After a mysterious cosmic-anomaly transports the spaceship Nebula-75 33-million miles from Earth, the intrepid crew (Captain Ray Neptune, boffin Dr. Hermann Asteroid, Lieutenants Stella Solstice and James Mercury, anthropomorphic robot Circuit, and occasionally the benevolent telepathic 'star-maiden' Athena) encounter nasty aliens, sneaky space-grifters, cosmic junk-men, mysterious planets, mad scientists, pushy film-directors, ghosts (maybe), and (of course) space-pirates (Yarrr!)...and that's just in the first two series. Although the show is more humorous than the po-faced originals, it is clearly a homage and not a parody. Aficionados will recognise numerous nods to the old shows, particularly 'Fireball XL5' (most notably in how the Nebula-75 'flies' and the character similarities between Capt. Ray Neptune and Capt. Steve Zodiac, Lt. Solstice and Venus, Lt. Mercury and Lt. Ninety, Circuit and Robert the Robot, and Dr. Asteroid and Dr. Matt Matic). The episodes vary in tone from the lighthearted 'Fools Gold' (which is also called pyrites...get it?) to the darker 'For the Ashes of His Fathers' in which Nepture is ordered to destroy his ship (killing himself and the crew in the process) to keep an alien contagion from reaching Earth. Anyone with fond memories of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's strings-attached oeuvre should enjoy this respectful resurrection and, unlike 2004's 'Team America: World Police', the opportunity to introduce a new generation of children to the 'Tracy airwalk'. The covid-related provenance of the series makes for interesting reading. Do I still 'wish I was a spaceman'? Seven-five!
*Score and comments pertain to the first two series (12 episodes), watched on-line.
