Fox Reschedules Virtuality for June

June 4, 2009 by Cynthia

Fox has once again given Virtuality the bump though this time it seems like a move in the right direction. The much anticipated pilot from Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D. Moore and Friday Night Light’s Peter Berg was downgraded from series launcher to special movie event with a July 4th airdate.

Burning the pilot off in the summer was bad enough, but scheduling it on a holiday where the majority of the people in the US are outside watching fireworks – that was insult to injury.

Now, Fox has bumped the pilot movie back to June 26th, a better date but still not the sign of respect this expensive scifi thriller deserves.

Set aboard Earth’s first starship, the Phaeton, a crew of 12 astronauts is on the verge of embarking on an epic 10-year journey crucial to the survival of life on Earth. To give the crew a measure of privacy as well as a vital recreational outlet on the long journey, the ship has been equipped with revolutionary virtual reality modules. Each crew member can assume adventurous, avatar-like identities as they explore self-created worlds and scenarios, or simply spend quality down time as themselves in the ultra-life-like simulators. From a war hero to a rock star to secret lovers on an island, these are their psychological lifelines, and each module’s unique setting was chosen by the crew member before departing Earth.

But there is a bug in the system.

As crew members go in and out of reality, they realize that a virus has entered their private world. Questions are raised, and suspicions fanned: Is someone on the crew responsible? When the interloper’s intrusions cross a violent and disturbing line, the ship’s commander makes a difficult decision to shut down the modules. But before he can, a tragic event threatens the mission. Is it an accident or a crime? Real or virtual? Whatever the case, it’s too late to turn back, so the group ventures forth into space, fearing that they may be harboring a person or presence determined to derail their vital mission. Meanwhile, tensions are heightened even further as surveillance cameras capture their every move for a reality series back on Earth.