In the opening of the V pilot, the queen alien beams her face from the underside of her spaceships with a simple message of peace. Gullible humans applaud the empty promise, and I was left wondering, "What are they thinking!? Run for your lives!"

Then, on a recent set visit to Vancouver, I found myself in a chair opposite actress Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Stargate SG-1), who plays Anna, queen of "The Visitors." That's when I got it. The 30-year-old Brazilian-born Baccarin is mesmerizing, a standout in an industry that is obsessed with beauty. Yeah, I'd probably give up my species for a chance to get closer to her, too. Before the V pilot aired, we chatted about her character and her new show. I decided to omit the part where I almost fainted from swooning from the following Q&A.

TV.com: For those who don't know what V is all about, tell 'em what the heck is going on!
Morena Baccarin: There are people who don't know about V? [laughs] V is very simple, aliens come down from space and loom all over major cities on Earth. [Humans] immediately meet Anna, the leader of "The Visitors," as they are calling themselves, and she says, "We come in peace," and the only thing the Visitors need [from Earth] is natural resources, and then they will leave. In turn, [the aliens] are going to give humans some technological advances.

Oh, how nice of you!
It will be a pleasant exchange, and we'll go home and it will be great!

Anna has to appear benevolent to humans to mask her master plan. Are there any acting tricks to being sweet on the outside yet rotten to the core?
I don't actually think about changing anything with my voice or body language. I can't play a lie, so I have to believe Anna. People go about saying she's bad, but I just play her as that isn't her intention and she simply needs what she needs.

She's about to kill us all! Please defend her some more.
[laughs] She's kind of deliciously evil. She's a character I hope people can't help but follow and be enticed by, because she's nurturing and what she's selling is pretty great: health care, technological advances, things that humans are in need of that can further society. And the Visitors are this really prim and proper people, I think it's really hard to say no to them.

Good science fiction is often an allegory for real-world issues. How does V tackle today's society?
It would be wrong to call V a sci-fi show, because I think it's sci-fi with great character-driven drama. Yeah, we have great special effects, spaceships, and that element of sci-fi. But it's really more about aliens and human beings and how they interact with each other.

You play the alien queen, who on the surface looks to be as human as Morena Baccarin. But The Visitors obviously aren't human. What do humans have that aliens don't?
Humans have a sense of spontaneity and emotion. We have a dichotomy between grief and happiness. The aliens present themselves as supreme beings, having conquered unhappiness, and have a more even-keeled approach to life. But that's boring!

What's being done to prevent spoilers from leaking out?
What's being done? Well, we don't know anything! We know as much as we need to shoot a particular scene, but I don't know what's going to happen and I don't know what trajectory the producers want to the show to go on. We really are kept in the dark, and everytime we get a script, we're like, "Ooh! What's that?!"

So the aliens fly their ship over New York, and your face smiles down from the bottom of the ship and Anna delivers her speech. Some people started clapping. What would you do if you were in that situation?
Well if I saw my face, I would clap! [laughs] I don't know... I am very suspicious of things that come from the sky, so I think I would not applaud and see what this is all about before making my decision.

V airs Tuesday nights at 8pm on ABC.