V--The Conclusion, Part III

Teleplay by Craig Buck 
Story by Kenneth Johnson and Craig Buck, Peggy Goldman, and Diane Frolov
Second Draft--October 7, 1983

Unaired

Part three would have begun on the western set, with Katie attempting to communicate with Elizabeth, who now appears to be a three-year-old.  Handing a doll to the hybrid child, Katie is struck in the face by a stream of venom.

Various people run in upon hearing her screams.  Willie picks Elizabeth up.  She attempts to spit venom at him, but it has no effect.  At the same time, they find Katie's unconscious body under the bed.  Performing CPR, they bring her back to consciousness.

Robert wants to kill the Star Child, but Willie reminds him that she is his granddaughter.

On the mothership, in a conference chamber, John, Steven, and Pamela discuss Diana's lack of progress, with the latter believing that Diana's biggest problem is that she is a science officer and not a military expert.

At this point Diana enters the room, infuriated that she had not been informed of this meeting.  Pamela glares at John who, in turn, says, "This is a private meeting, Diana.  Your presence is unnecessary."

Flushing with anger, she leaves the room.

Julie explains that the bacteria found in the lizard child is harmless, but the waste product it excretes is what killed it.

Willie offers himself as a test subject, but Harmy fights his decision.

A station wagon pulls in to the lot, and Stanley gets out.  Caleb is incredulous that there are no groceries in the vehicle, but, undaunted, Stanley lifts the floor in the back to reveal a very cramped Donovan and Martin, both looking as filthy and fatigued as they had before.

"It took us two weeks of waiting before we had a chance to hop on an empty tanker," says Donovan.

Julie is delighted to see him, while someone goes to get clean clothes, Julie tells him that Sean has gone through the conversion chamber, a point Mike finds hard to believe as his son runs in and hugs him lovingly.

(These opening sequences are substantially different from what was finally aired.  In The Final Battle, Donovan and Martin escaped the mothership via parachute after only a few hours of hiding out.  This version, as stated earlier, was far more effective in conveying the desperateness of their situation.

Another item which worked more effectively here than as aired, is Mike's reaction to Julie's announcement that Sean has been converted.  Gone was the nonsense of Donovan saying, "Don't make me choose between my son and you.  You'll lose--every time!")

Later that day in the Bernstein home, Stanley and Lynn act very subservient to Daniel, who is entertaining Brian.

Drawing Brian into the kitchen, Lynn informs him that Daniel's birthday is next week and she would like to work out a surprise party for him.  He says that he'll come by later that day to help make arrangments while Daniel's at a Youth Commander meeting.

While Julie and Donovan discuss their hopes to reverse the conversion process on Sean, Robert comes in saying that they've found a guinea pig for the toxin, thus letting Willie off the hook.

Brian is thrusted into the room, and is understandably frightened.  His tone takes on a loving edge as Robin walks in, announcing that the three-year-old with her is actually his daughter.  With that she throws pale red powder into Brian's face.  

"My God," Julie shouts, "that's the toxin."

Brian starts gasping, while Robert pushes Willie away from the dust and into safety.  Seconds later, Brian dies, his motion of tearing for air having ripped away his human mask.

Robin glares coldly at Elizabeth, who cowers behind Father Andrew.

(This last bit is a nice touch, as it actually shows us why Father Andrew takes Elizabeth away, rather than just referring to it.  Had we seen the hatred on Robin's face, we would have better understood his rationale.)

Jake informs Diana that a member of the Resistance, an emissary of peace, has turned himself in, and brought along evidence of his good intentions.

Father Andrew enters the room, holding hands with Elizabeth.  He explains that he has brought her there so as to prove the universal unity of God's children.

"I think," he says hopefully, "she can help create peace between our two peoples...Surely this child demonstrates that this harvest (of human beings) is tantamount to cannibalism."

Diana, intrigued by his words, says that she will consider what he's said, and in the meantime she offers him her hospitality.  Father Andrew goes off with Jake, leaving Elizabeth alone with Diana.

On earth, the Resistance debates over what human they can test the toxin on, but Julie ends the discussion by inhaling a dose of the material.  She's fine, and they begin using yogurt as a medium to grow the bacteria in.

In a log she's been keeping, Julie explains how the toxin is being produced, and how it is getting out to other Resistance groups.  This, again, would have been an improvement, giving a logical explanation for how the red dust is being produced in such massive quantities.

On the street, Elias uses the rising drug dependency among Visitors to get uniforms.

"How about some toot?"  Elias asks.

The Visitor leans over and snorts some of the red "drug."

(If only the network would showcase a scene like this.  Sure they're willing to do MIAMI VICE episodes dealing with drug smugglers and the like, but how about something like this?  What better example for children is needed than discussing the pitfalls of drug abuse?  A scene like this would show the chaos drugs are bringing to the Visitors, and allegorically, what it could be doing to kids.  Also, you can bet snorting that red stuff is one high that the particular Visitor will  not be coming down from.)

On earth, we see the toxin being loaded in such diverse locations as Russia, China and Mexico.

In their travels, Ham suggests that they use Sean's conversion to feed the Visitors false information.  Donovan refuses, believing that the kid has been through enough already.

"We're fighting for the future of the planet," replies Ham.  "Isn't it about time you put that on your priority list?"

Diana is surprised that Father Andrew would be willing to leave earth in order to preach God's word to her people.

"Since the days of John the Baptist," he says sincerely, "men of the cloth have traveled far from home to spread the gospel.  I'd consider it a unique privilege."

She is confident that he would have as strong an effect on her people as he has had on her.  In a rare and personally revealing moment, Diana admits that his words and THE BIBLE itself have given her the opportunity to explore her innermost self, and that it has given her new strength of purpose.

Diana realizes for the first time that she has vulnerabilities she never allowed herself to experience before.  "And I won't allow them to exist any longer," she sneers as she blasts the priest with her laser.

Elizabeth stands silently on the threshold of the room.

At Resistance headquarters, Donovan and Ham put their plan into action, making certain that Sean overhears them.

Going to his grandmother's house, Sean tells Eleanor and Steven that the Resistance plans on hitting all the airbases to steal jets to distribute some kind of bacteria.

Diana tries to convince Pamela that Sean, having been converted by her, is a reliable source of information that should not be treated lightly.  Pamela brushes her off, which her adversary doesn't take kindly to, which she proves by once again pulling her laser and killing the other woman.

(What follows in the script are several characters' scenes which would be tedious to recount here, but suffice to say that each are effective in what they're attempting to do.)

John is concerned that so many troops are being deployed to earth, and asks Diana why Pamela has ordered it.  Diana informs him that the woman has been killed by a Fifth Columnist she carelessly used as a personal guard.

She goes on to explain that she is merely carrying out Pamela's plans, and that the fighters are being utilized to ward off the expected dawn attack on the airforce bases.  Diana assures him that they'll stop the rebels long before their toxin can be used.

Dawn comes, and nothing happens.  Rebels in a fighter touch down in the mothership landing bay.  They move on to ventilation shafts, to spread the red dust in the atmosphere and in the ship itself.

Elsewhere, hundreds of balloons are released into the atmosphere.

On the bridge of the mothership, Diana detects that a foreign substance is in the ventilation system, and realizes that the Resistance must have gotten on board to unleash the toxin.  John starts to panic, but she assures him they'll be fine as she's sealing off the contaminents in the sixteenth sector.

Contacting a Visitor commander on earth, Diana orders him to return with as many troops as can be gathered in a three minute time period.  Meanwhile, she's informed of the balloons rising all over the planet, and she turns on a video monitor to see for herself.  Out of curiosity she destroys one of them with a laser cannon, and grows furious as she sees the red cloud it unleashes.  The raids on the airforce bases, she tells John, were merely a decoy.  John laughs, feeling that even millions of balloons could hardly cause them much harm.

"This is a biological weapon," she retorts.  "It's alive.  They only need to spread a small amount into the planet's water and food chain because it will multiply.  Very quickly, everything on earth will be poison to us."

On earth, air battles ensue between Visitors and rebels in stolen fighters.  Eventually it is the Resistance who prove triumphant.

Groundside, while Martin is helping the Resistance in a savage battle, Harmy takes a laser blast meant for Willie.  She dies in her lover's arms.

The battle continues on board the mothership, as Donovan and Julie make their way to the bridge, lasers blasting.  Both John and Diana raise their hands as though in submission.

Donovan explains that in a matter of two minutes the toxin will spread through the ventilation system of this ship, killing every Visitor it comes into contact with and proving how futile it would be for the Visitors to stay on earth.

Diana looks intently at Julie and says, "I'm here, Julie.  I'm here to help you."

Julie shudders at this, and begins to relive the horrors she experienced in the conversion chamber, including the belief that Donovan is a threat to her very life.

Diana, sounding to Julie like her mother, says that Donovan is going to kill her, and she's got to stop him.  Desperately, Mike tries to convince Julie that it is not her mother speaking.

Julie struggles to make the right decision, with the arguments of both Donovan and Diana/mother echoing in her mind.  Finally, with a herculean effort, she pulls the trigger and the beam finds its mark on Diana's arm.  She and John disappear into a hatch, and make their way to the master machine room. 

Diana feels that the only option left is to destroy the ship and unleash an atomic cloud upon the planet.  John disagrees, feeling that it's pointless to destroy the earth for her own personal gratification.

"We can't allow the Alliance to get their hands on this bacteria, can we?" Diana asks.  "It's already in earth's trade winds, there's no other way."

To this John reluctantly agrees, and the code is set for fifteen minutes.

(Once again this works better than the aired version.  It's more realistic than having Diana continue her madness and kill John with all her other victims.  Also, the continual mention of the Alliance still brings with it the hope that some day we would have seen this third race.)

In Diana's lab, as the toxin begins to enter through the vents, she and John go to a cabinet of oxygen masks.  Diana removes two and runs into her inner sanctum.  John grabs a third one for himself, and follows.

Diana has entered her cabin to see Elizabeth calmly watching a Visitor guard dying from exposure to the toxin.  The child remains unaffected.

On the bridge, Martin tells Donovan and Julie that the ship is set for self-destruction, and there's nothing they can do about it.  They have to fly the ship out of earth's atmosphere.

Donovan tells Sancho to get all their people off the ship, and that he, Julie, and Martin will get off when they can.

They switch to manual control, and the ship lurches into the upper atmosphere.  Julie panics about the people contained in cocoons, but Martin replies that they'll be lucky if they can save the billions down on earth.

Elsewhere John and Diana, who grasps Elizabeth by the hand, make their way into another landing bay and approach a fighter.

"I'll take over from here," says Diana as she tears the oxygen mask off of John's face.  He instantly begins choking, and falls lifelessly to the ground.

Visitors flee from earth, and many others are chased by angry mobs of humans.  A radio report states that the Visitors all seem to be leaving the planet.

Daniel Bernstein looks up in terror as the mothership begins to ascend.  He turns around to face the crowd of people who have begun to surround him, staring with murder in their eyes.  Daniel looks to his mother for support, but she just turns away.

The crowd converges on him.

(Now how's this for implied terror.  As David says elsewhere in this issue, this is a far more interesting end to the character, leaving much to the imagination.)

The mothership reaches escape velocity.  Martin tells Donovan and Julie to take off, but they won't without him.  Unfortunately the ship is on manual, and if the Visitor leaves the controls it will be pulled back into earth's atmosphere.

With no other choice they hug him goodbye, and leave, making their way around the Visitor bodies which lie on the floor.  They get to the landing bay and board a shuttle.  The craft takes off.

Martin sits apprehensively att he controls, and the ship, now safely in space, explodes.  (Incidentally, this idea was eventually used in the second episode of the weekly series when Robert Maxwell sacrifices himself to save Los Angeles from the Particle Triax.)

While celebrations erupt on earth, Donovan and Julie, in space, see the departing motherships and realize that half a billion humans are being taken with them.

Expressing his love for Julie, and without another word, they kick the craft into gear and attempt to catch up with other fighters entering a mothership.  The landing bay doors have begun to close, and their shuttle makes it in an the last possible second.

We see the mothership in its full glory with a receding earth reflected in a viewing port.  Elizabeth stares out, her skin dry indicating that she is about to go through another transformation.  She gazes into the depths of space, with the stars reflected in her eyes.

(This would have made one hell of an ending for the second miniseries, and would have set the pace for a continuing saga.  As Ken Johnson noted in volume four of this magazine, "We're left wondering what will happen to Donovan and Julie as they try to stop Diana, and yet we're given the promise of Lia being the link between the two races, which is the final image we saw."

We can only guess as to what might have been if V had gone off in this direction.  Somehow one gets the impression that it would have been a much more encompassing view of the human spirit attempting to overcome incredible odds.)

THE END