4. Trapped In VR
SyfyTech enthusiasts may find the publics lack of enthusiasm for Virtual Reality baffling, but its only because sci-fi has taught us a valuable lesson: the minute you stuff yourself into a lycra bodysuit and headset for a game of virtual badminton, all hells going to break loose. Sci-fi likes to up the ante and the peril by having participants wire themselves directly into the VR system while mumbling vaguely about psychosomatic consequences die in the simulation and your brains so astonished by the whole affair that it promptly induces a heart attack. When the safety features inevitably get turned off and characters find themselves facing down Wild West gunslingers or pirates, there can be genuine jeopardy despite the unreal nature of it all. Except its all bit contrived nowadays, isnt it? As VR becomes a reality, its hard to suspend your disbelief and buy that someone would build something so dangerous, let alone use it as a recreational pursuit. Even in Star Trek, some of the best uses of its holodeck werent about trapping the crew with a bunch of gangsters but the occasions it was used to recreate a murder or provide an expression of a machines evolving subconscious. Writers love VR because its a chance to travel outside of the usual sci-fi settings to write something Western or historical, and producers love VR because it lets them shoot on the old soundstage next door. Ultimately, though, its about making the choices that result in the best TV, not the easiest TV. Here in the real world, were finding amazing things to do with virtual reality. Its about time sci-fi caught up.