Lower Decks

Originally broadcast on 6/26/09

The best TV shows are those that defy conventions in utterly natural ways. They create a unique identity that doesn’t rely on conventions or quirks, but rather creates their own, new rules that feel as if in an instant they could have, or rather should have, been around forever. In short, they make you realize what you were missing before they aired for the first time. Now, the sad thing about ‘Virtuality’ is that it seems to have been a failed pilot, that the telefilm Fox debuted last night was meant to launch a bold new vision, but instead merely teased a revolution. I can hardly think of a worse crime. Many times Fox seems to have launched series in the genre vein that it cancelled prematurely, within a few tantalizing seasons or worse, episodes. But far and above anything else I can think of, ‘Virtuality’ deserves far better than one experience for something that would have blown all of those other projects out of the water.

Hatched from the mind of Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor (whom I offered sort-of profiles for during my ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ writers specials and as such basically fawned over recently), it would have been their follow-up to Moore’s recently concluded ‘Battlestar Galactica’ revamp, which Taylor played a key creative role in. But ‘Virtuality,’ I dare argue, would have been better than even BSG. Blessed with perfect casting (which I never felt was the case with BSG) and organic characters (ditto, but the exceptions were always and only, for the most part, Baltar and Six), ‘Virtuality’ gave a virtuoso performance of a plot that expanded and grew more complicated as the story progressed, only to leave its best surprise for a conclusion that apparently leads nowhere, all the while feeling as if we weren’t watching just another show, but actual people, not in a reality show kind of way, but people you would actually care about.

Okay, as for that story: a science crew launches for a sort of moving International Space Station experiment that suddenly gains new urgency when it becomes apparent that Earth is not going to be habitable for much longer. This crew is basically scouting a new home, and its journey, already plotted for ten years, takes on a more claustrophobic atmosphere than has already become apparent. On top of that, the one means of personal release, a virtual reality system, becomes compromised through a series of violations. Oh, and did I mention that the crew is also participating in a reality program that broadcasts events back home, to a startlingly large audience (quoted at a billion)?

Back in the 1998-99 season, I watched a show called ‘Mercy Point’ on UPN for as long as its meager audience could sustain it. That experience, a show that got absolutely no respect even though it had an innovative approach and a game cast (including genre veteran Joe Morton), is almost the only thing I can compare this series to. Maybe if I’d watched ‘Space: Above and Beyond’ (military in space to the medical drama in space that was ‘Mercy Point’), I’d have something else. I never did. There’s also ‘Earth 2,’ a show that had a comparable ambition, locating a new home environment, but it reached that home in the first episode and spent its remaining (and only) season (not to mention money; the thing was backed by Steven Spielberg, and that’s probably what convinced NBC to give it even a little support) dealing with crusty natives, instead of focusing on another terrific cast (Clancy Brown, where is your career?).

But ‘Virtuality’ is still a breath of fresh air, precedent experiences or not. The perspective and unexpected depth of the cast would have been something entirely new to explore, beyond the problems and settings, like ‘Lost’ taken to a different level, at least on that score (I wouldn’t compare the depth of the story itself, or approach, but then, I really consider ‘Lost’ to be incomparable). Some of this credit must go to filmmaker Peter Berg, whom I’ve come to admire from last summer’s ‘Hancock,’ a completely different entity but another genre experiment that defied conventions and came up with something utterly fascinating, and again a lot of that had to do with casting.

I can only end this incomplete review with a plea to the programming gods to get this thing back on the air as soon and as quickly and as faithful to this debut as possible. ‘Virtuality’ is a rare genre experience that’s relevant not just to native conventions but to the greater pop culture world. Please save this aborted show!