V - "Welcome to the War"

Spoiler Level: High

Really? Are we going to have a war on this show? Honest? You promise?

Sorry... still trying to unlearn.

Actually, this episode did seem like more of a turn toward the original show, which makes me happy.

The introduction of the mercenary Kyle Hobbes ads a Ham Tyler character to the mix, albeit a blander version. But since all the characters in this version are blander than the original (what others would call "more realistic and less cheesy"), it's appropriate.

And the Dream Chamber seems to be a more passive version of the classic Conversion Chamber-- instead of flat-out brainwashing you, it shows the Visitors your emotions so they know exactly which buttons to push to get you to do what they want.

And best of all, they're starting to play on the Visitors' alien nature more-- Ryan showing his alien eye, an allusion to the Visitors eating mice (FINALLY!), Anna's big sharp pointy lizard teeth... okay, wait a minute, what was up with that? Come to mention it, what was up with that whole mating scene? You're telling me Anna is going to give birth to an army? Well, thank God we did away with the cheesy concept of them simply bringing an army and setting themselves up as our fascist protectors.

But again, in the show's defense, they did have the Visitors stepping in and using the attack on the warehouse as an excuse to further their own agenda and remove someone who they would consider a threat to them, so that was good too.

And Valerie is becoming the Robin Maxwell of the series-- pregnant with an alien child and starting to get cravings for mice!

I'm trying real hard to enjoy this show on its own merits, but I think I'd be doing a better job of it if they called it something else and I just felt it had homages to V and the alien invasion genre in general. I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop comparing it to the original.