Star Wanderers

A new series of space television, started in Fall of 2008.

The first episode (and likely, every episode) begins with the following monologue:

In the year of 2075, the world is fighting population pressures, volcanoes have erupted in Antarctica, and the world is forced to look elsewhere to save itself from the rising tides. The Batavian Kingdom is all but lost, its people refugees, and the population centers of the world, the Chinas, Nam Viet and the Indonesian archipelago are faced with the worst of it, but most of the third world is affected.

To help with this, the League of Nations institutes a number of plans, from beginning the colonization of the other planets of our system to building stations in space to house the refugees and prepare for the human diaspora. But the key to their efforts is the search for a new earth-like planet where humanity can be sent to live in unity, bonded together as they tame a new frontier.

The crowning glory of this effort is Erebus I, a vessel of colonizers and explorers, set to find the new earth, and their goal is likely to be found at Alpha Centauri...

Dramatis Personae

Ship Crew

• Robert Ndele, (Rhodesia) - Captain (Bric Penrhys)
• James Haloran (England/FK) - First Officer (Risteard Burgess)
• Ulf Bjarnnasson (Iceland/SR) (Rolf Storm)
• Louise de la Rochelle (France) (Guenaëlle Sagnier)
• Lin Yuyuan (the Chinas) - Yuyuan is the sole woman from the Chinas aboard. (Ziyi Zhang)
• Guo Minxia (the Chinas) - Minxia (Min) is the sole man from the Chinas aboard. {Tacexi Canexiro)
• Maria Colombo (Italy) (Sabinia Fererri)
• Giovanni Moretti (Two Sicilies) (Alberto Vitali)
• Julia Ferrari (Papal States) (Amellia Mutini)
• Roman Galiano (Italy) (Massimo Triesti)
• Francesca Gallo (Papal States) {Caterina Venezzia)
• Korey the Kawar (Bohemian Kingdom/Ireland), a kawar created by Solas Teoranta
• Cailean Ó Raghailligh (Ireland) (Pedr Pengras)
• Katerína Fáfra (Bohemian Kingdom) (Ludmilla Milosević)

Gaian Alliance

• Professor Juan Carlos Diego Spinoza (Porto Rico) -

Additional Crew

Aside the known members of the crew there is an unseen crew complement numbering in the thousands. These are not seen, as they are initially in the Statis Pods.

After establishing themselves around the planet, the crew factionalizes into the Legitimists, Free Men and Benedictines.

Television Series

Star Wanderers is filmed in widescreen, so that for most viewers, it is letterboxed on the television screen. The series is filmed so that it can be split for commercial breaks in countries that have them, or played as one unified segment leaving 8 to 10 minutes for commercials before or after the show.

Episodes

• Season One
• Season Two

Uniforms and Props

Costuming

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  Uniforms

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  Crew Patches

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  Ranks and Insignia

Midge Van Wagoner, head costumer for the series stated that she wanted to have a military look to the uniforms, yet have it utilitarian like a mechanic's jumpsuit, since she doubted that they'd want the bulk of all that extra fabric in the cramped quarters of a space ship.

Technology

Star Wanderers proposes interesting technology for the members of the crew to use during their voyage. The technology known so far in the series is:

1. Gene Sequencer: A device capable of sequencing a genome and growing replacement organs/tissues to enable surgical teams to better save lives.
2. Statis Pods: Meant to retain the crew for short times during Transits, the Statis Pods can be enabled for longer durations to enable crew members to be held until medical preparations are ready to save them in the events of heavy injury
3. Y-D Drive: The Yaklinov-Denner Drive was developed by the T.H.O.R. Corporation and is named after the chief scientists on the project. The Y-D Drive of the Erebus is able to phase the Erebus I out of the normal time/space continuum into higher dimensions and enables it to travel great distances at seeming light speed. Time Dilation effects are present and vary depending on the length of the Transit. The only drawback of the Y-D drive is that it requires extensive calculations prior to a transit to be sure it is made safely.

Inspiration

Based loosely on the novel Famiya Dalmateska, written as a teaching tome by a lay-priest of the Dalmatian Catholic Church.

Critical Response

A small number of critics who have viewed the pilot episode for the show complain of the fact that the characters do not speak one common language, but instead each speak the language of their homeland, in most circumstances. Complaints have been wide as to the continuity of the series, given that there is no current way that each character could understand the others without speaking a common language.

Alan Eoforwine, creator of the series promises that the technology will both be explained and be circumvented as the series progresses. "I felt that it would be a means of making the show more marketable to the other regions of the world--everyone would have to read sub-titles, and everyone would only understand some of what was being said in their own idiom, as it were."

Later episodes have shown each character trying to learn the others language and a sort of Patois developing. With a letterboxed style of filming, all sub-titles fall below the actual image, making it less obtrusive than the original screening of the pilot. Critics have been happy to see the level of humor that is carried out across the languages through near and mistranslations.