Starship Regulars, a cartoon that ran on Flash animation site Icebox from 1999-2000, was intended to parody self-righteous military space dramas like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Babylon 5. But the interstellar upstairs/downstairs comedy in many ways resembles the rebooted Battlestar Galactica with its focus on the orange jumpsuit-wearing non-officers, heavy use of a fictitious swear word, and frequently intoxicated crew. In the pilot episode “War,” a Diedrich Bader-voiced crewman engages in a drinking contest with an alien technician while Michael Dorn occupies the captain’s chair and faces down a more classic extraterrestrial foe.Showtime bought the rights to Starship Regulars in 2000 with an eye toward developing a live-action series, which, sadly, never came to fruition. The entire 10-episode run is still available on Icebox. Starship Regulars [Icebox]
