Who is Martin? Martin was a character played by Frank Ashmore; often referred to as 'the nice alien' or 'the good alien' from V. In a story of evil lizard aliens who wanted to steal our water and eat us, Martin represented a dissident alien group who believed what his people were doing was wrong. This character possessed many admirable qualities. He was honourable, honest and kind. Above all he acted on his conscience. I suspect his popularity arose from the fact that he embodied how most of us hoped we would react to an atrocity committed within our own society. Apart from his dissension there was nothing extraordinary about the man. Martin did not have super qualities that made him more heroic than his peers. He was cunning and sneaky and his stance was incredibly brave, but he did not display an intelligence or courage which would have elevated him beyond the rest of the population. He was the optimist's everyman. Among a certain sub-set of viewers Martin also became an unlikely sex symbol; not quite as unlikely as Michael Ironside's character Ham Tyler, but odd nonetheless. The fact that Martin was supposed to be a six foot, rodent-eating reptile did nothing to deter some admirers. Empirical evidence suggests most of these fans were 12 year old girls (and boys) and it is probable that this demographic missed the point. By the end of the second mini-series Ashmore found himself inundated with fan-mail. So I continued along in the six-hour series when all of a sudden I started getting this tremendous onslaught of mail from fans. I had no idea that my character was having that kind of effect on people.The overall response to the mini-series was overwhelming. V was one of the most successful mini-series to air on American television. A story about alien lizards may not sound overly intellectual, but this mini-series was literate and painted it's characters intelligently. People responded to the allegorical aspect. It gave Americans a chance to explore the idea of a totalitarian state emerging on home soil. A key element of the story was the mobilisation of usually docile members of society to fight against the invaders. V also had a fine thread of environmentalism running through it. It very gently posed the question: "What are we doing to our planet?" Viewers enjoyed the combination of thought provoking themes and sci-fi action. Discussions within the network about the delivery of V as a regular television show started early. Creator Kenneth Johnson originally wanted to make a mini-series every few years. The idea of a weekly series was also tossed about. "V" was the highest-rated show of the NBC-TV season and, although there was talk of packaging it as a movie for overseas release in Europe, nothing happened. Meanwhile, NBC toyed with the idea of turning it into a weekly, hour-long series. However, that idea was scrapped due to the high production costs that such a program would require.V: The Final Battle gave the viewers the conclusion they had wanted and left an opening for the continuation of the story. Despite earlier concerns expressed about costs, the mini-series was picked up by the network as a weekly series. The Final Battle left a few problems which the new writing team had to address. One of the more pressing issues was the large ensemble cast the writers inherited from the six hour series. Not only was the cast list too bloated for a weekly sci-fi action series, it also contained a number of complex characters who could prove problematic in the long term. A whole new group of people with new creative energy were brought in. They looked at what they had and saw Donovan, Ham Tyler, Diana, Julie and so on. And then they had this guy Martin who was an alien and an exposed traitor and they really didn't know how to write for him.The cutbacks weren't just a result of an unwieldy cast. The producers also felt they had to strategically get rid of characters to create a more sustainable story arc. "Martin was obviously an on-going problem for us," Simmons explains. "If we, as humans, have access to someone who has a lot of information on the aliens, then we get into these murky areas of how much do we know, how much do they know, how much do they know we know, and where do we draw the line?" Feeling that a believable war requires a certain number of secrets on both sides, the producers realized that Martin had to be eliminated, but in an explainable fashion.  And with that Martin was gone. Martin was killed off by Diana (Jane Badler) in the first episode of the new series. It was a sudden and ignominious death. Martin died trying to do something stupid and grossly immoral. His 'hang 'em high' attitude in the episode Liberation Day was hard to swallow when Martin had always been a voice of reason. This was particularly so in The Final Battle in which the Resistance's plans always had a whiff of hare. Like Ham Tyler, Martin unintentionally became the consciousness of a certain section of the audience. According to the internal logic of the show he was supposed to be a tight-wad, but when he pointed out Donovan's (Marc Singer) plans were ill-conceived he won the backing of that specious kind of viewer who has real trouble suspending his/her disbelief. He often articulated what the audience was thinking and the fans loved him for it. That and his pretty blond hair. Liberation Day indicated a new paradigm in V. The producers sent a signal to the audience in the first few episodes that no one was safe. They could not have anticipated the backlash from fans once Martin was killed off. The public reaction to the cut was of a scale and magnitude that would not be seen again until Keri Russell cut her hair in season two of Felicity. Indeed for many Martin's death was a rude shock. Oh man...my first childhood trauma! I was like 10 years old or something and I thought Martin was the coolest, most honorable/noble character on the show...I probably needed counseling or something after his death early on in the series!The Yahoo Group FRANK_ASHMORE_FANS expresses similar sentiment as it invites us to join with: If you liked Martin and cried when he died this group is for you. The Saddest Thing to Ever Happen. (Sporting Events Excluded.)
As soon as fans' diaphragms recovered from the cycle of constant dry-heaving the letter writing campaign began in earnest. From the time Liberation Day first aired there was a very strong feeling among fans that Martin should not have been killed off. For many his death was a symbol of the sacrifice of the original spirit of V as the series devolved into a camp fashion show for Jane Badler. Dave (quoted above) resigned himself to the fact that it was probably for the best that Martin did not make it into the series. Looking back, the script they gave Frank Ashmore for the 'Liberation Day' episode was pretty ridiculous, so Martin probably would have become just as shallow and 'cardboardy' as the rest of the characters anyway.Years later it is regularly referred to as the key moment when V jumped the shark. I agree with everyone who posted "when Martin died". Martin was the coolest fifth columnist, and this came as a huge disappointment in THE FIRST EPISODE! Philip: The Resurrection By the end of 1984 V The Series experienced a series of budgetry reductions and a steady decline in ratings. The plot was loose and scattershot, the writers were still struggling with the large number of characters and some of the actors were getting fidgety. The producers tried to remedy these problems by further cutting back cast numbers, using stock footage and winnowing down the plot to follow the more confined bounds of the mothership. Desperate to revive the show, the producers began to look to earlier episodes for inspiration. It is rumoured Kenneth Johnson was approached and asked to help rejuvenate The Series and that Johnson, as politely as possible, declined.* In a move to mollify angry fans and to save a show that was flailing in the bath, Frank Ashmore was asked to return to play Martin's twin brother Philip. Many labelled this as just another cynical attempt to improve V The Series' pathetic ratings. This guy was an integral part of the show and only after a monumental showing of letter support did they lamely bring the actor Frank Ashmore back as......Martin's twin brother Phillip. By this time though, the show was on it's way out......Though fans were glad to see Frank again, it was questionable how much his character added to the plot. The addition of Philip may have upped the ante of fey silliness. Everyone needs a straight man and everyone likes to poke fun at authority, even when it represents the greater good. Philip played "Sam the Eagle" to Lydia (June Chadwick) and Diana's Anne Baxter and Bette Davis. Ashmore's scenes with Jane Badler lacked the frisson of their earlier interactions when he played Martin. This was one of the more intriguing relationships in the original series where the usual power and gender roles were reversed. But the underlying toxic sexual tension between the two evaporated when the balance of power tipped more in Ashmore's character's favour. Philip and Diana simply wanted to kill each other which was less interesting than the claustrophic symbiotic relationship between Martin and Diana. A more pleasing reunion was that between Ashmore and Marc Singer who always looked good together on screen. They worked with each other in a complementary way. When we stood on the set and played out scenes together, each of us had a very clear understanding that what we were promoting were two massive movements in contradiction to each other.Singer and Ashmore understood Kenneth Johnson's idea of having two people argue opposite points and both being right. Unfortunately this sensibility was not enough to carry the crappy script. In early 1984 V was cancelled. Frank Ashmore in any reptillian incarnation vanished from our screens as suddenly as he had arrived. Martin Lives!Thanks to the spurious genre known as 'fan fiction', Martin lives on in many incarnations on the internet. Frustrated by the ham-fisted attempts to rehabilitate Ashmore's original character, a number of fans took it upon themselves to try to 'fix' the errors of the past. Almost every fan fiction story written about Martin retroactively undoes his death. How this happens varies depending on the talents of the writer involved. In Sharon Taylor's V Saga Elizabeth sends Donovan back in time whence he rescues Martin. Truth and Consequences and other works by Mary Ann Boring present an alternate universe where Martin never died. Catlover's Destiny Pushes Back has Martin fake his own death. Through these wish-fulfilling stories he has become the character that just refuses to die. Taylor's V Saga is undeniably the most impressive of the bunch and has been around the longest. It pre-dates internet based fan fiction, most of which is self published and of questionable quality. (Although on the whole a lot of it is still better than the scripts for the weekly show.) Though the time-travel premise seems ridiculous, Taylor has managed to write it in such a way that is credible. Of all the fan fiction stories I've read, V Saga most realistically and thoughtfully deals with Martin's death. When Donovan goes back in time and confronts his friend who has been dead for months the experience is sickening and upsetting. Although I admit I really enjoyed reading the V Saga, I wish Taylor had been brave enough to let him stay dead. Of course this would have eliminated her whole raison d'être for writing her story. Martin's death in V starkly illustrates why fans take up fan fiction writing. It is a perfect case study. Over the years I've slowly grown uncomfortable with fans' inability to accept Martin's death. This macabre impulse of these sub-literary grave-robbers to dig him up has been going on for more than twenty years now. There's no dignity in this pursuit for the character or the writer. It betrays a lack of maturity and a stubborn inability to accept the harsher realities of life. People die. Television programmes end. Singing La la la la La la la lie When Martin died... is dedicated to the idea that Martin is dead, and there is (slightly) more to Frank Ashmore's career than just 'Martin from V'. This site contains a comprehensive selection of Frank Ashmore links, images, interviews and endeavours to take a light-hearted look at his career. It aims to celebrate Frank's life and Martin's death. So feel free to have a look around, find a few links and nick a few pictures, but please, leave the lizard be. | What's new at When Martin died...?If Martin were alive today he would endorse:
Think you've got something worthy of endorsement? Contact me  Thank you for voting. ... is in there ...Top five things google has to say about Frank Ashmore:
frank ashmore is married Courtesy of Googlism What the critics say:"Ashmore's politico is the embodiment of his wife's comment: 'A pig's bladder on a stick can get elected to the U.S. Senate.' " Rare Frank Ashmore MemorabiliaLimited release Frank Ashmore Spritzer (pictured below) came out in November 1984. Made from lint collected from the Ashmore household clothes drier outlet, this high quality product is guaranteed to contain 0.016% actual Frank Ashmore The can is still pretty full. The owner has had occasion to use this item only twice: once at the Linwood College school prize-giving in 1986 and once (though used quite liberally in this instance) at the premier of Lord of the Rings in Wellington, NZ in 2000. 
Sorry this item is not for sale. A++ would chew again!!!How would you like to own something that has been in Frank Ashmore's mouth!  Gum comes with a certificate of verification (pdf) P.O.A. Frank Ashmore Trivia and this cake:  are eerily similar |
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