# V (1984)

> Reptilian aliens disguised as humans plot to harvest a half-human Starchild's DNA while a Resistance cell fights to stop them.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/65789

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 19
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: science fiction, drama
- Created by: Kenneth Johnson
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Jane Badler, Lane Smith, June Chadwick, Blair Tefkin, Jennifer Cooke, Michael Ironside, Robert Englund, Faye Grant
- TMDB rating: 7.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086822/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: paranoid, suspenseful, tense

## What critics say

Audiences rated the single season positively, valuing its alien invasion premise and resistance storyline.

## Synopsis

V (1984-1985) is an American science fiction television series created by Kenneth Johnson for NBC, a single-season run of 19 episodes. Jane Badler plays Diana, the charismatic leader of a visiting alien race whose human guise hides reptilian natures, and June Chadwick plays Lydia, a journalist whose life becomes entangled with the invaders. Lane Smith appears as Nathan Bates, a figure caught between the human world and the occupiers, while Michael Ironside and Marc Singer join the human side as members of the Resistance. The engine of the series is a covert struggle: the aliens need the DNA of a newly born half-human, half-spaceling Starchild to secure their survival on Earth, and the Resistance must stop them while hiding in plain sight among the people they deceive. Each episode moves through infiltration, surveillance, and clandestine operations across American cities. Set in a contemporary present that mirrors its 1980s broadcast, the show carries a paranoid, suspenseful tone and a steady drumbeat of betrayal. Fans of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the miniseries that inspired it, and Battlestar Galactica will find resonance in its alien disguises and quiet dread.

## Shows like V

- [Invasion (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/2796)
- [V: The Final Battle (1984)](https://ember.film/tv/65791)
- [The Andromeda Strain (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/18463)
- [Star-Crossed (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/45861)
- [The 4400 (2004)](https://ember.film/tv/1397)
- [The Whispers (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55358)
- [War of the Worlds (1988)](https://ember.film/tv/2137)
- [Otherworld (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/1518)
- [The Pretender (1996)](https://ember.film/tv/1604)
- [Defiance (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/46303)

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