Starhyke?

[ffutures]

Today's charity shop bargain was Starhyke Season 1 - apparently comedy SF -starring Claudia Christian. I don't know much about it, and judging by a quick Wikipedia search it may not be my sort of show, but I wasn't going to turn it down for a fiver. Anyone seen it?

Later Just watched two episodes - I can see why it went straight to DVD. It's god-awful. WTF was Claudia Christian thinking?

Comments

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

A Starhyke fanfic turned up at Twisting The Hellmouth recently. I googled the show, trying to find out if it was likely to be worth reading or not, and discovered that it is undoubtedly the most obscure show in the history of SF. It was never broadcast on TV anywhere and there was only one showing of it in a single cinema (Bristol, if I remember correctly). Probably less than a thousand people in the entire world have seen it.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the impression I got - school of Galaxy Quest but not as well done. Not promising, but we'll see.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Claudia Christian who left Bab-5 to follow a movie career where she got to play a nazi dominatrix in one movie before never working again?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yup. OK, I hadn't actually been following her career, but Starhyke REALLY sucks.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Having watched two episodes, I'm not surprised. It's dire.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

The only other thing I've ever seen her in was an alien invasion movie with Kyle McLachlan, the name of which escapes me, where she plays a stripper.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it, or heard anything about it, but she was probably thinking that she could use the pay cheque.

[wiredwizard.livejournal.com]

"I'm bored, I'm broke & they're willing to pay me for this!" perhaps?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

[Teal'c] Indeed [/Teal'c]

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

More than likely.

WTF was Claudia Christian thinking?

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

"Mmmmm... money."

She was getting paid $5k an ep for B5. She had signed a five-year contract with B5's production company and couldn't renegotiate. She didn't come back for Season 5 of B5 because she was offered $100k to make this movie (which I haven't seen):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0153854/

She asked for a written statement saying she would have three weeks off from B5 to shoot the movie, and JMS thought she should just trust him to give her time off (as other actors had). Apparently there was a communication gap where CC couldn't or didn't explain that she needed written permission to get paid the $100k, and that may have been mixed up with a belief (or her desire) to renegotiate her contract. In the end, she opted for the faster money. At the time it probably made sense: $100k for six weeks of work rather than $110k for 22 weeks of work, and she'd be free for more movies.

I haven't seen any sign that she's been able to be very picky. It looks like she's accepting everything she's offered. I dunno if you remember this, but she had some kind of deal with a RPG company to be the cover girl for a game they were making that (as far as I know) was never actually published.

In fairness to her participation in Starhyke, she was (IIRC) the big ticket item for the show, and (again IIRC) they filmed the live action stuff four or five years ago. Again, IIRC, they shopped it around for a couple of years before going straight to DVD. As far as I can tell, the DVD is only available in the UK.

Re: WTF was Claudia Christian thinking?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Trust me, you're not missing anything. It's incoherent rubbish.

Starhyke

[aristophains.livejournal.com]

Hello. I found this entry during a search of LiveJournal for references to Starhyke, though as a fellow LJ Friend of rozk I don't feel a total stranger. I'd like to add a couple of points:

'WTF was Claudia Christian thinking?' It wasn't so much about pull as about push. She was "burned out" by Los Angeles and wanted a change, and being invited to be part of Starhyke (the creator/director is an old friend of hers) gave her that. She ended up living in the UK for many years and still spends a lot of time here.

I was disappointed by the first two episodes too, but much more impressed by the later episodes. Starhyke has been described many times by the creator as a "Marmite show", and while I can see that there's a lot wrong with Season 1, I am a fan nonetheless. It's certainly not the first sci-fi series to have a flawed first season, and for what it's worth, any further seasons will likely be much better.