Fifth Column (V TV series)

In the science-fiction TV series "V", the Fifth Column was originally a holdover of the original Visitor republican-type government that survived the Leader's coup and attempted to retake control. When this effort failed, the surviving members were forced to go into hiding, and then began recruiting sympathetic officers, soldiers and scientists to their cause of making their society peaceful again. Their numbers grew when the "peaceful missions" the Leader had sent them on to other planets ended in the planet's destruction and the species' extinction (one such infamous case was the Kisszizk species). However, their indiviudual cell leaders remained undercover and ordered their operatives to do the same for fear of being discovered by Visitors loyal to the Leader. This severely limited their movements and operations against the Leader's supporters.

The Fifth Column is also an International V Fan club. The fan club has been in operation since 1996. The organization has members from the USA to Europe. They strive to keep V going. Last known address for them is http://visitorsfifthcolumn.org

The rebellion begins

The Fifth Column finally mobilised when; during the First Invasion of the Earth, one of the Fifth Column's most important leaders; Lieutenant Martin, was driven into action by Resistance leader Mike Donovan. He mobilised his cell into attacking the LA Mothership with a Resistance strike force and helped capture it and disarm the doomsday device. The Fifth Column agents on the ship voluntarily remained on Earth, while some 2000 Fifth Column agents led by Martin's counterpart; Commander Jennifer, on the New York Mothership returned to their homeworld to continue the fight, in secret, for a better future for their individual peoples (by force if necessary).

Downfall

During the early fighting in the Second Invasion one year after Liberation Day, a now-freed Commander Diana forced Martin (who was among the agents who remained on Earth) to give up his antitoxin pill and the names of every Fifth Column agent he knew before being killed. When Diana returned to the Visitor Fleet, most of the Fifth Column members were hunted down and killed. The surviving members went under deeper cover to prevent additional losses; but this severely limited their movements and acts of help for the Resistance.

Revival

Inspector General Philip; Martin's twin brother, became the new leader of the Fleet's Fifth Column network and helped reorganize the surviving Fleet members, meanwhile Jennifer's faction of the Fifth Column continues their fight against the Leader and his ministers (and planning an open rebellion). Their fight continues to this day.

Known members

(these were Fifth Column members encounter 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 knocked her out and escaped on her 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.

*Glenda and her husband; Robert, were a 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, or 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 Fifth Column member 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 convert|50|sqmi|km2|sing=on area of a planet's surface, was employed by Nathan Bates to isolate Los Angeles and cut off the Resistance's weapon supplies. When Diana ordered 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". Diana then used the conversion process on him to make him complete the code, but before he could finish, 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 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 center. 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 mobilizing 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. Martin then piloted the Resistance-controlled Mothership back to Earth victorious. One year after Liberation Day, Martin and Donovan are news partners and acts as Donovan's sound operator and has to constantly take antidote pills to prevent dying from Red Dust exposure. When Diana was supposedly "assassinated", he and Donovan pursued her and tracked 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; 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 fiancee' 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 canceled 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"