by James Van Hise.

During the desperate days of "V: The Final Battle," the people of 
Earth pulled together in their valiant fight against oppression. But 
in the triumphant days which followed, there arose those whose 
position allowed them to profit from the conflict. The most powerful 
and most notorious is Nathan Bates. His company manufactures the Red 
Dust which successfully drove off the aliens and which, in new doses, 
is still fatal to any who return. While the biological cycle of the 
microorganism has rendered the original deployment of the dust in Los 
Angeles largely inert, Bates still has doses in reserve. This has 
given him a position of power from which to bargain with both sides. 
Thus a successful manufacturer was able to negotiate the creation of 
Los Angeles as a demilitarized zone in the conflict.

Stepping into this role as the wealthy industrialist trying to deal 
with both sides for his own profit is actor Lane Smith. So complete 
was his character in the premiere episode of the regular series that 
some viewers didn't realize that he is an entirely new character. 
Lane Smith fit in so well with the existing performers that he seemed 
to have been there all along. But Nathan Bates stepped full blown 
into the series and Lane Smith was tapped for the choice role without 
even an audition.

Abrupt Selection
"I was on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'Glengarry, 
Glen Ross'. My contract had just run out and I'd been with the show 
about six months. I was planning to take an extended vacation for a 
month and then get back to Los Angeles the day following the 
Olympics," Lane recalled. "I was all packed and planning to leave at 
3:00 in the morning for my trip. My agent called about dinner time 
and told me that there was strong interest in my doing a series and 
that they might make an offer, but they say this all the time. I 
told him that it sounded terrific but I was planning to leave in a 
few hours and I wasn't going to wait and delay my trip, that I'd call 
him when I was on the road.

"I went out to dinner and returned about midnight. There was a young 
woman staying there who was going to take over the apartment from me 
and when I opened the door she let out this scream. I immediately 
whipped around because I thought somebody must be behind me with a 
knife or something. When I looked back in the apartment I saw that 
she'd made a sign that said: "Congratulations Series Star."

"My agent had called to tell me that they'd made a good offer and 
wanted me for the series. I spoke to my agent then and had him read 
to me over the phone from the two scripts he had. I liked what I 
heard and agreed to go with it. But there was one piece of bad 
news. It was Tuesday night and I had to start shooting on the series 
Thursday morning! I got out there on Wednesday and barely had 
overnight with the script."

Although Lane Smith had been working in New York, his home is in Los 
Angeles and has been for some six years. He had been a working actor 
based in New York for 18 years. He mainly did stage work then and 
his first movie role was in "The Last American Hero" in 1973. He'd 
done television work considerably earlier than that in the early 
Sixties soap opera "Love of Life." But he hadn't done science 
fiction before. Most recently his filmed roles have included a 
supporting part in the Emmy Award winning "Something About Amelia" as 
well as in the successful theatrical motion pictures "Red Dawn" 
(where he played the mayor) and "Places in the Heart." In fact, 
during the course of the interview, which was conducted in a Los 
Angeles restaurant not far from his home, someone came up to him who 
recognized him from "Places in the Heart" and congratulated him on 
his performance in that highly regarded motion picture.

A Villain with a Difference
While the network had imagined that Nathan Bates would be portrayed 
as your typical cold-hearted villain, Lane Smith had his own 
ideas. "I think they expected me to play it like Vincent Price 
twirling his moustache, but I have my own style of doing things." 
Instead Nathan Bates comes across as being both dangerous as well as 
enigmatic. Publicly he seems an upstanding citizen who has 
negotiated a working peace with the Visitors for Los Angeles. 
Privately he tries to get the resistance to back off while hoping to 
eventually strike a deal with Diana for the special scientific 
knowledge her people possess. But this collaboration doesn't mean 
that he is friendly with the character. Lane Smith revealed that 
Nathan Bates would have a running conflict with Diana over how each 
side has been living up to their agreement. Complicating this is 
that Diana was briefly the prisoner of Nathan Bates and she will not 
forget his threat to execute her with the red dust had she refused to 
comply with his demands.

But Diana is not Nathan Bates's only concern. During the peacetime 
year following the defeat of the Visitors, Ham Tyler (Michael 
Ironside) had set up a security firm, one which Bates hired for a 
very special job. This job was to release Diana and deliver her to 
Bates. Tyler agreed only so long as he could have her to kill in his 
own special way when Bates had gotten all he wanted. While Bates had 
agreed, it was doubtful whether he would have handled things any way 
but his own.

Working with Michael Ironside as Ham Tyler, the series has two strong 
characters who are at loggerheads, and neither will give an inch. 
The fact that Tyler feels as though he were tricked and has 
threatened (and already tried unsuccessfully) to kill Bates, makes 
him a more direct threat to Nathan Bates than the nagging activities 
of Mike Donovan and the underground.

On working with Michael Ironside, Lane Smith said, "Michael is a 
wonderful actor. In the first show we had several scenes together, 
but of course now we're mortal enemies and he wants to kill Bates. 
So I don't work with him now like I did in the opening show. That 
one had some terrific scenes with us."

Lane Smith revealed that despite the fact that Bates engineered the 
escape of Diana, there are no plans for this fact to be revealed to 
other characters in the course of the show. And since Ham Tyler is 
in just as deep, he isn't anxious for this news to get out either.

Complicating the character of Nathan Bates is the introduction in the 
third episode of his son, Kyle Bates, who does not support his 
father's negotiating with the Visitors. "Bates' son is a new running 
character and we'll be having frequent conflicts, but showing that 
Bates has a son will give some more balance to the character."

Making a Series, Eight Days a Week
Ever since the network picked up V a a continuing series, production 
has been going at a frenzied pace. Since filming began at summer's 
end, the principal actors have been working five days a week, with 
Thanksgiving planned as their only real holiday until Christmas. But 
since Nathan Bates is the hub around which events transpire, and he 
usually is not involved in the running action, Lane Smith is able to 
do most of his work in a couple days as opposed to the eight days per 
episode shooting schedule required for most of the other actors.

"What they do with me, since so much of my activity takes place in my 
office, is that I have a real intense two days where I do everthing. 
On the last couple of shows, though, it has been spread out and I've 
had to go in four or five times during the eight day schedule. But I 
like doing it when it's a real intense two days because we do 
everything in sequence and I like doing it that way."

Even though Lane Smith plays a new character who was just inroduced 
into the storyline in the first series episode, he felt as though he 
was being made right at home when he joined the regular cast.

"This cast is like a family. They really care about the show and how 
well it's done."

Along with other cast members, Lane put up a fuss over the level of 
secrecy that the producers were maintaining with the scripts as it 
was often only a day or so before filming began that he'd receive his 
scripts. "While this gave me enough time to learn my part, I wanted 
to be able to study it and bring more to it." So he began pressing 
to get his script sooner. He was told that if he did there'd be no 
doubt changes in it by the time shooting began. He said it didn't 
matter. At least he would have the basic script to study and any 
changes would not be difficult to manage. So Lane and others began 
to receive their scripts a week in advance of filming, instead of two 
days ahead.

L.A.'s the Place
As Nathan Bates, Lane Smith entered the show as a very unique 
character--a scientist whose contacts with the Visitors have enabled 
him to become the head of the provisional government which runs the 
open city of Los Angeles. This puts him in the unenviable position 
of having to keep the Visitors from exercising more than just a 
presence. He must simultaneously keep track of the activities of the 
Underground which does not recognize the neutrality of the city and 
the promised safety of the Visitors.

Although seemingly conceived as a menacing character, Nathan Bates 
has quickly become something more than that. He is a man who 
believes in the justice of his methods. Bates confronts his son in 
an early episode. He points out that while his deal with Diana may 
smack collaboration, other cities which have no such arrangement with 
the Visitors are fighting for their very existence. Clearly Bates's 
methods benefit more than just himself.

Bates is not a man who does a lot of soul-searching. When faced with 
a situation he deals with it rapidly and without remorse. When Diana 
escapes from him he accepts it as the fall of the cards and quickly 
makes a deal with his former captive. But lurking in the background 
is Ham Tyler, who isn't as easily bargained with.

While this is Lane Smith's first professional excursion into science 
fiction, he does enjoy the form and considers Ridley Scott's 
film "Alien," "the scariest movie I ever saw." Perhaps it is 
fitting, then, that now Lane Smith is facing them head on.