Virtuality: Great concept, but does it deliver? – CliqueClack Preview

As the huge Battlestar Galactica fanatic that I am, I have been looking forward to Ronald D. Moore’s next television projects, Caprica and Virtuality for quite some time. Both have had a rocky pre-production time period, but Caprica is set to premiere in January of next year. Things aren’t looking as good for Virtuality, however.

The show is set up at FOX, but it does not look like it will be taken to series. The network will be airing the two hour pilot on Friday, June 26th, but unless the airing does some killer ratings, a series pick up is doubtful. Moore, in a recent conference call, said they haven’t ruled out continuing the story in other mediums, but is waiting to see what happens next week. After taking a look at the pilot recently, I’m not as hopeful as I once was.

Like I mentioned, the concept is pretty cool. Astronauts, while departing for a research mission, are re-tasked to find a new place for the human race to move, as Earth will no longer be a viable home in about 100 years. The twist about this mission is that it had been originally planned to be a Big Brother-style reality show, complete with cameras throughout the ship, an on-board host, and, of course, a confessional room. The concept actually adds a unique element to the show, as the thin line between reality and reality TV is tread upon quite often in the first two hours.

The other main piece to the premise is the Holodeck-style virtual reality system. The premise is that the on-board psychologist believes that these alternate world will help with the uber cabin fever that will develop on a ten year mission stuck in metal tubes. That makes, for those that are counting at home, three different “realities:” the ship and its mission, the reality TV show, and the virtual world. The director, Peter Berg, does a great job distinguishing between each cinematically, and it’s pretty easy to follow what is going on, despite the complicated nature of the show.

Where the show struggles, in my eyes, is that the audience is never really given a reason to care about whats going on, specifically the characters. Most are unlikeable, especially the one focused the most on in the pilot, Captian Pike, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (New Amsterdam). His personality is all over the place throughout the two hours, and you never really get a sense of who he actually is. Clea Duval (Heroes) plays the ship pilot, and is the one of the few standouts in the cast.

We did get to experience some twists in the first two hours (generalized spoilers follow). There is a glitch in the virtual reality world that affects different users in unique ways. One of the crew members is diagnosed with a serious disease. As you can expect in such close quarters, two of the members are involved in a virtual affair. And a shipboard accident results in some serious consequences that would seemingly have a great effect on how the show would work, should it get picked up.

Also be on the look out for webisodes that FOX has produced. They actually will be “clips” of The Edge of Never, the reality show within the show. Moore said that the clips are to be released on the Edge of Never Facebook page in the near future.

I see the huge potential that FOX saw in the show. A great production team, a cool script, and a big name director. FOX worked with Moore in trying to cut the show down to a one hour pilot, and I’m sure various other tweaks before they came to the decision to air just the pilot and see what happens. I hope the best for the show, but I think it would need some changes if it goes to series.

Clacked by Ivey West
on Jun 19, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT