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Quark [tv]

Entry updated 19 November 2023. Tagged: TV.

US tv series (1977-1978). Columbia Picture Television for NBC-TV. Created by Buck Henry. Produced by Bruce Johnson. Directors included Hy Averback, Bruce Bilson, Peter H Hunt. Writers included Henry, Bruce Kane, Jonathan Kaufer, Robert Keats. Cast includes Cyb Barnstable, Patricia Barnstable, Richard Benjamin, Alan Caillou, Douglas Fowley (pilot only), Conrad Janis, Richard Kelton, Bobby Porter and Tim Thomerson. One 45-minute pilot episode plus eight 30-minute episodes. Colour.

In this interstellar sitcom, Adam Quark (Benjamin) is the Captain of a United Galactic Sanitation Patrol Starship in the year 2226; his ostensible mission is to collect galactic trash in "space baggies". However, he and his oddball crew often find themselves in the midst of other adventures during their usual assignment. Crew members are Gene/Jean (Thomerson), a "transmute" with both male and female genes who would switch frequently from one personality to the other; Betty 1 (Patricia Barnstable) and Betty 2 (Cyb Barnstable), Clones who bicker about which was the original; Ficus (Kelton), the ship's Spock-like science officer, a highly-evolved "Vegeton" or plant-man; and Andy the Android (Porter), a not very effective Robot created in the pilot by Dr O B Mudd (Fowley). The primary Villains are the Gorgons, a warlike race posing a constant threat to the worlds of the United Galactic organization. Quark receives his orders from Otto Palindrome (Janis) and The Head (Caillou) at the home base, Space Station Perma One.

The series' brief run included Parodies of the original Star Trek (1966-1969), of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and of the original Star Wars film Star Wars (1977), plus spoofs of other well-known sf films and television series. [GSt]

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