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The dark and fantastic Harsh Realm, a science fiction
series about a war fought by flesh-and-blood humans trapped inside virtual
reality, was launched by creator Chris Carter in 1999 and died a regrettable, premature death on the Fox
channel after three episodes. The remaining six shows found sanctuary on the FX
network, and then Harsh Realm slipped into history, its wild story, based
on a comic book, far from resolved.
Scott Bairstow stars as U.S. Army Lieutenant Tom Hobbes, a decorated hero who
risked his life rescuing a buddy, Major Mel Waters (Max Martini), during a
peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia. Set to return to civilian life
and marry his fiancée, Sophie (Samantha Mathis), Hobbes is summoned by a
mysterious superior (Lance Henriksen) and asked to test-run Harsh Realm,
a virtual reality war game devised by the Pentagon. Once he begins, however,
Hobbes is mentally imprisoned in the dangerous game (his body, along with those
of hundreds of other "volunteers," is cared for in a secret military hospital),
where he is identified by other, desperate captives as the savior they've been
awaiting. D.B. Sweeney is very good as another soldier, Mike Pinocchio, whose
sense of mission is re-awakened by Hobbes and who becomes a partner in an
endless effort to defeat a madman named Santiago (Terry O'Quinn), who rules Harsh Realm from within.
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