'V' has it down to the letter

NBC's sci-fi miniseries "V" was landmark programming for its time.

Watch the 1983 original again, as I did recently, and it's tough to look past the cheesy old-school special effects, fly-away hairstyles and Chess King-inspired alien uniforms. But the story about Earth's contact with a seemingly benevolent alien race with a lot to hide transcended its sometimes awkward drawbacks to deliver a surprisingly prescient story.

And now ABC has done it again.

The impressive, initial installment of its "V" remake (which aired Tuesday, but is available on www. abc.com) reveals all the upgrades you'd expect: first-class special effects and references to Sept. 11 and the Iraq war, along with plot twists for a more sophisticated audience.

When the 50 alien ships descend from space to hover over the world's largest cities, it feels like a page stolen from "Independence Day," but that film just nicked it from the original "V." And the way the alien "visitors" worm their way into human culture looks like a bracing mix of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

Here are a few more ways the old and the new "V" stack up:

Cultural parallels

Old "V": As the alien visitors begin to dominate human governments, the old miniseries smacks viewers over the head with allusions to Nazism and Central American freedom fighting. The aliens arrive like a friendly paramilitary force, demonizing scientists, encouraging McCarthy-style conspiracy allegations and bearing an insignia that looks suspiciously like a swastika.

New "V": The new visitors are more like bloodless corporate executives than smiling shock troops, led by leggy supreme commander Anna, who finagles complimentary coverage by doling out exclusives like the universe's sharpest press agent. As the visitors gain trust by delivering medical miracles and advanced technology in a delicious irony -- they provide universal health care -- a small band of freedom fighters gathers in secret to expose their darker goals.

Visuals

Old "V": Blaster rays that look clipped from the old-school "Battlestar Galactica" episodes and makeup effects little better than a YouTube version of a zombie flick were considered state of the art in the early '80s.

New "V": ABC makes a fighter jet crash in the pilot episode, while realistically re-creating the arrival of spaceships shaped like giant manta rays across the globe. In a world where you can download the latest "Transformers" blockbuster to your home theater in minutes, an alien ship on TV had better look nicer than a Frisbee on a thin wire.

Stars

Old "V": The actors who packed the miniseries would go on to fill casts from a legion of B movies, including a geeky alien played by Robert Englund ("A Nightmare on Elm Street"), a street hustler-turned-freedom fighter portrayed by Michael Wright ("The Five Heartbeats") and the hero TV cameraman Marc Singer ("Beastmaster").

New "V": The actors come from a legion of A- and B-level TV projects, including the ambitious journalist played by Scott Wolf ("Party of Five"), a man in love with a dark secret portrayed by Morris Chestnut ("Boyz N the Hood"), a doubting priest played by Joel Gretsch ("The 4400") and single mom/kickbutt FBI agent Elizabeth Mitchell ("Lost").