Pilot (V)

Parallels have been drawn between the Visitors and US Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, though Peters and co-producer Jeffrey Bell refute that they were intentional.

In contrast, The New York Times's Mike Hale called the episode "slapdash and formulaic", while David Hinckley of the Daily News deemed it "an elaborately costumed popcorn flick".

Federal Bureau of Investigation counterterrorism agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) disapproves that her teenage son Tyler (Logan Huffman) is so enamoured by the aliens, being recruited for the V Peace Ambassador Program by the beautiful Visitor Lisa (Laura Vandervoort).

Erica and her partner Dale Maddox (Alan Tudyk) investigate a group of terrorists whose activity spiked during the Visitors' initial appearance.

He doubts his stance when a previously wheelchair-bound parishioner is able to walk again, but has his suspicions confirmed when a mortally wounded man arrives at the church, telling Jack he knows the real reason behind the Visitors' appearance on Earth, handing him a dossier on the aliens and details of a secret meeting.

He claims that the Visitors have been infiltrating Earth for years, and have installed agents in high positions of society with the ultimate intention of enslaving the human species.

Jack shows Georgie the dossier, which contains photographs of the visitors in disguise, one of whom Erica recognizes from the fake passports seized during the earlier raid.

[2] Executive producer Scott Peters later confirmed that the new series would incorporate memorable elements of the original, including "the huge ships [and] the red uniforms" seen in the pilot, as: "we are well aware of those moments and looking to put our own little spin on them to tip our hat to the old audience.

Peters, who wrote the pilot episode with his mentor Sam Egan,[4] felt that it was important to reveal the Visitors' secret quickly, as: "There is this huge awareness of the original.

We're trying to play on the paranoia of living in a world where we wake up every day and we don't know whether someone is who or what they seem to be.While similarities between the Visitors and the Obama and Bush administrations have been discussed in the media, Peters refuted that they were intentional.

"[7] Mitchell characterizes Erica as having "a little bit of a hero complex", but "her joy and her love and her true affection is with her son, and the fact that he is in imminent danger (makes it) fun to play.

Even just doing a scene in an office, at the end of the day your neck is cramped up — to maintain that intensity in the performance is an extreme amount of mental and physical work even while standing still.

[4] Peters characterized Jack's motivation in the pilot episode as attempting to reconcile the reality of arriving spaceships with his religious beliefs, finding his faith shaken.

[4] ABC executives intended to promote the episode's broadcast by hiring skywriters to create giant 'V's above twenty-six US landmarks from October 23, 2009, until the premiere on November 3, 2009.

Lisa de Moraes for The Washington Post criticized the idea, noting that ABC's parent company Disney had previously announced its intention to cut carbon emissions from fuels by half by 2012 as part of its commitment to environmental affairs.

[12] Aviation authorities estimated that ABC's marketing stunt would use around 400 gallons of fuel, containing 800 grams of lead, releasing three tons of CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

[12] Following de Moraes' complaint, the skywriting plans were subsequently cancelled,[13] with an ABC representative commenting that the network had decided to spend its money on alternate initiatives.

"[17] USA Today's Robert Bianco put V on his list of the top ten new shows of the TV season, stating that the remake is well-made and "quickly establishes its own identity.

"[20] Ken Tucker for Entertainment Weekly graded the episode 'B+' calling it "excellently acted" and noting that Mitchell is "fast becoming TV's go-to gal for strong, brainy women of action".

[21] Variety's Brian Lowry opined that the episode "busily races through too much business, but it dangles a tantalizing array of plots, and features a knockout performance (in more ways than one) by Morena Baccarin as the cool, beguiling alien leader."

He called Baccarin the "real breakout" star of the episode, deeming Anna "TV's coolest alien since the invention of the Vulcan nerve pinch.

"[24] Matt Roush for TV Guide compared the V pilot to science-fiction shows Lost and FlashForward, noting that V is "undeniably more simplistic [...] in its us-vs.-them setup", but commenting that he was "instantly seduced and hooked by its lavish production values, the immediately gripping storyline and a strong cast", concluding: V may not initially dig as deep as FlashForward, but there's a juicy urgency to all of the interpersonal and intergalactic melodrama, with plenty of action and surprising reveals.

"[26] In contrast, Mike Hale for The New York Times commented: "The ideas in V, about alien encounters and mass delusion and media manipulation, are enticing.

"[27] Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com commented that plot points such as the Visitors attempting to create worldwide instability by printing fake IDs were unbelievable, and that talk of launching a resistance movement was "tiresome and pointless".

"[28] David Hinckley for the Daily News called the episode "an elaborately costumed popcorn flick", opining that whilst the original series "probed the subtleties of human psychology in the face of ominous uncertainty that threatened to become mortal danger", the reimagining is "about as subtle as a Donald Trump boardroom firing.