Virtuality is dead in the water

It's reality TV out in space...

Earth now has 100 years left and this crew will attempt to find another planet.  A bit too much for scifi if you ask me, nothing in this show seems really plausible if you think a bit further ahead... and what really killed it for me, was the religious undertone promoted as a glitch in the AI system that seems to "show the way" to certain members of the crew who seem fit to see the light.

The show was not all bad, it actually hits close to today's reflection of US mentality, but to actually need to do a reality TV show out in space in order to get funding to "Save the Earth", hummm, maybe a bit much.  It does seem close to what think would happen in terms of Earth demise, that people will wait till it's too late before getting off their ass to try and help save the planet.

Andre Vandal

Yup, at this point in time, it does appear that it's almost all over but the screaming Cosmic. 

The Corporate world runs the show with a pro-active agenda to exploit resources regardless of perilous consequence to the planet (and her people -Ed) while joe-and-jane blow are either in denial, oblivious or apathetic and in either case, do nothing.

As a function of pure measurement of "force", when one body has momentum and direction and the other has none or is disorganized, directionless or lethargic, the body with force and direction, de facto wins.

I just watched a few moments of the end of some movie that had scientists solve the Earth's problems by releasing an electromagnetic pulse to re-set the Earth's weather system.

It occurs to me that this sort of movie represents a big part of the problem imo, many people subcutaneously think that the scientists and/or the politicians are going to solve the problem, so why bother doing anything?

By now we have probably collectively figured out that the politicians are in the pocket of the corporations, and so they will never do anything to help solve the problem, as it conflicts with their personal interest.

Maybe, scientists could help out by dispelling the myth and telling people outright, "we can't solve this for you, with the easy press of a button, if that's what you're hoping, but these are the things we all need to do to pull us back from the brink".

Perhaps If enough Scientists hit the media to dispel the myth, people might start paying attention, and more to the point, we might collectively start doing something active and pro-active, ourselves?

TAG's Brief review of Virtuality:

Virtuality

or

Babylon-5 meet Neuromancer meet Starlost meet 2001 meet Silent Running meet Survivor.

Ideas & Dialogue - Very good, borderline excellent. Intellectually Stimulating.

With the caveat that it is somewhat familiar ground to those of us that have grown up in + with a propensity towards - analyzing the various elements of the information age.  R vs VR; Religion 2.0; The Singularity, AI, et cetera.

When you consider that 80% of the premiere was stunningly dialogue and concept centric, the show could have become a highly interesting analysis of the issues we face and will be facing in the near future.

I would loooove to see that on a weekly basis!

FX - um, to be charitable I expect they didn't have much of a budget.

(or if they did they cheated a bit and pocketed the change -Ed)

or they spent the money but were cheated.

Either way, reminded me a bit of Babylon-5 CGI.

B5 CGI was impressive back in the day (and is one of my all-time fave genre series) but 1993 CGI _today_ ? ask me Virtuality FX tended to look'n'feel more suitable to a Sony Playstation 3 videogame or a well done Web series' FX.

Not terribly impressive by contemporary standards.

If we are in a charitable mood, we might call them utilitiarian or adequate.

Admittedly, perhaps we were spoiled by the FX on BSG.

Reality Show Angle: Total annoying shite. 

(don't mince words Bones, tell us what you really think - Ed)

Go Away Ed.

What makes Survivor work (for me) is the HUMAN element.  People are unpredictable, and it's fun to see what they'll do next. 

But space "reality show" ``people'' _writ by writers_ on Virtuality?

wot's the point of that?

I can't see it; by now I think most of us know what the (writ) character archetypes are, having grown up steeped in television; movies; books and even videogames, fictional character archetypes are pretty predictable.

If reality-shows have taught us anything, it's that human beings and fictional characters are 8 times out of 2 discernibly separate entities.

I might be inclined to give Ron Moore the benefit of the doubt that he recognized that going in and planned to switch archetypes up to keep the reality-show angle interesting, but even if he and the writers were given a mandate to do that, the real-human spontaneity that makes something like Survivor interesting and fun, would it seems to me, be lost with fictional characters.

Anyway, as a friend said, "break the com array in the second episode" and voila, you kill the annoying reality show angle.

And I agree 100% with that.

Bottom line for me: focus on the ideas, the Ray Kurzweil (futurist -Ed) meet  William Gibson (present-squared - Ed) analysis of 21st century life and this show would be must-see-TV, for me.

Too bad Fox put it in the legendary Friday night kill-show slot, imo a clear sign they had no interest in picking it up, at least not without making it one hell of an uphill battle. 

Pulling in viewers on Friday night on Fox is like ..a simile.

(is like a simile? -Ed)

..yes, is like a simile, insert one that describes just how hard that is, since most Fox viewers are out partying on Friday nights.

(lazy bastard - Ed)

heh.

Anyway, break the com array and deep-space-six the reality-show angle, and it becomes more "personal" and I think Virtuality has great potential to be one of the best shows on television SINCE Battlestar Galactica. 

Largely for the intellectual meat; the social commentary; the dialogue; the ideas and the futurist/present-squared analyses.

that's my view.

The Avante Guardian. ---- Einstein's Hair^2 //Approved.

"Look, let's face it. We all know that Christmas is just a big commercial racket, it's run by a big Eastern syndicate, you know." - Lucy Van Pelt

Only nowadays it seems that the syndicate runs EVERYTHING.

I tend to not pay much attention to what the critics say of a film or TV series, preferring to judge it on its own merits and whether or not I personally liked it.  So I would get royally ticked off when a series that I got into was cancelled only a few episodes after I started to watch it, regardless of what everyone else said.  Anyone remember Automan? Or Manimal? How about The Powers of Matthew Starr?  All members of the so-called cheese club of '80s shows that were cancelled after only one season or less.

But IMHO the concepts were cool.  The shows might have worked given a different time or audience demographic, they were just not in sync with what people wanted to see.

That said, I refuse to watch any sort of "reality" show, no matter how popular it is.  It's pure voyeurism, that viewers get such a kick of watching other "real" people's problems, like they're celebrity paparazzi without having to stalk their target.  If I want that, all I need to do is turn on CNN.  Give me a good show on History Channel any day.

 Blue Jean -- GP/approved -- Beware of Frog!

"Counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor... Death's too good for them!" - Vogon Captain, Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy