Add in good staples like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break and 24, my DVR is going to be set to overdrive.

We’ve gotten a few basic details about the plot of J.J. Abrams’ Fringe in the past, but now we have a deeper look at what the heck the show is all about.

From Zap2It:

When something disturbing, unexplainable and just a bit icky happens to the passengers on an international flight, FBI Agent Olivia Warren (Torv) begins an investigation that leads her to Dr. Walter Bishop (Noble), a renegade scientist whose unorthodox experiments into fringe phenomena led to arrests and eventually institutionalization. Warren can only get Bishop out with the help of his estranged son Peter (Jackson), a young man with a genius IQ, but questionable morals and motivation. The son isn’t ready to reconcile with his father, the father isn’t ready to be reintegrated into the outside world and Olivia isn’t ready to serve as babysitter, but they form an unlikely team. How does the airplane tragedy relate to The Pattern, a spate of unexplained occurrences sweeping the world? And what does any of this have to do with the mysterious Prometheus Corporation, one of the world’s most forward-thinking companies? And what do we make of Broyles (Reddick), the head of the Homeland Security’s newly formed Fringe Division?

The script Zap2It had was a very rough draft and will likely undergo massive re-writes, but I can’t imagine the above outline will change a whole lot.

No surprise that the idea sounds awesome to me, being a science fiction nut, so I’m waitined anxiously to see the pilot in the fall.

Word is that we could see Fringe on Monday nights paired up with Sarah Connor. Wow, now that could be a sweet two-hour fun-fest.

We told you about Fringe by Abrams in February, and Dollhouse from Whedon last year. There is also the sci-fi comedy Boldly Going Nowhere by the Always Sunny in Philadelphia team.

Now comes Virtuality, which has a script written by Moore and is scheduled to possibly debut in February of 2009.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, FOX had approached a bunch of writers before loving what Moore did with the idea. Moore brought over Michael Taylor, another writer-producer on BSG to help out, and they’ll join the team of Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun who created the series.

(btw, no, it’s not Lloyd Braun from Seinfeld)

The premise of Virtuality is this:

The sci-fi project, from Universal Media Studios and producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun, is set aboard the Phaeton, Earth’s first starship, on a 10-year journey to explore a distant solar system. To help the 12 crew members endure the long trip and keep their minds occupied, NASA equipped the ship with advanced virtual reality modules, allowing them to assume adventurous identities and go to any place they want. The plan works until a mysterious “bug” is found in the system.

“It’s very much about what’s fantasy and what’s reality; what we do to escape our lives and what actually institutes our lives, and are these things very different,” UMS president Katherine Pope said.

It sounds a bit…just okay dawg right now, but with Moore creating the script and pilot for it, I am going to hold out hope.

It’s pretty insane how much sci-fi stuff is going to be coming out next TV season.

Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton were signed by Fox for the next two years for a variety of projects, but mainly to helm the pilot for a new comedy, Boldly Going Nowhere.

The pilot will shoot in October, thus giving the trio the summer to film Always Sunny, which will premiere its fourth season in the fall on FX.

The title of the new show should give you a clue what it’s about, but the idea behind it is so very original that I cannot wait to see how it plays out.

The series will be a one-camera style comedy, set in the future and involve the boring life of a starship captain and what his life is like between missions. Fox has already ordered five more scripts after the initial pilot.

“We grew up watching shows like ‘Star Trek,’ anything having to do with the future, and it was always about the adventures they’d go on,” McElhenney said. “We thought it would be funny to watch what goes on in between those adventures, when they’re waiting for the next big thing to happen. How do they keep themselves busy?”

I think it sounds like it could be a riot, and if you’ve ever seen Always Sunny, you know these guys can pretty much come up with ANYTHING to write a show about.

And if what Fox has to say means anything, it seems like there is already good buzz:

“I wish it was less rare that when you get a comedy script, you laugh out loud,” said Fox Entertainment prexy Kevin Reilly. “This really felt like a bull’s-eye for Fox. It’s a concept I’ve seen developed before badly, many times. These guys nailed it.”

The downside, if any, is that the three writers will not be actors in the series, instead it will be a cast with a wide variety in terms of race, sex and age.

It certainly sounds a bit strange for a network pilot, but I think with this writing team is has big-time potential. Hopefully though, the trio’s writing style translates well to the network level, and it’s curious how toned down it will be with their background coming from cable.

Source: Variety