Syfy has gone the homemade route for its odd little space sitcom, Outer space Astronauts [Tuesdays, 9:30/8:30C]. The series, about the “highly distractable” crew of the O.S.S. Oklahoma, is the brainchild of Russell Barrett, who created the series and co-writes, shoots, edits, scores and plays a supporting role [Captain Bruce Ripley], among other things.
The series premiere, Diplomatic Hat, finds the crew of the Oklahoma encountering an alien vessel and inviting its crew over for pizza. Problems arise when the aliens make it clear that they want a little bit more than just the pizza – they want the Oklahoma and plan to kills its crew to get it.
Barrett literally produced the series at home, on his computer and mixes CGI and live action in a unique way: he plants his cast’s faces on CG bodies in a CG environment. This allows him to combine nuanced facial expressions with very low-fi animation that creates humor beginning with the resultant contrast.
The ship’s crew, like that of Quark’s garbage scow, is, to say the least, unique. Captain Ripley makes a habit of being away from the bridge as much as he can possibly be; Commander Richard Amos [Adam Clinton] is a bit of a fussbudget – and as the only genuinely professional member of the crew, keeps things running in some semblance of order; Lt. Cmdr Sunny Hunkle [Stephanie Clinton] is the sweetly flirtatious Communications Officer [who communicates with Amos a little too intimately]; Operations Officer Donna Kennedy is the wrong person for the job – everything she touches malfunctions [frequently noisily]; Chief Weapons Officer Andy Matheson [Laura Valdivia] wants two things – to blow stuff up and to party; Navigator Kyle 14 [Jay Wendorff] is a robot with a distressing tendency to believe he’s human whenever his circuits get rattled; Ka’ak [Jacey Margolis] is a red-skinned alien who defects to the crew of the Oklahoma, where she fits in as well as anyone else on the crew [which is to say, not really well at all…], and so on.
Over the course of the five episodes that constitute the show’s first season, we get homages to many classic sci fi movies and TV series – the most obvious being Star Wars – but also a lot of fresh takes on general sci fi clichés as well. The writing is smart and, as noted above, pretty demented. The cast is much better than one would expect from a homemade project, and better than a lot of glossy network productions.
Like Quark, Outer Space Astronauts takes shots at beloved sci fi tropes. I expect that it won’t be everyone’s cuppa, but if your worldview is skewed, it will probably work for you.
Final Grade: B+