Deep Space Discounts
Entry updated 20 July 2026. Tagged: TV.
UK animated webseries (2026). DeepBlueInk. Created, directed and written by DeepBlueInk. Voice cast includes DeepBlueInk, Brian David Gilbert, Barrett Leddy, Marissa Lenti, Cat Protano, Kieran Regan and Jenny Yokobori. Five 5-8 minute episodes to date. Colour.
A new staff member, the human Imogen (Protano) – she prefers "Immy" – is watching Deep Space Discounts' induction video, where their cheery mascot Dee Dee (Gilbert) explains how, after accusations of not paying their staff "a liveable wage ... we did the right thing and let all our workers seek alternative employment", then set up the "incarceration alternative programme" to employ "some of the universe's most hardened criminals" – who are not paid, but get meals (the screen says seven a week, but the edited voiceover now says six). Immy meets her new colleagues: the flirty Robot Bucket (DeepBlueInk) and four humanoid Aliens: the friendly Vee (Yokobori), tetchy Kip (Leddy), spaced out Gub (Regan) and violent Clayre (Lenti). The staff room's wall charts suggest Clayre and Kip have killed a lot of customers. Whenever a task is completed an individual's sentence is reduced – for instance, by completing her induction, Immy's sentence is reduced by 15 minutes, to just over 423 years. It is remarked that this is a long sentence.
As humans know nothing of intergalactic civilization, the other staff are surprised at Immy's presence; she is reluctant to explain how she got here. There is only one option on the menu for humans: "Egg", from one of which the cute Beep hatches, adopted by Immy as a pet. Everyone wears a wristband that acts as a Universal Translator; before learning this, Immy had theorized the British were descended from aliens. There are many signs, such as "Please do not treat our staff as 'people'. They'll start getting 'ideas'".
A workplace comedy set on a "space-sailing superstore" (which resembles a warehouse and grounds, but with rockets sticking out of the base – see Spaceships), Deep Space Discounts is a Satire on the retail sector (see Economics) and its treatment of staff. The first season's focus is on establishing the setting and characters, though with stirrings of plot at the end when we learn of the company's interest in Immy, considering their first Terran staff member to be a success; this probably does not bode well for humanity. So far, save for Clayre, the staff do not seem like hardened criminals; whilst a romance between Vee and Immy is underway. Like many independently animated series Deep Space Discounts was broadcast on YouTube (after an appearance on DeepBlueInk's Patreon), and a second season is to follow. It is an amusing and promising series with much Humour. [SP]
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