StarStarSpace is a web series created by German You-Tuber coldmirror. It's a sweeping blow at each and every Science Fiction trope - but done with so much heartfelt affection that it rather resembles a playful punch.
StarStarSpace follows the crew of Starship Ente (German for duck), especially its sophomoric Captain Captenne Capitanöse, the Android A.R.S.C.H. (short for Assistierendes Refraktäres Synthetisches Computer Hirn) who hates all human life, and the long-suffering Commander Dave.
So far, thirty-six episodes have been published.
StarStarSpace provides examples of:
- Alliterative Name: Captain Captenne Capitanöse
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The list of Starfleet high scores includes, apart from the USS Ente, the USS JacekSparrowski and its mission "Kaperfahrt (~privateering expedition) Tortuga", the USS Orion and its mission "{{Series/Raumpatrouille]]", the USS Spaceballs on its mission "Operation Megamaid", the mission Schläfriges Wiesel... and the USS Prosciuttoefunghi, which delivers pizza.
- The Bermuda Triangle: There is a Bermuda Triangle IN SPACE!! with usual associations: Faulty Technology, Missing Crews and Ships and a storm. At the center there is an anglerfish with a lure in from of a triangle.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Captain, on occasion. Usually lampshaded as weird behaviour by the crew.
- Credits Gag: In the logo. The first "Star" is in the font of Star Wars, the second in the font of Star Trek: The Original Series and the word "space" uses the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine font.
- Cyber Cyclops: A.R.S.C.H. has one large red eye on his head.
- A Day in the Limelight: In Episode 28, instead of the main characters, we follow three rookie disposable crew members instead.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dave and A.R.S.C.H. more than anyone else.
- Enhance Button: Mercilessly parodied in episode 24, where they can zoom into the reflection of a crewmember in a spoon and read the crewnumber in structure of the yarn his uniform is made of.
- Fantastic Racism: A.R.S.C.H. hates all organic life, especially Commander Dave.
- Played for laughs in several episodes. Whenever Dave tries to make an inclusive statement, at least one crew member will accuse him of this, because he assumes humans or human-like beings as the default for said statement.
- Funny Background Event:
- Crewmembers in the back will more often than not look suspiciously look like characters from other science fiction franchises or coldmirror's other work.
- Computer screens on the bridge running video games.
- A behind-the-counter display of cigarettes is labelled "synthetic lung cancer".
- Several signs asking people not to step on the grass read things such as "Don't step on the grass", "Don't even touch the grass", "Leave Rasen (grass) alone" and "No".
- A display in the sick ward reads "He's dead Jim. Who the hell is Jim even? And why is James abbreviated as Jim and Richard as Dick? Who makes this up? It's bonkers."
- Dave's coffee machine produces coffee, tea, cocoa and pumpkin juice.
- An amusement park stand selling sweets advertises "Diabetes"
- Fun with Acronyms: A Running Gag, nearly everything in the series is a meaningful acronym. Except "SFKSFL", who suck at them.
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Genius Bonus:- The data with which Arsch overwrote the astrophysical data is a line of numbers that, when read as ASCII, translate to "Who gives a shit?"
- The moon base's name is "moon base moon base" (half-German, half-Russian)
- The binary code communication between Arsch and the nano-bots is:
Arsch: Please kill all humans, thanks.
Nano bots: Hello? We don't want to kill.
Arsch: OMG, lame! The humans want peace or something.
Nano bots: Hello? We don't want to kill.
Arsch: OMG, lame! The humans want peace or something.
Nano bots: Ok, but you have weird handwriting, WTF.
- Lampshade Hanging: It's a big part of the humour of the series, so the characters will frequently point out when certain tropes are in play or the absolute lunacy of their current situation. Not that it ever helps their case.
- Lower-Deck Episode: Episode 28, "Dreck im Unterdeck", focusses on a group of expendable crewmembers.
- Must Have Caffeine: Dave, big time. He has to repair the broken coffee-machine, before repairing A.R.S.C.H. because he can't work without coffee!
- Only in It for the Money: Apart from Dave everyone else aboard is only in it for the money. Or, as Captain Capitanöse puts it:Capitanöse: Peace in the universe is not a currency my hairdresser will accept as payment!
- Only Sane Man: Commander Dave and just like Chao in Japanoschlampen, no one listens to him.
- Red Shirt: Mercilessly parodied with the Replaceable Crewmembers.
- Subverted, with Replaceable Crewmember No.14, who survives the trip.
- Also subverted with Replaceable Crewmember No.1, who has survived every mission he's been on. Potentially double subverted as all his scars are from household accidents (falling off a bike, peeling potatoes...)
- Running Gag:
- People having Fun with Acronyms.
- Captain Capitanöse presenting what she claims to be a document of sorts, only for other people to point out it's an entirely different document. And usually expired. Also her well-known Skewed Priorities.
- The replaceable crewmembers.
- Lieutenant Miffi is not adorable! Also whatever strange behaviour he shows is an honourable tradition with his species.
- A.R.S.C.H will make a derogatory remark about organic lifeforms, then quickly lie about his statement, replacing it with an innocent sentence.
- Political correctness being parodied.
- The Captain's cacti and their "prickly" names.
- Dave explaining something to the Captain with his explanation being shot down as incomprehensible, followed by the Captain asking Hans-Rudi instead and interpreting his roars and actions as a far more complicated statement than anything Dave said.
- Anytime binary code shows up, expect it to mean something inapproptiate.
- Anything becomes futuristic if you put "space" in front. The USS Ente has a space dishwasher, the crew eat space popcorn and there's a space Bermuda triangle (and these are just a few examples).
- Shout-Out: It's a parody show, so it practically lives on this. Some examples:
- Crew members include Wake from Japanoschlampen, Hauke (the host of coldmirror show parodying children's art shows), Darth Vader, Mr. Spock, Captain Picard, E.T., Yoda, Ben Kenobi, an Alien and ALF.
- The first opening spoofs the typical Star Trek opening narration.
- The other space ship designs that the Captain rejected are all taken from Star Wars.
- Hans-Rudi and the way he is picked up reference the film Alien.
- In episode 2, the crew come across the ship "Schiffi Mc Schiffface" and its occupant Professor Mc Professorface, both referencing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface
. - In episode 5, a crew member who looks suspiciously like Obi-Wan states that Saturn's moon Mimas "is not a moon", before conceding, that, yes, it is.
- The Futsi corporation's name, design of automated guard at the door and its voice all recall Master Futsi from Japanoschlampen.
- Episode 6 has a Stargate and Colonel MacGyver.
- The hosts of the peace conference in episode 8 look like Na'vi from Avatar.
- The "Türklingonen" reference the Klingons from Star Trek. There name is a portmanteau of "Türklinke" (German for door handle) and "Klingonen". Unsurprisingly, both they and their ships look like old-fashioned door handles.
- In episode 9, Dave comes across Sandra Bullock (Gravity), WallE and Eve.
- Episode 10's Energy-Woks are also known as E-Woks, look like Ewoks, sound like Ewoks and fight the evil amusement park like the Ewoks fought the empire.
- SFKSFL's Lordy Ga Forge is a copyright-friendly version of Geordi La Forge.
- The Captain and Dave going through the Museum for Security is a reference to the Mission: Impossible Film Series.
- The Captain has a hairdresser's loyalty card in the name of Queen Amidala.
- The scrap race on Tittooine, the scrap dealer, Sebulba and the "boy from the neighbourhood" all spoof The Phantom Menace.
- The winners of the scrap race are Mario, Bowser and Princess Peach.
- The list of high scores in episode 20 recalls video games.
- That same list contains the USS JacekSparrowski and its mission "Kaperfahrt (~privateering expedition) Tortuga", the USS Orion and its mission "Raumpatrouille" (space patrol), the USS Film/Spaceballs on its mission "Operation Megamaid" and the mission Schläfriges Wiesel.
- The cloud that Dave says reminds him of a mouse is the stylised Mickey Mouse logo.
- All of the collectives in episode 22 recall The Borg: The Pork (pigs), The Ingeborg (grandmothers, as Ingeborg is an old-fashioned sounding German first name), The Cork and The Fork.
- The cross-over episode is likely inspired by GalaxyQuest, stated by coldmirror to be the best Star Trek movie.
- Episode 28 has replacable crewmember 9 3/4, a reference to the platform in Harry Potter.
- In Episode 31, the crew is tasked to retrieve cargo from a ship that looks very much like the Serenity. Dave assumes that said cargo is the box containing River Tam.
- The bar's band references the cantina band in A New Hope, but they're playing a piece that's explicitely stated to not be copyrighted.
- The same episode has a stormtrooper passing through with a person pressed in carbonite. But he has a license for human trafficking, so it's all right.
- The title of episode 34 is a refference to I, Robot. In the same episode, a box with Lieutenant Commander Data's head is also shown.
- Data also shows up in episode 17, "Sammler und Jäger und Sammler", in which he has been put in a museum alongside A.R.S.C.H., as a reference to the Star Trek TNG episode "The Most Toys".
- Silicon Snarker: A.R.S.C.H., being an Expy of both Glados and HAL 9000 is a sarcastic android with Killer Robot intentions that he somehow can always disguise as a Freudian Slip.
- Skewed Priorities: Captain Capitanöse is rather infamous for that, for example putting her cacti-collection before living crewmembers, for starters.
- Tuckerization: Miffi is named after one of coldmirror's mice.
- Verbal Tic: A.R.S.C.H. likes to repeat Dave's name several times, or alternatively stresses the 'a' in 'Dave' unnecessarily long.
- Whole-Plot Reference:
- Episode 3 is one to Star Trek's "The Man Trap", with the salt replaced by fat.
- Episode 21 is this to the movie Interstellar, except for the bit about the cactus people (which might instead recall a story from The Star Diaries).
- Episode 25 is one to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- You Are Number 6: The Expandable Crewmembers are usually addressed by number, usually by Dave. Odd, since he's usually the nicest of the crew. "Charlie" is the only one who had his real name revealed not that it matters, he got murdered in his A Day in the Limelight episode.
