This is the entire mini-series and its sequel in two seperate box sets. Pre-viewed for quality and all 5 tapes played great. The only minor hiccup was on tape 2 of the sequel 'final battle' as it had bad thick lines at the top bottom of the frame on the leader up to the opening title. After this it settled down and played great too. Perfect for old school TVs as the image will fill your square screen as originally intended. It was shot in a 1:37.1 aspect ratio which means the 'widescreen' dvd being offered is actually zoom boxed, losing information on the edges of the frame. The original NBC TV mini-series that takes two tapes to contain it's epic 3 1/2 hour length without commercial interuption, comes in an extra double wide box that has a little normal shelf wear around the corners and edges. V: Fifty giant 3 mile saucer-shaped motherships from another galaxy appear (copied in 'Independence Day') over major cities, crewed by humanoids here to exchange precious commodities to save their dying planet. A nice touch is when a high school band greets the first aliens to Earth with the theme from 'Star Wars'. But these E.T.s are two-faced conquerors, wrestling control of TV networks (like democrats with 'talking heads' for fake news) to take over the world. As a web of fascist rule is spun across the globe, guerrilla units led by Marc Singer fight back with "V" as their calling card (from the WWII phrase 'V for Victory'). They zap the humanoids with their own ray guns and steal their shuttlecrafts for a direct strike. At a record cost of $14 million dollars for television, the special effects are great and the shocking 'reveal' sports some impressive make-up effects as well. The sequel, 'V the Final Battle' is an even bigger epic which takes 3-tapes to contain and comes in a triple-wide slipsleeve cardstock box. It still has shrinkwrap on it for protection with a couple of pieces of transparent tape on the shrinkwraps bottom corners where it has torn (see photo). The resistance continues to fight back against the Visitors. They burst into an important Visitor news conference that is being broadcast live and succeed in exposing the Visitors' true reptilian nature to TV audiences by ripping the fake face off one (cool FX that will be used several times). They follow this up with a raid on a processing station that is pumping water up to a mothership. Robin Maxwell is pregnant with a Visitor child. She gives birth to twins, one appears perfectly normal while the other is distinctly reptilian and it dies. Examining the dead child, the resistance realise that the Visitors are vulnerable to some Earth bacteria. From this comes the idea of formulating a red dust that becomes the first means of being able to fight back against the Vistors. Meanwhile, the seemingly normal girl ages rapidly, as in years within a few days. Could she be the one to unite, divide or destroy either side?