Virtuality Moves Up

Has anyone else heard about Virtuality? Fox picked it up for a TV series, and they will be releasing the pilot on June 26th, at 8:00 PM. I've been following the project for a little while now, and it's certainly an interesting project, although it is in limbo as to whether it'll actually become a series or not. Originally, this was slated to be released July 4th on Fox, and this move might indicate that they have a little more faith in it.

Here's how the SciFi Wire described the show:

The crew of the Phaeton is approaching the go/no-go point of its epic 10-year journey through outer space. With the fate of Earth in the crew's hands, the pressure is intense. The best bet for helping the crew members maintain their sanity is the cutting-edge virtual-reality technology installed on the ship. It's the perfect stress reliever until they realize a glitch in the system has unleashed a virus onto the ship. Tensions mount as the crew decides how to contain the virus and complete their mission. Meanwhile, their lives are being taped for a reality show back on Earth.

It's supposed to be quite good, and there are a number of possibilities for where the creators can go with the storyline. It looks like it's got a fairly big cast, although there's nobody that really jumps out at me for people that I recognize. I'm mainly interested in this because Ron Moore's the guy who created it, and given his track record from Battlestar Galactica, there are undoubtably some high expectations for this from other SciFi fans. Plus, Peter Burg is directing the pilot, and I've generally been really impressed with his work.

What gets me more interested is that while there will undoubtably be Matrix and other sort of cyberpunk connections to this, I'm really excited that this seems to be a completely original show and story. This isn't a remake, adaptation or inspired by sort of project, and I really hope that this'll make it to the TV series stage because there are so few good space shows out there at the moment.