Video: PUMAs, Birthers, Tea Parties Get Their Own Sci Fi Series - V!

Science fiction has a long tradition of embedding political messages into far-out scenarios. Most recently, The Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica remake held a mirror up to many of the Bush era's dilemmas.

Now, it looks like ABC is putting out a remake that flips the script. See if you can catch the oh-so-subtle parallels in this trailer for V:



Let me start off by saying that I will totally be watching this. Wild cylons couldn't keep me away. Phasers are set on "Teh Awesome!" You get the picture.

The original V had cool effects (for the time), a mean streak of black humor, and a heavy hand for allegory. This new incarnation figures to improve on the effects, at least.
The recent Star Trek remake (also known as the "best movie EVAH!") featured rewrites of more than just the Trek timeline. The original Spock was a model for abstinence, getting frisky only once every seven years, and even then being forced to kill his wingman while the girl wentt home with someone else.

Spock 2.0, on the other hand, (SPOILER ALERT) takes "Live long and prosper" to a whole new level with Lt. Uhura. Kirk, meanwhile, gets down with the requisite green chick, so I guess some things never change.

It is also hard to imagine the Roddenberry-helmed Trek crew gleefully unloading on a helpless enemy, reflecting a post-9/11 lack of concern with the villain's sob story.

Here are some other examples of poli-sci-fi that have explored themes current to their times, some with more success than others.

Star Trek When I say "Star Trek", I , of course, mean the Original Series and that cast's movies, not the subsequent ruinations of all that is good in the universe. Gene Roddenberry spoke endlessly about sneaking political themes past the censors in sci-fi drag. Watching them now, it's hard to believe this stuff was edgy. Most famous was "A Private Little War", a very thinly veiled examination of the Vietnam conflict.

Star Trek 4 explicitly touched on environmental themes, as the crew goes back in time to save the whales, so they can save Earth from a whale-talkin' weather machine. That's a pretty thin real-world rationale, if you ask me.

Also notable was "Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country". I remember a movie critic at the time delivering this clueless assessment: "The cast of Star Trek enacts a tired Glasnost parable." Excuse me? Floating "Pepto Bismol" Klingon blood? Kirk making out with Iman? Christopher Plummer chewing up everything in his path?

Starship Troopers: Paul Verhoeven's interstellar war epic is also rife with prescient insights on the adaptation of propaganda to the internet age, plus it's really gross.

Robocop: Verhoeven again, exploring Michael Moore's hypothetical idea of a privatized police force and other fruits of capitalism run amok. Plus, it's really gross.

Soylent Green: "A Modest Proposal" meets "An Inconvenient Truth" in Charlton Heston's greatest contribution to Liberal Cinema. With Edward G. Robinson's final role, this 1973 masterpiece says all that needs to be said about wrecking our planet, no matter the crisis du jour. Favorite line:

Heston: (smoking deeply on a cigarette) If I had the money, I'd smoke two, three of these every day."

Planet of the Apes: Charlton Heston marches for the leeeberals again, as Hollywood turns Darwinism on it's head. Aside from the iconic final scene, I love Dr. Zaius lecturing Heston's astronaut Taylor on the violence of mankind. I always imagined him meeting up with Clyde from "Every Which Way But Loose."

War of the Worlds: The 1953 version. I love the scene where the priest and 2 other peaceniks approach the Martian craft with that white flag and get mercilessly incinerated. Kinda makes you want to paraphrase Cromwell: "Put your trust in God, but stay the frak away from glowing Martian spacecraft."

The Alien Quintilogy: Ridley Scott directed "Alien", a suspenseful pro-choice parable, followed by James Cameron's "Aliens", an examination of HIV paranoia. David Fincher then helmed "Alien 3", a strongly anti-capitalist film that literally killed the franchise in the person of Chief Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley. "Alien: Resurrection", Jean-Pierre Jeunet's contribution, was an exploration of the merits of therapeutic cloning, while "Alien vs. Predator" was director Paul Anderson's defense of the U.S.' support of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq conflict. Plus, they're all really gross.

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