“2) If you’re really in such desperate need of a new home, you still have a go/no go choice at all? Don’t think so, you are all going and you are going to make it work.”

You should have one – and for a very good reason: if the crew has signed up for a month-long mission with the option to extend it to a year-long mission, and they say “no” because it turns out this isn’t for them, they may decide it’s better for their (mental) health to turn back.

Now _force_ them to stay on this ship for a few years more, instead of a few months for the flight back home (another crew could still do this mission) and that mission is doomed for sure.

Another thing is the neccessity of VR for the crew to stay sane – I’d say that _imagination_ (like someone else wrote) is NOT sufficient to make up for the lack of variety in stimuli for the human brain, which is used to _way_ more than one big tube in ten years.. 😉

T, you might have been the target audience on this one…someone who’s more of a “mainstream” viewer than a SF geek. The show seemed like it was trying to open itself to non-genre audience, which is not necessarily a knock–it just means it wasn’t going to be the right fit for someone like me (a geek).

E, my sentiments exactly.

I, agreed that it was disappointing the show didn’t bring the action to much of a resolution, since it looks like now we’ll never know. The dark underbelly of experimental (for the channel and its usual audience) tv shows–sometimes you get sucked into something that never sees the light of day….

C, this probably keeps getting compared to sunshine because it is very similar. in my opinion, similar is not necessarily bad as long as it transcends its nods to other films/directors. Sunshine did so. this did not. therein lies the problem. Agreed that new and original SF stories are rare in film, and that there are plenty of great stories that should have been made into films but for some reason have not…yet….

The “virtual” thing is played out. The Matrix owned it and the fact that writers rely on it is a cop-out in my humble opinion. Why it’s so difficult to come up with a unique vision for a science fiction story is beyond me. Let’s get back to basics. Hard science fiction. Not mind-game “Lost” like story lines that keep doors open for writers.

Foundation, Ender’s Game or better yet, Dan Simmon’s Hyperion would be great places to start.

Full disclosure, I DVR’d this because I mistook it for Virtuosity (1995 – Denzel Washington). I had never heard of this project, but watched it nonetheless. I agree that the show lacked focus, and the unremitting desire for additional plot lines compares to that guy in your office that tries to act smarter than everyone else to feel better about himself; but at the end of the 2 hours, I was interested. I think that given a full season to work with, character development and plot lines could work themselves into something pretty cool.

Dont worry, from what I read elsewhere, this is the end of the show and there will be nothing further; but it really seems like this was doomed from the beginning (see my line about having never heard of this show). Perhaps some semblance of selective marketing and a reasonable time slot could have given this a chance. Oh well, back to reality.

Jay, sorry!

Chris, In the first place this is a column; it is an opinion piece. In the second, I believe that calling something derivative is a valid criticism, especially when it doesn’t take the parts it lifted from a different series/movie and then re-use them in a new and compelling way. But that’s just, like, my opinion, man….

1) You made it sound way more interesting than it actually was.

2) I got the impression the mission was launched after they knew the whole 100 year thing was happening (I could easily be wrong about that one though).

3) The captain being locked in the airlock was done in the same way the outer airlock opened – that is to say, no-one did it, it just happened (that seemed like a big flaw to me, that they didn’t talk about how he got locked in without a helmet to start).

My problems with the show:

1) Way too many plot points meant to lead into a series, no good sense of closure – just confusion and a feeling like the end was rushed.

2) If you’re really in such desperate need of a new home, you still have a go/no go choice at all? Don’t think so, you are all going and you are going to make it work.

I agree that the fundamental premise is utterly lame, that these people can’t last ten years talking to each other without the VR things attached to them. When it starts killing people you shut it down. When it starts raping people, you shut it down again and hack out all computer links to all system in the ship (except I guess the engine, which it seems you can’t actually control without VR even though a simple robot to just select a thing and pull it out would suffice).

I also really didn’t like many of the characters much, and I can’t imagine watching any of a series should one come along. I was really annoyed I wasted time watching it, and I generally am willing to tolerate a pretty weak plot and silly basis in a science fiction show.

Thanks for the contrary thoughts, I do love to know how other people took things!

Incorporating the dream-reality bit, and AI bad guy, was an interesting way to show how the line between virtual reality and reality itself could be blurred if not handled properly.

The plot itself was certainly enough to grip anyone. You have a show trying to establish ratings, characters who have problems with themselves, and others, as well an an under-the-nose affair that certainly casts motive on a character when a murder happens.