Fifth Column (V franchise)

The Fifth Column is a subgroup of alien Visitors in the 1980s science fiction franchise V. They are depicted as Visitors who oppose the current leadership and plot to rebel against them.

Original series

In the Original Miniseries, it is revealed that the Fifth Column was first organized in opposition to the Leader's rule. The group first makes itself known to the humans when Visitor officer Martin talks to Resistance leader Mike Donovan about Diana's intentions. The Fifth Column begins to take a more active stance in V: The Final Battle when Visitor officer Andrew notes the numerous attacks against loyalist officers in other ships. Fifth Columnists also helped the Resistance unmask John, capture Diana, and are also inoculated against the Red Dust bio-weapon.

In V: The Series, Diana's escape results in a major crackdown against all Fifth Column members in the Visitor Fleet. The emergence of Martin's twin brother Phillip helps bring the Fifth Column back together, but now have to be on the alert against Visitor loyalists and the so-called Sixth Column (Visitor loyalists who are moles in the Fifth Column).

Known members

These were Fifth Column members encountered in the series, excluding the books:

• Amon was the high priest of the secret religious Order of Zon on the Visitor Homeworld and religious leader of the Fifth Column. He survived the purging of the order by the new Visitor military and prophesied that a Saviour would come to their world and provide salvation (this saviour is Elizabeth Maxwell, the Starchild). He provided spiritual guidance, such as to Kenneth, through a holographic transmitter that defied tracing. Jacob, shortly before his death, told Elizabeth that Amon would eventually find her, and together, would save their peoples.
• Barbara was Martin's second-in-command of their Fifth Column group. She helped Mike Donovan escape the LA Mothership by making it appear he shot her and escaped on his own. Barbara assisted Martin and the Resistance during the final battle on the LA Mothership and she, along with the rest of her group, returned to Earth (which was now contaminated with Red Dust). Barbara went into hiding on Earth from the Visitors when they began the Second Invasion and hunted for exposed Fifth Column agents. In the novelization of 'V' it is Barbara who is killed while attempting to assassinate Diana, but in the TV miniseries it is an unnamed Visitor disguised as Mike Donovan.
• Glenda and her husband, Robert, were both members of the Fifth Column. She and her husband survived Diana's purge of the Fifth Column's agents and grew afraid when she became pregnant. Robert sabotaged the mission to kill several Resistance operatives with a hidden explosive device and stole the borellium crystals that powered the LA Mothership's laser cannons before escaping to Earth with Glenda. When they met up with fellow Fifth Column member Willie and Resistance members Mike Donovan and Kyle Bates, Glenda went into labor and they took shelter at a warehouse, where she safely delivered her son. Donovan and Bates succeeded in repelling Visitor attackers and new Fifth Column leader Philip arranged for his shuttle to take Glenda and her family to an island in a hidden area of the South Pacific, where they could be safe from Diana's wrath.
• Howard, better known as "Howie", was a Doctor in the Visitor Fleet that was assigned to a Visitor Field Hospital in Los Angeles and had sympathies to the Fifth Column, yet kept it secret for fear of being hunted by Diana's spies. Resistance members Mike Donovan and Ham Tyler, desperate for a doctor to save Resistance member (and Visitor) Willie from laser shot injuries, kidnapped Howard just as he left the hospital and brought him to treat his wounds. After seeing Willie recovering with Elizabeth Maxwell's help, Howard was inspired by her act to join the Fifth Column as an active member and brought the Resistance up-to-date with the movement's recent history. He first act was to help a Resistance team infiltrate the hospital, where weapons were secretly being kept, and helped sabotage the liquid xenon tanks, causing the hospital to explode. He then killed Visitor spy John Langley and helps the Resistance team escape from incoming reinforcements. He stays behind, as he can be more help to the Fifth Column and Resistance on the inside.
• Jacob was a Fifth Column supporter and a secret worshiper of Zon. He was a technological genius and was respected by many. At the height of his career, he was head of the Institute of Science and decorated personally by the Leader as a "Hero of the State" and is considered by many, including Willie and Lydia as a father of Visitor technology. As his age advanced, his body began to tire and eventually went blind and realized that all of his discoveries, despite his original intentions, were made for destruction. This made him adopt a firm pacifistic nature and an abhorrent view on warfare, considering it a waste of life. However, he had to keep his views a secret, for fear of being accused of "putting individual conscious before duties of state". During the Second Invasion, Jacob's greatest creation, The Forcefield, an impenetrable energy barrier isolating a 50-square-mile (130 km²) area of a planet's surface, was employed by Nathan Bates to isolate Los Angeles and cut off the Resistance's weapon supplies. Diana takes him prisoner and orders Jacob to refine the code in the Master Computer to make the Forcefield work properly, he refused and expressed his belief that the entire Earth war effort a "waste of life". He states he won't be a tool for destruction. Diana threatens to torture him, but he still doesn't talk. Despite Lydia's objections, Diana has him undergo the conversion process. As the intensity is increased, Jacob begins to break and begins to input the code. Before his brainwashing was completed, he was rescued from the Mothership by Mike Donovan and Ham Tyler, who needed his help in destroying the Forcefield. He escaped back to Earth and, linking up with Kyle Bates and Elizabeth Maxwell, the team reached the entrance to the Forcefield. Jacob then told Elizabeth she was the future and must survive, at any cost. He then used his soborium bracelet to overload the Forcefield's power grid, causing the Forcefield to self-destruct. Jacob vanished in a funnel of energy, presuming to have died.
• Jonathan was a technician in the Visitor Fleet and member of the Fifth Column. During the Second Invasion, he survived Diana's purge of the Fifth Column's members and remained a worker in the LA Mothership's docking bay. When he overheard Lieutenant James saying he had obtained a computer disk with a list revealing the locations of every of Resistance base and leaders in the area. Jonathan steals the disk, but is spotted trying to escape with it by two troopers, who shoot him. Jonathan manages to evade them and hides the disk in a large sculpture for the upcoming Feast of Romalon. Philip comes across Jonathan as he succumbs to his injuries, his last words were the disk "in the volcano" before dying. Julie Parrish later realized the "volcano" was the volcano-shaped sculpture in the Romalon Room and retrieved the disk before escaping successfully.
• Kenneth was a medic in the Visitor Fleet, a Fifth Column agent and a priest in the forbidden Order of Zon. He survived Diana's purge of the Fifth Column's agents and served on the battlefield on Earth during the Second Invasion. While in Charlestown, the fighting was terrible and went to help a human man, but the man misunderstood him and tried to kill him, and was killed by Kenneth in self-defense. Kenneth was distraught over what he had done and, believing he had betrayed his covenant, activated a signaling device to contact the High Priest Amon, where he confessed his sins. Amon comforted Kenneth before security guards rushed in and captured him. Kenneth was then brutally tortured, but refused to tell Diana where Amon was hiding and, refusing a pardon, was eaten alive by Diana's pet crivit, as a warning to Collaborator Garrison about reneging on a deal. His last words were "Zon is the gospel for which I would die!", before being eaten alive.
• Lorraine was a Fifth Column agent who served an important function for her cell group as she worked in the command centre. She was critical in the prevention of the Visitors from jamming the TV transmission of the Resistance exposing John's true nature. She and the rest of her cell group mounted a joint attack on the LA Mothership and brought a special computer to disarm its Doomsday Device (this failed, but the device was disabled by Elizabeth Maxwell). Lorraine and the rest of her group returned to Earth, now contaminated with Red Dust, and went into hiding from the Visitors when they began the Second Invasion and began hunting for exposed Fifth Column agents.
• Martin was a soldier in the Visitor armed forces with the rank of Lieutenant and the secret leader of the Earth Visitor Fleet's Fifth Column network during the First Invasion. He remained undercover as Diana's most trusted aide. During the invasion, Martin befriended Mike Donovan, who inspired him into mobilising the Fifth Column into openly attacking Diana's supporters. Though Martin was forced to escape from the LA Mothership when Donovan (under the truth serum's influence) exposed him, he remained connected to the spreading Fifth Column network. He and the rest of his group helped a Resistance assault team captured the LA Mothership and disarm its Doomsday Device while the Red Dust was deployed on Earth's surface. During the conflict, his marksmanship with a sidearm was well demonstrated. Martin then piloted the Resistance-controlled Mothership back to Earth victorious. One year after Liberation Day, Martin and Donovan are news partners; Martin acts as Donovan's sound operator and has to constantly take antidote pills to ward off Red Dust exposure. When Diana was supposedly "assassinated", Martin and Donovan pursued her to a shack in the woods guarded by Ham Tyler's agents. Martin knocked Donovan out with the camera and, with a hidden laser pistol, overpowered the guards and was poised to kill Diana, but he was knocked off balance by another guard and Diana stole his weapon. Diana forced him to surrender his last antidote pill and the names of every Fifth Column agent remaining in the Fleet before setting the shack on fire and escaping. Martin was critically injured in the fire while escaping. With mere minutes to live, Martin told a now-conscious Donovan of Diana's intent to return with the Fleet and asks him one last favor of his best friend, to kill Diana. Martin died in Donovan's arms. It is later revealed that virtually no-one in the Visitor Fleet knows the truth that Martin was a Fifth Column leader and how he really died. The official story, by Diana, was that Martin bravely attempted to "rescue" Diana from human security forces and was killed "getting her to freedom". Martin's place as leader of the Fifth Column was succeeded by his twin brother, Philip.
• Oliver was a security guard in the Visitor Fleet orbiting Earth and a member of the Fifth Column during the First Invasion. He came to a captive Mike Donovan and, with no way to free him, offered him a suicide pill to prevent secrets of their individual movements from falling into Diana's hands. However, Diana discovered his secret and Captain Jake shot and killed him before Donovan could take the pill (which Diana crushed to keep him alive).
• Inspector General Philip Phillip was placed in charge of subordinating Lydia and Diana, when Lydia begged Phillip to help her stop Diana from killing her brother Nigel, when they're successful in stopping her, Diana's convinced that Phillip is Fifth Column and plans to assassinate him which fails miserably as her attempt on the leader she's cornered on the bridge and arrested by Phillip.
• Robert and his wife, Glenda, were a members of the Fifth Column. He and his wife survived Diana's purge of the Fifth Column's agents and grew afraid when Glenda became pregnant. Robert sabotaged the mission to kill several Resistance operatives with a hidden explosive device and stole the borellium crystals that powered the LA Mothership's laser cannons before escaping to Earth with his wife. When they met up with fellow Fifth Column member Willie and Resistance members Mike Donovan and Kyle Bates. Glenda went into labor and they took shelter at a warehouse, where she safely delivered her son. Donovan and Bates succeeded in repelling Visitor attackers and new Fifth Column leader Philip arranged for his shuttle to take Robert and his family to an island in a hidden area of the South Pacific, where they could be safe from Diana's wrath.
• Simon was a member of the Fifth Column and a friend to Willie. During the Second Invasion, he survived Diana's purge of Fifth Column members and served as Willie's contact in the fleet, giving information whenever he could, but these acts left him paranoid of being followed by Diana's spies. He met Willie at an abandoned building to warn him of an imminent arrival of weapons to a secret location in the Open City of Los Angeles. Simon's fears of being followed prove to be warranted when two troopers arrive and open fire. Willie is injured and escapes while Simon is killed.
• Thelma was a technician in the Visitor Fleet and fiancée' to Willie. This engagement ended when the Visitor Fleet was driven from Earth and Willie voluntarily remained on the planet. The couple were reunited during the temporary Armistice and Thelma revealed she was one of the newest Fifth Column members, they agreed to go ahead with the ceremony at some point, but this was derailed again when the Armistice was cancelled and Willie imprisoned with the rest of the Resistance group. In the (unaired) series finale, Thelma helps the group escape from their cell on the Mothership and Willie and her promise to be together again soon.
• Technician William/"Willie" (portrayed by Robert Englund) is a Visitor technician who was transferred to the Los Angeles mothership at the last minute. He had previously been trained in Arabic and does not have a strong grasp of the English language. In contrast to many of the other Visitors, Willie is shown to be very kind-hearted, shy, and compassionate towards humans. He saves Caleb Taylor's life during an industrial accident although Caleb later chases Willie away when Willie appears at his son's funeral. However, he makes peace with Willie later on and the two become friends. Willie also falls in love with Harmony Moore, who works at the catering truck at Arthur Dupres' factory, where Willie is also employed. In The Final Battle, he is captured by the Resistance, who hold him captive and study his physiology. After his capture, his reptilian nature is revealed to Harmony, who, after overcoming her shock, maintains her feelings for him. Despite initially encountering much hostility from his captors, Willie proves cooperative and helpful to the humans and eventually earns the trust of many of those in the Resistance and he supports them in their fight against the Visitors. Willie is not part of the Fifth Column movement, but is in fact a full-fledged member of the Resistance.

2009 version

Fifth Columnists also appear in the re-imagined 2009 V series, but unlike those in the original version, most Fifth Columnists on Earth are not initially an active resistance force, at least not in the present day; reference is made to a prior resistance within the Visitor race that led to the Fifth Column going into hiding. Most seen thus far are living on Earth, posing as humans, when the Visitor fleet arrives.

It has been intimated that the Visitor leader, Anna, exerts an influence bordering on mind control upon those loyal to her, and all such Visitors appear to be near-emotionless and inexpressive; in contrast, the Fifth Columnists shown thus far exhibit emotional ranges identical to human beings, and have spoken of leaving and rejoining the main Visitor culture as "disconnecting" and "reconnecting". Fifth Columnists, including deeply embedded members like Joshua and Lisa, are resistant to Anna's "Bliss" projection.

When the Visitors openly arrive on Earth, some Fifth Columnists, aware that Anna's peaceful overtures are a smokescreen for the Visitors' true intentions, decide to join with humans who are themselves suspicious of the Visitors and form a resistance group. The human members of the resistance have also come to refer to themselves as the Fifth Column.

• John May, played by Michael Trucco, is the first Visitor agent on Earth who turned against Anna, establishing a Fifth Column cell before he was killed by Ryan Nichols.
• Ryan Nichols, played by Morris Chestnut, is a Fifth Columnist who disguised himself as a human banker. Originally an anti-Fifth Column soldier, he developed human emotions and became engaged to a human female (Valerie), their union eventually producing the first known "hybrid" Visitor/human child. In the show's final episode, Ryan attempts to rescue his daughter, but the child, influenced by Anna, kills him.
• Joshua, played by Mark Hildreth, a Fifth Columnist posing as a physician on the New York mothership who revived Dale, a Visitor sleeper stationed at the FBI's New York office. After learning that Dale's partner, Erica Evans, had tried to kill him while organizing a resistance movement, Joshua killed Dale to protect her, as she would make an excellent human ally. He remained the Fifth Column's main agent and contact aboard the New York mothership for the rest of the first season. During their mission to destroy Anna's soldier eggs, Joshua asked Erica to kill him to hide her and Lisa's involvement in the incident. He was later revived by Marcus, and his memory was wiped causing him to display renewed loyalty to the Visitors in the second season. However, his memories as a Fifth Columnist reemerge, prompting him to rejoin the movement.
• Angelo Russo, a Fifth Columnist who abandoned the cause and earns his living as a car mechanic. After treating Ryan's wound, he knocks him out, unable to trust him or anyone else and disappears. Before he disappears, he warns Ryan to leave his fiancée if he doesn't want her to get involved.
• Cyrus, a former Fifth Columnist turned traitor. Ryan approaches him to get contacts of other members, but Cyrus reveals himself as a traitor and alerts the Visitors to his presence. Cyrus gives up names of the members he knows just to be "reconnected" with Anna and the other Visitors; Ryan then calls Cyrus a junkie for craving the need to be "reconnected" with them. In the struggle with Ryan, Ryan then shoots Cyrus in the head stating "You can't reconnect if you're dead".
• David (Ryan Kennedy), was Joshua's assistant in the medical staff aboard the New York mothership as well as a Fifth Column member. When Anna is about to accuse any one of the staff of being the traitor that killed Dale, he sacrifices his life to cover up for Joshua. As punishment, Joshua is ordered by Anna to skin David alive.
• Leah Pearlman (Lexa Doig), a Visitor doctor who Ryan approaches for help regarding the R6 compound the Visitors are administering into humans using the pretext of flu vaccines. He also asks her advice on dealing with Valerie's pregnancy, something that has not happened between a human and a Visitor before.
• Samuel (Lucas Wolf), a Visitor security officer stationed in the New York mothership. He is seen working with Joshua, was exposed while giving a message to Fifth Column but was taken away for skinning. It is not known whether or not he survived.
• Lisa (Laura Vandervoort), Anna's daughter and heir to the throne. Assigned to recruit Tyler Evans for some unrevealed purpose, she fell in love, succumbing to human emotions and failing a mandatory empathy test. Joshua saved her by lying to Anna, saying that one day, Lisa would have to repay the favor. After Anna had her savagely beaten to get Tyler back, Lisa repaid by giving Erica a blue energy grenade to destroy Anna's eggs (Lisa's unborn soldier brothers) and by freeing Joshua from imprisonment. She informs Joshua that she has chosen a side, and he hails her as the new Queen. Lisa becomes the main contact for the Fifth Column on the ground when Joshua, after being shot, displayed renewed loyalties towards Anna. However, at the end of the second season, Anna creates a clone of her from a carefully preserved queen egg and locks the real Lisa at Diana's old prison for participating in Diana's failed insurrection.

References