Saturday, June 9, 2012

Forgotten Saturday Science Fiction Television - Star Hunter

Starhunter - intro.jpg

Saturday Evening back in 2000 were interesting because of a very odd little science fiction television show from the land of beer,snow, ice, & hockey called Star Hunter.. 

The other day I was walking around the local Walmart & in the five dollar bin was the first season of Star Hunter. The show sits now neglected in the back bin of the television culture. That's a real shame because the show was actually good.
The plot according to wiki went something like this : 
Starhunter follows the exploits of the crew of a retired luxury-liner refitted to serve a bounty-hunting crew, led by Dante Montana (Paré). The owning company's name "Trans-Utopia Cruiseship HHS", was painted on her side but has faded, leaving some letters readable while obliterating others. The letters that remain have become her nickname, so she is casually known as "Trans Utopian" or "Tulip".
In the first season, Tulip is owned by Rudolpho deLuna, who has hired Dante Montana as a bounty hunter. Dante took the job to provide a means of traveling, while also financing the search for his son, Travis, who was abducted a decade prior by a group of brigands, called Raiders. Aiding him are the ship's engineer, Percy Montana (Dante's niece) and security officer Lucrecia Scott, a former marine, added to the crew by deLuna to keep Dante focused on the missions given him. However, Lucrecia also has a hidden agenda, and is actually an operative for a mysterious organization called "The Orchard", a group of scientists and researchers dedicated to unlocking, and later controlling, a group of alien genes called "The Divinity Cluster".
When broadcast in Canada, each episode began with a long message transmissing from deLuna (usually to Dante), outlining Dante's current assignment and deLuna's (i.e. the episode author's) philosophical thoughts about it. In the United States, these monologues were removed.
In the second season, the show was restructured (and retconned). Percy Montana emerges from hyperspace, unaged — although fifteen years have passed in the outside universe. No other characters remain in the show from the first season except for DeLuna. He attempts to reassert his ownership of Tulip, but since he had collected the insurance on the ship, as the Tulip was presumed lost, the insurance company now legally owned her. However, the company was now out of business, so Percy claims ownership by salvage. Travis Montana, Dante's son and Percy's cousin, joins the crew together with his sidekick, Marcus Fagen. DeLuna also joined, bringing along Callista Larkadia, another bounty hunter. Percy describes the four as the "pretend cousin, big fat sleaze, little buddy [and] mystery slut," though she eventually accepts the fact that Dante's son Travis Montana really is her cousin.
The show did not continue in production after season two despite pre-orders from US, European, Canadian and Pacific Rim broadcasters for a third season, leaving the story at a cliffhanger: In the season finale, Tulip is trapped in hyperspace. As the countdown to implement the crew's desperate measure to return to the normal universe reaches zero, the show cuts to black and the credits roll.
Creators and producers G. Philip Jackson and Daniel D'or left the series during the second season over business differences within the executive team of the parent company Greystone Studios International Inc., and went on to develop the science fiction television seriesand video game Ice Planet. Jackson was an uncredited writer on eight of Starhunter's second season episodes.
 
Personally I'd love to use this show as a campaign background for a Stars Without Numbers campaign. The show is basically all set for someone to get into the background & dig out some really wonderful backgrounds. The characters are colorful, interesting, & engaging on a very weird level. These are basically fringe criminal elements that are the 1% of their universe. The type of folks that the Enterprise would have blown past & kept going. 


Star Hunter As Fodder For Your Old School campaign. 

 The second season's season's party has been described as "pretend cousin, big fat sleaze, little buddy [and] mystery slut," Basically your average adventuring  party. The Tulip is very much a mystery ship slash location with a ton of mystery hovering around her. There are dozen adventures waiting for the right DM to lock & load on with her. 
 Here's a run down of the episodes to mine at your leisure:
 

Season one (2000-2001)

Ep #TitleDirectorWriter(s)Airdate
101 (1)"The Divinity Cluster"Patrick MalakianNelu GhiranNovember 1, 2000
Dante reunites with an old bounty hunter friend named MacDuff who is dying from a brain tumor but still offers to assist Dante on a final mission. Meanwhile, Dante's partner Lucretia is tasked by her mysterious father Darius to capture a renegade geneticist named Eccleston who may hold the key to the so-called "Divinity Cluster" — a sequence of human genes believed implanted by aliens, and that when activated, unlock incredible superhuman abilities. 
102 (2)"Trust"George MendelukNelu GhiranNovember 8, 2000
While transporting a pair of criminal cousins, Jeremy and Allister, to an automated prison facility on Mercury, Dante's niece/mechanic Percy goes against his orders to stay away from them and gains the trust of Jeremy, the more charming of the two men. While Percy holo-records him for her diary, she unwittingly assists him in an escape plan and in setting up a trap for Dante and Luc once they reach the prison. 
103 (3)"Family Values"Henri SafranNelu GhiranNovember 15, 2000
While hunting down a con man on Mars named Etienne, Dante and Luc are caught in the middle of an attack by The Raiders — a gang of marauders who destroy colonies and kidnap their children which was the fate of Dante's family back on Titan a decade ago. Percy uses a remote drone to destroy a Raider ship and Dante finds a young boy in the wreckage named Jeb. Dante believes Jeb could be his lost son Travis who was kidnapped by the Raiders and he takes him back to his ship for a DNA test. When the results show Jeb is not his son, Dante takes him back to his original family. 
104 (4)"Siren's Song"Patrick MalakianNelu GhiranNovember 22, 2000
As Dante and Luc transport a murderous psychopath named Petrakis, who slaughtered the crew and passengers of a space liner, theTulip is intercepted by a military shuttle whose commanding officer, Major Bartlett, commandeers the ship with orders to transport a female prisoner believed infected by a deadly virus. The girl, named Ire, exhibits strange psychic abilities and manages to escape her captors. She then lures Petrakis with her seductive power aboard a quarantine research facility where the two vanish together. 
105 (5)"The Man Who Sold the World"Luc ChalifourJulian FikusNovember 29, 2000
Dante and Luc go after a ruthless war criminal named Novak who is hiding on Pluto, a man Luc says she has a personal vendetta against for his involvement in the civil war on Callisto. In reality, her father Darius wants Luc to uncover Novak's deadly experiments with the Divinity Cluster. In an effort to avoid capture, Novak uploads a chaotic A.I. virus called "Billy Ray" to the Tulip that battles theTulip's A.I. "Caravaggio," for control of the ship. 
106 (6)"Peer Pressure"Philip JacksonAnnie InghamDecember 6, 2000
Dante brings aboard a criminal scientist, Dr. Nasreen from Mimas, along with her teenage son Ajit, who Percy finds attractive. Using a mind-scanning device disguised as a bracelet, the doctor takes control of Dante's mind and uses him to seize control of the ship. Ajit struggles between his loyalty to his mother and Percy's affections, but eventually helps save Dante from the mind control process which would have eventually killed him. 
107 (7)"Frozen"François BassetLorne WiseDecember 13, 2000
Having captured Etienne, Dante comes to the aid of Dr. Devon and his young son Ryan, who have escaped the genetic research facility known as The Orchard, and are being pursued by The Raiders. Ryan has the power to project illusions and the Raiders demand that Dante hand him over. After an assault aboard the Tulip, Dante tries to get a captured Raider to tell him what happened to his own son Travis. Meanwhile Luc learns Etienne is more than just a con man, and is an operative working for her father Darius. 
108 (8)"Past Lives"Patrick MalakianPeter CampbellDecember 20, 2000
Dante's handler, Rudulfo, assigns the Tulip crew to apprehend an accused murderer wanted by the The Orchard, but the target turns out to be Luc's ex-husband Eric. It is discovered that Eric has been injected with a serum designed to unlock The Divinity Cluster within him, but if unsuccessful, the serum will kill him within 48 hours. Meanwhile, an emotional Luc does what she can to help save him, and Dante puts pressure on Percy to fix a damaged engine in time to get Eric to a medical facility on Hyperion
109 (9)"Order"Luc ChalifourHugh Evans & Julian FikusDecember 27, 2000
The Tulip crew watches as a religious cult flies a suicide course into the sun, but at the last second a shuttle emerges from the ship bearing the cult's leader "Brother Thirteen" along with his wife Marina and bodyguard Jacob. Dante picks up the shuttle and arrests the leader accusing him of letting his followers die. While taking the survivors to the authorities on Mercury, Thirteen enchants Luc with his psychic brainwashing power and promises to help her find her path to the Divinity Cluster if she helps him take over the ship. 
110 (10)"Cell Game"Patrick MalakianMary Rogal-BlackJanuary 3, 2001
As Dante brings a prisoner to the Oberon orbital station, he's ambushed by a rival bounty hunter named Rex who tries to steal his prisoner. Percy manages to stun one of Rex's thugs, but he happens to be a hired Oberon operative and she is arrested by the station guards for assaulting one of their own. With Percy facing a five-year prison sentence, Dante works out a deal with Rex to spring her brother Goran from a maximum security prison on Nereid in return for Percy's release. 
111 (11)"Black Light"François BassetJulian FikusJanuary 10, 2001
While transporting a Raider prisoner, Electra, to Ganymede, a man suddenly appears aboard the Tulip - a legendary colonel named Bramwell who had been cryonically frozen and forgotten about in the bowels of the ship for nearly 50 years. The Colonel believes Earth is still at war with the Raiders, but when he learns the war is over, and he failed his mission, he has a breakdown. Later, Dante discovers that the Raiders are gathering nearby and Bramwell offers to redeem himself by infiltrating their base and finding Dante's son. Dante reluctantly agrees, but learns to late that Bramell really intends to destroy his enemy in a suicide mission. 
112 (12)"Goodbye, So Long"Patrick MalakianAlan ZweigJanuary 17, 2001
Dante reconnects with an old friend named Ike who is troubled by a recent deal gone bad. Ike is soon killed when his ship explodes and his business partner Marco believes it was sabotage. Marco refuses to divulge the nature of the deal and instead hijacks the Tulipand then joins Raiders who come aboard and torture Dante for the whereabouts of Ike's package - a container of genetically modified seeds. Dante learns that Ike hid the seeds with a contact on Dione named Kouymdjan and he plans to use the seeds as a bargaining chip against the Raiders for the return of his son. 
113 (13)"The Most Wanted Man"Luc ChalifourPeter I. HortonJanuary 24, 2001
Rudolpho assigns Dante to bring in a man wanted by The Orchard named Harman who has superhuman speed and is evolving into something even more powerful. Getting in the way are a Mars Federation patrol who claims that Harman is their bounty, as well as a repo-man who wants Dante's ship because Rudolpho fell behind on his payments. Things become even more complicated when a third, unidentified ship arrives who Luc secretly contacts, and the trust between the two bounty hunters begins to shatter. 
114 (14)"Half Dense Players"Patrick MalakianNelu GhiranJanuary 31, 2001
Dante is assigned to take a murder suspect to Ganymede - a beautiful artist named Andrea Arquette who is plagued by strange visions. During transit, a cloaked ship begins following the Tulip that sensors read to be over 3 million years old. Percy launches a probe at it and in response, the ship attacks and sends the Tulip spiraling toward Europa. Eventually, Andrea is consumed by the alien presence and disappears. Once control of the ship is regained, an Orchard ship arrives to contact Luc, and Dante demands the truth about what is really going on. 
115 (15)"Dark and Stormy Night"François BassetNelu GhiranFebruary 7, 2001
Darius comes aboard the Tulip to talk with Dante and his daughter Luc. There he reveals information about the Divinity Cluster and Luc's mission to investigate those who are changing because of it. He also asks Dante to work for the Orchard and tells him that he is more involved than he realizes. He explains that Dante's deceased wife Penny, (once a geneticist on Titan), was close to unlocking the secrets of the Cluster herself and that her experiments on their son Travis, were very important in the research. Upon leaving, Darius' shuttle explodes leaving Luc to fend for herself against the treachery of the Orchard. 
116 (16)"Super Max"Luc ChalifourJulian FikusFebruary 14, 2001
While stopping for repair parts at a space station, Carvaggio alerts Dante of an intruder aboard the Tulip. Rushing back, Dante finds Rudolpho has sold the ship from under him to a businessman named Max who wants to convert the ship into a prison transport. Furious, Dante has Percy sabotage the ship (to make Max think he bought a lemon), and has Luc dig up any dirt on his new boss that he can use against him. Meanwhile, Dante plays along as Max's new prison warden, while Max's lascivious wife Zelda, makes a deal to help get rid of her husband. 
117 (17)"A Twist In Time"Patrick MalakianPeter I. Horton & G. Philip JacksonFebruary 21, 2001
While transporting a demented convict called Five, Dante diverts course to answer a distress call from a graviton research station onTriton. Once there, the Tulip' encounters a spacial anomaly and the reactors go critical. Instead of abandoning ship, Percy races to conduct repairs, but is injured and becomes trapped. Dante tries to find her but fails to get there in time. He then experiences a series of warps in space/time that give him multiple chances to change the course of events and eventually save his niece. 
118 (18)"Eat Sin"Patrick MalakianPeter I. Horton & G. Philip JacksonFebruary 28, 2001
Still under the effects of the space/time warp, each member of the Tulip crew find themselves alone in their own parallel universe and must deal with a separate version of their psychopathic prisoner Five who is somehow able to exist in multiple realities. In each universe, Five torments his victims and steers the Tulip to a point within the Oort Cloud. With the help of Caravaggio, each of the crew must find the correct time portal on the ship to get back home. 
119 (19)"Bad Girls"Kai SehrAnnie Ingham & Mary Rogal-BlackMarch 7, 2001
Dante is nearly killed when Percy installs an automated defense turret in the shuttle bay and he orders her to take it down. Soon, a business man named Hamilton and his two daughters, Ayla and Cordulla, come aboard for a 3-day passage to Mars. The two young women quickly befriend Percy, but their bad influence begins to rub off on her and she becomes belligerent toward her uncle. Meanwhile, Luc learns Hamilton is really working for The Orchard to spy on her, and later, he is given orders to kill Luc as well. When Hamilton doesn't comply, The Orchard sends in a hit squad to take him out. At the same time a marshal comes aboard with orders to bring Hamilton in as well and he takes Percy hostage thinking she is one of Hamilton's daughters. 
120 (20)"Bad Seed"Jon OlderJulian FikusMarch 14, 2001
Dante is abducted off the Tulip by an Orchard agent named Tosca who offers him a chance to find Travis. She believes the boy is the key to the Divinity Cluster and injects Dante with a psychotropic drug in hopes that he will establish a mental link to his son and learn where to find him. Meanwhile another agent, Navarre, helps Luc get Dante back while Percy deals with a computer virus that turns Caravaggio against her. Before Luc brings Dante back, a young Raider, Salomea, comes aboard looking for Dante's interactive hologram of his decease wife Penny. She says Travis wants to "talk to his mother" and offers Percy to come back to meet him. 
121 (21)"Travis"François BassetSusannah BrennanMarch 21, 2001
Percy goes aboard The Raider's station and meets her cousin Travis who now called Zephryn and is the leader of the Raiders. Meanwhile, Dante deals with Senaca, Zephryn's mentor and father figure, who offers to hand Travis over for the genetic-enhanced seeds Dante got from Ike. Senaca says his plan is to use the seeds to restore their ancestral home Earth, which can no longer support life. Dante finally meets his son and together they use the hologram device to see Penny who admits to experimenting with the Divinity Cluster on herself which gave their child amazing powers. Later, Salomea warns Dante and Travis of Senaca's real plan - to actually destroy what is left of Earth for the seeds are really a bioweapon. 
122 (22)"Resurrection"Patrick MalakianNelu GhiranMarch 28, 2001
The Tulip is pursued and crippled by The Raiders, but Senaca calls his fighters off and prepares his misson to destroy what is left of Earth with the bioweapon seeds. Luc makes contact with Navarre in hopes of warning the Orchard of Seneca's plans. She then goes to Mars to form a resistance force but time is running out. Meanwhile, Eccleston returns from the "other side" and helps both Travis and Dante unlock their untapped powers. Father and son use a shuttle to intercept Seneca's forces in hopes of psychically willing the seeds away from them, but the shuttle is hit by a missile and begins to burn up in the atmosphere. Meanwhile the Tulip comes under attack by a barrage of missiles and Eccleston uses the last of his power to make the ship vanish to another dimension and taking Percy with it. At the last second before impact, Dante finds himself 10 years back in time on Titan, with his wife Penny and young son Travis. An air-raid siren sounds as the Raiders begin their attack on the Titan colony and Dante appears to relive the event all over again. 

[edit]Season two (2003-2004)

Ep #TitleDirectorWriter(s)Airdate
201 (23)"Rebirth"David WheatleyPeter ZorichAugust 9, 2003
The Tulip emerges from hyperspace after 15 years with Percy aboard. Dante is lost somewhere in time, but his son Travis, now a grown man, has taken up the bounty hunting profession and is assisted by his friend Marcus Fagen. As the two hunters capture a bounty, they cross paths with a rival hunter named Callista "Callie" Larkadia. Meanwhile, Percy docks at Clarke Station near Io and Rudolpho, now down on his luck, tries to get his ship back. Elsewhere, a Raider named Jimmi Zavras, attacks a colony on Pandorakilling one of Travis' friends. Travis hires the Tulip to investigate the attack and encounters Zavras who wants revenge against Travis for betraying Clan Verrun which he once was part of. 
202 (24)"Star Crossed"Roger GartlandPeter ZorichAugust 16, 2003
On Io, Travis and Callie are hired by the Jupiter Federation to help stop a Raider clan war and must capture a clan leader, Dakkota 79, before he activates a Thorium bomb. While posing as a criminal bomb expert, Travis learns that 79's girlfriend Cira, (a former Raider, love interest, and rival bounty hunter), is involved in cashing in on 79's warrant as well. Back on the Tulip, Rudolpho, who is distrustful of Travis, contacts a bounty hunter who hunts Raiders named Redus Fedderjohn, and tries to cash in on a potential bounty for Travis, but Marcus and Percy intercept his communication signals and warn Travis of the betrayal. 
203 (25)"Biocrime"David WheatleyPeter ZorichNovember 7, 2003
Down on Io's Syn City, Marcus comes to the aid of a prostitute friend named Taryn who is being mutated by a genetic alteration and he desperately tries to save her life. Delving back into the criminal underworld, Marcus seeks out a drug dealer named Lumpy and learns a geneticist known as "Father Abode" is in the business of made-to-order sex slaves. While Travis poses as a buyer to get inside, Callie and Rudolpho learn the local police detectives are moonlighting as Abode's thugs and are arrested. Without back-up from his friends, Travis gets in over his head once Abode finds out he's a bounty hunter and injects him with the alteration serum. 
204 (26)"Chasing Janus"Roger GartlandDenis McGrathAugust 30, 2003
Callie is mortally wounded during a botched mission and her only chance for survival is her "blank," a mindless full-body clone used for spare parts and kept on ice by her estranged family on Mars. When Travis tries to get the blank, Callie's father Janus denies having it, but Travis knows he is lying. As Travis and Rudolpho go digging to find out why, Marcus and Percy struggle to keep Callie alive in a failing cryopod. Later, Callie's would-be-killer, a former member of Citadel Squad (a special ops unit Callie once had involvement with), comes to Mars to finish the job. 
205 (27)"Spaceman"David WheatleyDavid Wheatley & Nelu GhiranSeptember 6, 2003
The Tulip crew bring aboard a man found in a lifepod and adrift in a debris field. Percy nurses him back to health and quickly falls in love with him, but the man has no memory of who he is or why he was dumped in the trash. After being physically touched by the man, Marcus and Rudolpho's behavior changes - Rudolpho plots to take back the Tulip and strands Travis and Callie aboard the shuttle, while Marcus becomes violent and threatens to join up with the Raiders. Meanwhile, Travis learns the man, named Mishkin, is really a secret weapon developed my the military - a Trojan horse who possesses a power that drives people to madness, and Mishkin's own father is behind the project. 
206 (28)"Becoming Shiva"Colin BuckseyDenis McGrathSeptember 13, 2003
The bounty hunters go after Salvatore, the leader of "The Children of the Earth" - a terrorist group demanding the rehab of Earth and the end to colonization of the solar system. Their recent bombing of the Ring Shepherd Station has put them at the top of the Jupiter Fed wanted list. Callie captures one of the bombers, Nailson, who refuses to talk, but after Percy turns up the gravity on her cell, she divulges Salvatore's whereabouts - Jupiter's moon Adrastea. Unbeknown to the hunters, Salvatore plans to lure the Tulip in and take it over so he can use the ship to push Adrastea into Jupiter. The resulting collision of the two will spell disaster for all of the Jupiter colonies. 
207 (29)"The Third Thing"David WheatleyMichael Allcock & Roger GartlandSeptember 20, 2003
Marcus and Percy try their hand at bounty hunting and go after what Travis considers an easy target - a petty thief named Tremayne. Tagging along are a holographer named Julian and his assistant Nasdeen, who are filming a documentary on bounty hunting. In truth, Julian is producing an episode of "The Third Thing" - a popular reality show where the viewing audience can decide the outcome of staged events by voting on plot twists. Tremayne, who is also part of the act, turns out to be more than the novice hunters can handle, especially when the audience starts voting against them. 
208 (30)"Torment"Colin BuckseyPeter ZorichSeptember 27, 2003
Rudolpho is contacted by his ex-wife Gina who demands 50,000 credits in back child support, or take their undisciplined 16-year-old daughter Serena off her hands. Deciding on the later, Rudolpho brings Serena aboard the Tulip despite reservations from the rest of the crew - especially Marcus who Serena becomes enthralled with. Meanwhile, Travis helps Santiago, a man whose parents are being held for ransom by a man named Darnell aboard a near-lightspeed capable ship. As a result of time dilation, Santiago is now twice his parents' age. Later, as relations between Rudolpho and Serena collapse, Serena secretly makes contact with Darnell in hopes he will take her to a farworlds colony - and as far away from her pestering father as possible. 
209 (31)"Painless"Colin BuckseyDenis McGrathOctober 4, 2003
Travis is contacted by Garick, an old family friend from Titan City, whose son Sasha died after taking a powerful narcotic painkiller called Anista. Garick introduces the hunters to Saturn Police investigator Dalyat, who informs them of a mysterious drug lord known as Bliss who has been pushing the drug. Travis decides to infiltrate the local underworld and meet Bliss face-to-face, but his cover is nearly blown when Garick confronts him on the street about his Raider past and involvements with real drug trafficking. Back on theTulip, Marcus deals with a maniacal Percy who decided to test the Anista drug on herself. 
210 (32)"Skin Deep"David WheatleyJeffrey HirschfieldOctober 18, 2003
On Clarke Station, Callie reconnects with an old friend named Lena Bannen, the daughter of a successful holo-mag publisher, but she quickly stumbles into trouble when a pair of bounty hunters comes for Lena. Once safe on the Tulip, Travis begins an investigation and learns the Mars Federation is accusing Lena of the murder of a plastic surgeon, but she denies the charges. The evidence against her seems solid and Rudolpho encourages Travis to cash in on the bounty, but Travis grows attracted to Lena and he tries to prove her innocence. Meanwhile, with the Tulip headed to Mars, Marcus and Percy are stranded at Syn City where they share a hotel room together and develop an akward relationship. 
211 (33)"Supermax Redux"Colin BuckseyNoel Garland & Chris Jones-HansenOctober 25, 2003
While transporting an insane prisoner named Quigley, a small ship attacks the Tulip. Aboard is Max, a man who briefly owned theTulip, and who claims the attack was a weapons malfunction. Max comes aboard with his associates Mina and David and proposes a business partnership over dinner in the grand ballroom. He has invested in a mining operation for a rare allotrope of carbon called Omnium - which Caravaggio determines to be a powerful energy source. In reality, Max has come aboard looking for a priceless necklace made of Omnium, which according to an old holo-diary, was hidden somewhere in the ship by a woman named Nora who was a passenger aboard the Tulip when it was a space liner, almost a hundred years ago. 
212 (34)"Pandora's Box"David WheatleyBarry SimnerNovember 3, 2003
The hunters are hired by the Keres Group, a genetic research firm, to bring back a former employee named Quennell who they claim stole a deadly strain of the Tethys Virus that he plans to sell to the Raiders. Rudolpho and Travis capture Quennell at Clarke Station, but he manages to pass a box containing the virus to a nerdy technician named Kingman who doesn't know what he's carrying. Later, Kingman is brought aboard the Tulip after his shuttle is damaged by Raiders who are pursing him. Now with the box, the hunters learn it is a recording device that captured the destruction of a planet in another star system - one destroyed by a weapon being secretly, and illegally, developed by the Keres Group. Travis has to decide which is worth more - handing Qunnell over or warning the system feds of the weapon. 
213 (35)"Stitch In Time"Colin BuckseyRoger GartlandNovember 8, 2003
While transporting a prisoner named Ritson, the Tulip crew encounters a strange gravity anomaly as they pass the asteroid Ida. Suddenly a mining platform called Galentis appears which seems to be the epicenter of the anomaly. Travis and Callie go aboard and return with Captain Parker who claims his Thorium mine on Ida, and all its workers, (a group of Martian convicts), have disappeared. Caravaggio checks the registry, but can find no record of the station's existence, or its mining facilities. Elsewhere, Percy is struck by a gravity wave and wakes up under the consciousness of an inmate from the mine who somehow caused the gravity distortions so she could escape through time. She then volunteers the help of Ritson and plans to take over the ship. Meanwhile Travis tries to figure out how to return Parker and his station back to their proper timeline. 
214 (36)"The Prisoner"David WheatleyDavid T. ReillyNovember 15, 2003
Travis is hired to transport a Jane Doe amnesiac prisoner to Ganymede Neural and her psychologist Dr. Alora Kir. When Jane meets Travis, she has a flashback of him when he was a Raider and shooting a man dead in alleyway brawl, and she reacts by trying to kill him. After securing her in the brig, Travis becomes obsessed with finding out who she really is and his mood swings begin to alienate him from his fellow crew. On Mars, members of a newly reformed Orchard begin their plot to control hyperspace travel through the secrets of the Divinity Cluster. Their leader Murchison, sends out an agent, Tristan Catchpole, to find those who have unlocked their cluster genes, and he targets Travis once he learns of his whereabouts. 
215 (37)"Kate"Michael CockerFarrukh DhondyFebruary 14, 2004
While traveling to Ring Shepherd Station, the Tulip strikes a mine and Caravaggio becomes useless as his control and repair systems malfunction. Instead of helping with repairs, Percy sets to work on creating a new A.I. program - this one female and named Katherine. Although Kate is more efficient than Car, she becomes infatuated with Travis and claims she is in love with him. Travis rejects her on the grounds that she isn't real, and Kate shows a vengeful wrath by deactivating life support and allowing the pirates who layed the mine, come aboard and try to take over the ship. With time running out, Travis tries to show Kate the real meaning of compassion by convincing her to let him save his friends. 
216 (38)"Rivals"Michael CockerDavid T. ReillyFebruary 21, 2004
After dealing with a series of malfunctions, and a psychotic prisoner who gets loose, the crew of the Tulip is helped by Captain Judson of Fugitive Containment Systems - a corporate-backed bounty hunting team equipped with a state-of-the-art ship and the latest resources. Judson becomes interested in Callie and offers her a job with the FCS. Despite Travis urging her to stay, Callie accepts the offer and leaves the Tulip. Afterward, Travis decides to show the FCS who is a more efficient hunter and goes after a dangerous assassin hiding on Clarke Station named Vendal, but the killer's target is uncertain - that is until Travis learns Vendal's mark is Judson himself and he's laid a trap for Callie and the FCS team. 
217 (39)"Heir and the Spare"Colin BuckseyDavid Wheatley (story), Stephen LoweFebruary 28, 2004
The hunters capture a conman named Alex Arroyan who, after a medical scan, is found to be an identical DNA match to Marcus. Marcus confronts Alex who admits they are twin brothers despite Marcus being a test-tube baby born in an artificial womb. Alex had also undergone plastic surgery to hide his true identity from a man named Jaten Sarat who is hunting him. When Sarat comes for Alex, he and Marcus escape to Io and meet their uncle Wilkes, who explains that Alex is heir to the Marendola family of Europa whose rule was overthrown in a coup. Marcus finds out he was intended to be Alex "spare" (a medical blank). To quell current uprisings, Sarat wants Alex to return to rule, but as a puppet leader under his control. In the meantime, Percy begins to lose it while trying to fix the Tulip, and decides to take a vacation. 
218 (40)"Just Politics"Rodger GartlandDavid T. ReillyMarch 6, 2004
The hunters take the Mars Minister of Trade, Andreas Kolsig, and his entourage: bodyguard Dircott and aides Gayna and Jophie, to the Mannheim asteroid belt for a secret negotiation. With Percy absent, Gayna uses her identity to override Caravaggio, and removes the air from Dircott's quarters, killing him. Although Car claims Dircott died of a heart attack, Travis begins an investigation while Rudolpho suspects that Kolsig is not who he claims to be. Later, Jophie is killed when she and Marcus discover Car has been overridden and he activates his self-defenses. Kolsig keeps his meeting with a man named Rezner who deals in a rare mineral called Durenium - a powerful source of negative energy needed for hyperspace travel. Gayna, secretly records evidence that Kolsig plans to keep the mineral and overthrow Mars President Morland. When she tries to escape the Tulip, she activates the self destruct, and the crew hurry to override the countdown. 
219 (41)"Negative Energy"Colin BuckseyEitan ArrusiMarch 13, 2004
The Tulip crew pursue shipjackers in a stolen craft capable of near-lightspeed, but Marcus struggles to keep the ship from falling apart. When the bounty gets away, Travis decides to go with Marcus' plan to use Durenium to power the engines and hopefully achieve hyperspace. To get the fuel cheaply, Rudolpho contacts an old girlfriend named Karina who leads him and Marcus into Io City's underworld looking for a unlicensed mineral supplier. Meanwhile, Travis and Callie deal with Executive Chief Inspector Tibbit who is sent by Jupiter Fed to sign off on their refueling permit. Tibbit however, is not who he claims to be and is secretly working with The Orchard to steal the Tulip and capture Travis. 
220 (42)"License to Fill"Rodger GartlandRodger GartlandMarch 20, 2004
While docked at Olympus Mons City, Travis is contacted by Mars Fed in regards to his expired bounty hunting license. Despite only being two days late for renewal, a prosecutor named Calder comes aboard the Tulip and places the crew under house arrest pending a court hearing into a series of complaints filed against them. Using Caravaggio's recordings as evidence, and as a witness, Calder reviews a series of past events that places Travis and crew in a bad light. Even Percy is found and brought in to answer questions. The hunters' only hope to keep their job, and ship, lies in Morgan, an attorney who freely accepts their case in hopes of exposing Calder of conspiring against the bounty hunters for unknown personal reasons. Meanwhile, Callie and Marcus hack into the Mars police database to find who he's connected with and use it against him. 
221 (43)"Hyperspace 1"Rodger GartlandHudson KingMarch 27, 2004
While trying to solve the problems of hyperspace, Marcus finds help in the theories of a Dr. Gregory Lanzig and decides to track him down. Lanzig proves hard to find, but Travis and Callie find his assistant Dr. Vienna Xeylon and learn she and Lanzig are one in the same. Xeylon offers a device called a horizon generator which once installed in the Tulip' will help create a stable warp bubble. Soon, Orchard agents come for Xeylon, and Callie is shot during the ensuing firefight. Callie later dies from a powerful toxin carried by the bullet that destroys muscle tissue. Not wanting Callie's death to be for nothing, Travis and Marcus infiltrate The Orchard's facility on Mars and free Xeylon, but Tristan Catchpole returns and chases the Tulip down. The only chance left for escape is to try Xeylon's device and enter hyperspace. 
222 (44)"Hyperspace 2"Rodger GartlandHudson KingApril 3, 2004
Having fled from The Orchard into hyperspace, each Tulip crew member finds themselves in their own pocket reality, but a problem in all realities is the fact the ship's molecules are destabilizing due to a warp bubble imbalance. Elsewhere in hyperspace, Travis finds Xeylon who explains how to activate his Divinity Cluster power. Travis only wishes to return to the point in time where Callie is shot and try to stop it. Meanwhile, Catchpool lurks aboard the Tulip jumping from each reality and observing the crew as they establish a way to stabilize the ship. Once they do, he steals the horizon generator and returns to the Orchard HQ on Mars, but he kills Murchison and takes over the Hyperspace project. Travis eventually alters time and saves Callie's life. They all return to the Tulip but without the horizon generator the ship remains stuck in hyperspace. Xeylon has a theory on getting back but risks destroying the ship if it fails. The series ends here in a cliffhanger. 
Finally if your really interested in getting into Star Hunter seasons one & two are available to watch legally & free at Hulu. Here is the second season right Here
  There are several things that mark Star Hunter as a bit different : 


  1. Both seasons are different animals with completely different sets of characters who might be found in any science fantasy game as PCs or Npcs. They have their own motives, motivations, backgrounds, & secret agendas.. Like two different campaigns by the same authors there's something to be learned by the way these folks have been written. Bridge the gap between campaigns with Npcs with shared history & agendas 
  2. Hyperspace as the unknown & Rip Van Wrinkle universe. Here time takes a holiday & it enables a DM with a time line to muck about & still not have to explain every single mystery. 
  3. The mysteries of the universe are intact & even by the time the cliff hanger happens not everything is explained. The fans are left to fill in some of the issues by themselves. This can be applied to PC's as well. 
  4. Adventures have a beginning, middle, & definitive ending but there are plots that tie everything together this is a hall mark of good Sci Fi simply look at Star Wars or Star Trek for examples of this 
  5. The universe has technology which glues things together & even with Time Lost PCs this isn't a handy cap. This is an opportunity for further role playing & adventure hooks 
  6. The past shapes the future, there are metric ton of adventure seeds that sewn throughout the series. These come from the past & shape the current crop of adventures in the present.. 
  7. The bounty hunting is secondary to the adventure. Time & again we see money as one of the prime motivators for the series. Grab the cash any way you can. 
  8. Everyone is shady.. There is no one in this series without a record, issue, or motive which can be exploited by the DM for further screwing around with the PCs. 
  9. Story arches are solved in a mostly timely fashion of 47 & change minutes. This enables a DM to do the same. 
  10. The idea of the PC base ala The Tulip is a resource, adventure location, headquarters, etc all rolled up into one. Its also a liability as well.

Additional Information concerning Star Hunter 

 

  • Season two's theme song, Darker Star, was performed by Peter Gabriel. It is the instrumental version of the song Darkness from the 2002 album Up.
  • Through 2006 and 2007, Starhunter 2300 aired on A-Channel (a Canadian television network) from 3:30-4:40 AM every weeknight.
  • Starhunter was available on Joost for viewers outside Canada although some story-critical episodes are absent from the Joost site. Joost also presents the episodes in incorrect order (beginning with the sixth episode) rendering the broad story and character arcs difficult to follow. [1]
  • Starhunter Seasons 1 and 2 are available in full from Hulu.com.
  • Starhunter Season 2 was available on Netflix's Watch-It-Now streaming service until November 1, 2011.
  • All information including a nicer, cleaner summery of the various episodes can be found on wiki right  Here Starhunter

    Important Note : The two seasons of Starhunter are released separately on Region 1 DVDs, with each package bearing the somewhat misleading legend "The Entire Series."

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic send it forward to sew man twenty three at g mail. com
    Ram it all together. It might take me a couple of days to get to though because I've got a lot of material to get through.

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