Virtuality

Re: Virtuality

Beautifully shot and expertly plotted. I'm a huge fan of Stephen McNutt's work, and this episode was more beautiful than anything he did on "Battlestar Galactica" except maybe the series finale. Likewise, Michael Taylor's teleplay is a textbook example of tight plotting that introduces information in exactly the right way at exactly the right time. Peter Berg's direction approximated Alien's paranoid feel, which is ultimately appropriate considering that the show is essentially left as a murder mystery in space.

And yet, the first hour and a half was sort of a chore to sit through. After a stellar opening sequence, I never latched onto any of the characters. The gay Russian and Mexican couple was at least warm and the Jules character has potential, but everyone else was either too bland or too eccentric. It doesn't help that the commander is presented at the beginning as our window into this setting and he shortly begins acting inexplicably for reasons that aren't clearly hinted at until the end.

That being said, killing off the fearless leader got my attention: This show did was "Lost" planned to do with Matthew Fox but wussied out on. The final scene is what guaranteed I'd try the series if Fox moves forward with it, though. It raises wonderful questions, like: Was the Pike at the end a creation of the virtual man to manipulate Rika Goddard? If not, did Commander Pike know he was going to be killed? Did he download his mind into the virtual reality? Is the reality on the spaceship actually just another layer of virtual reality?

Re: Virtuality

I was completely bored until the last 15 minutes. I would like to see where they go with the idea (great shows have had less than stellar pilots) but I'm sure it's a moot point anyway- how good could the ratings be on a Friday night in June?

Re: Virtuality

It was longer than an hour? lol

I didn't find it all that engrossing, and figured it was over after the "Go" (which was inevitable) was announced. Guess I missed the good part.

Re: Virtuality

I missed it but will rent or buy it on video when it comes out, because of Clea DuVall. She was phenomenal in Carnivale and underused on Heroes.

Re: Virtuality

Ditto.

The endless 'CAM' shots quickly became irritating as well.

Re: Virtuality

I enjoyed it quite a bit. IMHO, one of the good things that SF can do is use our interactions with and use of technology to raise issues and ask questions of a moral or ethical nature. I thought that Virtuality did a great job in this particular area with questions about the nature of virtual experiences vs. 'real' ones and the validity of the virtual encounters.

I mostly agree with Adam's assessment, and I believe that the finale opens up the scope of the show with a number of questions. I hope that there will be more to this universe than just the pilot.

Clea DuVall is pretty terrific in just about everything she is in, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of this character. I liked her very pragmatic response to Billie's attack. 'Get guns and go back in there and kill him.'

- Walter.

Re: Virtuality

It was a great pilot. FWIR, there is practically no chance of it getting picked up, though.

I hate that I watched it because I will never know what happens next. Did SciFi pass on this or why did Moore go with Fox?  Seems like it would be a better fit on SciFi then Fox and have more of a chance of lasting a season or 2.  SciFi has no problems airing stupid junk like almost all there original movies.  I mean, if SciFi can take a chance with a show like Warehouse 13, then why not give Vituality a shot.  Fox was never going to give it a shot (Friday night, end of June is not a real shot).

It was a Fox production to start with.  Sci Fi has their own projects.

Sci-Fi is all about shows that it and its corporate siblings own.  They did [b]Battlestar Galactica[/b] because parent Universal [i]already[/i] owned the primary rights to the property.  (And they had been trying to develop it since before Moore came aboard.  The same may be true of Fox and [b]Virtuality[/b])  If SFC (sorry "SyFy"  ) airs a show produced by another studio then they have to pay a license fee of up to 100% of the production cost per episode and all they get in return is the ad revenue.  All ancillary income (foreign sales, DVDs, books, comic books, collectable ceramic plates  ) goes to the studio.  Unless the producing studio agrees to share the revenues or make it a co-production (which most of them refuse to do on principle), there's little incentive for a cable outlet like Sci-Fi to go outside for source material.  It can make more sense for a broadcast networks like Fox and ABC to buy shows produced by the studio arm of a competing network because ratings and ad revenues are higher, and because a blockbuster lead-in by an "alien" show can help a show produced in-house.  

Regards,

Joe

Carrying on that same theme, one reason why Fox may have passed on Virtuality was that it shared several major common plot points with Fox production Defying Gravity, currently filming in Canada.