Diana
Diana is the main antagonist from the 1983 miniseries V, its sequel miniseries V The Final Battle, and the followup television series V The Series. In the original miniseries of the franchise she is second-in-command of the Visitor invasion whose authority is surpassed by Supreme Commander John and later Pamela. Throughout the V The Final Battle she ascends through the ranks on Earth by murdering her leaders Pamela and later John. By V: The Series, she becomes Supreme Commander. She was portrayed by Jane Badler.
Biography[]
V: The Original Series
Diana was first seen aboard the New York Mothership when a team of reporters and John came aboard to tour. John introduced her as the chief science officer and second-in-command, and she explained the scientific history and facts behind the Motherships. She transferred over to the Los Angeles Mothership afterward and resumed command. When the Richland Chemical Plant was retooled for the Visitors' use to produce chemicals, Diana and hundreds of technicians and workers came down from the Mothership in Transports. Subsequently, seeing Kristine Walsh's continued coverage of the Visitors' actions, Diana recruited her to become the Visitor spokeswoman/press secretary. Later aboard the Mothership, Diana and Steven consulted each other about the Leader's impatience with the conversion process and the scientific conspiracies the Visitors were orchestrating, unknown they were being videotaped by Mike Donovan.
As the Visitors began patrolling cities and declaring martial law, Diana became involved in the interrogation of prisoners aboard the Mothership. She authorized medical experiments upon Mike Donovan's cameraman, Tony Leonetti, and when Robin Maxwell was captured by Jake, she used Brian to impregnate her. Robin escaped through the Fifth Column, but not before her father gave up the location of the Mountain Camp for her return. Diana led the attack upon the camp with Jake and faced Resistance fire, but it was the courage of Julie Parrish, armed with a pistol, who damaged her Skyfighter's electrical systems, causing damage to her human countenance. Wounded, she called off the attack.
V: The Final Battle
A year after the failed mountain camp attack, Kristine is becoming ever suspicious of the Visitors. When she is given a key to unlock special sections of the Mothership, she is found by Steven and interrogated by him and Diana. Although Diana accepts her explanation that she was lost, she continues by saying she has enemies who would use anyone and anything against her, and that she cannot allow that. Later the squadron commander Pamela's mothership joined Diana's over Los Angeles a year into the occupation of Earth and, as the senior officer, she assumed command over both vessels, much to Diana's anger. Pamela brought specialists and engineers who implemented a project to speed up the acquisition of Earth's water. Pamela scorned Diana's claim of the Leader's special favour.
After Diana's most trusted aide Martin was revealed to be the leader of the Fifth Column by Mike Donovan under the influence of a powerful truth serum, Pamela and Steven convinced the Visitor Supreme Commander John to relieve Diana of her command responsibilities and restrict her to scientific duties. In response to Pamela sidelining her, Diana killed Pamela as well as her guard. Diana later told John that the guard, whom she claimed was a member of the Fifth Column, was responsible for Pamela's death. Underestimating Diana's ruthlessness, John accepted this explanation, which proved to be a fatal mistake on his part. After the human resistance and the Fifth Column released the Red Dust and rendered Earth uninhabitable for the Visitors, her vengefulness is at its peak when she rejects John's pragmatic approach towards impending defeat and retreat. This led Diana to kill John in cold blood and take over as Supreme Commander of the fleet.
V The Series
She was briefly married to Charles before a botched assassination attempt by Lydia against Diana resulted in his death, for which Diana and Lydia framed Marta. Diana is obsessed with capturing Elizabeth or creating a new hybrid through cloning or other methods. She distrusts Lydia and tried several times to either kill Lydia or one of Lydia's close family members. When last seen, Diana has been placed under arrest by Philip, who does not know that Diana secretly planted a bomb on board the Leader's shuttle.
In the 2008 sequel novel to the original miniseries, V: The Second Generation, Diana has finally risen to the post of Supreme Commander and was known as Commandant Diana.
Character[]
Out of all of the Visitors, Diana is arguably the evilest, being more evil than John who is more affable by comparison as he was willing to accept defeat and retreat back to their homeworld after the Red Dust rendered Earth unsafe for their species. She, without remorse, authorized horrific and fatal medical experiments upon Mike Donovan's cameraman, Tony Leonetti, and when Robin Maxwell was captured, she used Brian to impregnate her out of scientific curiosity. Her horrific actions are not limited to humanity as she will without hesitation, murder her own kind. She ruthlessly murdered her superior Pamela partly out of bitterness and to get her military authorization back. When the Red Dust was deployed, John ordered the fleet to retreat knowing that taking over Earth was a lost cause at that point, angering Diana who wanted to detonate the mothership, which would be enough to destroy all life on Earth. John in a rare moment of mercy towards the Earth, refused to carry this out causing Diana to murder him in cold blood, denouncing him as a mere figurehead and she was the true leader of the invasion.
As the head science officer, Diana is a pioneer in the conversion of humans to aid the Visitors, has inoculated the Visitors against all known Earth diseases, and has developed a foolproof truth drug. After the Visitors declared martial law, Diana became involved in the interrogation of prisoners aboard the Mothership. To that end, with simple information extraction being the goal, Diana favored simpler torture methods than the painstaking conversion process. These methods appealed to her sadistic nature.
Trivia[]
In the 2009 reboot series V, her character as a ruthless leader of the Visitor invasion of Earth was given to a similar character, Anna.
Jane Badler returned to play a Visitor also named Diana, although her personality is the opposite of her 80's character. She was the original leader of the Visitors and is the mother of Anna, who betrayed and imprisoned her and took control of the Visitors. While determined to be the leader of the Visitors once more, she has more benevolent intentions.