The skies darken, the ground shakes, people run out of their homes expecting to see the worst from what felt like an earthquake, but instead raise their eyes to the sky and see the Visitors.

This new ABC series, “V,” which premiered Tuesday Nov. 3, at 8 p.m. derived from a 1983 mini-series of the same title. It begins with the Visitors making their entrance into Earth’s atmosphere, sending frightened citizens to the streets.

FBI counterterrorism agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell, “Lost”) begins investigating the visitors almost immediately after she locates her son Tyler (Logan Huffman) during all the madness.  The aliens are lead by Anna (Morena Baccarin),  a beautiful women who appears on the screens of the underside of the spaceships, claiming that they “are of peace.”

Other characters in the show include Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretch), who questions the intentions of the visitors.  Chad Decker (Scott Wolf), a television news anchor, is selected to interview Anna in a live broadcast to the world.

Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut) plays a businessman who seems to have a secret vital to the plot.  Finally there is the strikingly beautiful Lisa (Laura Vandervoort), a Visitor who lures agent Evans’ son into becoming an ambassador for the Visitors.

The show at the start seems be a slight homage to the film “Independence Day,” but it quickly proves to have a different plot.  These aliens claim to come in peace, and seem to pose no threat to mankind.  However, speculation arises as the visitors begin recruiting from human beings as ambassadors.  Other humans stand out and create a resistance claiming to have proof of betrayal to come.

Overall, the new series has promising material to offer.   The plot of the show, although taken from an earlier mini-series, has a different type of story to tell about extraterrestrial visitors.

In most stories of visitors from across the universe, the aliens involved are usually vicious from the start and cause the world to rise in defense.
Most stories like these tend to resemble the last and offer the same material over and over.  However “V” offers a different approach with the visitors offering peace and assistance, leaving most people unsure of how to react.

Later in the episode, events take place that lead to the suspicion of violent intention to come.  A group of the visitors proves to be evil, which verifies the resistance’s original thoughts.  There also proves to be some visitors who wish to help. The question is what are the overall intentions of the leaders, and what will happen in episodes to come?