Category: 1980s Miniseries

A widespread backlash against the Visitors has begun, and the Visitors have begun to strike back. Anticipating the need to coerce Donovan into remaining silent, or to lure him to his death, the aliens have kidnapped his young son Sean, and they’ve flattened an entire neighborhood to do it. The Visitors step up their efforts to integrate themselves into human society, and some of their methods have taken on a sinister tone, including the “Visitors’ Friends” youth group. Daniel Bernstein, a troubled teenager, joins up and turns in his own family when his grandfather – a Holocaust survivor – offers shelter to the Maxwells during the worldwide roundup of scientists. Julie Parrish, having narrowly escaped the Visitors herself, begins to assemble an organized resistance. Donovan and Tony’s attempt to rescue some of the humans being rounded up ends in disaster; Tony is killed and Donovan is captured. But once aboard the mothership, he discovers that he’s not on his own – the Visitors have a resistance within their own ranks, a fifth column quietly rising up against the conquest orders of the Visitors’ Supreme Leader, and more specifically against Diana and the pleasure she seems to take in executing those orders. The leader of the Visitors’ resistance, Martin, smuggles Donovan back to Earth, where a chance encounter brings Donovan into contact with Julie and the resistance. But just as there are traitors among the Visitors, the resistance has also been betrayed from within.

written by Kenneth Johnson
directed by Kenneth Johnson
music by Joe Harnell

Cast: Marc Singer (Mike Donovan), Faye Grant (Dr. Julie Parrish), Jane Badler (Diana), Michael Durrell (Robert Maxwell), Michael Wright (Elias Taylor), Blair Tefkin (Robin Maxwell), Neva Patterson (Eleanor Dupres), David Packer (Daniel Bernstein), Tommy Peterson (John Brooks), Peter Nelson (Brian), Bonnie Bartlett (Lynn Bernstein), Leonardo Cimino (Abraham Bernstein), Richard Herd (John), Evan Kim (Tony), Richard Lawson (Dr. Benjamin Taylor), George Morfogen (Stanley Bernstein), Andrew Prine (Steven), Hansford Rowe (Arthur Dupres), Jenny Sullivan (Kristine Walsh), Penelope Windust (Kathleen Maxwell), Michael Alldredge (Bill Graham), Camila Ashland (Ruby Engels), Frank Ashmore (Martin), Jason Bernard (Caleb Taylor), Michael Bond (role unknown), Rafael Campos (Sancho Gomez), Diane Civita (Harmony Moore), Viveka Davis (Polly Maxwell), Robert Englund (Willie), Ron Hajak (Denny), Mary-Alan Hokanson (Ruth Barnes), David Hooks (Dr. Metz), Joanna Kerns (Margie Donovan), Jenny Neumann (Barbara), William Russ (Brad), Michael Swan (Bob Briggs), Stephanie Faulkner (Assistant Director), Tom Fuccello (Burke), Wiley Harker (Secretary General of the U.N.), Dick Harwood (Director), Myron Healey (Arch Quinton), Bonnie Johns (role unknown), Eric Johnston (Sean Donovan), Curt Lowens (Dr. Maurice Jankowski), Marin May (Katie Maxwell), Mike Monahan (role unknown), Jennifer Perito (Resistance Member), Clete Roberts (Newscaster), Nathan Roberts (himself), Howard K. Smith (himself), Robert Vandenberg (Rebel Camp Leader), Momo Yashima (role unknown)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Visitor occupation of Earth continues, and so do the resistance’s struggles to stay unified. A hit-and-run raid on a Visitor food processing facility turns disastrous thanks to unforseen improvements in the aliens’ armor, and Donovan worries that without a victory, and soon, the resistance will lose what little quiet support it has from the general public. Robert Maxwell, in the meantime, has a dilemma of his own – his daughter Robin is pregnant, and despite his attempts to be supportive, she’s not breathing a word about who the father might be. A major press event at a hospital in Los Angeles provides what Donovan thinks might be the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the Visitors’ vulnerability to the public, but getting past the security at the event will be a challenge – especially when Donovan is still on his own mission to retrieve his son Sean from the Visitors’ food storage facility on the mothership. During one of Elias’ many secretive visits to the hospital to steal medical supplies, he captures a live Visitor prisoner – the seemingly harmless Willie and his human friend Harmony – and brings them back to the secret resistance headquarters. Julie takes the opportunity to run experiments on Willie to try to find a weakness in the Visitors, and only then does Robin Maxwell admit that her baby is a human-Visitor hybrid, and demands an abortion. But when Julie examines Robin, it quickly becomes apparent that aborting the fetus would kill the girl in the process. And on the night of the Visitor leader’s announcement at the hospital, the aliens are finally unmasked – on live worldwide TV – in the resistance’s boldest raid yet. But this victory comes at a high price as Julie is captured by Diana’s forces.

teleplay by Brian Taggert and Peggy Goldman
story by Lillian Weezer & Peggy Goldman & Faustus Buck & Diane Frolov and Harry & Renee Longstreet
directed by Richard T. Heffron
music by Barry de Vorzon & Joseph Conlan

Cast: Marc Singer (Mike Donovan), Faye Grant (Dr. Julie Parrish), Jane Badler (Diana), Michael Durrell (Robert Maxwell), Michael Wright (Elias Taylor), Blair Tefkin (Robin Maxwell), Neva Patterson (Eleanor Dupres), David Packer (Daniel Bernstein), Robert Englund (Willie), Richard Herd (John), Thomas Hill (Father Doyle), Michael Ironside (Ham Tyler), Peter Nelson (Brian), Andrew Prine (Steven), Sandy Simpson (Mark), Denise Galik (Maggie), Jason Bernard (Caleb Taylor), Rafael Campos (Sancho Gomez), Hansford Rowe (Arthur Dupres), Frank Ashmore (Martin), Diane Civita (Harmony Moore), Viveka Davis (Polly Maxwell), Marin May (Katie Maxwell), Jenny O’Hara (Jenny), Jenny Sullivan (Christine Walsh), Mark Taylor (Dr. Fred King), Camila Ashlend (Ruby Engels), Greta Blackburn (Lorraine), Eric Johnston (Sean Donovan), Dick Miller (Dan Pascal), Stack Pierce (Visitor Captain), Don Starr (Dr. Walker)

Notes: Pascal’s high-tech counterfeiting equipment is so high-tech that it makes the same sound effects as Spock’s science station on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. The music composed by Barry DeVorzon and Joseph Conlan for the second and third episodes of The Final Battle were replaced on one week’s notice by future Star Trek: The Next Generation maestro Dennis McCarthy. Though included in the credits of the first episode, Michael Ironside doesn’t appear until the opening scenes of the second episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The resistance gets an unexpected, and unwanted, offer of help from a pair of hard-nosed mercenaries named Ham Tyler and Chris Farber. Donovan and Tyler go way back – Donovan knows Tyler as a soldier of fortune who’ll fight any war he’s paid to. But Tyler brings a token of goodwill – a new kind of ammo that’s highly efffective against the Visitors’ new armor – and a warning that an alien offensive againt the resistance’s headquarters is mere moments away. Tyler and Farber cover the resistance fighters as they make their escape, destroying their old headquarters – and many of the alien attackers – in the process. The resistance finds a new headquarters, but Tyler insists that it should find new management too: a worldwide movement to drive the Visitors off of Earth has formed, and while Donovan’s cell is getting highly visible results, it’s not coordinating with the resistance movement worldwide, with potentially disastrous results. On the Visitors’ mothership, Diana tries to condition Julie, but she won’t break until Diana uses the most extreme measures available to her, which could kill Julie before they succeed in brainwashing her. But Diana has other obstacles to her power as well, in the form of another mothership which arrives under the command of Pamela, her superior.

Martin and the fifth column within the Visitors’ ranks stage an incident to convince Diana and Pamela that Julie and the other prisoners would be more secure on Earth, where Tyler helps to mount a daring raid to rescue her. Even after the raid – which costs Ruby’s life – Tyler is firmly convinced that Julie has been turned to the Visitors’ side. Donovan still believes in her enough to take Julie along on the next resistance raid, this time on a water pumping facility that could leave California a desert within a month. After the pumping station is destroyed, however, Diana plays her trump card – she offers to exchange Donovan’s son for Donovan himself. Aboard the mothership, Diana injects Donovan with a truth drug and forces him to reveal his fifth column contact. When Martin is exposed, he helps Donovan escape. And in the new resistance headquarters, Robin Maxwell is giving birth…and the baby isn’t quite human.

teleplay by Brian Taggert and Diane Frolov
story by Lillian Weezer & Faustus Buck & Diane Frolov & Peggy Goldman
directed by Richard T. Heffron
music by Dennis McCarthy
additional music by Barry de Vorzon & Joseph Conlan

Cast: Marc Singer (Mike Donovan), Faye Grant (Dr. Julie Parrish), Jane Badler (Diana), Michael Durrell (Robert Maxwell), Michael Wright (Elias Taylor), Blair Tefkin (Robin Maxwell), Neva Patterson (Eleanor Dupres), David Packer (Daniel Bernstein), Robert Englund (Willie), Richard Herd (John), Thomas Hill (Father Doyle), Michael Ironside (Ham Tyler), Peter Nelson (Brian), Andrew Prine (Steven), Sandy Simpson (Mark), Denise Galik (Maggie), Jason Bernard (Caleb Taylor), Rafael Campos (Sancho Gomez), Sarah Douglas (Pamela), Hansford Rowe (Arthur Dupres), Frank Ashmore (Martin), Diane Civita (Harmony Moore), Viveka Davis (Polly Maxwell), Mickey Jones (Chris Farber), Marin May (Katie Maxwell), Camila Ashlend (Ruby Engels), Greta Blackburn (Lorraine), Eric Johnston (Sean Donovan), Dick Miller (Dan Pascal), Stack Pierce (Visitor Captain), Don Starr (Dr. Walker)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Robin gives birth to two babies, one human with reptilian traits, and the other one completely reptilian. The reptilian infant dies, and during the autopsy Julie and Robert find bacteria that could be used as a nerve gas against the Visitors. Meanwhile, Robin’s other baby, named Elizabeth, grows at a startling rate, appearing to be a five year old human girl within days. Donovan, Tyler and Caleb mount another raid to find a Visitor to test the biological agent on, and by chance they manage to grab Brian, the father of Robin’s baby. Robin herself tests the gas on Brian, and it proves to be lethally effective – and harmless to humans. Alarmed by the fact that she has seen her own father killed before her eyes, Father Doyle abandons the resistance and takes Elizabeth to Diana, fearing that the child may be the next guinea pig. Martin warns Donovan that if the nerve gas is used, Diana may opt to activate the motherships’ self-destruct mechanism, which could easily obliterate the planet, but the attack plan moves forward anyway – though Donovan has to face the fact that his son has probably been converted by Diana, and uses Sean to feed false attack information to the Visitors. Tyler leads an attack on the Visitors’ ground headquarters, while Donovan and Julie lead an assault on Diana’s mothership, and the worldwide resistance disperses the toxin into Earth’s atmosphere. Even as the other motherships retreat into space, Diana insists on keeping her ship where it is to ensure Earth’s destruction with the doomsday device.

teleplay by Brian Taggert and Faustus Buck
story by Lillian Weezer & Faustus Buck & Diane Frolov & Peggy Goldman
directed by Richard T. Heffron
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Marc Singer (Mike Donovan), Faye Grant (Dr. Julie Parrish), Jane Badler (Diana), Michael Durrell (Robert Maxwell), Michael Wright (Elias Taylor), Blair Tefkin (Robin Maxwell), Neva Patterson (Eleanor Dupres), David Packer (Daniel Bernstein), Robert Englund (Willie), Richard Herd (John), Thomas Hill (Father Doyle), Michael Ironside (Ham Tyler), Peter Nelson (Brian), Andrew Prine (Steven), Sandy Simpson (Mark), Denise Galik (Maggie), Jason Bernard (Caleb Taylor), Rafael Campos (Sancho Gomez), Sarah Douglas (Pamela), Frank Ashmore (Martin), Jenny Beck (Elizabeth Maxwell), Diane Civita (Harmony Moore), Viveka Davis (Polly Maxwell), Mickey Jones (Chris Farber), Marin May (Katie Maxwell), Greta Blackburn (Lorraine), Brandy Gold (Elizabeth Maxwell, 5 years old), Eric Johnston (Sean Donovan), Stack Pierce (Visitor Captain), Clete Roberts (Alien), George Morfogen (Stanley Bernstein)

LogBook entry by Earl Green