Fox's 'Virtuality' is intriguing, but …

Virtuality" is an intriguing two-hour pilot for what could be a good science-fiction series series. A series that, it appears, is never going to happen.

The pilot/TV movie, which airs June 26 at 7 p.m. on Fox/Ch. 13, is the first project from executive producer Ron Moore to air on TV since he completed work on "Battlestar Galactica." And Moore's "Galactica" remake turned out to be one of the greatest science-fiction shows in television history.

But the chances of "Virtuality" becoming a series appear to be slim to none. Let's face it — Fox is airing the show on a Friday night in late June, which is a terrible sign.

Although Moore told TV critics on a conference call that he hasn't given up hope.

"I think you never say never," he said. "(Fox executives) haven't picked it up to date. Their attitude, I think, is kind of wait and see. I think they want to see what the reaction is going to be. What are the critics going to say? Is it going to get word of mouth? Are fans going to gravitate to it or is the science fiction community really going to turn up for it? Is there going to be a certain buzz and excitement?

"I think right now it doesn't look like it's going to series, but I think if enough people watched and enough people got excited about it anything is possible."

Set 30 years in the future, "Virtuality" is about a 12-person crew on a 10-year mission aboard an interstellar ship. Originally a voyage of exploration to what they hope is a habitable planet in a distant star system, the mission takes on huge added importance because global warming will make Earth uninhabitable in a century or less.

The virtual part of "Virtuality" is a system that allows crew members to experience virtual reality — to feel like they're in the middle of the Civil War or to be a rock star, for example. Which allows them to go on this 10-year voyage without going crazy.

This is not, however, like the holodeck on "Star Trek." This is more like a video/virtual reality game — you put on what looks like weird eyeglasses and everything that happens is imagined.

Except that something seems to have gone wrong with the system.

Oh, and crew members are also the stars of a reality show about their journey that's being watched by billions back on Earth.

So not only is "Virtuality" a virtual-reality show inside a science-fiction/outer-space show, there's a reality show in there, too.

"We started talking about when they would be broadcasting pieces back to earth, like astronauts do today," Moore said. "And hey, what if they made a reality show out of that? Then it all kind of started to come together.