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Repressed and solitary in her daytime life, Sydney sheds her sexlessness in her computer-created virtual universe. There she is passionate and vibrant. VR.5 is a science-fiction TV show that Patricia Highsmith might have written. For all its vividly colored effects, it is above all an exploration of the unsolved mysteries of Sydney's interior life. She is haunted by the death of her father, a secretive neurobiologist, and her journeys provide electronically sophisticated psychotherapy. On her road to analysis, however, she encounters a host of very real villains, most of them associated with the Committee, an agency with suspect motives that coerces Sydney to work for it.
VR.5 drew good ratings in its initial outing, though they have fallen off since. But Fox remains mystically undeterred. In fact the network is developing two more science-fiction shows. One, to be produced by Francis Ford Coppola, will take place in a primitive future on a planet of outcasts. Can Black Hole, 90210 be far behind?