VR.5 – Nostalgia Central

1 9 9 5 (USA)
13 (10) x 60 minute episodes

VR.5 opened in 1978 in Pasadena as computer scientist Dr Joseph Bloom (David McCallum) arrives home with a computer, raving that it has a 16K memory. “One day every home will have one of these,” he predicts to his wife and two young daughters. “Maybe they’ll even be all hooked up to each other!”

A mysterious man from “The Committee” (a secret security organisation) shows up at the door to deliver a message to Bloom, and the kids are banished upstairs where they hear their father and the man arguing.

Later, Bloom is all smiles again, and drives them to get ice cream. But in the rainstorm, he loses control of the car, which plunges over a cliff into a river. Only Sydney survives.

Her father and sister Samantha both drown.

Seventeen years later, Sydney (Lori Singer) is an introverted, frustrated telephone lineswoman. She has grown up without a family and has only one friend – a semi-hippie named Duncan (Michael Easton) – and a pet bird.

With no social life, Sydney spends her free time on the computer in her drab apartment, experimenting with Virtual Reality.

She discovers that by telephoning someone while connected to her VR equipment, she can tap into that person’s subconscious – revealing their fears, desires and guilty secrets – and share a virtual world with them.

Sydney can interact with them and explore their deepest secrets, and any action she takes inside the virtual world directly alters reality and affects the targets in the real world.

The turning point comes when Sydney calls up her co-worker, Scott, and discovers he’s a serial rapist and murderer.

She seeks out VR specialist Dr Frank Morgan, who works for The Committee and agrees to work for them, setting the premise for the following 12 episodes.

When Morgan is murdered, Oliver Sampson (Anthony Head) becomes her new contact (and friend).

To differentiate the real world from the virtual reality realm, the production shot the VR sequences using high-contrast black-and-white film, which was then heavily colourised with hyper-saturated tints to convey the surreal landscape of a human mind.

While the show was highly rated by critics for its ambitious concept, the high production costs and unconventional storytelling failed to capture a mainstream audience. Fox produced 13 episodes but pulled the plug and cancelled the show after airing only 10 episodes.

Sydney Bloom
Lori Singer
Duncan
Michael Easton
Dr Frank Morgan
Will Patton
Oliver
Anthony Head
Dr Joseph Bloom
David McCallum
Nora Bloom
Louise Fletcher

Episodes

Pilot | Dr Strangechild | Sisters | Love and Death | 5D | Escape | Facing the Fire | Simon’s Choice | Send Me an Angel | Control Freak | The Many Faces of Alex | Parallel Lives | Reunion