The Dominator reviews

Distributed by
Warner Home Video

Cert: 15

Running time: 194, 87, 89, 82 minutes

Year: 1983

Cat.no: SO01489, SO11489, SO11490, SO11491

Released: 24th March 1997

Sound: Mono

Presented in fullscreen

Price: £9.99 each

Extras : None

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Directors include :

Kenneth Johnson, Richard T. Heffron, Stuart Heisler

Cast:

Mike Donavan : Marc Singer (Roots, Beastmaster)
Robert Maxwell : Michael Durrell (Defending Your Life)
Juliet Parrish : Faye Grant (Omen IV : The Awakening)
Jane : Jane Badler
Robin : Blair Tefkin
Willie : Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street)
Ham Tyler : Michael Ironside (Total Recall, Highlander 2)
Abraham Bernstien : Leonardo Cimino
Plus Peter Nelson, David Packer, Neva Patterson, Michael Wright, Richard Herd.

For anyone who grew up in the 80's, "V" wasn't just a science fiction series, it was an institution. Forget Independence Day, Mars is attacking in a new kind of style...

At the start of V - The Movie, aliens land on earth in 50 gigantic motherships, appearing in human form, initially being given the title "Visitors", and claiming to have come in peace as they need our help. They are in search of valuable minerals, and re-tool our processing plants to help both them and us.

They quickly became integrated into the lives of everyone on Earth, and a Visitors Youth Organisation was formed, encouraging teenagers to sign up and join their ranks, and developing many close relationships between them and us. Some humans became friends with the Vistors, unaware of what was about to happen, but a few sceptics were to be found, but all of these were to mysteriously disappear, and many people began to turn their backs on the scientific community. Some of these scientists were given refuge by Abraham Bernstien, himself a survivor of the German POW camps.

It was only after news cameraman Mike Donovan infiltrated one of their motherships after becoming suspicious, discovering not only that it was the Visitors idea to create the conspiracy, so scientists become ostracised, but also that our new found friends, were in fact green lizards under the skin intent on using humans for food, slaves and soldiers.

When Donovan tried to play a tape across the national TV network, suddenly the whole network went dead. Shortly after, a resistance unit was formed, headed by Mike Donovan and Juliet Parish, to kick alien butt once and for all...

In The Final Battle Part 1, the alien visitors try to convince the public that the resistance group is preventing harmony between the two planets, that is until Donovan manages to convince the world that the aliens really are man-eating lizards...

After having suffered the nightmares of the visitors killing his son Sean, The Final Battle Part 2 sees Donovan allowing himself to be taken capture in return for his son's release. On board the alien space ship he is tortured. Meanwhile, one of the girls on earth, Robin, has been made pregnant by one of the visitors (played by Peter Nelson), and at the end of this part, she is due to give birth. Worse still, after the first, almost normal, baby has been born, the second one breaks the rules of childbirth by delivering itself...

By the time that The Final Battle Part 3 comes along, the first baby has grown alarmingly fast into a young girl, who becomes the key in signalling the end of the visitors reign over the planet. The Resistance have developed a deadly virus made out of red powder in an attempt to kill off the alies, but they also learn that the invaders have a deadly device...a nuclear bomb!

What else can be said of "V" ? For those who have grown up with it in the early 80's, they'll need no convincing, but for those who haven't come across it before, I urge you to put away your videos of "Independence Day" and put this set on your video shelf.

You'll need to make a fair bit of space though. In case you think this is it for the visitors, the follow-up 1985 19-part television series will be out on video soon too, with the first two tapes being released mid-April. Watch these pages for further reviews.

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.