Kenneth Johnson reveals new V adventure includes iconic guinea pig eating scene
'V' creator Kenneth Johnson has revealed the new Big Finish Productions version of his sci-fi story, 'V – UK: Infiltration', contains the famous scene when Visitor Diana eats a live guinea pig.
'V' creator Kenneth Johnson has revealed the new audio version of his sci-fi story still has the iconic guinea pig eating scene.
The 82-year-old writer-and-director has worked with Big Finish Productions to create an audio adventure inspired by his acclaimed 1983 television miniseries. The plot of the show focuses on an alien race known as the Visitors coming to Earth seemingly in peace before their sinister intentions are revealed.
One of the TV show's big reveals as to what the true identity and motives of the Visitors could be came when their deputy leader Diana (Jane Badler) opens her mouth wide like a reptile to devour a live guinea pig in one gulp, hinting at their true lizard appearance underneath their fake human skin.
Kenneth says that shocking moment has been recreated for the new version, although he did request some of the gross swallowing noises be slightly toned down for listeners.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz, he said: "I was in London when they were first starting the recordings of it. I walked into the booth and there was this awful noise, and I said, ‘Excuse me, what’s that?’ They said, ‘Oh, this is the scene where she’s eating the guinea pig.’ I said, ‘You might want to back that off, just a little bit.’ They did go back and re-record that one little piece to make it a little less over-the-top."
Kenny can remember having similar difficulties filming that scene for the original NBC show but the special effects team found a way to create a truly memorable TV moment, despite the lack of CGI at the time.
He said: "We had to figure out how to do it because there was no CGI and you couldn’t just have someone eat a guinea pig. "When we got to that part of the script and we got to that scene I had written ‘jaw distends larger than a human, until it’s inhumanly wide.’ There was a little tittle of laughter among the crew and the special effects guy goes, ‘How we gonna do that?’ And I say, ‘Beats the s*** out of me! That’s for you guys to figure out, I just write this stuff.’ We managed to do it but it was challenging.
“It was a water cooler moment around the world. People were saying the next day, ‘Did you that? What is going on here?’ Which is exactly the effect I wanted it to have."
Johnson has been very protective of 'V' - which boasted a stellar ensemble cast which included Marc Singer as Mike Donovan, Faye Grant as Juliet Parrish and Robert Englund as Visitor Willie - and has been reluctant to license the rights for new interpretations.
Johnson wasn't involved in the 2009 Warner Bros. 'V' reboot, although he was credited as the creator of the story, and was bitterly disappointed with what was broadcast on television.
'The Incredible Hulk' director initially had reservations about letting Big Finish Productions adapt 'V' but he couldn't have been happier with the collaborative relationship he formed with the team and he is delighted with the finished story.
He said: "What I’m trying to do is protect it.
"The 2009 ABC remake of it, which they tried to say at the last minute wasn’t a remake of it because they realised when they said it was remake that they’d have to give me a creative credit - and pay! The Writers’ Guild said no, if it talks like a lizard and it walks like a lizard and they come in big spaceships then it’s ‘V’.
“It had a big audience for the first night because they thought, ‘Wow, more ‘V’, more ‘V’.’ Second week it went down the tubes and kept sliding until it was on the floor. I never saw much of it except for a couple of moments that my friends sent me. "They told me not to watch it at all.
“Now we’ve got this wonderful piece that Big Finish has put together. The execution of it has just been wonderful.
“When they first talked to me about it, I thought, ‘How does that work? Is there really a market for that?’ They said, ‘Well, we’ve been doing it for 20 years with shows like 'Star Trek' and 'Doctor Who',’ those are some heavyweight titles. I said, ‘But V is so incredibly visual, I’m not quite sure how you’ll be able to capture that.’ And they said, ‘Trust us, we can do it.’
“They were very eager to make certain that I was comfortable with what they were doing. I have not licensed out much of the 'V' rights or let other people go running off with them ... I’ve always been concerned about maintaining the quality of what I did.
"But Big Finish absolutely assured me. It was like a blood brotherhood. They said, ‘We want you to be sure that you’re comfortable and you will be involved all the way along.’ They hooked me up with Jonathan Morris, who is one of the long-time producers at Big Finish. I have never worked with anyone more collaborative and more eager to embrace everything that I have been trying to do. When he had new ideas a lot of them were really wonderful and I could see what he was going for. He was really respectful of what I had done to begin with.
“As it’s a British project they decided to set it in the UK. I was totally on board with that and understood what they were doing and why. It works beautifully and actually a great deal of the original dialogue from my original miniseries has found its way into the script that Jonathan and I welded together.
“I heard the first finished recording, the first hour, and I thought, ‘OK, here we go.’ I was really delighted. It was very compelling.
'V – UK: Infiltration' - starring Annabel Baldwin, Janie Dee and Jack Myers - is released on collector's edition CD and download on 23 January.
Go to Bigfinish for more information and to pre-order.
