More on 'Virtuality'

Fox's "Virtuality," from the writers of "Battlestar Galactica," airs tonight at 8 as a one-time movie, although what viewers will see is actually a pilot for a proposed TV series that now seems unlikely to be produced. But it has enough interesting ideas - and executive producer Ron Moore has enough of a following - that it deserves more attention than the average failed pilot.

On virtual reality: In "Virtuality," astronauts embark on a journey to find an inhabitable planet and along the way they pass the time in VR environments. To connote VR, Moore said scenes set in VR were shot on green screen for later insertion of computer-generated backgrounds.

"We kept that [visual] language for all the virtual pieces to sort of give all of the virtual reality a sense of continuity so that you always intuitively felt that you were in a virtual world," Moore said.

Some viewers may compare it to the holodeck on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but the "Virtuality" astronauts enter the space only in their minds while wearing VR goggles. Also, if they die in the VR world, they don't die in the real world; it's more like playing a contemporary video game.

It's a similar conceit to the VR world in Moore's upcoming "Battlestar" prequel, "Caprica," whose pilot episode is already out on DVD.

"In ‘Caprica' it's really much more akin to the Internet where you go out and the virtual spaces are practically infinite and they intersect with one another," Moore said. "In ‘Virtuality,' we're looking at something much more discrete, much more of a gaming type of environment where an astronaut has a specific virtual reality module that they go into and play whatever game or whatever experience they want but there is no expectation that you can cross for one module to another."

On the reality show component: In addition to a scientific mission, the Phaeton crew in "Virtuality" is also filmed for a reality show that's airing on Earth (on Fox, of course).

"There was a conscious attempt on the part of the people who put the crew together to sort of have an interesting mix of people," Moore said. "There are debates within the crew themselves about who was chosen for just sort of their demographic content and who was legitimately supposed to be there."

On the show's tone: "There's more humor probably in the first 10 minutes of ‘Virtuality' than there was in the run of ‘Battlestar,' let's put it that way," Moore said.

On the show's development: Moore said studio executives initially pitched him on the idea of a show about a long-range space mission to Mars.

"I was interested in the idea of what do you do with 12 people in a metal tube for that long," he said.

Executives had a meeting with writer Michael Taylor and the same topic came up. Eventually, Taylor and Moore began collaborating

The idea of something to keep astronauts from going crazy during a long space trip emerged, hence the VR. After that, the reality show concept grew out of the idea of the crew beaming reports back to Earth, which created new possibilities for drama.

"Were the needs of the reality show starting to impact what was happening on the spacecraft? Were people being manipulated in order to make better drama for the reality show?" Moore said.

On "Edge of Never" webisodes: Segments from the reality show seen on Earth turn up in the "Virtuality" pilot tonight but more have been posted as Webisodes at the Edge of Never Facebook site.

On the future of the "Virtuality" property: Moore acknowledged even if the TV show doesn't go forward, there's also been talk of books or graphic novels continuing the story.

"I think all of those are possibilities," he said. "It's just kind of one step at a time."

 ***

I know I promised part two of my interview with "Three Rivers" executive producer Carol Barbee this week but it got squeezed out. Look for it next week.