Yeah, I definitely felt the first half was much better than the second half.
Ron Moore's Virtuality on tonight
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Yeah, I definitely felt the first half was much better than the second half.
I liked it enough that I would've tuned in for another episode.
I didn't find the virtual reality aspect of the show terribly interesting, but I liked the people-in-space part.
I didn't find the virtual reality aspect of the show terribly interesting, but I liked the people-in-space part.
The Orion drive may have some problems, but it's far less ridiculous than any of the FTL drives used in sf - like warp drive and hyperspace and so forth. Orion (originally the NERVA?) is speculative technology based in real science. FTL drives are at best magical mumbo-jumbo technical babble vaguely justified by occasional reference to outre theoretical physics.
Yeah, I liked the "people in space" part a lot. I bought this as a real space ship to a degree that's impossible for me with most so-called science fiction on TV and in the movies. "Sunshine" is the closest recent similar example I can think of.
I liked seeing virtual reality used in more human ways than the way it was popularized in Star Trek. These folks create art, escape their physical disabilities and indulge in more entertaining power fantasies and sexual trips than the sterile 24th century of Trek allowed.
Yeah, I liked the "people in space" part a lot. I bought this as a real space ship to a degree that's impossible for me with most so-called science fiction on TV and in the movies. "Sunshine" is the closest recent similar example I can think of.
I liked seeing virtual reality used in more human ways than the way it was popularized in Star Trek. These folks create art, escape their physical disabilities and indulge in more entertaining power fantasies and sexual trips than the sterile 24th century of Trek allowed.
Orion as depicted in the show would use nuclear charges to accelerate spacecraft. Basically you throw a bomb out the back, it explodes, pushes on a "pusherplate" and off you go. Giant shock absorbers would cushion the ride. I kid you not. I don't think it was ever proposed for interstellar missions as the velocity achieved would not have been as high as "Virtuality" protrayed it.
Edit - apparently an interstellar mission profile was developed. It would have used 10 million bombs.
NERVA was actually in development by NASA in the 60's for possible interplanetary missions. It would have used a fission reactor to heat a gas and expel it at high velocity. The high temperatures would have allowed for a much more efficient use of the reaction mass than standard chemical rockets. The project was canceled I believe partially due to funding and also due to the rising public hysteria over anything "nuclear".
A nice site with info on possible advanced propulsion systems is here:
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/advanced_propulsion_concepts.html
Virtuality handily proved if there's one thing worse than reality show nitwits it's scripted television portraying a bunch of reality show nitwits.
All the characters felts like cliches: the squabbling gay couple, the philandering wife, the over-sexed newlyweds, the bitchy tough girl, even a token handicapped guy. It's one thing to have a dysfunctional crew when everyone and their mother is in space but when it's a 10-year, $200 billion mission to save the human race (from water apparently) you'd think you'd get a crew that's actually capable and doesn't scream at each other constantly.
All the characters felts like cliches: the squabbling gay couple, the philandering wife, the over-sexed newlyweds, the bitchy tough girl, even a token handicapped guy. It's one thing to have a dysfunctional crew when everyone and their mother is in space but when it's a 10-year, $200 billion mission to save the human race (from water apparently) you'd think you'd get a crew that's actually capable and doesn't scream at each other constantly.
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Well, for what it's worth, when they put them in space their mission was not the salvation of the human race.
It is stated in the pilot the threat was discovered months after.
I enjoyed it, the holodeck theme actually became interesting for once, but not a single one of these people would be cleared to fly a NASA mission to fix a satellite, let alone contact alien species or be the saviors of humanity. And if the entire mission, including design and construction of the ship cost 200 billion dollars...well, shit, they could send a whole fleet.
Obama blows that much every few months bailing out companies too big to fail, which end up declaring bankruptcy a few months later anyway. I see no reason we couldn't print up a few extra hundred billion to fund this boondoggle.
And you'd think with the world ending, more than America and Britain would come together and throw some money and talent at the problem.
Why Epsilon Eridani? Are we hoping to find a pre-radio species in that system to conquer or what? Isn't it too young to have evolved intelligent life? Sounds like a wasted trip to me. Now, if they'd said they picked up a non-random artificial signal from the system and THEN decided to go check it out...
Sienna Guillory is gorgeous. That is all.
Anyway, too bad the series was a still birth, I would have watched. Maybe they could make it into a miniseries.
Obama blows that much every few months bailing out companies too big to fail, which end up declaring bankruptcy a few months later anyway. I see no reason we couldn't print up a few extra hundred billion to fund this boondoggle.
And you'd think with the world ending, more than America and Britain would come together and throw some money and talent at the problem.
Why Epsilon Eridani? Are we hoping to find a pre-radio species in that system to conquer or what? Isn't it too young to have evolved intelligent life? Sounds like a wasted trip to me. Now, if they'd said they picked up a non-random artificial signal from the system and THEN decided to go check it out...
Sienna Guillory is gorgeous. That is all.
Anyway, too bad the series was a still birth, I would have watched. Maybe they could make it into a miniseries.
Really? The Apollo Program cost $135 billion (adjusted for inflation). The cost of the ISS has been estimated between $35 and $100 billion. If anything, I thought they low-balled the cost (especially considering inflation in fifty years) of such a project.
1) If the survival of the planet is at stake, recall the reality show idiots to Earth and use the resources to send a competent crew into space pronto, because there is a zero percent chance that those idiots will successfully fulfill their mission, so you're going to have to send another crew anyway.
2) That timing is so incredibly suspicious that there's no way anyone would buy it. The whole Earth-in-danger thing is a lie the reality show producers made up to amp the drama.
I couldn't tell if the mission was to contact "nice aliens" for help or to find another habitable planets. Both seem like incredible long shots, and just makes it all the less likely that the ship's crew would buy the story at all. It doesn't remotely pass the smell test.
I am merely stating for the record what was said in the pilot about their mission.
I'm not examining what should or could be done or what was a lie or not.Those things I suppose we'll never know now.
I like the idea someone said that this whole mission is a VR reality series with the crew completely in the dark, and that Pike figured it out and killed himself to get off the show. Though why he wouldn't tell anyone else would be a plot hole... unless he wasn't 100% sure.
Just watched it online. In short: boring. I liked the look of the ship, but the interiors very low-budget in comparison. As for the story, I really couldn't get a flying-flip about the characters they just didn't connect with me in a way that said "I want to tune in a see more of these people"
This was the impression I came away with as well. The whole thing had a very Matrix-within-the-Matrix feel to me.
A couple plot notions:
- The near-death experiences were cleverly doled out to the crew members most likely to vote "no-go." Every one of them was on a post-cheating-death high that built and culminated during the vote scene, then extended through the launch. Their euphoria fed the others until everyone was giddy with adventure and purpose - "We're gonna save the world!"
- The Commander (Pike? Really? How many OTHER names could they have used?) intentionally went back into his simulation to test what would happen if he allowed himself to die there. Whatever he learned from that shaped his actions from that point. Actually, what would deal with the plot-hole of Pike not telling anyone else is that his dying in the simulation actually did exit him from the program, and a replacement was inserted, then killed to cover the obvious change in his character. Everyone was commenting on how oddly he was behaving. All that happened after he died in VR. Afterwards, Pike was there to motivate them to go on with the mission, then die quickly.
As for the crew members being too unstable to be Earth's Last Hope (TM), welcome to scripted television. When was the last time you saw characters on ANY TV show that acted like the people you interact with every day? I am constantly asking myself, "Do people really do such-and-such? Do people really behave this way? Am I that out of touch?" I don't think I'm the one who's out of touch. I think it's Hollywood that has a very skewed idea of how the rest of the country/world behaves.
I'm disappointed we won't get the chance to find out where the creators were going with this. I like that it made me think, and while I've sketched out where I think it was headed, I fully acknowledge that there are numerous directions they could logically take this premise and make it entertaining.
Indeed, I doubt any of them would have the mental stability needed to lie about getting married so they can have congugal relations in space, or go on a cross-country roadtrip on a jilted-lover-kidnapping-mission, explicitly planning not to stop to pee by any means necessary. As I said up-thread, the last people you'd expect to burn out, flake out, or flip out are geniuses.
It might jut be me, but my cock is big enough to pee out the window while driving.
Okay, that's a lie.
I can't drive.
Okay, that's a lie.
I can't drive.
Oh, I'm sure with an organization as big and old as NASA there have been a few nutcases. They don't comprise entire crews though.
When NASA works on the Hubble telescope they treat it like a matter of life and death. The crew of the Phaeton EVA to fix a piece of mission critical equipment and they play a practical joke that ends up getting the mission commander killed. And just imagine if the the astronauts on Apollo 13 had adopted the Phaeton crew's everyone-scream-and-bicker-at-once disaster response.
I found every one of these characters more interesting than the cardboard ciphers that generally inhabit skiffy TV shows, especially space shows - nuBSG and Whedon's shows would be the other exceptions. I find most so-called "science fiction" or fantasy television a waste of time for that reason.
I have mixed feelings about this show. The basic premise is interesting, but I hate, HATE the reality show aspect. I understand point of having but I really don't like it here. Along with it, I thought most of the conflict we saw (especially in the first half of the episode) was extremely forced and/or corny.
Some of the characters are interesting but none of really grab like an opening episode should. The mysteries and twists are somewhat appealing but there's something off about the execution. I didn't like the 2001 moment especially considering he should have died right away and not with a random minute leeway as we saw.
Lastly, I think it's bad when the best part of the whole episode (for me) was the playing of Beth Orton's "Alive Alone" during the Orion launch sequence.
Some of the characters are interesting but none of really grab like an opening episode should. The mysteries and twists are somewhat appealing but there's something off about the execution. I didn't like the 2001 moment especially considering he should have died right away and not with a random minute leeway as we saw.
Lastly, I think it's bad when the best part of the whole episode (for me) was the playing of Beth Orton's "Alive Alone" during the Orion launch sequence.
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