The Spaceship
Encyclopedia
The Spaceship is a science fiction
comedy
set in the year 2104 and onwards that premiered on BBC Radio 7 over the course of five days during the last week of June 2005. It was written by Paul Barnhill and Neil Warhurst and was directed by Sally Avens.
A second series of The Spaceship began broadcasting on February 25th 2008, with the first series will be repeated again in the week prior to broadcast. In this series the Really Invincible has been upgraded to version 3.2.8.
In the year 2104 a fleet of research cruisers were launched into space. Their mission: to seek out new life. With every moment on board preserved by wall-to-wall monitoring and transmitted over time back to Earth, we’ve been allowed access to one of these ships: The Really Invincible III, Macclesfield Division. What you are about to hear took place, live, four years ago, seventy thousand light years from home.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
set in the year 2104 and onwards that premiered on BBC Radio 7 over the course of five days during the last week of June 2005. It was written by Paul Barnhill and Neil Warhurst and was directed by Sally Avens.
A second series of The Spaceship began broadcasting on February 25th 2008, with the first series will be repeated again in the week prior to broadcast. In this series the Really Invincible has been upgraded to version 3.2.8.
In the year 2104 a fleet of research cruisers were launched into space. Their mission: to seek out new life. With every moment on board preserved by wall-to-wall monitoring and transmitted over time back to Earth, we’ve been allowed access to one of these ships: The Really Invincible III, Macclesfield Division. What you are about to hear took place, live, four years ago, seventy thousand light years from home.
Characters
- Captain Gordon "Flashdance" Taylor (James FleetJames FleetJames Edward Fleet is an English actor. He is most famous for his roles as the bumbling and well-meaning Tom in the 1994 British romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the dim-witted Hugo Horton in the BBC situation comedy television series The Vicar of Dibley.-Personal life:Fleet...
) – Gordon is captain of The Really Invincible III and has a tendency to throw cheese and wine parties at a moments notice. - Melissa Paterson (Emily JoyceEmily JoyceEmily Sian Joyce is an English stage and television actress.-Early life:Joyce is the youngest of three sisters, all of whom are in the entertainment business in the UK. Their mother loved the theatre and took the three girls to shows constantly...
) – Despite being the ship's security officer, Melissa never wears the regulation uniform. - Karen Trex (Rosie CavalieroRosie CavalieroRosie Cavaliero is an English actress.She was trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.- Television and film work :* The Crimson Petal and the White - Jennifer Pierce * Jane Eyre - Grace Poole...
)- Ship's Communications Officer, Feng Shui expert, and all-round nice person. - Stuart Jackson (Paul Barnhill) – Stuart is the ship's engineer and newest member after the last engineer was accidentally ejected into space.
- Clive 55 (Neil Warhurst) – As one of 137 clones, all called Clive, created in a lab just outside WarringtonWarringtonWarrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...
, he is the ship's Chief Medical Scientist. - Narrator (Nick Bolton) – Guide to events on board The Really Invincible III.
- E3007 Series II Yakamoto – The ship's robot that has been malfunctioning since launch and is locked in a perpetual loop of swing music. Its only current use is that of an iron for the crew's clothes.
The Spaceship
- Episode 3002: Lost – The crew is responsible for taking care of the princess of the Urg.
- Episode 3003: Indestructible – Why does The Indestructible III explode for no reason?
- Episode 3004: Monster – Who or what is in the hold of The Really Invincible III.
- Episode 3005: Dirty – Clive 55’s experiment with dark matterDark matterIn astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
goes awry. - Episode 3205: Enemies – The crew prepare to meet the Duhwop-eye.
The Spaceship II (Second Series)
- Episode 1: Hole – While dealing with the unpleasant consequences of the first ever incident of travel through a black holeBlack holeA black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
, the crew faces a race of call-centre operative plants. - Episode 2: Manhood – Scientist Clive 55 reconstructs a dead space pirate and before long he's running the ship.
- Episode 3: Rude – The crew have some space tourists on board, but it turns into a holiday from hell.
- Episode 4: Sick – The crew contract a mystery virus which makes them age at an alarming rate.
- Episode 5: The End – The End: The crew find themselves at the end of the universe.