Earth Star Voyager (1988– )

The Earth Star Voyager is a spaceship sent to another solar system to prepare it for colonization. Earth itself is horribly polluted, so the mission is vitally important. But as the ... See full summary »

Stars:

Duncan Regehr, Brian McNamara, Julia Montgomery

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Duncan Regehr	...	Jacob 'Jake' Brown (1988)
Brian McNamara	...	Jonathan Hays (1988)
Julia Montgomery	...	Sally Arthur, MD (1988)
Jason Michas	...	Jessie 'Beanie' Bienstock
Tom Bresnahan	...	Huxley Welles (1988) (as Tom Breznahan)
Margaret Langrick	...	Luz Sansone
Sean O'Byrne	...	Vance Arthur
Peter Donat	...	Admiral Beasley (1988)
Ric Reid	...	Capt. Forbes (1988)
Frank C. Turner	...	Willy (1988)
Dinah Gaston	...	Lani (1988)
Bruce Harwood	...	Dr. Eugene (1988)
Bill Croft	...	Trager (1988)
John 'Bear' Curtis	...	Whistlestick (1988)
Stephen Dimopoulos	...	The Crier (1988)

Storyline

The Earth Star Voyager is a spaceship sent to another solar system to prepare it for colonization. Earth itself is horribly polluted, so the mission is vitally important. But as the departing starship gets under way, signs begin to emerge that their mission may unwittingly be part of a larger conspiracy.

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Plot Keywords:

colonization | tv mini series | railgun | space | pollution | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 January 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Csillagutasok

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Marstar Productions, Walt Disney Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

240 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The ship supposedly catches up with radio waves broadcast from Earth in the past. However, their objective was only 18.7 light years away. Especially since they had only begun the trip, they should not have received any broadcasts older than a few weeks or months old. The broadcasts they received range from 1927 to 1987, which should have been 101-161 light years from Earth by the year 2088, more than five times the distance to Demeter. Also, because light cannot vary speed, they would not have caught up to all the broadcasts at once. The broadcasts would have gradually gotten older as they traveled further from Earth. (Additional note: There is no reason to suspect that the intercepted radio signals were original broadcasts; although that is the aside made in the movie. These could be rebroadcasted (reruns) programs from Earth on the same day in the same spatial direction.)

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Quotes

Capt Jonathan Hays: [Jonathan walks towards the airlock where Jake's rail gun is located. He sees a hulky figure who has his back to the airlock door, using a cutting tool to cut some wires on top of the rail gun. As Jonathan steps into the airlock and approaches, the figure stops his sabotage and slowly turns partially around. It's Brody, the personal trainer for the ship]
Capt Jonathan Hays: Why? Why Brody?
Brody: You weren't in the plan, Captain. Just Forbes, and Loni.
Brody: [...]

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Connections

Edited into Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color: Earth Star Voyager: Part 2 (1988)

User Reviews

Entertaining, humorous movie of its era

Considering what it was up against, with a low budget and science fiction being so new in the television world, Earthstar Voyager is an extremely good B movie. We taped it off of TV years ago and even though we didn't tape the beginning of the second part, it still remains a family favorite. Why? It has an exceptional plot, considering what it had to work with (No aliens, no ultra, clichéd bad guys) it's hard to find excitement in space without those, but the movie is able to keep a good pace. Most of this is because of the script, which is very clever, and a cast that was able to click and be believable. Duncan Reghre excels and I must admit that Huxley's character is one of my favorite sci-fi characters ever. Add to these good parts the humor that just being a B movie can add (The exact same shot of the ship used every time, the outfits that the bad guys wear looking like they raided a costume store, etc.)and you've got a pretty fun movie. Unfortunately, unless enough people remember it, it will go down in the vaults as one of "Disney's failures" and never be re-released even on television. If they were to re-release it, however, I see it holding the possibility of becoming quite a cult classic.