6.8 /10 1 Votes
6.9/10 TV Genre Science fiction No. of seasons 2 Network The Movie Network | 6.6/10 IMDb Also known as 'Starhunter 2300' Country of origin Canada Final episode date 3 April 2004 Program creator Daniel D'Or | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Created by G. Philip Jackson
Daniel D'or Starring Michael Paré
Tanya Allen
Claudette Roche Cast Tanya Allen, Michael Paré, Murray Melvin, Clive Robertson, Stephen Marcus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Starhunter (later Starhunter 2300) is a Canadian science fiction television series that aired for two seasons. The series was produced in Canada by The Danforth Studios Ltd. (a D'or/Jackson Company) in association with Alliance Atlantis with some photography in the United Kingdom. Grosvenor Park Productions UK Ltd. was the co-producer from the United Kingdom, and Le Sabre SA, an affiliate of Canal+, was the French co-producer, with major unofficial German participation by Das Werk.
Contents
In season one, Starhunter starred Michael Paré, Tanya Allen, Claudette Roche and featured Murray Melvin and Stephen Marcus. In season two Clive Robertson, Dawn Stern and Paul Fox were added to the cast, while the original actors except Allen and Marcus were dropped. Contrary to the wishes of the series creators, the investors in the second season blocked the return of Paré and replaced Melvin.
Season one was nominated by the Directors Guild of Canada for a Best Production Design award, and for a "Spaceys Award" by Space: The Imagination Station.
The first run of the first season aired in Canada, from 1 November 2000 to 28 March 2001. Starhunter was syndicated in the United States by Western Television Syndicators, going to air in the fall of 2002. The first season continues to re-run in many territories. The second season had its first run in Canada from 9 August 2003 to 3 April 2004.
The name of the series was changed in the second season to Starhunter 2300, although in the US, both seasons share the same title. For the first season, special effects were handled by Das Werk from Germany, and for season two were taken over by Optix Digital Pictures in Toronto, Canada. The show's opening credits theme in the first season was composed by Donald Quan and in the second by Peter Gabriel.
Plot
Starhunter follows the exploits of the crew of a retired luxury-liner refitted to serve a late-23rd century 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 transmission 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 series and video game Ice Planet. Jackson was an uncredited writer on eight of Starhunter's second season episodes.
Posts on Sept 19 2014, on the website and Facebook Group of the film production company "Starfield Indie", state that the company has acquired rights to go forward with a third season of Starhunter, also being 22 one-hour episodes. A production date is not announced, except the Facebook group posts refer to a "best guess" of production starting in "February 2015". The same posts represent that the series will bring back most of Season one and Two regulars including explicitly Michael Pare. Unspecified new cast is apparently to be added to the ensemble according to the same source.
First season
Second season
Additional information
Home releases
The two seasons of Starhunter are released separately on Region 1 DVDs, with each package bearing the somewhat misleading legend "The Complete Series."
Much of the first season of Starhunter was first made available across two single-disc releases from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment. "Volume 1" contains 8 episodes and "Volume 2" holds an additional seven episodes. Both were released August 31, 2004.
Echo Bridge later released the complete first season as "Starhunter: The Complete Series" on May 29, 2007 in a 4-disc set. The set is presented in production order rather than original broadcast order, a difference which only affects the first six episodes. Given the largely standalone nature of each of these early episodes the exact viewing order doesn't matter much, except that it does place the intended series opener "The Divinity Cluster" as episode 4 instead of episode 1.
In 2008 Echo Bridge reissued the first season in a 3-disc set. The first DVD still reflects the incorrect episode order listed above and is still mislabeled as "The Complete Series." The cover art was modified slightly, using mostly the same basic imagery as the previous 4-disc set but giving it a pronounced red color scheme as opposed to the mostly dark blue color scheme used on the previous 4-disc set.
Alliance Home Entertainment released season one in a 4-disc DVD set in Canada as Starhunter: The Complete Series on April 19, 2011. Packaging and disc content appear to be largely identical to the previous 4-disc Echo Bridge release, including the incorrect episode order for the first six episodes.
Image Entertainment released the complete second season under the title "Starhunter 2300: The Complete Series" on November 23, 2004 in a 6-disc set.
The first season was also released on DVD in Germany in 2010 across a pair of 2-disc sets, each covering 11 episodes. These German releases are notable for presenting the first season in true widescreen, whereas all other DVD releases of these episodes are of a standard cropped 'fullscreen' presentation. Season 2 is currently unavailable in widescreen.