast of
Donovan's mothership footage.
Chapter 13: Strange Days, Indeed
(Possibly this title is from the refrain
of the John Lennon song "Nobody Told Me". Among other things in
the song, Lennon mentions having seen a UFO over New York)
Pete and Lauren meet for lunch and agree to resist the Visitors.
After seeing her home, Pete impulsively kisses Lauren good-bye.
Pete's Yankees manager speaks out against the Visitor Friends
group and is taken away.
Chapter 14:
Exeunt, Pursued by...What?
("Exeunt" is Latin for "to go out", i.e.
exit, and is often used as stage direction in the writing
of plays to indicate that the characters exit the stage. The
title here is a take-off on a stage direction in Shakespeare's
play The Winter's Tale, in which he provides the stage
direction "exeunt, pursued by bear." In this chapter of the
book, Denise Daltrey is pursued by Visitors.)
After the declaration of martial law, Denise is essentially
unemployed as a newswoman; several of her colleagues get
arrested snooping around for the real story. Denise decides to
get out of the city to a friend's vacation cottage in the
mountains. On the way, she decides to pay Kristine Walsh a visit
to give her a piece of her mind. But Angela was watching the
exchange on a monitor and orders Denise followed and picked up
someplace isolated. She escapes with the timely aid of police
sergeant Sam Yeager of the New York mounted police. She learns
he is a member of a resistance group and joins them.
Chapter 15: No More Mr. Nice Guy
(Title may come from the 1973 song of the
same name by Alice Cooper, or may merely refer to the common
English idiom.)
Alison Stein is informed by police that Mayor O'Connor has
killed himself. As City Council President she is promoted to
Mayor.
The Visitors commandeer the Madonna del Sol church as their
headquarters for the area of Spanish Harlem. Father Roberto
Lopez is ejected and Diablos street gang member Julio Cruz
protests against the action and sets on a course to make the
Visitors pay.
Chapter 16: It Begins When You're
Always Afraid...
(Title is a paraphrase of a lyric from the Buffalo Springfield
song "For What It's Worth", the lyric being "It starts when
you're always afraid.")
Guido's restaurant, Bella Capri, becomes a meeting place for the
resistance. They agree they need to gather more people and
weapons. Lisa tells Joey she thinks her people are lying to her
and others about the true mission to Earth.
Chapter 17: Step Out of Line and
They'll Come and Take You Away...
(Title is a paraphrase of a lyric from
the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth", the lyric
being "You step out of line, the man come and take you
away.")
The Visitors raid the Brook Cove lab, but miss the underground
portion. The Diablos street gang, led by Julio, toss Molotov
cocktails at the former La Madonna church, now local Visitor
headquarters; in the ensuing chase one of the gang members is
killed by the Visitors.
Chapter 18: Taking it to the
Streets
(Title is from the 1976 Doobie Brothers song, "Takin' it to the
Streets".)
The rebel group has its third meeting at Bella Capri, now with
16 members. They make plans to raid an armory and discuss the
Visitors' hidden reptilian nature, which disturbs Joey due to
his attraction to Lisa. Pete tells Joey to try to find out if
she can help them. The group also decides to hold a celebration
at Christmas despite the Visitors ban on holiday festivities.
They arrange with Julio to have the Diablos help them with the
armory raid; it is mentioned that some other street gangs have
cooperated with the aliens and have received Visitor weapons in
return.
Chapter 19: Dreams of a
Revolution
(I am unaware of a specific outside
influence to which this title may refer.)
Jennifer receives a Mission Commendation from Roger and
reminisces on another award she won in more peaceful times.
Alex Garr has a Christmas party for New York bigwigs and the Visitors
while the rebel group has their own small one at Bella Capri.
Garr's party turns out to be a rather poor one, with Mayor Alison
Stein recounting a long list of terrorist activities suddenly
taking place in the city; a decision is reached to make a
goodwill tour of the city by Visitors and city officials on
Valentine's Day. At Bella Capri,
the party is much better with Pete and
Lauren sharing a kiss under the mistletoe, Christmas carols, and
a decision reached to call their rebel group White Christmas.
Chapter 20: The Right to Bear
Arms...
(I presume the title is a reference to the Second Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution which, in part, states that citizens have
a right to keep and bear arms.)
White Christmas successfully makes a raid on the armory to
obtain weapons. Later, the group learns of the planned
propaganda tour and make plans to kidnap Roger and Angela during
the event.
Chapter 21: The Face of the Enemy
(I am unaware of a specific outside influence to which
this title may refer other than it being a fairly common phrase.)
For 2 weeks before the propaganda tour, the White Christmas
members practice using their new weapons and finalize their
plan. The day arrives and they pull off the caper successfully
except that Roger had business elsewhere and is not present to
be kidnapped. They grab Angela and Jennifer instead and Jennifer
reveals that she is a Fifth Columnist, giving the group
information about the Visitors' true mission. Angela gets killed
trying to silence Jennifer.
Chapter 22: Left-Handed Blessings
(Title comes from the Bible, the
Book of Matthew, "The wicked took up with left-handed
blessings, riches and honour, and so shall their doom be." This
chapter of East Coast Crisis deals with the Visitors
conversion of many humans in positions of power, which causes
them to switch from right to left-handed (or vice versa).)
Cardinal Palazzo is shocked by what he has learned about the
Visitors during the kidnapping and he soon realizes that even
the Pope has been converted by them when he sees the high bishop
using his left hand on television. Alex Garr is also disturbed
by what he's learned and ashamed of his brown-nosing with the
Visitors; he volunteers to use his connections with the aliens
to be a double agent for White Christmas.
Chapter 23: Just One of Those
Days
(I am unaware of a specific outside influence to which
this title may refer other than it being a fairly common phrase.)
Through February and March, Jennifer continues to give
information to White Christmas. They successfully hit many
Visitor targets and continue their smaller harassments of alien
progress. But they suffer a humiliating
defeat attempting to shut down a Visitor processing plant,
losing one of their own in the process.
While pretending to be working on converting him, Jennifer
secretly heals the damage done to President Morrow's mind.
Chapter 24: The California Connection
(I am unaware of a specific outside
influence to which this title may refer; in this chapter members
of the New York group meet with Julie and Tyler of the L.A.
group.)
Juliet Parrish and Ham Tyler visit Brook Cove Lab. The
communication between the two groups continues as they work on
the hybrid bacterium together and the plan for distributing it
around the world to drive off the Visitors.
Chapter 25: Grocery List
(I am unaware of a specific outside influence to which
this title may refer other than it being a common phrase; in
this chapter it refers to Roger's plan to fill his ship's quota
of humans for food.)
Roger comes up with a plan to fill his ship's quota of packaged
humans in one night and Jennifer sends Lisa to warn White
Christmas of the plot. Meanwhile, resistance and Visitor forces
both prepare for V-day.
Chapter 26: Thrown Gauntlet
(I am unaware of a specific outside
influence to which this title may refer; historically, a knight
would throw down one of his gauntlets as a challenge to another
and if the other picked it up, the challenge was accepted.)
Lisa delivers news of Roger's plot to White Christmas and Joey
confronts her about her reptilian nature. The group quickly
makes plans for foiling Roger's scheme.
Chapter 27:
The Long Island Railroad
(Title is a reference to the real Long
Island Railroad.)
Roger sets his plan in motion, faking a chemical spill at a Long
Island processing plant and evacuating the nearby neighborhoods,
herding the residents onto the Long
Island Railroad with an eventual destination of a number of
Visitor shuttles to the mothership. Joey's parents are
among the evacuated.
Chapter 28: If the Train Should
Jump the Track...
(Title is a reference to a jump-rope or patty-cake chant which
goes, "Engine engine number nine, Rolling down Chicago line, If
the train goes off the track, Do you want your money back?")
The evacuation train runs ahead of schedule, putting White
Christmas' counter-plan in danger of failing. Pete orders the
resistance's train to increase speed to intercept despite the
threat of running off the tracks. The Visitor in charge of the
evacuation train notices the paralleling resistance and soon the
two trains are in a race to reach Jamaica Station first.
Chapter 29: The Last Battle
(Title is obviously a reference to the "The Final Battle" title of
the second V mini-series.)
White Christmas ambushes the Visitor troopers at Farmingdale
Airport where shuttles are awaiting the evac train to take
humans to the mothership. Joey meets his old flame Marianne
there and it seems there might be a rekindling of romance
between them. Two Visitor shock troopers man a Visitor tank that
had been stored in a hangar and its laser cannon begins to blast
away at the resistance force. The resistance's support shuttle
flown by Alex Garr gets shot out of the air but lands safely
with just one casualty.
Another support shuttle arrives and is shot down and crashes;
the pilot turns out to be the President, set free by Jennifer.
He joins in the resistance's firefight against the aliens. Then
another support shuttle appears in the air, releasing balloons
full of red dust.
Alex Garr sacrifices himself to finish off the Visitors' laser
tank. The red dust begins to kill many of the Visitor troopers
and the remaining ones soon flee.
Meanwhile, in the city, Julio tosses a canister grenade of red
dust, killing the Visitor Security Commander at the Madonna del
Sol church.
Chapter 30: When the Battle's
Lost...and Won
(Title is a line from Shakespeare's MacBeth, "When the
hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won.")
The word spreads that the motherships are fleeing Earth while
the White Christmas members lick their wounds and count their
dead. Six hours later, the New York mothership returns, now
commanded by Jennifer, to return the human captives aboard,
including Lauren's father, Dr. Stewart. Jennifer plans to gather
the remaining Fifth Columnists on Earth and return to their
homeworld to join the Alliance's struggle to end the reign of
the Leader.
Epilogue: The Visitor on the Roof
(Title may be a play on Fiddler on the Roof, the
well-known Broadway play first produced in 1964; it also refers
to Supreme Commander John's appearance on the roof of the U.N.
building shortly after the Visitors' arrival and, in this
chapter, refers to Pete's landing on the same roof)
A week after V-day, Lauren Stewart returns to her job at the
U.N. while Secretary-General Olav Lindstrom takes two weeks off
to rest and relax after the events of the past year. Many of the
resistance's survivors return to their previous lives. Pete
borrows a captured Visitor shuttle from the authorities and
lands on the roof of the U.N. building, scaring Lauren out of
her wits. But he is there to invite her to spend some time with him in
Hawaii. She agrees and they fly off together.
THE END
Didja Notice?
