TV Guide On-Line has a new interview with actress Morena Baccarin, best known to genre fans for her role on “Firefly” and as the new alien leader on ABC’s reimagined version of “V.”
Baccarin sits down to discuss the series and where things are headed in upcoming episodes. Some of what she says is minor SPOILER material. If you don’t want to know, please turn back now….
TVGuide.com: V doesn’t seem to be your typical sci-fi show, though it boasts many actors who’ve been in the genre before.
Morena Baccarin: We don’t see ourselves as sci-fi people for the most part. It’s not like we’re talking a different language, like an alien language. Elizabeth was on a sci-fi show and [Alan Tudyk] was on Firefly with me, but I don’t feel like V is a sci-fi show. There’s not one big sci-fi fiasco. It’s a show about heart and people and relationships. There’s some spaceships thrown in there, sure, but the sci-fi element is evened out with other things.
TVGuide.com: What is the Visitors’ ultimate goal?
Baccarin: You’ll have to watch to see, but by Episode 4 you get a very good idea that we’re not what we’re all cracked up to be. There’s more to it than we’re saying. We are here for more than just a short while, and we’re here for additional reasons than just water and minerals.
TVGuide.com: Are there any good qualities in the Visitors?
Baccarin: Yes, absolutely. Anna is very loyal to her people; that’s a good quality. I think there are Vs that have been living among humanity, so they take on some human qualities. There are parts of Anna that, depending on who you ask, can be seen as good.
TVGuide.com: Is Anna the type of leader to get her hands dirty?
Baccarin: You mean like fighting? Not initially. I think Anna is very capable of throwing down with the best of them, but I think we want to keep her more elevated, more political, more presidential than getting down and dirty right now.
TVGuide.com: Will people start to discover that the Visitors are bad or do they hide it pretty well?
Baccarin: I don’t know what you’re talking about [Laughs]. I think that the Vs are pretty good at masking to the masses, but I think that humans are very smart and they have instincts. You can tell right away there’s something going on behind the surface, and it becomes more public knowledge.
TVGuide.com: When do we get to see an unmasking?
Baccarin: It’s throughout the series in different people. I don’t have a big peel-off-my-face moment, but I’ve been told that there may be some effects in that direction.
TVGuide.com: The Ambassador program feels like an homage to Hitler Youth. How does that develop?
Baccarin: It grows quite a bit actually. It’s very smart of the Vs to invest in the youth of the world. One of their plans is to get the young people really excited about the Vs, so they can influence other people. As the generations change, they will be present. It definitely gets out there a lot.
TVGuide.com: Who would win in a fight between Anna and Erica?
Baccarin: I’m going to have to go with Anna, because I need some loyalty to my character, but I think it’d be a good fight. [A fight between Anna and Erica] could happen. I do meet Tyler, so maybe there’s something there she needs to be protective of.
TVGuide.com: What precarious positions is Anna going to put Chad in?
Baccarin: It’s going to get really interesting because he’s very ambitious, and he really wants to succeed at what he does. By the end of the four episodes, he’s going to find himself in a real decision spot of not knowing which way to go, and maybe their relationship will progress into something else. The power shifts back and forth a bit, so he doesn’t just fold like a cheap suit [again].
TVGuide.com: Could there be something more to their relationship?
Baccarin: There definitely could be, and I think that that’s what we’re laying the ground work for. But we’ll see how it plays out.
TVGuide.com: Have you seen anything in the scripts that really surprised you?
Baccarin: Yeah, a lot of things. There are some great plot turns and character twists that I love. I love that every character has a good and a bad side. I love that Elizabeth’s character is struggling with being a good mom and saving the world. She’s got some faults when it comes to her family and I think that’s a wonderful thing.
TVGuide.com: What can we look forward to in future episodes?
Baccarin: We get to see more about how the Vs live. There are more hints at how they do certain things and there’s some really great plot twists. [There are] characters’ worlds that collide that you wouldn’t expect.
TVGuide.com: What can we expect in the cliff-hanger of Episode 4?
Baccarin: Some relationships get explored, and you’ll want to come back to find out. We’ve laid some groundwork for some V things, and you’ll want to come back to find out what exactly they were.
TVGuide.com: Will deaths be a natural occurrence on this show?
Baccarin: As in life, there’s death, so probably. There’s not an intense amount of it, but nobody is safe. Everybody on the show — things can happen. We live in a very dangerous area with Vs and humans. At any moment something can happen.
TVGuide.com: What is your one little pitch to fans to come in and watch the show?
Baccarin: It is not only a show that has all the exciting stuff you want to see on TV when you want to veg out. There’s cool effects and action. That aside, the creep factor of a huge spaceship hovering over our major cities, gives me goose bumps when I think about it. That element and the element that anything can happen and there’s characters that are all people you can relate to. On some levels you relate to Elizabeth, we all relate to Tyler, we relate to all these people who are having struggles with their lives in addition to an alien invasion. It’s a show that has a little bit of everything for everybody.
tanya says
I know that mainstream shows have to say it so they don’t alienate potential viewers, but it always makes me cringe just a little when people who are promoting shows say ‘its not really sci fi’ like they’re apologizing for something…
reppoHssarg says
If it wasn’t for science fiction literature and movies, our world would not have flat screen TVs nor cell phones! Imagine the first episode of Star Trek being advertised as “it’s not SF it’s all about the relationships and adventure”. The really great SF stories have never even made it to the screen, but the successful translation of the fantasy story trilogy LOTR to the screen, gives me hope.
It is a strange world in which the new way of looking at things is to disavow their origins. The latest “Trek” is not intended to be a Trek film. Flash Forward is not SF. That everything needs a “REBOOT” which I believe is a SF term, unless we have taken the science out of making and using computers (which are the first things I think of (ctl+alt+del) when I hear that term.
What next, we are NOT human? (not = a joke)
GazerBeam says
The problem is the *reason* these shows aren’t calling themselves Sci-Fi. For some unknown, ungoshly reason, when you attach the “sci-fi” label to a show the majority of tv viewers tune out.
It’s a problem I don’t know how to fix, because the very same people I know who won’t watch sci-fi because “it’s stupid” are the same people who watch reality drivel like American Idol and The Bachelor.
It’s infuriating, it’s nonsensical, highly illogical, and disheartening, and I wish there was something I could do about it. But when Grey’s Anatomy get almost three times the viewership of Fringe (13.62 million vs 4.95 million), It can be seen why shows are trying to avoid the “sci-fi” label.
JayW says
Love the comments so far.
What would be great- Is if that channel that was ashamed of its name, SyFy, didn’t have to worry about ratings and could actually put REAL science fiction on the air.
The truth is, true Sci-Fi only appeals to a very small demographic. Star Wars is labeled Sci-Fi, but really it’s Fantasy. Hence, SyFy starting to lean toward fantasy.
Real Sci-Fi is just geek speak to most people – So why would the networks mainstream any of that stuff.
It’s just tragic that none of the new shows are old school, sci-fi. Some shows that manage to blend sci-fi into the drama are incredible, but that is kinda rare.
K9 says
I did not realize that the ratings for Fringe wers so low. However you define it , people in general do not like SCI-FI shows. I also do not like it when they distance themselves from that label. If you are not proud to be associated with SCI-FI do not expect me to support you even at SCI-FI conventions. I think this is disturbing to us loyal Science Fiction people but the problem is that there is no real good sci-fi on. The good shows are not based on science but rather the unknown which may be science based or may be supernatural based. I do not like vampires or other thinkgs like that thrown into the sci fi market as this is all stupid unbelievable monster crap.
This was the entire part of the late great SCI-FI channel when conceived of the great SCI-FI people like Isaac Asimov. He wanted a channel to cater to us not to the mass market. It is a fact that the AVERAGE sci-fi READER is of higher intelligence than that of the average person. It is not that SCI-FI alone makes you smarter but rather smart people seek out good SCI-FI. I like fringe science but it is still based on facts and provable theories not false beliefs or wishful thinking.
Forgive them Isaac as they do not know what they have done.
tanya says
JayW, I have to admit I’m one of those people that doesn’t love hard sci-fi (I’ve always been more into fantasy and the supernatural, or sci fi more along the lines of Farscape or Dune). But the sad thing is, even fantasy/supernatural isn’t something networks feel comfortable with! Instead they’re ‘genre’ shows for ‘niche’ audiences.
And as a side note, true fantasy is incredibly hard to find on TV – I end up watching things that, while enjoyable, really aren’t that great quality (Merlin, Legend of the Seeker), just because they’re all that’s availabe to fill that gap.
I think a (but definitely not the) core problem is that sci fi/fantasy/supernatural shows require a much larger budget than procedurals or dramas, and so networks just aren’t willing to give as many of them a chance – this in turn means that people have fewer opportunities to get into them, and so they never become mainstream. All geeks were introduced to geekdom by somebody, and if you have to rely on networks to be that somebody, its never going to happen.