Reminder Virtuality Airs Tonight

Just a reminder, Ron Moore's Virtuality airs tonight on Fox from 8-10 ET (7-9 CT). I haven't read a ton on it, but I know it deals with crew of astronauts on an extended mission in outer space passing the time using a sort of virtual reality. The astronauts' lives aboard the Phaeton.

Here's the official Fox blurb:

From Ron Moore and Michael Taylor, the minds behind "Battlestar Galactica," comes the World Broadcast Premiere of the new science-fiction thriller VIRTUALITY. As the crew of the Phaeton approaches the go/no-go point of their epic 10-year journey through outer space, the fate of Earth rests in their hands. The pressure is intense, and 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 a glitch in the system unleashes a virus onto the ship. Tensions mount as the crew decides how to contain the virus and complete their mission. Meanwhile, every step of the journey and every minute of the crew members' lives are being taped for a reality show back on Earth.

Sounds interesting. I'll be watching and I encourage everyone to do the same, even if it's only leaving the TV on and turned on to Fox. C'mon, who really goes out before 10 anyway? Don't give me Transformers as an excuse. The reviews sucked.

You should watch, and watch live because regardless of quality this "pilot" is one of the few actual examples of speculative fiction with the potential for airtime next year. And it needs to have spectacular ratings because right now, it's just a movie. There's no follow up series without a spectacular rating. I don't know what defines spectacular for a series airing at 8 PM on a Friday night in the middle of the summer with absolutely no advertising but I'm guessing it's unreasonable. I'm confident Fox will manage to outfox themselves again but still; the more watchers the more likely we get an actual SF series.

There's always the possibility that the series will suck, but we will never know unless it gets made. No series is perfect from it's pilot episode so be forgiving and try to stick with it the whole two hours, even if it means leaving the TV and reading a book in the other room. There's always time to cancel it later.

This is just one episode on one day. It's a minor commitment. You don't have to do much, just make sure your DVR/Cable Box/ratings monster thinks that you are watching Virtuality (preferably live). Your geek friends will thank you later.