V: The Second Generation
In February 2008, Kenneth Johnson released V: The Second Generation, a book that was written in his own vision as a sequel to the Original Miniseries. He ostensibly ignores everything that happened after Elias and Julie sent a message to the stars at the end of The Original Miniseries. Gone is Ham Tyler. Gone are the histories of Mike and Julie and Diana. In their place, Johnson has rewritten twenty years of V history. Twenty years of Visitor occupation have taken place. The world has changed. And the winds of change are once again beginning to swirl.
This then is Kenneth Johnson’s vision, his definitive rebuttal to The Final Battle and the Weekly Series. This is his version of his story. Did he fare better than the project he disliked so much that he walked out on?
No, he did not.
A review of The Second Generation must, necessarily, include comparisons to its shadowy twin, The Final Battle. There are a great many differences on the surface, but they both share the same purpose: to further the struggle between The Resistance and the Visitors.
To that end, Johnson has made some bold additions to his universe. He’s kept around a few of the old guard Resistance Fighters from the 1980s. He’s added new faces and personalities to the cause. But did he manage to return to what made his Original vision such a classic work of art? Did he give us a true experience in character?
Unfortunately, much like The Final Battle, The Second Generation is it a plot and twist driven narrative that, only occasionally, stops to pay a passing tribute to such novel and alien concepts as humanity and characterization. The truth is, The Second Generation is a much closer relative to The Final Battle than to The Original Miniseries – in tone, character and even plot.
As I reflect on Johnson’s novel (which he, and many fans, hope will be turned into a TV series), there is plenty for V fans to enjoy. But if they expected something new, or a return to form for the V Saga, they will be disappointed. As for readers new to the Saga, I would strongly suggest avoiding this book as an introduction. It’d be better to start with The Original Miniseries, watch The Final Battle and if you’re still interested, then read this book.
As for the review, let’s begin with Johnson’s decision to ignore everything after The Original Miniseries, including The Final Battle and the Weekly Series. This decision has been met with a wide range of responses – from acceptance to skepticism to downright consternation – from V fans. Was it a good idea or not? Quite frankly, anyone objecting to or questioning this premise needs to get a grip and understand that The Second Generation is meant to be Kenneth Johnson’s story, from start to finish.
Johnson never intended it to fit into the existing canon. In fact, he intends to completely rewrite the canon (remember, he objected to The Final Battle so much that he dropped out of its production). As such, he has absolutely no obligation to use story elements of which he did not approve. For V fans, which canon you prefer is entirely up to you. But to question the decision? Just be thankful that you now have the luxury of the choice: The Second Generation or The Final Battle.
Not that one choice is necessarily better than the other, at least in terms of the direction of the story. Johnson at least includes the additional layers of the Halfbreeds and the Zedti. But the two stories are essentially the same. And, in terms of craft and execution of the story, the clear advantage goes to The Final Battle.
One problem is that instead of crafting new story elements, Johnson appears to have constructed something of an amalgamation of The Original Miniseries and The Final Battle. In the Second Generation, we’re introduced to characters that seem to be little more than updated versions of their original incarnations.
There’s Nathan, the new Mike Donovan; Street-C, the new Elias; Margarita, the new Julie,Blue the new Caleb; Shawn (a Visitor Commandant who is the combination of Pamela and John); and that’s not the end of it. Returning are: Harmony and Willie (with the addition of their son, Ted); Julie (who has an adoptive daughter, named Ruby — a nice nod back to Ruby Engels); Robert Maxwell; Martin (the Fifth Column visitor whose loyalties remain hidden); Mike Donovan (whose return was utterly pointless and was the worst kept secret, in any novel I’ve ever read); and Diana (who is completely unchanged over twenty years).
The result of the duplicate characters is to give the whole story a sense of “we have seen all of this before.” It’s unfortunate because, with twenty years, Johnson could have thought of new character archetypes. Worse still, for a story that once focused so heavily on character, the reuse of character archetypes belies a fundamental laziness and disregard for character development. It says something that the best developed character, a wonderfully generous girl named Charlotte, is sacrificed merely to serve as a plot device.
The story begins with the Earth in really bad shape. Twenty years of Visitor rule have taken their toll on the population and the environment. Johnson goes into great detail — too much detail, really — about how different the Earth is without water. There is a great desert now to the west of San Francisco. And around the world. But Johnson seems to think that describing them ad nauseum will somehow make the situation all the more horrific. He seems to have forgotten that the reader can be trusted to infer that if San Francisco Bay is now a desert, similar consequences are being seen planet wide.
From here, Johnson tries to mimic his Original Miniseries formula of splintering the story into nearly a dozen different parts. But unlike the Original Miniseries, the effect is not to create a focus on character, but rather to delve into plot twists and minimal action sequences. Worse still, the fractured plot dilutes the entire story, along with the already shallow characters.
And really, much of it is disposable. Does it really matter who Emma sleeps with to “pump for information” (Johnson’s term for the act, not mine)? And what about the pathetic attempt at misdirection when the Zedti make their appearance in the woods somewhere by having them murder a couple of humans?
And don’t get me started on the flying motorbikes from the Zedti. The idea was horrendously cheesy in BSG 1980. What makes anyone think it’s a good idea nearly thirty years later?
As for the overall plot, it borrows heavily from The Final Battle. In The Second Generation, we learn that the Resistance is unable to militarily fight back against the Visitors. So they are waging a war of information, fighting the Visitor propaganda. Their solution is to use a major announcement at Candlestick Park as an opportunity to expose the Visitor agenda – which is *the exact same plot* of the opening act of The Final Battle.
That Kenneth Johnson could not come up with anything other than taking The Final Battle sequence and simply expanding it to include a stadium, rather than an auditorium, speaks volumes about The Second Generation. Don’t forget the use of biological weapons, too. Except this time, they are to be used against the Zedti, rather than the Visitors.
The “final battle” of The Second Generation is an exercise is mindless, disjointed, and contrived action. It honestly isn’t worth delving into too far into specifics. The Zedti have decided that the Visitors must be destroyed, no matter the cost. Even if the cost is the fate of Earth itself. The Resistance must fight against time, then, to overthrow the entire Visitor occupation – within the matter of hours.
The specifics of the strategy (which include using the cryogenically frozen prisoners on board the mother ships) are all highly implausible. Indeed, the rebellion on the streets is only precipitated by the luckiest of happenstances – Diana’s opportunistic attempts at seducing Emma. Furthermore, if this was really the solution, why did it take twenty years to figure it out?
At any rate, the final sequences are frantic and clumsy and really hold no suspense or drama whatsoever. Depending on the section, Johnson either compresses entire sequences or drags them out unnecessarily.
And that doesn’t even begin to delve into the sloppy publishing, including typos, as well as major grammatical and usage errors. (I’m no saint, but I’m not doing this professionally, either.)
Hardcore V fans will find much to enjoy about The Second Generation – even if it is only the opportunity to return to universe that holds so much nostalgia. Otherwise, it’s a substandard book. If it wasn’t for the giant V logo on the cover, it wouldn’t generate any interest – let alone inspire a television show.
In fact, Kenneth Johnson has taken distinct elements from The Original Miniseries and The Final Battle, thrown in handful of rather superficial new concepts, and come up with V: The Not-So-Original Final Battle That Really Is Final, Really.
Be that as it may, with the success of Battlestar Galactica, and considering that NBC actually made the crapfest known as Knight Rider 2008, I would not all be surprised if The Second Generation made it to the television screen. And I would watch it – if only to see if the show’s producers managed to temper Kenneth Johnson’s vision into something resembling a coherent narrative.
Maybe that’s what pissed him off so much about The Final Battle to begin with.
Topics: Book Review, Literature
Filed under: V The Series
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