Playing on so many contemporary themes of popular culture, media consumption and machinations behind television programming, Virtuality should have its hands more than full in building an engaging premise for viewers. Leave it to Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor (two of the creative minds behind Battlestar Galactica) to pile on the heavy trappings of sci-fi, including space travel, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, in some fantastically morbid ways and well, you’ve got a show that has no right airing on broadcast television.

Starting out as something out of the Holodeck’s greatest hits, Virtuality reveals itself to be a behind-the-scenes look at a reality show aboard a spacecraft about to embark on a 10-year mission to find a habitable planet for the rest of mankind. When the crew begin experiencing unusual activity in their “dreams”, tensions flare and ultimately, the decision is made to begin said mission and leave humanity behind. Sounds like stuff we’ve all seen before in some form or another, but about three quarters of the way through, things take a stiff left turn and send the show off into radical new territory.

With death, murder, rape and treachery coursing throughout the two-hour premiere, Virtuality has more than enough to stun viewers as it does to attract them, but the intimate building of its twelve main characters and the strange turn of events that occur once the show sets course shows a lot of promise for some mind-bending adventures should the show actually gain an audience.

And there’s the rub. Virtuality, for all the potential it holds, is airing on Fox–by far the most notorious broadcast network when it comes to killing shows before they can catch hold–and what’s worse, looks like it’ll be in the deadly Friday night timeslot. I suppose it should be comforting that Fox saw fit to renew last season’s Dollhouse, even though that show took half a dozen episodes to really find its footing. Maybe Virtuality will be able to stake out some ground in the same manner. If nothing else, I’d urge everyone looking for an interesting new sci-fi TV show to give it a chance and let us know what you think.