First Details of Ron Moore's Upcoming Pilot

The first details of an upcoming Ron Moore show just hit the web:

Exclusive: First Details Of Ron Moore's New Show Virtuality

When we first heard Battlestar Galactica's Ron Moore was doing a show about a deep-space long-haul crew who lose themselves in virtual reality entertainments, our first thought was, "Oh great, a whole show of Star Trek holodeck episodes." But Moore's new Fox pilot, Virtuality, is a lot more multi-layered and twisted than that, judging from the tons of script pages that have turned up. The pages are "casting sides," for actors auditioning for roles in the series, but they appear to be taken from the actual pilot script. Details, with spoilers, after the jump.


There are three strands in the Virtuality pilot, and only one of them relates to virtual reality as such:

1) The ship, the Phaeton, is nearing a slingshot maneuver around Jupiter, which will either send it back to Earth or send it hurtling forwards to its destination of Eridani. This is the "go/no-go" decision point, which will decide the crew's fate once and for all. At the same time, the ship's doctor, Eyal Meyer, has Parkinson's Disease, which throws an extra wrinkle into the tough decision. Should the ship go forward and risk not having a doctor on board? If they don't go, it may be 20 years before humans can try again — which may be too late. There are also glitches with the ship, and emergency repairs may cost one character their life.

2) The crew are all spending time in virtual reality "modules," including everything from a restful seaside scene to a Civil War battle where Confederate troops attack Union soldiers, only to fall into an ambush. In all their "modules," a mysterious figure known as the Green-Eyed Man shows up and kills the humans in gruesome ways. (Unlike in The Matrix and other scifi classics, being killed in VR doesn't harm you in real life, but it's jarring.) Is the Green-Eyed Man a hack by one of the crew members? A computer glitch? Or something else? Everybody suspects Billie, the computer geek — until she's raped by the Green Eyed Man, in a brutal and horrible scene.

3) Even as the crew is stressed out by the experience of being in deep space alone for 10 years, and losing themselves in VR entertainments, they're also being watched. In particular, the ship is one huge "reality TV" show, which is broadcast back on Earth. The ship's computer whiz, Billie, becomes the "host" of the show, which is struggling with declining ratings — so she has to find ways to increase the show's "drama" to make it more compelling viewing. There are interview segments interspersed with sequences where Billie films the crew arguing. The crew have to take part, or risk breaching their contracts — which could mean their families back on Earth lose their preferential housing. (There are tons of hints that Earth is one huge ecological cesspool, and liveable dry land is at a premium, with long waitlists

The show's most freaky character — sort of a cross between Gaius Baltar and Brother Cavil — is Roger Fallon. He's the ship's therapist (and may have to take over as doctor if Meyer is incapacitated.) But he's also the producer and director of the ship's "reality TV" show, which places him in a weird conflict of interest. He's supposed to be listening to the crew's problems, even as he's urging Billie to create more "drama" to boost the show's ratings. He's a manipulative snake, who's a famous self-help guru with a book that's almost as popular as the Bible back on Earth. We're clearly supposed to hate him and yet find him oddly compelling. His wife, Rika, is having a virtual reality affair with the ship's captain, Frank Pike. (Yes, the captain is really named Pike.)

Other simmering subplots: Manny and Val, a gay couple, have been stuck on galley duty and hate cooking, plus they're bad at it. Another married couple, Alice and Kenji, are having sex in weird spots all over the ship and trying to keep it secret for some reason. (Plus it seems as though Alice had an abortion so she could go on the Phaeton's space flight, and her sister just had a baby back on Earth.) Billie is adjusting to being the host of the "reality TV" show, and her VR module is a hilarious scenario where she's a Joan Jett-esque rock star who's also a superspy. (And her band are all super-spies too.) Another character, a scientist named Jules Braun, is having the computer create a virtual reconstruction of his dead son, Shawn.

Bottom line: It's a bleak and disturbing look at the effects of a long space trip on humans, as dark in its own way as Battlestar Galactica. It sort of reminded me of the underrated film Sunshine, in the focus on psychological drama in cramped quarters, plus the dangerous repair sequence and the fact that the ship has a hydroponic garden. But the "reality TV" aspect adds a whole extra sardonic layer to the cake. [Thanks to Lukas for the heads up]
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Honestly, I'm interested and annoyed by this. It sounds interesting, but totally unrealistic (as much as you can apply to a SciFi Show.) Space mission = good. Crew dymanics = good. Ron Mood = Good. Reality TV show? Um, what?

More Galactica Movies?

I've been really behind on Galactica stuff lately, and I apologize. Things have been crazy busy lately. Here's a couple of interesting news tidbits:

From TV Squad:

Battlestar Galactica TV movies on the way?

Posted May 17th 2008 1:07PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Battlestar Galactica, Reality-Free
RazorApparently, NBC Universal wants to make more Battlestar Galactica television movies like Razor, possibly as soon as this summer. According to Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, discussions have just started regarding this.

Ronald Moore has stated that Battlestar Galactica in its current format would not be continued after this season. Given the death rate of the surviving humans, I wonder if any of the characters will be left to film after the season's end. My guess is that the TV movies would serve as filler for what could be a long delay between the first and second halves of season four.

What keeps Battlestar Galactica intriguing is that, much like Lost, you never know who will be alive or dead by the end of the episode. This makes for exciting storytelling.

On the other hand, the TV movies could simply be tie-ins to the upcoming prequel series Caprica. What do you think the TV movies would be about?

Interesting news - I wonder what that could be...

Caprica Cast

This in from the SciFi Wire - looks like they've started the casting, and they've selected their lead actor:

Caprica, Warehouse 13 Are Cast

Paula Malcomson (Deadwood) has been cast as the female lead in Caprica, SCI FI Channel's prequel to Battlestar Galactica, while Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly will headline SCI FI's two-hour pilot for Warehouse 13, a comedic SF drama to be directed by Jace Alexander.

Malcomson will play Amanda, a surgeon who works as a double agent, in Caprica, which is set 50 years before the events in Battlestar. Caprica follows the evolution of the Cylon race and the fight between two families.

Warehouse centers on two FBI agents, Myka (Kelly) and Peter (McClintock), who work at the government's Warehouse 13, which houses supernatural objects. They are assigned to retrieve missing objects and investigate reports of new ones.

Sackhoff going to CSI?

This is interesting:

Exclusive: Inside CSI's Battle for Katee Sackhoff
This is seriously frakked up.

Sources confirm to me exclusively that Battlestar Galactica's ass-kicking Katee Sackhoff was thisclose to becoming Jorja Fox's pseudo-replacement next season on CSI. In fact, she was considered to be such a lock for the new series-regular role of Bryce Adams that exec producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, both huge fans of the actress, were practically rolling a red carpet all the way to her trailer.

But...

Oh, come on, you knew there was a "but" coming. After seeing Sackhoff read for the part of the sexy new CSI on the graveyard shift, executives at both CBS (who declined to comment for this story) and Jerry Bruckheimer Television remained unconvinced that they had found their Bryce. And, unfortunately, their opinion won out.

Told you it was a frakked-up story.

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Road Less Traveled Review

From TV Squad:

Battlestar Galactica: The Road Less Traveled - VIDEO

Posted May 2nd 2008 11:54PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E05) It looks like Sci Fi took to heart some of the complaints over last week's online preview. This week they weren't so vague, making it crystal clear how much of a preview we were going to get. If nothing else, I could skip over the first ten minutes of the episode when it aired on TV.

As we heard tonight, the mission of the Demitrius is nearing the end of its 60-day mission, and there's noticeable tension on-board. Two months doesn't really seem all that long, but then I got to thinking -- what is a "day" to the humans as related to Earth time? Are we to assume Caprica has the same cycles as Earth? I know, I'm digressing here, but I do wonder how they differentiate a day amongst all of the different colonies, then simply say "a day" on Galactica. Most likely they have a military-set definition for it.

I meant to mention something for the past couple of episodes, but I didn't think it was worth mentioning until now. Baby Nicolas cries an awful lot. I get that he's a baby and that, perhaps, the director is just trying to make us more aware of his presence. However, it was tonight when Tyrol turned off the radio as Baltar's speech was playing that I saw there was significance in what soothes him. Do machines -- baby machines -- learn at a different pace than humans? Is it possible that he understands at a higher level than a human baby at his age? Or maybe he just likes Baltar's accent.

Did you notice that Starbuck mentioned that she was waiting to "hear that sound again." I take it that many viewers automatically assume she means the 'All Along the Watchtower' song, but my guess is it's something else. If -- and, for me, this is a big if -- there's a "ship of lights" in this series, I again say I hope it's done well and right. Olmos already said in interviews, several times, that he has a clause in his contract that says there won't be aliens in this show. Well, other than Capricans vs. Earthlings that is. Would the beings on a ship of lights go against that?

I'm not sure what's with Tyrol's shaved head, but it makes him look like someone between a bad-ass and Curly of the Three Stooges, especially when he was rubbing his head, flipping out with a gun in his hand. Out of anyone else on the fleet that we know, Tyrol has more of a reason than anyone to act out that way. It's a wonder how he was able to control himself from pulling the trigger. He feels at fault for Cally's death (and, quite honestly, he is indirectly responsible) and obviously questions his own worth and safety to the rest of the citizens of the fleet.

Baltar's talk in Tyrol's quarters was finally something that someone grounded him, especially after hearing his crazy-sounding speeches this season. The fact that he was able to admit his faults to Tyrol's face was what finally allowed him to reach out a hand and accept him. At the same time, I still loved it when Tyrol grabbed Baltar by the throat earlier in the episode; I could hear the collective cries from Baltar-haters over the planet cry "Yes!"

As for the goings-on on the Demitrius, we could see mutiny coming from a mile away. Regardless of intention, bringing Leoben onto the ship was pure insanity over anything Roslin's ever done. This thing/person kept Kara captive for months as a slave, even going so far as to lie about her having a daughter. How in the world could she trust him for a second?

Starbuck is right, though, in that if they return to Galactica with nothing, they won't be sent back out. And even if they were, the crew would likely not agree to accompany her again. Now, with mutiny at stake, there's no way in hell they'd go out again. So now it's do or die time for Starbuck.

Lastly, a hat goes off to the sudden death of Sgt. Erin Mathias. She may have seemed a Red Shirt to many, but she actually had quite a few scenes on the show. Sadly, she won't really be missed all that much.

Current fleet population: 39,675 (-1 for Sgt. Mathias)
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/05/02/battlestar-galactica-the-road-less-traveled/

Escape Velocity Review

From TV Squad:

(S04E04) I went on earlier today about how a lot of us were cut short in the early viewing of tonight's episode, which made me think perhaps something "big" happens later that they didn't want revealed early. With the exception of one "maybe big" moment, I can scratch that theory.

I wouldn't exactly call this a throw-away episode, though with what we saw in the past three episodes it did drag is places.

Thankfully we weren't transported days or weeks ahead of the events from last week, giving us a look at Tyrol coming to terms with what happened to Cally ... or at least trying to. How exactly did everyone know Cally ejected out of the ship? If there was video evidence, we all know what that would have shown. Did a Raptor happen upon her lifeless body in space? She was thrown out of there at a pretty good clip, so the chances of her being recovered weren't so hot.

Tyrol's comments about Cally to Bill Adama were harsh to the Nth degree, though it's exactly what I had been thinking all along. We saw how the Chief was with Boomer, and then we saw where he wound up on New Caprica. This wasn't the Tyrol we knew, and neither is the person we're seeing post-Cally. He's in a whirlwind of crap right now and he's quickly spinning out of control. He went from saying she was the "blood in my veins" to saying she had "vacant eyes" -- he's frakked up.

The scenes with Tigh and Number Six were the best of the episode. Are Tigh's visions of Ellen simply a form of guilt or are we supposed to wonder if she is the final Cylon? Tigh and Tyrol are clearly having a much, much harder time coming to terms with what they are. Tigh has decided to go to a resource that might have answers for him, though I started to wonder why none of them don't just go to the Number Eight that's walking amongst them and fess up. Wouldn't she be a bit relieved or delighted to know she's not alone? Sorry, but the whole Cylon being a part of the crew while everyone knows what she is still bugs me, and I don't care what she did to prove herself. Then again, Tigh can't go to Athena while she's on the Demetrius. Well played, writers.

I keep going back to the scenes from past seasons when we saw the tell-tale Cylon glowing, red spine. That, along with Anders' red eye confuse me when someone like Number Six goes on about how there are "no wires" inside Cylons. What-how? Someone explain that bit to me.

To the groans of many I'm sure, we were back with Baltar's story this week. I consider myself on the fence about whether I find his character fascinating or simply annoying. After this episode I'm more on the side of being fascinated. The biggest "wow" moment of the episode was when Number Six picks up Baltar from the floor when he clearly says he doesn't want to get up. I went over that scene several times and I'm convinced Baltar was actually lifted from the floor. So, if that's what really happened, then what the heck? What is "head Six"? Is she an actual force around the ship? He's both mentally and physically a puppet for the Cylons.

Finally, Lee saw Tory having a grand ol' time at Baltar's little service at the end of the episode, so I wonder if he'll use that to his advantage against Roslin in the future. Clearly Lee didn't buy into anything Baltar was going on about, so in seeing Tory there -- the president's aide -- his confidence in Roslin isn't going to gain any points.

Current fleet population: 39,675 (no known births/deaths)

A Storm is Coming...

Six of One on Tonight

New Episode tonight, Six of One, at 10, preceded by last week's opener, He That Believeth in Me at 9.