Virtuality (TV Pilot) (2009)

Earth finally makes it in to space as the 12 person crew of the Phaeton heads out on a 10 year mission (To boldly go where no man has gone before?) to explore a nearby star system (before the Earth becomes uninhabitable). To make life more interesting for the crew, the ship is fitted with a Virtual Reality program so they can escape the monotony and live out their fantasies. To make the trip more interesting for the people on Earth, the Phaeton’s journey is a reality show with cameras catching all the action.

Virtuality was a proposed television series that was not continued after the pilot. I’m not sure how the makers would have maintained the interest had it continued. Nothing much happens in the pilot which introduces the crew and their relationships and sets up the mystery of a dangerous element infecting the VR program (shades of HAL9000 from 2001 A Space Odyssey). The novelty of a small, confined crew works okay for a movie (Dark Star) but usually you need to introduce an outside force (Alien) to make it more interesting, or many outside factors if you turn it in to an ongoing series (Lost In Space). Virtuality needed something to make it more interesting. Big Brother is boring on Earth and setting it on a spaceship does not make it more appealing (even when death is involved).