At what point did it "all go dark"? Was this right after adding a spot light (which would have been your first light source)?
If this is the case, that is what's supposed to happen.
Before any lights are added to a scene, everything is visible (but nothing is lit). This is for the purpose of setting up your scene. It is possible to render this way, and I do that for images to make into icons- that way there are no shadows to worry about.
Once you've added that first spotlight, you need to move it so that it's shining on your figure. Let's say for the sake of argument, that you've left V3 in the spot where she installed, which would be coordinates 0,0,0. To have the spotlight shine on her, it needs to be moved b/c it is also as coords 0,0,0. Select the scene tab and spotlight (generally it's at the very top of the list and selected right after it's installed). Change the coords to something like 0,150,100 and you should be able to see her nice and bright plus you'll be able to see your spotlight (which does not show up on renders).
As only the top half of V3 will be lit well by this, fool around with the z coord, and the spread angle.
Note that shadows have to be turned on (I recommend using only the 'Raytraced' option unless you have hours and hours available for each render, and I'm talking on my high end box.) Also, a great tool is 'Point At' this will bring up a tree of everthing in the scene and you can click on what you want the spotlight to point at - V3's head will be towards the bottom of the list if you imported her first. It will stay pointing at your chosen subject no matter where you move the light.