Interstellar Skylarks

“Too low they dream, who dream beneath the stars,” goes the immortal misquotation of 17th century poet Edward Young which begins the Skylarks saga. The series debuted to wide acclaim large audience share, thanks in part to a timeslot following the wildly popular King Cheetah Anthology Hour. Commodore Quinn and his loyal band of soldier-scientists would spend the next 5 seasons exploring the cosmos, safeguarding the fragile Earthling-Ellorian alliance and bedding many an alluring Ajaxian along the way.

Interstellar Skylarks was almost entirely almost episodic (a notable exception being “Battle Inside Time”, which thanks to some clever editing used most of the same footage as “Battle Outside Time”). Other notable episodes include two stark parables on the potential risks of nuclear power (“Wherefore Atlantis” and "The Empire That Almost Wasn't") and a moving tribute to Brown v. Board of Education in “Sky Cadet Soliloquy” (which also served to introduce the sky cadet training program).

Summary
"To chart the stars. To guard mankind. To venture skyward. To never falter. This is the charge of the ISS Starling."

Starring

 * Quincy O'Neill as Commodore Dara Quinn

Also starring
In addition, the following regulars were listed in the end credits as co-stars:
 * Lester Haverford as XO Q’Zarr (Inccorectly credited as "Q-zar" from 1965-1967)
 * Beatrice Hanrahan as Leftenant Svetlana Novikov
 * General Tabulations M3777 as M.A.R.L.A.
 * Burton LeFunches as Chief Astronomer Cromwell VanderMeijer
 * Hobart “Ham” Harmon as Mechanist Wilcox
 * Alice “Eggs” Egglestine as Mechanist Squire
 * and Peppers as himself

Production crew

 * [ENTRY MISSING] – Creator, Writer, Producer, Executive Producer
 * Edwin Georges – Writer, Producer
 * Jessaly Theodric – Writer, Producer, Director

Season 1
Interstellar Skylarks (as it was then called) debuted to wide acclaim and a large audience share, thanks in part to a timeslot following a popular long running Western series. The first season was almost entirely almost episodic (the exception being the two Battle Inside Time installments, which thanks to some clever writing conceits used the same footage in different order) and episodes tended to consist of either high concept sci-fi melodrama or swashbuckling space opera hijinks, or a mix of both.

Notable episodes include and a moving tribute to Brown v. Board of Education in “Sky Cadet Soliloquy” (which also detailed the general arrangement of the Skylarks training program) and the completely silent “Codex of Justice”. Less well regarded are “The Peppers Predicament” and “Commodore... Peppers?”, both of which briefly placed Commodore Quinn’s prize-winning dachshund in command of the ISS Starling.

Season 2
Widely regarded as a high point for the franchise, Season 2 introduced a number of romantic entanglements for the crew as well as the wildly popular Mantoids, who would serve as the principal antagonists for the remainder of the series. Also notable for featuring the first full comedy episode (“Seven Brides for Seven Commodores”) and what was seen as a thinly veiled critique of Kennedy's escalation of the war in Vietnam (“When Johnny Comes Floating Home”).

Season 3
Despite a devoted fanbase and frequently strong ratings for a show of the type, budgets were slashed midway through Season 3, allegedly in response to some of the show’s “political” leanings (although the increasingly extravagant use of miniatures may also have been the culprit). Nonetheless, the season is known for widely expanding the Skylarks universe, introducing Battlepods, offensive beam emitters, and a wide range of capital ship classes which would become staples in future installments. This season also featured the first “formal” two part episode “The Paradox Gambit”, notable also for introducing the titular gambit which has played so heavily in Skylarks lore.

Season 4
A shakeup in the writing staff led to a sharp decline in quality moving into season 4. The SFX shots in season premier “The Galactic Gamble” are generally considered to be some of the worst in the franchise, “Two Against the Cosmos” was all a dream, and “Battle Inside Time: Redux Part 2” strained the concept past credibility. Worst of all though was “The Pterodactyl Peril”, an episode so offensive the series was immediately canceled by the network. Even after the show was revived due to a write in campaign, the remainder of the produced episodes were considered “fruit of a poison tree” and remained unaired (and non-canon) for decades. That said “An Angry Mist” introduced The Angry Mist, which proved a popular recurring adversary due to its cosmic scale and unknowable nature.

Season 5
After a year in hiatus the show returned for its final season with a trio of TV movies, each of which were broken up into 2 episodes for syndication. (‘The Gentleman and the Star Pirate” and “The Doom Tree” were well received, “Star Beatniks!” less so) and a slate of episodes designed to resolve lingering plot threads (although in typical Skylarks fashion many of these raised more questions than they answered).

Concept
Interstellar Skylarks was created by [ENTRY MISSING]

Background information

 * [ENTRY MISSING] wrote lyrics for the opening theme (entitled "Chart the Stars in Her Eyes") in order to secure a partial writer's credit for the song. These lyrics were never recorded as part of the original theme song, and thus were never aired.
 * Production for the initial season of Interstellar Skylarks cost an average of $170,635 per episode. (Some episodes went largely over budget, such as "The Decline and Fall of Octropolis 7", which cost $220,396, the most expensive of all episodes except the pilot). But this figure would gradually decrease in the seasons to come.
 * [ENTRY MISSING] originally planned for the Octavians (as introduced in "A Delicate Lattice") to represent the primary love interests for the run of the show, believing that "more arms mean more drama" however he was eventually dissuaded from this approach by senior production staff and representatives  from the marionette operators union.

Related topics

 * Interstellar Skylarks performers
 * Interstellar Skylarks recurring characters
 * Character crossover appearances
 * Composers
 * Scandals
 * Interstellar Skylarks directors
 * Undeveloped Interstellar Skylarks episodes

Media

 * Interstellar Skylarks on VHS
 * Interstellar Skylarks on Betamax
 * Interstellar Skylarks on CED
 * Interstellar Skylarks on LaserDisc
 * Interstellar Skylarks on DVD
 * Interstellar Skylarks on Blu-ray
 * Interstellar Skylarks soundtracks