Series / Intergalactic

From left to right: Candy, Ash and Tula.

In 2143, Earth has been united as a state called Commonworld. Ash Harper, a Commonworld Police officer, is framed for stealing new aurum, the dwindling energy source Earth depends on, right after she's arrested a woman for the same offense. Placed on a prison transport to a penal colony on another world, she's in danger from her fellow prisoners as the woman whom she arrested, Verona Flores, is on the ship and outs her to them immediately. Danger seems averted when her mother discovers the evidence was fabricated and she's ordered sent home, but then the prisoners manage to take over the ship with Ash trapped aboard...

Produced by Sky One originally, it was syndicated in the US via NBC's subscription service Peacock. The series was canceled after one season.

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Intergalactic provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Tula does love Genevieve in her way, but she also tries to control her and has made her into a living weapon with a cybernetic enhancement.
• Affectionate Nickname: Genevieve is mostly called "Geni" by her mother, friends and later boyfriend.
• Ax-Crazy: Tula Quik, a violent prisoner who's quite clearly unstable and kills people who say she's "crazy".
• Berserk Button: Don't call Tula "crazy" — she'll kill you for that.
• Bilingual Bonus: New aurum is the name of Earth's future energy resource. Aurum means gold in Latin.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: One develops with first Echo (a male space pirate) and later female thief Verona being into Ash (both kiss her). It appears resolved with Ash dating Verona, but then the latter goes on the lam when she's accused of being a mole in the crew.
• British Brevity: The first season had only eight episodes.
• Broken Pedestal: Ash has to suffer a lot of this, realizing that the Commonworld that she serves is a brutal, vicious regime oppressing outworld settlers, along with her parents both being quite ruthless (plus her mother lying to her that her father is still alive).
• Bury Your Gays: Donnie, a tech Rebecca gets killed, it turns out is married to another man, with a daughter. He's the first queer person introduced, and there's no sign until after he dies. This is somewhat downplayed as Verona later gets shown to be a lesbian, while Ash is bi (main characters rather than minor like him), who both survive.
• Butch Lesbian: Verona is a short-haired, tough female thief who's quick-tempered and fierce, always wearing tank tops with pants. She turns out to be into Ash (the female cop who arrested her originally), and kisses her. Later they have sex offscreen as it's shown that Ash is a bisexual woman and reciproates her attraction.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: All of the prisoners hate Ash as she's a cop. They can't just kill her though, as she's the only pilot, which they need for the ship they've hijacked. As a result, Ash is reluctantly permitted to live... for now.
• Clear Their Name: Ash's mother is determined to prove her innocence, and soon does with the help of a computer tech who reveals that the video footage which showed her stealing was faked. By the time she's ordered sent home instead of to a penal colony however, the ship she's on is seized by the prisoners.
• Cliffhanger: The first season (and due to its cancellation, the series as a whole), ends on one with Verona having fled the crew (falsely believing she's a traitor) with the Commonworld forces still after them.
• Coming in Hot: Ash crash lands the ship on Pau Rosa after jumping away from Commonworld ships pursuing them.
• The Coup: At the end of season one, Rebecca seizes control of Commonworld as an energy crisis grips them and protests/riots erupt as a new election is staged.
• The Cracker: Verona is a cyber hacker who used her skills to steal and breaks out on the prison transport with other women by hacking its system.
• Cyborg: A device is implanted in Genevieve's head which sprouts prehensile artificial hair she uses as a weapon.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Verona relates that Commonworld soldiers murdered her father and then raped her mother as she hid.
  • Tula was the victim of Domestic Abuse, being beaten regularly by her husband until finally she snapped, murdering him to stop it.
• Dating Catwoman: Ash ends up getting involved with Verona, an unrepentant thief whom she sent to prison after they become Fire-Forged Friends in dire circumstances and discover a mutual attraction.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Ash's father is a war hero who was declared dead. Right before being sent to a penal colony, she laments that her mother is now losing her too. It turns out he isn't dead though, and wants to have Ash all for himself.
  • Genevieve's father beat her mother, who killed him to stop it.
• Does Not Like Men: Tula, after being in an abusive marriage, is really paranoid and hostile toward men. Unfortunately, she tries to stop her daughter Genevieve from ever being with men as a result.
• Domestic Abuse: Tula was beaten often by her husband before finally she killed him.
• Do You Want to Copulate?: Genevieve bluntly says she wants to sleep with Drew, and asks whether he would like that (yes, though not right away).
• The Dreaded: Emma Grieves is treated this way by Commonworld officials, as she's a feared resistance fighter/terrorist notorious for fighting against them. They show visible fear after learning she's escaped. It turns out she's the founder of ARC, a militant group waging war on them.
• Dressing as the Enemy: To steal supplies from a Commonworld outpost while on Nar 59, Ash and Echo dress in their uniforms (however Verona refuses, so the ruse quickly evaporates).
• Emperor Scientist: Dr. Benedict Lee is the Commonworld's Director (elected head of state), who's a very ruthless scientist (it's revealed that his regime dabbles in things like synthetic plagues). It turns out Commonworld's constitution mandates all Directors be scientists.
• Escape Pod: Verona flees the ship this way in the season one finale.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Tula is a vicious, bloodthirsty criminal, who genuinely loves and cares for Genevieve, her daughter (the feeling is mutual-they're partners in crime).
• Even Evil Has Standards: Tula is a violent criminal who's easily provoked to homicidal rage, but she's also outraged when another woman is nearly subject to having her eggs forcibly harvested by a Mad Doctor for an immortality serum, obliquely comparing the act with other violations women suffer by men and shooting him dead (it's later revealed that she suffered Domestic Abuse, so this clearly reminded her of it).
• Faceless Mooks: The armored cops who arrest Ash wear helmets which completely conceal their faces, and have voice synthesizers which mask their voices too.
• Fair Cop: Ash, a police officer, is a quite pretty young woman.
• Faking the Dead: Rebecca let first her husband and then Ash be thought dead, to avoid punishment for their fighting against Commonworld. Both are accomplished through Never Found the Body.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • Though Verona hates her at first, Ash slowly becomes friends with her after going through many dangers together. Later it turns out she's attracted to Ash, who reciprocates.
  • The same applies to their former guard Drew and Genevieve, a convict-they get romantically involved.
• Forced to Watch: Candy's mother had to watch as her sons and husband were hanged by Commonworld officials for theft. Candy has to watch as she herself is shot later.
• Frame-Up: Ash is framed for stealing with doctored video footage (it was actually her boss).
• The Future: The plot is set in 2143, when the Earth is unified as a global state called Commonworld, with other worlds colonized as well. Casual Interstellar Travel occurs, and cyber enhancement is common.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The prison ship's security is full of holes. First, they didn't search the prisoners well at all, with one even smuggling past a lockpick while another kept a weapon in her hair. Second, they're armed with guns, which might seem like a good idea but not when the prisoners soon get ahold of them after they kill two guards and take theirs before killing most of the others (this is why real prison guards don't have guns except if putting down a riot, to avoid this). They brush off Ash's warnings that the other prisoners are planning something, and in fact one punishes her for being a snitch. Not surprisingly, the prisoners easily escape later, despite them acting pretty suspiciously in plain view (they're inside clear cell bubbles that can be seen into at all times).
• He Knows Too Much: Once Rebecca has coerced Wendell into giving up information on ARC by threatening his son, she tells him to run back to him... only to order him shot for escaping, since she's keeping this for herself, so no one else can know about it.
• Hope Spot: Just when Ash is exonerated and about to be sent home, the prison ship she's on is hijacked by other prisoners, keeping her there far from Earth.
• Human Outside, Alien Inside: Candy is a woman from the Aurean galaxy. Her species looks outwardly like humans, though with long, prehensile forked tongues, as she displays early on.
• Human Aliens: Candy's species appear outwardly indistinguishable from normal humans.
• I Have a Family: A Commonworld soldier being robbed by Ash, Echo and Verona begs them to spare him, saying he has a daughter. Verona later shoots him when he breaks free, but feels guilty about it, gently putting his daughter's photo upright afterward.
• I Have Your Wife: Rebecca gets Wendell to cooperate by taking his son into custody, threatening that the boy will get sent offplanet into a penal colony as a terrorist if he doesn't give up all he knows on ARC.
• Improbable Piloting Skills: Echo is a very skilled pilot, matter of factly saying he'll fly the ship with just one thruster while riding out the turbulence (he does).
• Improbably Female Cast: The show is an unusual example of a sci fi action adventure with a majority female cast, as seven of the ten are women (including the protagonist Ash) vs. just three men. Even a majority among supporting characters are female too.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Just as Ash and Verona are moving from passionate kissing to looking like they might do more, the ship runs into trouble.
• Interrupted Suicide: Ash is stopped right before killing herself via airlock evacuation by Candy.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Emma Grieves was tortured for seventeen years while the Commonworld held her to give up ARC, but she never did. The same thing is tried again once she falls back into their hands.
• Just Following Orders: Discussed when Ash says most Commonworld soldiers are good people simply doing their jobs, but Verona retorts that this entails exploiting other planets by force.
• Let's Wait a While: Drew says he's been with other women before, but Genevieve is the most special to him, so he prefers waiting before the pair have sex so they can built up their relationship.
• Mad Doctor: Dr. Hague Blake reveals himself to be one after realizing Grieves does not age. He tries to harvest eggs from her forcibly for an Immortality Inducer so his pets will never die, before being killed by Tula.
• Made a Slave: Tula puts her own daughter Genevieve up as collateral on a debt, which she loses, and the crime boss Zedda whom she's playing against then takes her away.
• Mama Bear: Rebecca, Ash's mother, is absolutely determined she'll retrieve her safely, even if she's got to kill people.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Butch Lesbian Verona and Ash, who's a more feminine bisexual woman, get involved over the course of the first season.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Genevieve, who's somewhat tomboyish, a skilled fighter and a convict, finds gentle, sensitive prison guard Drew attractive (he often looks like a lost puppy, which probably helps). This draws out Genevieve's softer side, and Drew is quite keen on being a proper gentleman with her, saying he wants to wait until they have sex for instance (after she very bluntly propositions him).
• The Mole: Echo turns out to be the spy for Commonworld in the midst of the crew, though everyone else thinks that it's really Verona.
• Must Not Die a Virgin: Genevieve says this as she's propositioning Drew. She doesn't want to die a virgin, as she and everyone else among the main cast are constantly put in danger.
• My Beloved Smother: Tula, although she does love Genevieve, also tries to control her, such as by putting a "chastity circuit" into Genevieve's cybernetic implant that will stop her having sex without her knowing it.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Ash is distraught after her summoning Commonworld to arrest Grieves results in their soldiers killing Candy's mother. She is nearly Driven to Suicide over it.
• Non-Heteronormative Society: From what can be seen, human society in the 2140s completely accepts LGBT+ people. No one bats an eye at same-gender relationships in the show, nor even mentions the fact about a couple.
• Not Helping Your Case: Verona points out that Tula killing anyone who calls her "crazy" does nothing to prove her sanity.
• One World Order: In 2143, Earth's united under the global state of Commonworld.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Candy's species have very long tongues (around a foot, it looks like), forked like snakes'.
• Parental Abandonment: Candy returns home to learn her father was killed by the Commonworld. Then her mother is killed by them too.
• Penal Colony: The prisoners are being sent to an offworld prison colony from Earth. This includes Ash, who has not even been convicted of anything-she's in pretrial detention. However, they break out, hijacking the ship instead.
• Playing Sick: Genevieve pretends she's ill so the guards will come to check on her, then attacks them with her hair tendrils when they get close.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Verona hates Ash, the cop who had arrested her so she ended up on the prison transport. She saves her even so however as Ash is able to pilot it, which no one else can (Just in Time as well).
• Prehensile Hair: Genevieve, one of the prisoners, has a device she hides in her dreadlocks which sprouts hair like this which can be used to attack people with very long tendrils.
• Prison Ship: Ash is put on the prison transport Hemlock with other female prisoners. They're headed to an offworld penal colony when some of the prisoners manage to break out, hijack the ship and escape. It continues to be their means of transportation afterward.
• The Promised Land: Tula is set on traveling to Arcadia, a planet she describes as a utopia, and living there with her daughter Genevieve.
• The Queenpin: Zedda is a female crime boss on Pau Rosa who controls the local town where the ship puts down. Tula buys the route to Arcadia from her, but is quickly double crossed (it turns out this was fake).
• Really 700 Years Old: Emma Grieves is over a hundred years old, though she looks around forty at most, having healthy eggs (far more than natural, apparently because they kept replenishing) and follicles.
• Rebel Leader: Emma founded ARC, who are fighting the corrupt, oppressive Commonworld. Yann, Ash's father, is later shown to be the new leader after Emma was imprisoned.
• Recovered Addict: Candy gets clean with great difficulty, quitting cold turkey and almost trading sex for a fix but in the end managing.
• La Résistance: ARC is a militant group trying to stop the Commonworld exploiting other planets.
• Sex for Services: Candy nearly trades sex for drugs while going through withdrawal, but stops before doing it.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Ash and Verona start kissing once the latter is safe after nearly dying on a space walk, then the scene cuts out. Once it shows them again, they're lying nude in each other's arms (covering their breasts).
• Shameful Strip: Ash is uncomfortably undressed and cleaned during processing for the prison transport.
• Shock Stick: The guards on the prison transport have batons able to electroshock prisoners.
• Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!: Donnie gets gunned down by police when he's taking something out of his belt (not a gun, which they mistake it for), after being set up by Rebecca.
• Sins of the Father: Commonworld punishes traitors' families for their crime too. It turns out this is why Rebecca kept Yann's defection to ARC secret, as otherwise she and their daughter Ash would suffer for what he did.
• Space Pirates: Echo is a self-described one, who's also called this by other people (an Informed Attribute as we never actually see him engage in any piracy).
• Speculative Fiction LGBT: Ash and Verona get involved, with their relationship getting continuous focus, while Donnie is revealed as having a husband. In the imagined future of the 2140s, there's no sign anybody cares if somebody's LGBT+.
• Super-Senses: Candy smells things with her snake-like tongue, and can detect fear by doing so.
• Synthetic Plague: Commonworld created a virus which turns people temporarily into monsters and spread it among outworld settlers, demonizing them so that they could justify "intervention".
• Token Non-Human: Candy is the one member of the main cast from another species, with the rest being human. She's from the Aurean galaxy and looks mostly human except for her very long, prehensile tongue.
• Torture Is Ineffective: Emma Grieves was tortured for seventeen years but she never gave up information.
• Tracking Device: All of the prisoners have them implanted in their bodies, and they're painfully removed on Pau Rosa when they put down there so Commonworld authorities can't find them.
• Unobtainium: New aurum, exotic matter discovered by humans in 2124, is used for powering space ship's drives which lets them go faster than light (it has negative mass under a magnetic field). Consequently, the human interstellar civilization has come to rely on this greatly.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The series' beginning plot was compared (sometimes critically) to Con Air though aside from the "prisoners escape mid-transport to prison, and one is a good guy" part (on a space ship instead of a plane here) there isn't much similarity, as this quickly diverges from there.
• World of Action Girls: Ash is a police officer with the requisite combat skills, and the female convicts she's thrown in among also show varying degrees of prowess. They also make up most of the cast.

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