Multiple times in the first five episodes, the characters end up trapped by dangerous alien creatures while they’re out looking for spare parts, only to miraculously shoot their way out.
The plotting relies on plenty of sci-fi clichés, and it doesn’t always subvert them effectively enough. Elida and Amae also have a lively, flirty dynamic, and Commander Lazaro makes for an effectively nasty villain, with du Toit clearly relishing the sadistic bad-guy role. Without relying on fancy special effects, the show’s creators (led by showrunner Jem Garrard) put more effort into snappy dialogue and engaging character relationships, and the central friendship between Elida and Isaac holds the show together, even as the story gets swept up in the grand drama of Elida’s potential return to the throne (and a search for a standard sci-fi doomsday device). The Winnipeg is constantly breaking down and losing parts, and the heroes’ blasters are always running out of batteries when they need them most. The low-fi feel is part of the show’s charm, and the characters often joke about how unreliable their equipment is.
Still, there are some decent alien prosthetics that are at least at the level of highly accomplished cosplay, and the makeup and costume designers make up in bright colors what they lack in elaborate detail. The obvious low budget means that CGI effects are minimal and not exactly convincing, and most alien races are indicated by slightly differently shaped ears (as on Elida) or a bit of face paint (one dog-like alien looks a bit like John Candy’s Barf from Spaceballs). Otherwise, onscreen titles consistently remind viewers the planets are in “another galaxy, not yours,” the show’s variation on “a galaxy far, far away.” While Star Wars is often praised for the believably ramshackle aesthetic of its backwater planets and outposts, Vagrant Queen takes that style a step further, making the best of its budgetary constraints by styling its various outposts like the truck stops, convenience stores and dive bars of America’s back roads. Isaac only arrived in the galaxy from Earth via a freak accident, and he’s disappointed that no one understands his pop-culture references or appreciates his love for Canada (there is an amusing bit in one episode about the pronunciation of Saskatchewan capital Regina). Although the characters are often in life-or-death situations, Vagrant Queen remains light and fun, the opposite of the grim intensity of sci-fi shows (and Syfy shows) that are determined to be taken seriously. Vagrant Queen takes obvious delight in subverting and mocking the conventions of the Star Wars movies and sci-fi chosen-one narratives in general, and it does so with an endearingly scrappy low-budget style.
#VAGRANT QUEEN SERIES#
She’s forced to live on the run, teaming up with a ragtag band of rebels and rogues to stay one step ahead of the sinister forces tracking her down.īut Elida (Adriyan Rae) is no Princess Leia, despite the blatant parallels in the show based on the Vault Comics series by Magdalene Visaggio and Jason Smith. The title character of Vagrant Queen is an exiled monarch whose home planet has been taken over by a ruthless, galaxy-spanning bureaucracy with commanding officers dressed in black and legions of troopers in face-covering helmets (whose outfits are remarkably easy to steal).
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