Starship Q Star review
Ex-girlfriends Aurelia and Sim are put in charge of the same spaceship for a publicity trip to Mars. That’s already a bad idea. Then the mission goes wrong and the crew has to look for a new home. Meegan May and Lauren Anderson’s Starship Q Star is a queer sci-fi comedy about what happens when two people who know exactly how to annoy each other also have to keep everyone alive.
Where the first mission goes wrong
In “Two Girls, One Captaincy,” the crew needs to take control of the ship in a hurry. The onboard computer insists they use its simplified system and refuses to let the captains switch it off. Then the pilot discovers that the control panel is a sticker. It’s a good introduction to the show’s sense of humour. By Episode 3, Sim wants to handle negotiations with the locals by being friendly and taking things as they come. Aurelia would rather have a procedure to follow. The jokes get sharper once the two of them stop agreeing about who’s making things worse.
Start with the audio series
The official Listen page puts a trailer before Episode 1. The original story runs for six roughly half-hour episodes, with PDF transcripts and captioned video versions on the same page. There’s also a separate three-part animated adaptation with much shorter episodes. For a quieter queer audio story, Love and Luck lets a romance unfold through voicemails.
Kate Moon designed the podcast cover.
Anabel’s take
The sticker on the control panel sold me on the script. It’s such a petty indignity to discover while you’re trying to save your own ship. I’d start with Episode 1. If you’re mostly here for the exes, give it until the crew visits the Dö-Dells, when the two captains finally have to see whether either of them is any good at getting along with strangers.