Virtuality

By Lisa Fary

At some point, I’ll have to find forgiveness in my withered heart for Ron D. Moore. I was so angry about the finale of that show (you know the one), but then Caprica turned out to be so good, and now Virtuality looks like it would be even better.

If it gets a series, that is. Fox says this is a movie. RDM and friends say it’s a pilot – if Virtuality does well enough in the ratings, the reviews, and the downloads, it could get a series.

What we have on the surface with Viruality is the starship Phaeton’s deep space mission to the Epsilon Eridani star system. When the crew left Earth, it was an exploratory mission for intelligent life only; since then, Earth’s environment has taken a turn and can only support human life for another 100 years. So, the Phaeton’s mission is now to see if the Epsilon Eridani system can support human life.

Since the mission is to last ten years, the crew is provided with virtual reality technology – virt modules – to help them endure the cabin fever and isolation. The crew’s day to day interactions are also broadcast on Earth as The Edge of Never, a reality show on the Future!Fox Network.

For those of you who have not seen Virtuality yet: here, there be spoilers.

I’m willing to bet that, should Virtuality get picked up as a series (pleasepleaseplease), we’ll eventually find out that it’s not just the diary room and action footage that’s making it to reality TV on Future!Fox – I imagine that the crew’s virt module adventures are being televised as well.

Oh, and there’s a creepy virtual guy – who is not a crewmember – who keeps showing up uninvited into the virt modules to provide violence.

Virtuality brings in some important discussion regarding reality television. Reality television isn’t exactly reality – it’s manipulated by producers, not just through editing, but through other means as well.  Some of the most embarrassingly dramatic episodes of Big Brother happen only after the houseguests have been supplied with copious amounts of booze by the production team. On The Fashion Show, it’s not just Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland determining who stays and goes – producers are a big part of that, too. The only people left on that show are the biggest drama queens. And why is Kelly Rowland co-hosting anyway? She’s an idiot.

There are loads of other stories out there, I’m sure, of reality show producers egging on participants to get a certain level of conflict and drama.

Since this happens, presumably, so far in the future, I wouldn’t be surprised to see XTREEM!! reality TV to have taken hold in this ‘verse. Meaning that the outer door malfunction – if this is all real – could easily have been a production team manipulation for drama and ratings.

Virtuality also brings in social discussion regarding virtual interactions – if something happens only on the virtual plane, did it really happen? Is virtual cheating still cheating if the players are using separate modules and are physically in separate places? Is sexual assault on the virtual plane still rape?

Then there’s the question of how real the mission itself is. One character says that environmental degradation had been going on for years and that it seemed odd that, once the Phaeton left orbit, it would suddenly become so dire that mankind only had 100 years left on Earth. No one seems to really trust the intentions or transmissions of Mission Control – the crew has no way to check the validity of what they’re being told anyway.

Is it real? Is the whole experience a construct, like a Truman Show type of situation? Is there even a deep space voyage? If there is, is everyone in cryogenic sleep and in a Next Men situation or an American Life on Mars situation?

Maybe the overall moral of Virtuality is to not name space vessels after doomed characters from Greek mythology. Phaeton was the human son of Helios, and an eager young lad who nearly destroyed the world from recklessly driving his dad’s chariot. Oh, and he died. That’s not a promising start to a mission.

We may never even know how it ends, anyway. As I said earlier, Fox hasn’t picked up Virtuality as a series – getting picked up is depended on ratings, downloads, and word of mouth. So, even if you’ve already watched it, if you like it, write a blog post about it and download it from Fox’s website or Hulu. I want this show to be a series. And I want it now.

For more info on bringing this to television as a regular series, visit the Virtuality Fan Support Page.  Watch Virtuality on Hulu or on Fox On Demand. Blog about it. Tweet about it. If you’re really motivated, write to Peter Rice at Fox or Mark Stern at SyFy – both addresses are posted at the Fan Support Page.

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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.

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