Boldly Going Nowhere

"The last time I trusted you, I needed an abortion"

"Boldly Going Nowhere" is a TV pilot that wasn't picked up by any network and I found it on YouTube. After watching, I think I understand why it failed...it was incredibly unfunny and crude. Interestingly, a few years later, "The Orville" would air and it gained quite a following...and was very similar but with a larger budget.

"Boldly Going Nowhere" is set aboard a space cargo ship a century and a half from now. The ship consists of a crew of total idiots...so stupid that you wonder how they could pilot a ship, let alone find their navels. They simply were too stupid and incompetent to be funny. Imagine, a ship where everyone is more of a buffoon than Homer Simpson! It's supposed to be a comedy and most of the jokes are crude and unfunny...such as the abortion comment above. Some things, abortions, cancer, pedophilia, etc. Simply cannot be funny...but the writers of this show thought otherwise.

The bottom line is that this show is incredibly unfunny and pretty distasteful. The show didn't stand a chance based on the writing, unlikable characters and illogical plot. It also lacked heart...and reason to CARE about the captain or crew.

In what could be called a odd combo of "Red Dwarf" and "The Orville", this pilot focuses on a crew of oddball/messed up characters who don't particularly get along or like each other but work on a ship whose job is to collect moon rocks.

The comedic writing is good and there are several laugh-out-loud lines.

Aside from some sound issues, the lack of an original score (Joel McNeely would have been perfect), some very minor cast changes that are needed, and a little better developed characters, it's baffling why this didn't get picked up. Some studio needs to come back to this and make it happen.

Pitched by Adam Stein along with Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton of Always Sunny fame, and created during the early-mid stride of that show's success. Following a deep space rock collecting ship going off course in a mock Star Trek, the crew gets up to trouble abusing the holodeck, faking their jobs, and other haha nonsense. A poor rip of Star Trek, much like my feelings on the later The Orville, it doesn't really try hard to satirize, provide commentary, or do much original, but rather apply an expected sitcom format "but in space". Lots of humour on the blue side, the jokes sometimes land, but mostly don't, which is surprising given Always Sunny is a riot, one of my favourites, and in my opinion better written shows I've watched. The set is okay, but definitely look like a set, the CGI worse (though arguably unfinished). The acting is okay, but none of the characters go much beyond what we've seen from the actors previously, and some of the acting is just straight up bad, almost seeming on purpose "in the sense of comedy" at points, or otherwise just kinda generic comedy personalities. Starring all those Sunny stars mentioned along with other familiar cast including David Hornsby, Tony Hale, Natalie Morales, Chad Coleman, Artemis Pebdani, and even Kaitlin Olson, there's a lot of characters. I was honestly disappointed, it sounded so much better on paper, but in reality kinda flopped. Probably wouldn't recommend.

The writers/producers of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" wanted to do a Star Trek spoof series. The pilot never got picked up by a studio but if you want to see it it's currently (still) on youtube.

As a long time fan of 'Sunny' I can see where some of the jokes are coming from and what they were going for but the sad reality is that it just doesn't come together. What makes 'Sunny' so great is the chemistry between the characters but here there is little chemistry to be found. It feels like a bad Family Guy episode where everyone gets to say their zinger but the characters barely interact with one another. It feels hokey and cheap and the jokes themselves aren't that good either.

Positives:

• The captain is played by a Nathan Fillion look- and feel-a-like and it works almost as well as the man himself, really nice performance
• Artemis (from 'Sunny') is called Startemis
• The core concept isn't that different from "The Orville" in the sense that it's a Star Trek spoof with idiot crew members and an overly cocky captain so it's not as if they weren't onto something
• It's only 1 episode (this is a positive if you want to check it out)

Negatives:

• There's little chemistry between the characters
• The characters, except for the fish guy and Cricket, aren't memorable
• Most jokes fall flat
• The '2001: ASO' theme scene (I found this incredibly distasteful)

I would like to point out that I love the irony of this pilot having gone nowhere, boldly. It's probably the best thing about it to be honest.