The leading lady of 'V'

It's been almost 25 years since NBC canceled the original sci-fi show "V" following two mini-series and a single season of weekly episodes. The show's breakout star, actress Jane Badler ("One Life to Live"), played the evil Diana, a guinea pig-swallowing, nostril-flaring, lizard-skinned space Nazi in a red jump suit.

She was awesome and is certainly one of the reasons I became a fan of the original at age 12, one who is only too happy to write about it again.

After "V," Badler turned up in "The Highwayman" and in a 1988-90 revival of "Mission: Impossible," which was filmed in Australia. After that, Badler fell off the American pop culture radar. She stayed in Australia, got married, raised a family and acted in some Australian stage and screen productions while putting together a cabaret act and releasing her first CD, pictured below at right.

With a new "V" about to premiere on ABC, Badler may be poised to return to the American public eye if the new show invites her to appear as a guest star.

"When I heard it was picked up as a series, part of me was so aware of the passage of time," Badler, 55, said in a phone interview during a visit last month with her family in New Jersey. "I feel this ownership because I created the role and we all feel like this journey we did together and suddenly you're not involved, at least not to begin with. It was sort of a painful feeling."

Rather than leaving it at that, Badler, reached out to producers of the new "V" and had lunch with one of them last month in Los Angeles.

"They know there is a huge amount of fans, and I'm not talking about people in my age group but people in their 30s who watch television and would be very cheated not to have at least one or two characters brought back," Badler said. "I'm not saying I'm the one, I just know it's very important to connect them in some way." 

Syfy's "Battlestar Galactica" took that exact approach, casting Richard Hatch, a star of the original, in the new "BSG" as a different character. It sounds like that's what might happen with Badler and "V," although she said nothing is likely to happen until after the first batch of episodes get on the air and prove successful.

"I definitely think they're looking for a different character," Badler said. "I don't think they're interested in bringing me back in the same guise. I think they want more of a surprise element so everyone would go, 'Whoa!' I think that's more interesting to them and having it done so it makes total sense with lots of integrity. I'm sure I would be a Visitor but if I was going to be part of a storyline maybe I would be a judge or a lawyer but that wouldn't be who I really am, it would be something twisted."

In a phone conversation with Badler, the first thing you notice is that she now has an Australian accent, which can come with living in another country for 19 years.

"I seriously have had acting coaches and they tell me how to do an American accent," said Badler, pictured at right in New York last month. "You slip into words. But I can't do a [true] Australian accent at all. To them, I'm stuck in the middle now."

Badler sings the praises of "V" creator Kenneth Johnson, who's trying to launch "V" feature film based on his novel "V: The Second Generation."

"There's no one like him," Badler said. "He created the first ['V' miniseries] and that was the real deal, the multi-dimensional one. The impact has been extraordinary and no one could have believed that all these years later how it will not die. So many people were touched and moved by it. I think the series had much less impact on people. For me it was fun to do because my character has the most fun of everyone: She was evil and bisexual and powerful but really [the series] was very lightweight in comparison to the mini-series. When you look back in history, it's definitely the miniseries that will hold up."

Johnson's "Second Generation" novel ignores events of "V: The Final Battle" and "V: The Series," which he was not involved in. My feeling: Millions of us did watch those programs and it's silly to pretend otherwise, even if Johnson chose not to watch them himself.

"It is silly, I know," Badler said. "Things happen in a certain time span and as time passes you sometimes are meant to be doing something different."

Despite glowing advance reviews for the pilot, the new "V" has gotten a reputation as troubled. Production has shut down at least once and most recently ABC announced it will air only four episodes this fall, beginning Nov. 3, and save the balance of the 13-episode order for March. Entertainment Weekly reported network executives are nervous about the show being perceived as too sci-fi and may even insist the word "alien" not be uttered, a particularly preposterous notion that ABC denies.

Badler said her children, ages 16 and 18, have no interest in the old "V" that she starred in but she's sure they'll be intrigued by the new "V" if/when it airs in Australia.

"I hope it grabs them and I hope it comes to Australia," she said. "I'd be very upset if I don't get to watch it."