Sarah (Anna Paquin) is a policewoman living in the future who shares headspace with George (Terrence Howard) a brilliant game designer, each pursuing violent killers whose plans could have shattering consequences.

Writer Ronald D Moore’s (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander) adaptation of PKD’s Exhibit Piece is a great hour of television, but is about as far removed from the original story as you can get. As he says in his introduction to the story in the Gollancz paperback tie-in, “Very little remains of the story in the show.”

Published in If, Worlds of Science Fiction in 1954, the short story follows George Miller, the curator of a 1950s museum exhibit who finds that he can transport himself back to that era from his futuristic present day. Severing his connection, he settles down to life in the 1950s, unaware that Russia is about to drop a bomb. It’s a Twilight Zone-style twist ending that is lost in book to TV translation, but there’s still plenty to enjoy here.

Director Jeffrey Reiner has helmed such diverse content as Columbo, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Fargo, though his work on Caprica and 12 Monkeys is closer in tone to the trademark dystopian Dickian future here. Where the story works best is not in the VR trappings, but in the clever structure of the story itself.

Right from the outset we’re disoriented as to which reality is real – is Anna Paquin’s cop travelling to the future, or Terrence Howard’s part-time vigilante returning to the past, and where exactly are their timelines? Both parties believe that they are participating in the other’s virtual reality, and are escaping there from their own hang-ups and personal demons, but each time they go it’s harder to come back.

Verdict: Like this season’s Impossible Planet, the episode wouldn’t be out of place in the 90s reboot of The Outer Limits, and certainly is in the same space as Moore’s Virtuality TV movie. As VR sci-fi goes, this is solid, but final resolution aside, it’s in danger of being a bit too generic and far-removed from its author. 6/10

Nick Joy