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V
"The Overlord"
TV episode
Written by David Abramowitz
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
Original air date November 30, 1984 |
In order to mine much-needed
cobalt for her troops’ weapons, Diana enlists the aid of a tough
motorcycle gang to enslave a small town in a red dust
contaminated area.
Read the summary of this episode at
V: The Series Interactive Website
Notes from the V chronology
Although it originally aired before "The
Dissident", I have chosen
to place this episode after it due to the fact that the Visitor
character of Daniel (no relation to Daniel Bernstein!) is alive
and well in
"The Dissident"
even though he was killed "previously" here. So the air order must have been a snafu on NBC's
part, right? Well, not so fast, because Lydia "dies" in
"The Dissident" (actually she fakes her death, but she is gone for a
couple of episodes) and yet is seen here in this episode! So, really,
these two deaths wind up completely contradicting both of these
episodes! I think I recall reading somewhere that the producers
realized they had made a mistake with the two deaths in these
episodes due to the fact that episodes and scenes are often shot
out of order, so it can be confusing to keep the script
chronologies intact; I believe they decided that viewers
noticing guest-star Daniel's brief "return from the grave" was
less likely than their noticing major character Lydia's, so the
episodes were presented "The Overlord" first,
"The Dissident" second. But another aspect of
"The Dissident" story makes me present the two episodes in the opposite manner:
Elizabeth's stowing away with Kyle for the adventure, upsetting
both Kyle and Donovan. Here in "The Overlord", Elizabeth finally
stands up for herself and insists on accompanying the rest on
their mission and stating how she resents being protected all
the time. Kyle and Donovan finally accept this and allow her
more freedom to participate. Since Lydia's scene in this
episode's story is so brief, I think we must simply overlook the
appearance and pretend she was never there.
Didja Know?
Most of the story takes place in Rawlinsville, CA. This is a
fictitious town.
At one point in the story, Elizabeth pretends to be a bored girl
from North Flats, CA.
This is also a fictitious town.
Didja Notice?
In the Freedom Network report, Howard K. Smith reports that
Bangkok, Thailand has fallen to the Visitors; the fight for
Birmingham, Alabama continues; the Freedom Network's Medal of
Valor goes to Dr. Harvey Wachman of Kansas City, Missouri for
freeing a dozen boys from a Visitor Youth Corps camp and
reuniting them with their families in Chicago.
At 3:41 on the DVD, Gil's Garage, the Ice Cream Cone, and
Rawlinsville Hardware and Appliance are seen
in the background in Rawlinsville.
At 4:00 on the DVD, an out-of-place "alto" sign is seen on the
ground in Rawlinsville. Alto is Spanish for "stop".
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At 5:18 on the DVD, we see a
Jeep-mounted laser gun that is
different from the type seen
previously in
"Visitors' Choice". (The
screengrab below is from 43:45
in the episode, after Elias has
pulled it off its mount.) At
about 6:49, the underside of the
gun can be as decorated with
simple pieces of black tape! |
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| Jeep-mounted
laser gun in "The Overlord" |
Jeep-mounted laser gun in
"Visitors' Choice" |
At 6:47 on the DVD, the futuristic crates in the mothership's
storage room are obviously just simple Styrofoam packaging!
The white armband worn by Kenneth has two triangles on it. It
must be the symbol of medical personnel because he says he is a
medic and in the "The Dissident"
there are a couple of Visitors wearing a similar white band (we
never get a close look to see if there are symbols on them)
assisting the injured after Donovan and Tyler's attack.
| The hologram
image of Amon is almost entirely
covered in clothing, including
to the point of wearing gloves!
We see only his chin, upon which it
is difficult to tell whether he has a
beard or just very wrinkled
skin. Since the image is
grey-toned, his skin color or
hair color is not even
discernable. Why all the
secrecy? And, if he does have
a beard, we've seen no previous
evidence that the Visitors have
any hair at all. Could Amon be a
human or another life form? |
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| Kenneth tears
the dermoplast off his chest in
supplication to Amon. But the
size of the tear changes! |
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| At 7:09 on
the DVD |
At 8:06 on the DVD |
Kenneth tells Amon that he is just back from Charleston, where
the fighting has been terrible. Presumably, he is referring to
Charleston, South Carolina.
Apparently the main covenant of the Zon religion is:
Zon is the cause for which I would die.
But there is no cause for which I would kill.
Willie seems to be in the habit of preparing bizarre mixes of
food for himself. First there were the unusual smoothies he
blended in "The Sanction"
and Death Tide,
and here he dips cherries in mustard and eats them! Perhaps he
is trying to recreate the flavors of foods on his homeworld.
To prove to Elias that she is human, Glenna grabs a champagne
bottle from the bar and smashes it in half in order to use a
glass shard to cut her hand and show the red blood. But notice
that when she smashes the bottle, no champagne spills out of it!
As part of a code phrase she uses over the phone with Donovan,
Julie says her aunt is visiting Dover on the fourth. This could
refer to any number of cities in the U.S. or around the world.
Julie learns from her research that the Visitors' laser pistols
are powered by a cobalt base, but it has an irregular molecular
structure.
| Does anyone else
think that Willie in drag looks
like Tootsie? (Or maybe a thin
Mrs. Doubtfire, thought that
film came almost 10 years later.) |
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| Willie |
Tootsie |
At 14:21 on the DVD, Willie walks past a store called Pat's.
At 14:58 on the DVD, Willie stops a
GMC delivery
truck with CA license plate 2J01843. Seconds later, Donovan and
Tyler show up in a police squad car with license plate 21772.
At 15:47 on the DVD, in the back of the truck transporting
weapons for Bates, there is a box labeled Boothe Fruit Co. with
a date of March '57! This may be a real world box that the prop
master found. There was a real Boothe Fruit Company that existed
in 1957 and some of their products were even packaged as
C-rations for the U.S. military at the time.
At 16:45 on the DVD, Diana is reading the Book of Zon she took
from Kenneth, but the Visitor print on the pages is too blurry
for us to see clearly. She calls it religious nonsense, a
collection of myth and fairy tales.
The reptilian skin make-up worn by the actor playing Kenneth
looks better than it typically does in other episodes of the
weekly series.
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Apparently Julie has moved out of the house we saw her in in
"Breakout". Here we see her entering
an apartment instead, and the interior is definitely different
than what we saw in that earlier episode. There is a book seen
on a shelf that says something about "Laura Ashley" and "Home Decorating". Laura
Ashley lived from 1925-1985 and was a popular designer of
women's clothing and home furnishings. The style of Julie's
interior decoration here appears to be similar to the
old-fashioned style of Laura Ashley. Julie also has a large
painted portrait of a woman above her mantle; possibly this is a
portrait of Laura Ashley, but we don't get a close look at it. |
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| Portrait in
Julie's apartment |
Laura Ashley |
Garrison tells Diana she'll get the first delivery of cobalt
Willow Point the following day. He may be referring to the small
community of Willow Point in Northerin California, which may
suggest the approximate location of the fictional Rawlinsville
in the mountains nearby.
At 19:14 on the DVD, we see a mansion-like house that must be
the location of Julie's apartment.
Glenna says the resistance force will be able to take
Rawlinsville "like Grant took Richmond". This is a phrase that
was popular in the 20th century (though increasingly less used)
referring to the Union forces' taking of the Confederate capital of
Richmond, Virginia during the U.S. Civil War. General Ulysses S.
Grant was the General-in-Chief of the Union Army at the time,
though it was actually General Godfrey Weitzel who led the force
that took the city on April 3, 1865.
Michael Ironside (as Ham Tyler) seems to make a small dialog
gaff at 23:08 on the DVD, referring to Nathan Bates' company as
Science Frontier instead of Science Frontiers.
At 23:34 on the DVD, after Chaing has successfully picked the
lock of Julie's apartment door and let himself in, he doesn't
bother to close it all the way as he looks around for evidence
to use against her. This is an old Hollywood plot-trick to
tip-off the intruder's presence to one of the protagonists in
advance. But I refuse to believe that an intelligent
professional thug like Chaing would make such a stupid mistake!
Here, it allows Robin to see him without being seen herself and
she is able to inform Julie of what happened.
When Diana invites her assistant (and latest sexual target)
Daniel to dinner in her quarters, the glasses of water they
drink each have a live goldfish in them!
When Robin disguises herself as a cleaning lady at Science
Frontiers, I wonder if she was inspired by the disguises worn by
Ruby in the work she did for the resistance in the mini-series.
Also, note that Robin speaks of her deceased husband, Max...this
is a play on her own last name of Maxwell.
Chaing discovers a floppy disc copy of Bates' weapons shipment
information in Julie's apartment, but just before he can show it
to Bates, Robin manages to swap it out for a disc that is
merely a worksheet of Julie's tax return for 1982. We see some
of Julie's information on the screen at 29:30 on the DVD:
- 1982 would have been before the Visitors'
arrival and it shows that Julie was a
biochemist, earning $25,222. Presumably, she
would have been in medical school at that time
and must have had a biochemistry job while she
was attending.
- The numbers on her tax return don't quite
add up and the tax program seems to be in love
with the number 22 at the end of every figure!
It shows her gross income of $25,222 minus her
itemized deductions of $7,222 equals $18,222.
Nope, that would equal $18,000. And it shows her
refund due as $822. Nope, if figures of "tax
withheld" and "tax from Schedule D" are correct
(doubtful), her refund would be $800.
- The zip code listed on her address is
fictitious, it does not exist in the real world.
Looking up the street address on Google Maps,
there are two 518 W. 1st Streets in two zip
codes in Los Angeles; one appears to be a
business district, the other does have a house
at that approximate address.
It looks like Faye Grant delivered a real slap to Lane Smith
at 29:35 on the DVD, judging from the reaction on his face!
At 30:27 on the DVD, Garrison's thug has a black widow spider
patch on the back of his jean jacket.
At 30:31 on the DVD, Elizabeth leads the thug into the
Rawlinsville Inn where her Resistance friends are waiting for
her.
At 30:43 on the DVD, a poster-sign is seen leaning
upside-down against a wall in the
Rawlinsville Inn. The sign advertises a rodeo in
Huntsville, Texas.
Near the end of the episode, the Resistance and Garrison's
gang have a showdown at
Rawlinsville Cobalt Mining Co. (RCM).
During the confrontation at the cobalt mines, Elias appears
to be carrying a Kalashnikov rifle, Donovan his M1911A1, Glenna
an Uzi, one of Glenna's men an M16 (he is later a guard at the
jail, still carrying the M16). Kyle also carries an M16.
Diana tells Daniel to send a hyperlight cable to the Leader.
This must refer to the Visitors' faster-than-light
communications.
The RCM truck at 39:02 on the DVD is a
Chevrolet
C60, approximately 1980 model.
| There is Visitor writing on
a sign at 40:39 on the DVD.
Presumably the Visitor words
correspond to the English ones
above it. |
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