Starhyke

I used to work as an usher in Bristol and Our cinema was chosen to screen the premier of starhyke. The day itself was fun, we had hired star wars impersonators(storm trooper, imperial guards, etc..) once the screening started the fun ended! It was so bad just cheesy, crass and also quite offensive to a number of people. I honestly can't remember much about the CGI but what sticks with me is how badly the jokes failed to land! The show is obviously meant to be a parody of the sci-fi genre but misses all the marks completely and has no redemption from what I could tell. Also fun fact all the principle actors turned up late, inebriated, were incredibly entitled and rude to the staff. Please Avoid this series like the plague!

I'm not going to blame the actors; I mean everyone's got to eat right? It's plausible that they're capable of recreating something that could pass for human emotion, they've simple chosen not to.

This leaves only the writers and directors of this catastrophe, and I DO hold them accountable! Try to imagine every awkward moment from various sci-fi shows you've ever seen and mash them together in montage of mental cruelty. Sadly this doesn't even fall into the "so bad it's good" category; just sit there and fight the urge to skip to the next scene. I mean it must get better at some point? Nope.

I'm sorry for all the people involved with this production. Please, please, run your script by a target audience. Do they look bored out of their gourd? Yeah, that means you're just not quite there yet.

For reference point, Red Dwarf rules! So I'm not a genre hatter, I'm just disappointed. You can do better, we deserve better.

I love sci-fi, am a huge fan of Claudia Christian in the Babylon 5 universe and I love sci-fi comedy like Red Dwarf, The Orville etc. But they need to have a decent plot and the humour has to be well...funny. This is just bad slapstick with lots of sexual jokes with a weak ill thought out plot set in sci-fi spaceship setting. The acting is awful. Even Claudia - by far the best in the cast - isn't at her best. If you must torture yourself, watch it with friends and have something else going on,.

When you were in third grade did you have that weird friend who thought it was hilarious to make fun of Star Trek by calling it Star Feck with characters John Leak Pee-hard and Do-me-onna Toy? It turns out that his idea of growing up was to change the names to Captain Belinda Blowhard and Chief Engineer Sally Popyatopov. Whatever potty humor he had before he increased ten times. He still chuckles and blushes when people mention sex. Green clouds appear when characters fart. His idea of intellectual humor is having a half-android character confuse an order to "scan" for (imagine) "scat" and start vocalizing. The thing is, these actors *could* have acted. Some of them have real careers (and some sadly seem to have gone nowhere, so we'll never know). But they have almost nothing to work with here. But.... BUT there is just enough to make you wonder what happened. In the first episode they are emotionless characters because all humans have had their feelings suppressed. This means they are contributors to the genocides of thousands of alien races. Now suddenly they have their emotions back, and they maturely decide to... boink each other (off camera, of course), install a chocolate fountain, get drunk on this strange thing called al-co-hol, and boink some more. This could have been a redemption story about how people could change from being the borg-like villains to becoming heroes. It could have been commentary on nationalism and fascism. There's even a side plot about some unknown force getting in their way and sabotaging things for nefarious purposes, which doesn't really start to go anywhere until episode six -- the last episode, with a big "To Be Continued" at the end. And it never continued, of course. It was never even released until many years after it was filmed, so they had a pretty big clue that it wasn't going to be continued. If the whole series would have been like most of that episode, it probably would have gotten at least five stars. Actual humor would have gotten it to four. Three stars is generous.

Look, I took the show at face value and thoroughly enjoyed it! Some of the jokes didn't work but it was fun and well made on a tight budget. I found the ensemble cast interesting and engaging although I would have liked more character development and a bit more straight acting - which really does scan when it comes in (liked the 'Reboot' episode exactly BECAUSE it knew it was doing a cliché (and very funny Gandalf scene!), but the humour is not awful as some have said - it's amusing, and the show is FUN. Some very clever nods to other shows, very engaging skirts and martinis. I want to see more! (and work on it).

People, we can all moan away about small areas where shows don't hit the mark, but when I watch a whole series in one sitting it's gotta be good.

The always engaging Claudia Christian does a great Kirk/Janeway, and Jeremy Bulloch was hilarious. The always lovely Rachel Grant is solid and puts in a surprisingly good performance reminding us that she did actually study acting and shouldn't be labelled as tits 'n ass Nina forever (lovely though she is!) and I'd like to see her given a chance to do more serious acting, and the biggest surprise? Another victim of 'presenter typecasting'; the very underexposed Suanne Braun is developing an interesting character here who you root for at the end. Also the Crocker/PopyertopOff (the names are too silly, yes) relationship is well played and I especially like the energy of talented newcomer Stephanie Jory and really freaked at her Superman experience in the finale. Genuinely jarring! The cast are all very easy on the eye and turn in good performances. The supports are all reliable and I found the show as good as if not better than tired Red Dwarf and unengaging Hyperdrive, but this series is constrained by limited episode running time.

Buy it simply for the genius ensemble from classic SF and its unassuming charm and very pretty cast! BEAUTIFUL CGI & make-up too! Many nods to the past. If you don't get some of the jokes... you haven't watched much Sci-Fi. Many are cleverly executed 'easter eggs'.

Shame there weren't 8 eps to develop characters and resolve one plot-point intentionally left open in the finale, so we have to buy the DVD to get season two!