I watched it so much I ruined the tape.

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When I was young this show was it. Aliens coming to take over our planet just like we always thought. Now they didn't do it via a all out attack, (although they could) no they had watched us for awhile and realized the best thing to due was to use politics. Then we would willingly turn our selves into slaves, and then when they got what they needed from us they would simply destroy the planet and leave. What a simple, easy, and almost traditional Earth plan.

Of course not everyone on the planet was willing to be led like sheep by there leaders. They don't believe the news reports, and they cause trouble for the aliens and the elected officials. Storming news conferences, trying to expose a so called conspiracy, so on and so forth.

It was an obvious re-working of the Nazi parties attempt to rid the world of what they thought were inferior people   (jews,blacks,most everyone else who wasn't blond haired and blue eyed Aryans). This is mentioned in the very beginning of the series and is never in question. And although the effects are extremely dated at this point in time, the entire series was a up to date for 1983. You need to remember that Return of the Jedi was just coming or just did come out. As I remember Battle Star Galatica was still on, and CGI was a distant dream.

Everyone was loving Sci-Fi and this mixed it with politics, humor, suspense and old memories of our own tragic past. The girls looked good in there body suit uni's and there were new weapons and vehicles for the all important merchandising tie ins. It was a movie so we all knew who would win out. And all the aliens came in Russian red. (I wonder why they picked red in the middle of a cold war? Hmmmm...)

I remember watching this over and over, my parents just got a new vcr and we discovered that if you watch a movie 100 or so times and use one of those speedy rewinders you can ruin a VHS tape in no time. I believe I was about 8 when it first aired and everyone I knew watched this thing live and on tape, plus we knew about every line. When my copies of this and "The Final Battle" got destroyed from abuse, my parents asked my Uncle to throw his copy away as opposed to giving it to me.

This is one of my all time favorite movies along with the follow-up and series. It inspired more sci-fi after it then people will admit to. And although like I said before it looks really dated now days, it was still one of the most popular mini-series of all time. It deserves more credit then people give it. For those who haven't seen it, watch it for the fun story. For those who have seen it, don't hold the effects against it. It is 20 years old now and even ROTJ looks severely dated at this point. Not to mention that The ships in ID4 look like they were digitally removed from this movie and layered into that movie.

score /10

[email protected] 25 August 2003

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0207703/