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V
"Visitors' Choice"
TV episode
Written by David Braff
Directed by Gilbert Shilton |
In an attempt to curb Resistance
strikes within the open city, Nathan Bates imposes a dusk-to-dawn curfew on all citizens and a death penalty for possession
of firearms; the Visitors introduce a new food processor.
Read the summary of this episode at
V: The Series Interactive Website
Didja Know?
I'm not sure why this episode is called
"Visitors' Choice" unless it's a play on words of the
coffee brand Taster's Choice, since the episode features the
Visitors' introducing a new method of processing humans for
food.
Didja Notice?
The Freedom Network report tells of battles against the Visitors
in Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, and at the Alamo
(which is destroyed in the battle). Touching on the new food
processing theme of this episode, the aliens have established
food processing centers in Dallas, El Paso, and San Antonio (possibly the Dallas food processing center is the one later seen in the novel
The Texas Run).
Newscaster Howard K. Smith refers to Texas as the former
Lone Star State. Why former? Within the waging of the war is it
no longer considered part of the U.S.?
The Freedom Network posthumously awards Miguel Ramirez for
blowing up the Alamo! (He did it rather than let it fall into
Visitor hands. As Seth Meyers would say, REALLY!?! Is it that
important to keep the Visitors away from it that a national
shrine should be destroyed instead?)
| There is Visitor writing on
the pages being read by Raoul at
2:52 on the DVD. The Visitors
sure do use large print! |
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| At 3:37 on the
DVD, the Resistance member's car
that blocks the roadway has CA
license plate 9HB676. This
license plate later show up on
one of Kyle's pick-up trucks in
"The
Dissident"! |
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| At 3:51 on the
DVD, the Visitor limousine has
CA license plate 252MWM. |
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| The car Donovan
drives at 4:14 on the DVD is a
Pontiac Trans Am. |
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| At 4:52 on the
DVD, a
Mobil gas station is seen in
the background. |
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| There is Visitor
writing on the folder and pages
in Willie's hands at 4:29 on the
DVD. He is reading the same file
folder that was taken from
Raoul's cold, dead hands by
Tyler. |
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The new machine for processing humans for food is called an
encapsulator.
The Visitors' food processing meeting takes place at Playa del
Mar. This town on the California coast is fictional.
Nathan Bates sarcastically jokes that he's St. Francis of
Assisi. St. Francis (1182-1226) was the founder of the Catholic
order of the Franciscans and is known as the patron saint of
animals and the environment.
At 8:37 on the DVD, Kyle is driving a different Chevy pickup
than previously seen, a black one with CA license plate 1FWI483.
A store called Sports Center is seen in the background in this
shot, with a phone number on the sign that appears to be in the
Hermosa Beach area.
At 8:59 on the DVD, Chaing and his henchman are in a Chevy sedan with CA license plate 4T8740. A Sears Savings Bank is seen in the background, a real world bank owned by
Sears Holdings at the time which seems to have gone out of business or was sold to another bank in the late '80s.
At about 9:46 on the DVD, McKinley's Shoe Repair, Shoes 4 Less, and a business called Hooper are seen
in the alley Kyle drives through to escape Chaing with Robin and
Elizabeth. In fact, Kyle drives past McKinley's twice!
At 9:49 on the DVD, Chaing's vehicle can be seen losing a hubcap from one of the driver's side tires. And then, about 25 seconds later, the car loses both driver's side hubcaps!
In this episode, in response to resistance attacks against the
Visitors in Los Angeles, Bates declares a 9:00 p.m. dusk-to-dawn curfew in
the city and that possession of firearms is now punishable by
death. Presumably these ordinances remain in place for the rest
of Los Angeles' (brief) existence as an open city.
After escaping from Mr. Chaing, Kyle takes Elizabeth and Robin
to hide out at the flat of his friend, Mongo. Mongo is not home,
but Kyle lets himself and his friends in anyway to spend the
night. Mongo must be an artist because his flat has several
large painted canvases leaning against one wall, a couple of
head sculptures, a small human body figure, etc.
Kyle reveals that his father has repossessed his house.
Presumably it was retaliation for Kyle walking out on him in the
previous episode ("The Sanction").
At 11:37 on the DVD, we see a previously unseen visitor weapon,
a large, mounted laser rifle.
The Boddickers' skate shop is called Pipeline Skate Shop.
Signs and stickers on the door and windows advertise
Kryptonics skateboard wheels, Ross Bicycles (no longer in business), BankAmericard (now
Visa), Master Charge (now
MasterCard), and
American Express.
Donovan and Julie are referred to by the codenames Romeo and Juliet in Skip Henry's dedication on his radio show. Barry remarks to them, "Let's hope you don't end up the same way they did." This is a reference to Shakespeare's play
Romeo and Juliet, in which the star-crossed lovers both wind up dead. Possibly, our two heroes were given these codenames by the Resistance because they are known to be lovers. Ironically, "Juliet" is Julie's actual first name anyway!
Skip Henry also mentions the Jolly Green Giant in another
dedication. The Jolly Green Giant is the corporate mascot of
Green
Giant vegetables.
Kyle is apparently a bit of a world traveler. He comments to
Elias that he has been to London, Paris, and Monte Carlo. Perhaps
the travel was for motorcycle races he participated in.
Donovan, Julie, Tyler, and the Boddickers arrive at the Visitor
compound in Playa del Mar in a Volkswagen van with CA license
plate 4T8740...this is the same license plate that was on Chaing's sedan earlier in the episode!
While spying on the Visitors' meeting house in Playa del Mar,
Julie spots a Visitor wearing gold chains around his neck (like
a gangsta!). She says he is General Maxwell Larson (the "Butcher
of Birmingham"). And she sees another Visitor, Mary Krueger (the
"Dark Angel of Dallas"). Why would a Visitor have a first and
last name? Most of them have just one human name. Did they pass
themselves off as humans at some point in the past? Or is it just an
affectation on their part?
The Visitor called Mary Krueger, the "Dark Angel of Dallas", is
played by Sybil Danning. She was a well-known queen of B-movies
at the time V was made.
A slight flub seems to occur at 20:59 on the DVD. As Mary
Krueger prepares her demonstration of the encapsulator, a man
under the influence of the Visitors' procorb drug willingly steps
into the processor frame and, as the camera follows Mary to
activate the device, we can just see on the left of frame that
the man steps out of the processor again before she pushed the
remote control button to activate it! I assume he was supposed
to step out after he was no longer in camera view, but why was
it necessary for him to step out at all until the entire shot
was complete? It's not like it was a real encapsulator with lasers to
instantly slice and dice humans! OR WAS IT??!
While describing her new processor, Mary Krueger comments that
the need for freeze-drying has been eliminated. Freeze-drying?
It's been stated before in the series that the Visitors eat only
live or freshly killed meat. Whether that is due entirely for
health reasons or just their preference is unknown. If just
preference, they may have come to the realization, due to the
shortages on their own planet, that they will have to change some
of their eating and food-keeping habits. This may explain some
similar comments about food preparation in the chronologically
earlier story of the novel The Alien
Swordmaster.
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We see some examples of Visitor
medals on many of the attendees
of the food processing
conference, though they are not
close-up views that allow for
much examination. The most
notable are the ones worn by
Mary Krueger and General Maxwell
Larson. |
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Notice that,
besides the medals, Mary is wearing a belt buckle with
some
kind of design on it and, also,
a ruffled black strip on the
right shoulder. |
General
Maxwell Larson |
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Mr. Chaing uses his "persuasive" techniques on a captured
resistance member named Fisher and succeeds in getting
information from him. Chaing also informs Bates that Fisher died
while they were discussing the matter and the morally ambiguous
Bates does not seem perturbed by this.
The Boddicker brothers in Playa del Mar comment that commodities
like coffee, milk, and sugar are luxuries around there.
Presumably this is true in all Visitor-held territories.
When Elias is explaining to Robin and Elizabeth that Kyle went
with Tyler for some business up the coast, Willie adds, "Yes.
They are playing del Mar." He is trying to say they went to
Playa del Mar, but why would he mess up the name when he already
knows it and spoke it correctly while reading the Visitor
documentation folder they took from Raoul? Maybe Willie really
is dumb, as Caleb Taylor commented in the novel
The Pursuit of Diana!
It's also possible that Willie just likes to intentionally flub
words to amuse his friends.
Julie carries her
Heckler & Koch P9S pistol during the raid on the Visitor
processing compound.
Is it just me, or does this Visitor guard look like he could use
a shave and a haircut? Do the Visitors have dermoplast that
duplicates a human male's 5 o'clock shadow?!
After the Boddicker brothers kill the Visitor guard, for some reason there appears
to be a twig sticking up from his chest along with the crossbow
bolt as the brothers drag his body into the brush from
34:00-34:03 on the DVD.
When Elizabeth uses her psychic powers to blow out the light
bulbs in the interrogation room to help Kyle escape at
38:52-38:57 on the DVD, it appears the same image of an
exploding light bulb is used 5 times with each proceeding image
just slightly zoomed in from the one before to make it look
different.
At one point Diana offers the guests some hors d'oeuvres in the
form of a tray of live insects! Wouldn't the insects tend to
just crawl away?
As the Visitors sit down for dinner, we see that Diana is
wearing glitter in her hair and multiple colors of mascara on
her eyelids. The Visitors seem to have quite a penchant for
mimicking the 80's human culture of the time!
From 41:06-41:24 on the DVD, Donovan enters a room in the
Visitor meeting house and immediately walks over to what appears
to be a bed and seems to pick up a pouch or bag to look inside
it. But then the door begins to open and, startled, he drops it.
It turns out to be just Tyler and Barry entering. But then
Donovan urges them
all to go looking for the absent Julie and they leave the room
without whatever that pouch was. What was the pouch all about?
At 41:54 on the DVD, the gun that Julie had set down on the
kitchen counter earlier is now in a slightly different location
even though no one has touched it.
At the end of the episode, the resistance makes off with yet
another Visitor skyfighter!
I've noticed throughout these episodes that the resistance
constantly uses Earth guns and bullets in their battles. They
must have a number of Visitor laser weapons stockpiled by now,
why not use them? They would be much more effective against
shock trooper armor and allow the humans to conserve bullets
which cost a lot of money and deplete their supplies. The real reason they
use regular guns is that the laser bolt special effect costs the
producers about $1000 a shot, but bullets shots are invisible
and free!
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