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!

There was the captain, who starred in FOX’s New Amsterdam a few years back. I think he was the one with a wife, who was a blonde woman. Then there was the psychiatrist or psychologist, who was British, two bearded men who looked alike, a man in a wheelchair, an African-American woman, a Hispanic man, an Asian man (those last two, I think, were in a relationship) and at least two other women who at least superficially resembled one another. That’s eleven so I’m obviously missing someone.

Even those recurring interview segments that included the names of the characters and their positions on the Phaeton didn’t help much. It’s just impossible to both follow the action of the story and commit all the characters and their names to memory in two hours. Plus, due to the virtual reality modules, many of the characters were shown in other environments — a Civil War soldier, a rock artist, a mountain climber — that only added to the confusion.

Aside from the size of the cast, I can’t say the mystery and drama of the pilot ever pulled me in. Something was going wrong with the virtual reality modules and a strange man (a thirteenth character!) kept popping up and shooting people. They didn’t die but they all knew there was something amiss. It wasn’t until one of the female characters was raped in the virtual environment that serious consideration was given to turning off the modules.

But by then the pilot was almost over. In terms of action it was only during the last twenty minutes that things picked up. An airlock door shut, another opened, and the captain (I think) was exposed to the ravages of space. I’m pretty sure I saw his eyes boiling and/or bleeding internally and there was what looked like ice forming on his lip. That’s scientifically accurate, I think. He didn’t look good when they got him back into the safety of the ship and shortly thereafter died.

Or did he? In the closing minutes of the pilot, the character of Rika (the captain’s wife, I believe) enters his virtual reality module and finds him there. Or at least someone who looks just like him and knows her name and tells her nothing is real. That was an interesting twist. And it set the stage for future episodes that now, it seems, will never be made. The Phaeton has passed the point of no return, its captain is dead, at least one member of the crew believes the captain was murdered, and nobody seems to know what is going to happen.

Also, I believe one of the characters was shown to have known the mysterious man who kept appearing in virtual reality and shooting/raping other characters. It was the African-American woman whose virtual reality module was an OB/GYN appointment. She stormed into her OB/GYN’s office and sitting behind the desk was the killer/rapist. I think.

So things did come together came in an interesting way in the last twenty minutes. And I suppose the groundwork was laid in the opening hour and forty minutes, showing the characters in their virtual reality modules, introducing relationships between characters and explaining how the mission was approaching the go/no go mark.

Still, I was left unconvinced that Virtuality could sustain itself for the long haul. As a miniseries it might work, with these first two hours making up the first third of a six-hour epic story. As a weekly series, though? There’s just not enough substance.

Sounds weird, right?

FOX decided against picking up the pilot but for some reason it is being broadcast as a standalone movie. Whether or not it will end with a cliffhanger remains to be seen. It’s possible the ending was altered to allow for a satisfactory conclusion. James Poniewozik has written a rather glowing review of the pilot for TIME.com, calling it “sweepingly ambitious, thought-provoking and visually well-imagined.” It is not without its flaws, however, and he suggests that the reality angle is unnecessary.

Like Poniewozik, I’m surprised that FOX deemed the pilot worthy of being broadcast but not being turned into a weekly series. It’s likely that the themes Moore attempted to address in Battlestar Galactica (with varying degrees of success, depending on who you ask) simply aren’t what FOX was looking for.

Although I was critical of Battlestar Galactica during its last two seasons, and felt that the finale was a huge disappointment, I’ll be watching Virtuality tonight. It’s only two hours out of my life, after all, and if I don’t like it I don’t ever have to think about it again. But who knows. Maybe it will be as brilliant as the first season of Battlestar Galactica.