With sci-fi reboots all the rage, ABC is updating the 1984 miniseries V about an alien invasion of Earth.

In the show, which debuts Nov. 3, Lost star Elizabeth Mitchell will play an FBI agent trying to figure out what weird mysteries lie beneath the skin of the "Visitors," aliens that have thrown earthlings for a loop by promising peace, love and understanding of advanced technologies.

"I really fell in love with this character," said Mitchell at a Saturday press conference in Hollywood. "I like playing a traditional hero."

V producer Jeffrey Bell said the new show will pay homage to the original series with references to the Visitors' rat-eating diet. He also hopes to hook viewers with a multi-season story arc and detail-rich fan bait reminiscent of television's recent sci-fi successes.

"On Lost or Battlestar or any other awesome shows out there," Bell said, "people are live-blogging and die-hard fans are freezing frames and TiVo-ing and finding Easter eggs to see what happened. It's our job to build that into V for those people but to also keep the story simple. It's a show about spaceships."

It's a calculated move at a time when sci-fi reboots have a mixed track record on television. The recently completed Battlestar Galactica won fan and critical accolades for its gritty update of the cheesy '70s series, while even rabid fans couldn't save Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. ABC's updated V will debut the same month that AMC rolls out its 21st-century remake of '60s spy-fi show The Prisoner.

The new version of V (trailer embedded above) expands on the original show's propaganda theme as market-savvy aliens take brainwashing to a new level.

"Propaganda has just become advertising" in modern society, Bell said. "Everything is branded, everything is turned into a product, so the Visitors are going to do that. The Vs are going to brand themselves. The Vs are going to advertise and promote, and we are all going to want to, like, love the Vs."

Mitchell, the Lost star who said she watched the original V when she was a kid, referred to her recent appearance on the "Wonder Women: Female Power Icons in Pop Culture" panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego last month when talking about the alien-fighting FBI agent she plays in V.

Morena Baccarin, left, plays alien leader Anna in V.

Photos courtesy ABC

"I did a panel with Sigourney Weaver and she said she always chooses male roles because she felt like they are meatier," Mitchell said. "In the previous version of V, I believe my character was a man, so I'm excited and hoping to step up to it."

V also features Morena Baccarin (Serenity) as Anna, leader of the Visitors, along with Scott Wolf, Morris Chestnut, Logan Huffman, Joel Gretsch and Laura Vandervoort.

Will Mitchell fall victim to the Visitors' charms? First she has to finish her gig on Lost. When last seen, her character Juliet Burke was presumably getting blown to bits during the Season 5 finale.

"I am going to be traveling to Hawaii more than once," Mitchell said. "We'll see how that plays out. I will actually be back on Lost. I can't say whether I'm dead or not, but as in all things in Lost, it will be fairly tricky."

V debuts Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.

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