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"Unmasked"
V: The Final Battle (part 1,
hour 2)
50:13-end on Side 1, Disc 1 of the DVD set
Teleplay by Brian Taggert and Peggy Goldman
Story by Lillian Weezer, Peggy Goldman, Faustus Buck & Diana
Frolov and Harry & Renee Longstreet
Directed by Richard T. Heffron |
The resistance makes a bold move
against the Visitors; Willie is captured and studied by the
resistance.
(This episode begins with Kristine Walsh being interrogated
by Steven and Diana and ends with Julie in the conversion
chamber.)
Read the story summary of the mini-series at the
V Wiki
Didja Know?
For the title of this hour, I took the prime word from chapter
title 21 on the DVD, "Unmasked on the Air".
Didja Notice?
Kristine claims to Steven and Diana that she just made a wrong turn after she was found in a restricted area of the mothership. But the only way to get into that area is to have a key. So, how could she explain having the key Donovan gave her (in
"Unity")? In fact, they never even ask her about a key!
| At 51:27 on the DVD, there is
Visitor writing on the door panel leading to Diana's
lab. |
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Notice throughout the opening medical center sequence that the
Resitance members are planting guns in hidden locations at the
same time they are stealing medical supplies.
I hadn't noticed it before, but Willie tends not to use
contractions in his English speech. Probably a consequence of
his rush to learn English, he didn't learn to use contractions.
At 54:40 on the DVD, Donovan is driving a 1973
Ford F-Series pickup with CA license plate 2B70204. There are
KC headlight covers on the truck's foglights.
Martin's vehicle in this scene is a Dodge
600.
At 57:05 on the DVD, Elias wields a MAC-10 submachine gun.
Caleb keeps going back and forth on his feelings about Willy. First he called Willy a "stupid alien" in
"Arrival", then praised him for saving
his life in "Visitors,
Victims, and Victory", hating him in
"Betrayal and Reward"
for being an alien like the ones who killed his son, Ben, to
having empathy for the captured Willy in this episode.
At 58:43 on the DVD, Robin is wearing a handkerchief around her neck to cover the green, scaly skin around the base of her neck during her pregnancy. Despite this, Willy notices the band around her neck and asks when she is expecting.
At 1:01:33, she has put on a turtle-neck shirt to better hide the alien band!
Mark asks the sceptical Harmony if she's seen the tape that
Donovan shot of the Visitors as reptilians. Donovan shot the
footage after he sneaked aboard a mothership in
"Visitors,
Victims, and Victory".
At 1:01:10 on the DVD, it can be seen that the underside of the
syntho-skin worn by the Visitors is marked by the indentations
of their scales.
Julie remarks that Martin told them the Visitors have been imuunized against all known Earth diseases.
Father Andrew remarks that Robin is 17 years old.
At 1:04:57 on the DVD, as the abortion procedure is beginning,
Robert refers to Julie as "Doctor" even though she is not one
yet. Julie exchanges a look of surprise and appreciation to him
for the gesture of confidence.
At 1:07:07 on the DVD, the medical monitor seen during Robin's attempted abortion is an M565 Colortrend.
As Donovan is comforting Julie at 1:09:51 on the DVD, Julie
chides herself for not knowing everything by saying, "I guess
that's pretty arrogant, huh?" and Donovan replies "I'm too
self-centered to notice." Donovan's self-deprecating reply goes back to Julie's
remarks in earlier episodes where she says that Donovan thinks
pretty highly of himself and that he's not big on unity.
The limousine with CA license plate 1GLN419 seen at 1:11:12 on the DVD appears to be a 1977
Cadillac Fleetwood.
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As the guests arrive for the Visitors' special
announcement at the medical center, we see the same
couple get checked in twice by Brian and Steven at both
1:11:31 and 1:11:58! |
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1:11:31 |
1:11:58 |
As Robert and Julie hand over their (forged) invitation to enter
the gala, Steven stops Brian and examines the pass himself
first. Why? Is there something suspicious about Robert and Julie
in the first place? I suspect the real reason was the script
called for some suspense at this point! Such scenes are a
frequent trope of Hollywood scripts. It would have made more
sense if Steven looked at it after it had been scanned since the
scanner did seem to hesitate briefly before accepting it.
At 1:13:21 on the DVD, the three Maxwell daughters are seen
whatching the medical center event on TV. Notice that young Katie has grown significantly from her size in the first mini-series even though, in the story, it is only a few months later!
At 1:14:35 on the DVD, Kristine Walsh really looks jolted as she
scrambles to get her lighting and camera people set up for her
announcement. It must have been just the moment before then that
John and Diana told her that the Visitors' special announcement was a
cure for cancer and she would get to announce it first.
| At 1:15:13 on the DVD, there is
Visitor writing on the control room door at the medical
center. |
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A handheld television device is in Elias' hand at 1:15:16 on the
DVD. It may be a disguised Sony Watchman.
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During the fire diversion the Fifth Column has created
on the bridge of the L.A. mothership, Martin switches
out a circuit board which later prevents the Visitors from
cutting off the broadcast from the medical center. The
circuit board appears to be made of a clear material.
|
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Throughout the sequence from 1:16:47-1:17:21, Arthur Dupres
appears to be anything but enthused about John's announcement.
He doesn't even clap when the rest of the crowd does! And as
John is making his announcement he also appears to be looking
bewilderedly at the balcony above and around the Visitor Supreme
Commander. Did he recognize someone, possibly Robert Maxwell
(who formerly lived in the Dupres' neighborhood), and suspect a
resistance attack was about to take place?
At 1:17:24 on the DVD, Julie pulls out a hidden
Heckler & Koch P7 pistol at the beginning of the medical center raid.
Also during the raid, a number of the Resistance members wield
MAC-10 submachine guns, but old Ruby wields a sawed-off 12 Gauge Double Barreled Shotgun!
At 1:17:31 on the DVD, we get a quick glimpse that Father
Andrew's gun was hidden in the cake he went to get a taste of
earlier!
At 1:17:41 on the DVD, we see that the Visitors had sliding
electronic doors installed in the medical center as a security
measure. Unfortunately for them it was turned against them!
The resistance attack on the medical conference seems to mow
down Visitor security personnel left and right. Yet this is
before Ham Tyler shows up with the special armor-piercing ammo
to penetrate the Visitors' armor! Is it because the fight is at
close quarters that normal bullets are able to penetrate? Or is
it only the black-clad shock troopers who wear the armor?
At 1:18:01 on the DVD, we see Ruby hold her gun on Kristine,
saying "All right, pretty face, grab some air!"
As Julie rips off John's false face to reveal the lizard
underneath, the guests at the medical center all react in horror
or disgust at his appearance except for Dr. Walker (whom we know
has been converted)...and Eleanor Dupres! While we do know that
Donovan's mother is prone to sucking up to the Visitors and
their power, could she really have controlled her instinctual
revulsion that way on her own? Is it possible that she has been
converted as well? That would answer Donovan's question in
"Plan for Resistance" in
which he relates that a woman (obviously referring to his
mother) taught him the difference between right and wrong and he
wonders "whatever happened to her?"
We see a few yellowish spots on John's reptilian skin after his
human face is ripped off. The spots appear to be pieces of the
underside of the syntho-skin that have remained glued to his
scales.
At 1:18:39 on the DVD, we see a Visitor weapon or tool we've not
seen before, a laser mounted on a tripod.
At 1:19:40 on the DVD, the staff and patients of the medical
center have apparently heard the gunfire going on in the
conference area because they are already cowering in the hallway
before Donovan runs through followed by Visitor security!
At 1:19:57 on the DVD, actor Andrew Prine as Steven seems to
slide across the floor on his boots a bit as he prepares to round the corner in
pursuit of Donovan.
The novelization makes several mentions of a strange, ululating
death cry from the Visitors when they get killed. At 1:20:37 on
the DVD, a Visitor is caught in a grenade blast and engulfed in
flames and we hear screams that seem part human and part animal.
Listen:
death cry
The ambulance with CA license plate 8Y8376 taken by Fred and Julie at 1:24:36 on the DVD is a 1975 Ford Econoline E-150.
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At 1:22:44 on the DVD, a nice touch can just barely be
made out: Donovan's name badge says Ben Taylor, MD! Dr.
Ben Taylor is the brother of Elias and son of Caleb who
died in "Visitors,
Victims and Victory". |
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The Pursuit of Diana
reveals that Earth never did get the cure for cancer from the Visitors.
I've noticed every time we see the outside of the resistance
headquarters it's always the same shot with the same cars parked
on the street nearby!
| At 1:48:22 on the DVD, there is
Visitor writing on the computer screen as Diana begins
the conversion process on Julie. |
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Notes from the V
mini-series novelization by A.C. Crispin
(The page numbers come from the 1st printing,
paperback edition, published May 1984)
Pages 242-269 (plus some scenes from pages 224-239) cover the
events of "Unmasked" |
Many scenes from the first two hours of this mini-series are
scrambled around or combined or altered in the novel for some
reason.
On page 225 ex-cop Brad/Mark says that Visitors killed his
partner.
Page 233 reveals that Julie has taken X-rays of the captive
Willie and found that Visitor physiology is not all that
different from humans; heart, lungs, kidneys all in about the
same place with just a little variation in shape. (Perhaps this is
another indication that humans and Visitors are somehow
related?)
On page 239, after Brad/Mark has peeled the syntho-skin from
Willie's hand to show Harmony his reptilian nature, Willie's
fingers are described as too-slender and overly-jointed.
Page 243 says that Willie has shown Julie how to peel back the
syntho-skin and then repair it again. It also mentions that his
hand is now covered again with the artificial skin. How were
they able to repair the patch that had been literally torn off?
(In the mini-series Willie starts wearing a glove over the
exposed hand instead.)
While discussing the possibility of a human-Visitor hybrid on
page 246, Julie, Robert, and the doctors at the medical center
discuss a real-life successful cross-species gene splicing
experiment conducted by the USDA and the University of Wisconsin
in 1981. The experiment was a cross of a French bean and
sunflower plant.
On pages 250-251, Julie explains that she studied acupuncture in
China and she uses the technique on Robin during the laparoscopy
procedure.
When Julie and Robert attend the medical center gala with their
forged invitation, Steven does not stop them to look at the
invite card first. However on page 258, the two do witness a
young couple getting hauled away by Visitor security after their
pass fails the electronic scan. Who were these two people and
how/why did they have a fake invite?
Page 259 mentions that Robert Maxwell intentionally avoids being
seen by the Dupres' at the gala because he knows they would
recognize him as their former neighbor.
Page 262 reveals that Martin's cohort who sets off the computer
fire in the bridge of the mothership is called Lorraine.
In this episode there were apparently some Visitor Fifth
Columnists present on the roof of the medical center to lend
realism (and a reverberating voice) to the apprehension of the
resistance members. In the novel it is Willie acting as the
pilot of the ship and lending his voice so that Steven will
believe the humans have been caught and are being transported to
the mothership.
On page 266, as Eleanor films the Visitors' staged version of
what "really" happened at the medical center, she
claims that
Visitor spokesperson Kristine Walsh was killed by the terrorists
during the filming of their "faked" broadcast. We
know, of course, that Diana killed her.
On page 267, after completing her role in the broadcast, Eleanor
implies to Steven that she wants some kind of position of power
in reward for the things she has done for the Visitor cause.
Steven makes her the new World Spokesperson for
the Visitors. (In the mini-series Steven offers it to her on his
own during a visit to her home in the next episode,
"The Masterpiece".)
In the episode "Unity" Daniel tells Elias that he has been made
the leader of the L.A. chapter of the Friends of the Visitors.
On page 269 of the novel he tells Maggie that he is the
Second-in-Command of Visitor Youth Activities worldwide. Did he
get another promotion so soon? Or is he exaggerating to impress
Maggie?
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