Black Hole Joe

Black Hole Joe is a Georgeland animated television sci-fi comedy series, premiering on Channel 12 in 2006. The series chronicles the adventures of a rather inept group of space heroes in the 25th century led by their cowardly and dim-witted captain. Black Hole Joe was created by Brian Duff, who also provides several voices and writes many of the scripts. There are thus far been two series of Black Hole Joe, the first of six 24-minute episodes and the second with eight. A third series, also with eight episodes, will air in 2008. The series has met with popular acclaim due to its sophisticated humour and its use of science-fiction as a means of satirising aspects of modern-day popular culture. Though the series is made in Georgeland, two of the five principle voice actors are American and one is British. The series has been shown in 25 different countries. In the United States the series airs on Adult Swim while it is shown on Channel Four in the United Kingdom. The series stars Brian Duff, Simon Royston, Jennifer Houston, Patrick Quinn and Rachel Beck. A variety of "guest stars" have also provided their voices for the series, usually as aliens resembling their human selves.

Premise
The series is set in the 25th Century, where the human race is dying out due largely to global warming, which seems to be occurring on every planet humans have colonised. There are hundreds of alien races in contact with humanity, though humans are generally considered to be undesirables due to their prolific breeding and ill-treatment of any planet they encounter. In this universe a crew of misfits (all of the main characters have been exiled from their home planets for a variety of reasons, some of which change from episode-to-episode. The crew travel the galaxy in a run-down spaceship called Fred. Ostensibly the crew are supposed to be merchants but they are comedically inept at this and their attempts to make even simple transactions are usually fraught with disaster.

Characters

 * Joseph T. Pikirk (Brian Duff), known by the nickname of Black Hole Joe is the captain of the starship Fred. Egomaniacal but highly incompetent, Joe shows more interest in ineptly pursuing women and going to parties than he does in running his starship. Though he plays the role of the "heroic space captain", Joe is a craven coward and flees from battle at the earliest opportunity, though he has occasionally fought when there is no alternative. Joe would like to be a womaniser but has no idea how to talk to women, coming across as sexist at best or perverted at worse. The episode The Devil and the Dork reveals that Joe is actually a virgin, though he constantly denies this. Joe's nickname comes from his days as a space pilot, when he lost five different ships by piloting them into black holes by accident. Joe's rarely-mentioned surname is a combination of James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard, though his middle initial 'T' apparently stands for 'Twiggy'. Joe commands absolutely no respect among his crew and is apparently captain only because he won the ship in a sweepstakes.
 * Zorg (Simon Royston) is a three-eyed, six-armed gelatinous blob who serves as the ship's pilot and de facto First Mate, though in reality his orders make more sense than Joe's and are usually followed, if under protest. Zorg, despite his somewhat frightening appearance, is actually very cultured and sophisticated, enjoying classical music, opera and ballet (though he also likes jazz ballet. He refers to himself several times as an old Etonian though this may be a lie. Zorg speaks in an upper-class English accent and is rather pompous. He is not as much of a coward as Joe but prefers not to fight. Zorg is somewhat intelligent (though not as smart as Abby) and has strongly Conservative views. He is also apparently a Roman Catholic.
 * Abby (Jennifer Houston) is the ship's science officer and mechanic, and far-and-away the smartest and most competent member of the crew. She does, however, suffer from several delusions and her behaviour often borders on psychotic. In the episode The Woman Trap Abby mentions that she "killed a man with her shoe", though she may have been joking. Abby is not so much brave as overconfident, though she has saved the lives of the others several times. She suffers from severe OCD and has a somewhat disturbing obsession with 1980s TV star Dwight Schultz, though she does not seem to know why.
 * Seamus O'Droid (Patrick Quinn) is an Irish robot who is now severely obsolete, to the extent that he contains a dot matrix printer and a 56K modem. Seamus's head is detachable and has a thousand different functions - it has been used as a blender, transmitter, bowling ball, soap dispenser and a piggy bank, among other things. Seamus speaks in a strong Irish accent but sounds rather like C3PO from Star Wars. Seamus is solar powered (shown in the episode Imbalance of Error) but also seems to run on steam, as in the episode Muck Time Abby needs to keep feeding coal into him. Seamus is mostly used by the crew as a sort of portable device, as he has no useful skills.
 * KITTY (Rachel Beck) is the computer system aboard the starship Fred. KITTY (based partly on KITT from the Knight Rider TV series is sarcastic and patronising. Prior to being installed on Fred, KITTY was the computer system on an advanced warship and is subsequently bitter and apathetic. On several occasions the crew have asked KITTY for urgent help and been met with sarcastic comments or silence. KITTY particularly despises Joe and routinely insults him, but she also considers Zorg a "pompous arseless blob" and Abby as a "psycho bitch". She gets on quite well with Seamus, and the two have a brief romantic relationship in The Tuesday Machine.

Episodes
All episodes of Black Hole Joe are plays on the names of real episodes of the original Star Trek series. Other than the name they bare no resemblance to those episodes, though the Star Trek franchise is lampooned and satirised routinely.

Series One (2006)

 * 1) Imbalance of Error
 * 2) The Liar of Gothos
 * 3) The Trouble with Truffles
 * 4) Muck Time
 * 5) The Ultimate Commuter
 * 6) Zorg's Brain

Series Two (2007)

 * 1) The Tuesday Machine
 * 2) The Devil and the Dork
 * 3) Sheep in the Fold
 * 4) The Woman Trap
 * 5) The Fredly Years
 * 6) A Private Little Bore
 * 7) The Ditty on the Edge of Forever
 * 8) Dead and Circuses