VR.5
Though the original series only ran for thirteen episodes in 1995, it could be argued that VR.5 was, in fact, ahead of its time. The show featured Lori Singer as telephone lineworker Sydney Bloom, daughter of neuroscientist Nora Bloom (Louise Fletcher) and computer scientist Dr. Joseph Bloom (David McCallum).
It transpires that Sydney’s parents had been working on developing a virtual reality interface, and she accidentally discovers that she herself can enter a virtual world, in which she can interact with people and effect change in the real world. Seeking guidance for her newly discovered ability, Sydney finds herself working for The Committee – a shadowy organization that provides her with assignments to carry out in the virtual world. However, this mysterious group is not everything it seems to be.
One of the main issues for this show in terms of commercial viability was the special effects used to illustrate the differences between the virtual and the real world. In 1995, these proved to be prohibitively expensive but, twenty years later, we have seen such technological advances as to make a reboot of VR.5 not only viable, but also an intriguing prospect. There is nothing like it on television at the moment, and any effects designed for it today would be spectacular to behold. An interesting slant would be to have the show pick up through The Committee, with the organization having evolved considerably over the previous two decades, and with a new female recruit becoming suspicious of its motivations.
