Starship (theatre)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
And they're here to get the job done.

I wanna be a Starship Ranger
I wanna have the things they've got
I could be a Starship Ranger
But there's just one little thing they are
That I'm not...

On a planet of Big Creepy-Crawlies, a young bug named Bug is just another worker for the Overqueen, but he dreams of leaving Bug-World behind and joining the Starship Rangers, an elite group of humans who explore the galaxy. Bug has spent his whole life exploring the wreck of a Ranger starship that crashed many years ago, watching their video logs so often that he's even learnt the human language, but after the Overqueen decrees that Bug should become an eggplanter instead, it seems as though his dreams will never come true. That all changes when another starship arrives on Bug-World bearing a new team of Starship Rangers, among them the beautiful science officer February. It's Bug's chance to live his dream of being a Starship Ranger, but first he'll have to face off against robots, scorpions, corrupt traitors and true love in order to save his new friends and his entire world.

Starship is a science fiction musical theatre comedy from Team Starkid, the creators of A Very Potter Musical and Me and My Dick. Written by Matt Lang, Nick Lang, Brian Holden and Joe Walker, from a pitch by Walker and Darren Criss ("The Little Mermaid meets Aliens") and with music written by Criss, it was performed in early 2011 and released on DVD and YouTube on April 30. Within a few days of the soundtrack's release on iTunes, it rose to #3 on the iTunes sales charts in the US, the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands, #2 in Australia, Canada and Ireland, debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top Cast Albums chart (beating the record set by Me and My Dick, which reached #11), and even cracked Billboard's overall album sales chart, coming in at #134 after only three days of sales. It's distinct from other Team Starkid shows because the performance, which took place in Chicago, charged for the tickets, and a DVD of the performance was later released through their online store.

You can watch the entire show on YouTube or buy the DVD and the soundtrack from their website.

And no, they did not build this city on rock and roll.

Tropes used in Starship (theatre) include:

Starship Ranger: We come to conquer... in peace!

  • Battle Couple: Up and Taz
  • Be Yourself
  • Beta Couple: Tootsie Noodles and Megagirl.
    • Krayonder and Specs to an extent, as well.
      • Much of the Krayonder/Specs interaction and eventual romance was cut out of the recorded version but was present in the live stage version.
    • Taz and Up also
    • Roach and the Overqueen.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: When it looks like the Rangers are going to be killed by the bugs, it's Tootsie Noodles who immediately turns on Krayonder and wants to kill him.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Pincer and Junior.
  • Blind and the Beast: When February and Bug first meet, February has been blinded by a mammal-wrangler's mucus and so she can't see that Bug is not really human.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: The Hive's code of ethics is a little... different. Many bugs very happily sacrifice themselves to be eaten alive by the Over Queen to nourish the eggs. Bugette's proposal to Bug about eating his head and planting her larvae in him is treated like being asked to have sex. In fact, most of this trope with the Hive revolves around happily eating things alive.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: In one scene, a beetle punches Bug. Then, another beetle's puppeteer punches Joey.
    • After the mosquitoes die, Brian and Jim lower the puppets to the floor (making death noises the entire time), and then just walk off.
    • Joe's wink to the audience after the Take That to Glee.
    • When February says she sees no signs of intelligent life anywhere, she's looking directly at the audience.
      • This might also just be a result of it being live theatre. Whenever you're not talking to anyone on-stage, you're pretty much going to be looking into the audience.
    • During the big finish of Pincer's song "Kick it up a Notch," the puppeteers are doing a kickline.
    • When Bug is about to sing to Bugette, he gets the band's attention by calling "Maestro."
    • Joey's aside glance when Bug and Feburary kiss.
    • Bug high fives the bee's actor during "Beauty".
  • The Cameo: Many of the Team Starkid regulars show up in bit roles during the pre-recorded segments. Tyler Brunsman, Brian Rosenthal, Britney Coleman, Arielle Goldman, Nicholas Joseph Strauss-Matathia, Devin Lytle [1] and Lily Marks all cameo as Starship Rangers in the opening ad, Richard Campbell is a blue-headed alien, and A.J. Holmes is the captain of the crashed starship.
  • Captain Ersatz: Up for Snake.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Pincer and Junior.
  • Catch Phrase: "My name's Junior, maybe ya heard of me."
    • And of course "We're here to get the job done!"
  • Chekhov's Classroom: The orientation speech at the hatchery- all newly hatched larvae eat the nearest mammal for nourishment. This is the fate that befalls Junior after he kills Bugette and her eggs hatch from inside her.
    • At the hatchery, Bug is warned that the gag reflexes of mammals makes it more difficult to implant eggs. When February figures out that Junior used her for egg implantation, she lists the possible reasons why- one of these being that she barely has a gag reflex, which would make egg implantation very easy.
  • Coconut Superpowers: In the live stage production, the actor shooting the zapper had to say 'pew' to signify shooting. In the Internet version, lasers were added... but the actors still say pew.
  • Combat Tentacles: After being captured by Autobots during the war, Up was held spread-eagled by tentacles while he was cut in half.
  • Comically Missing the Point: February vomiting after "Beauty": "She's excreting her filth for him! WE DID IT!!"
    • When Bug goes to Up for girl advice.

Up: Well then, who is it?
Bug: It's February.
Up: Oh February! ...She's an idiot.
Bug: Yeah, isn't she the greatest?

    • When Bug is being reprimanded by the Overqueen for helping February.

Bug: But I swear, I never thought I'd get caught and yelled at for it!

  • Cool Starship: Of course.
  • Curse Cut Short: Averted. In the intro recruitment video, the captain's log is filled with static. The captain says "Somebody F*static*KED UP BIG TIME!" When Bug and February watch a non-staticy version, the captain says "Somebody... FIRETRUCKED UP BIG TIME!
  • Dark Reprise: "Kick It Up A Notch" is a pretty evil song to begin with, but Junior's take on it is even more so. While Pincer displayed some kind of understandable motivation, Junior seems to be doing it mostly For the Evulz (weed money notwithstanding). Could also count as a kind of Triumphant Reprise since, at that moment, he seems to be winning.
  • Deal with the Devil: Pincer offers Bug the chance to become a human through use of a brain leech that can psychically link him to the mind of a Starship Ranger (who is brain-dead due to a malfunction in a cryotube that was in a starship crash 18 years prior, but whose body is still very much alive). Pincer's only condition? Bug must befriend the humans and bring them to him. Bug accepts, believing that Pincer only wants to be friends with them- not knowing that Pincer intends to eat them and let the Mosquito Brothers suck their blood).
  • The Ditz: February big time.
    • Bug gets some of this too, particularly when he and February re-explore the crashed Starship.
    • Junior too.

Junior: Bug is a BUG?!?

Junior: Thank Dead God I caught you!

Up: Bug was right! I just needed to learn to kill with my heart!

  • Heroic Sacrifice: Up (has his blood sucked out by the Mosquito Brothers), Krayonder, Bug (has himself and Pincer Thrown Out the Airlock by February to stop Pincer from killing the other Starship Rangers-sacrificing his human body in the process), Bugette (takes a bullet for Bug after Junior tries to shoot him). The first three get better (for example, Bug's mind goes back to his real body, similar to what happens in James Cameron's Avatar when Spellman's Avatar is killed in the final battle of the movie) but poor Bugette doesn't.
  • Hey, It's That Guy! Mega-Girl (Meredith Stepien) is one of the Hot Girls from Little White Lie.
  • Hugh Mann: While Bug actually is in a human body, he frequently forgets it in casual conversation, leading to lines like "you humans." No one notices.
  • Humans Are Morons: A view held rather strongly by Megagirl.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: After the Rangers get stuck on a web:

Up: Well....at least we stuck together!
Other Rangers: *collective groans and "WTF?" stares*

Mega-Girl: All human beings are imbeciles in comparison with robot intelligence. However, you have made all human beings seem like geniuses.
Tootsie: I do like to make people feel good.

  • Ironic Echo: "No, that probably wouldn't work. It sounds stupid, and if I say it you'll think I'm stupid and then I'll be embarrassed."
    • The reply to above statement as well: "You don't have to be embarrassed in front of me, we're friends."
  • "I Want" Song: Bug's part in "I Wanna Be" is one, but it's turned into the "I Am" Song at the end of "Status Quo" after Bug becomes human through a brain leech that psychically links him to a brain-dead Starship Ranger in a cryotube whose ship crashed on Bug World 18 years prior.
  • Just Friends: Hinted at, Commander Up says that he likes Taz, but aside from almost losing his life to save hers, which it's probable he would do for any of the crew, there isn't any actual evidence. Her reaction to this could be construed as evidence that the feeling's mutual.
  • Large Ham: Damn near everyone.
  • Larynx Dissonance: The mosquito sister is quite the baritone.
  • Learnt English From Watching Television: Bug learnt English from watching old recordings on the starship.
  • Logic Bomb: "I'm faster than the two of us combined"
  • Love At First "Sight": February and Bug, as explained above at Blind and the Beast.
    • Tootsie also gets this the first time he sees Mega-Girl.
  • Loves My Alter Ego: February is disgusted by (and terrified of) bugs, and falls in love with Bug's human form.
  • Love Redeems: Megagirl.
  • Magic Countdown: The dropdown countdown takes ten real minutes to get from three story minutes to one second... then it backs up a bit to twenty seconds, before going down to negative numbers.
  • Mama Bear: Commander Up, especially when saving Taz from the Mosquito Brothers.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Commander Up and Taz.
  • Meaningful Name: Every person born on Farm World, including Tootsie, names themselves after what they do and what they love. If either of those change, they even change their name.
  • Memetic Badass: Up in-universe, before his injury.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • After Bugette's death.
    • When Up tells Bug that he is half robot.
    • Junior finding out his mom died, and then meeting his new stepmom immediately after.
  • Mr. Fanservice: As with every other StarKid production, Joe Walker. It helps that he's wearing a tight grey muscle-defining shirt.
    • Brian Holden looks damn fine in that costume of his.
  • Naive Newcomer: Tootsie Noodles to the Rangers, and Bug to humanity in general.
  • The Needs of the Many: A major philosophy on Bug World, and repeated often. Bug doesn't understand what it means until he sacrifices himself to save February and the other Starship Rangers from Pincer.
  • No Loves Intersect: With the exception of Bugette's love for Bug, this is the case.
  • Noodle Incident

Taz: It's your gun, stupid!
Tootsie: That's not what I was using it for earlier, sorry.

  • Not So Different: Pincer and the Overqueen. Particularly that while he is a villian because he wishes to feast on human brains, this is actually not that different than the Overqueen routinely snacking on members of her own Hive.
  • Obviously Evil: Pincer and Junior. They're Lampshaded quite thoroughly.
    • Early on, Mega-Girl repeatedly demonstrates she'd like nothing more than to Kill All Humans.
  • Oh Crap: Joey's face at the end of this exchange:

Junior: We have a saying where I come from too...God save the queen.
Bug: Oh, great.
Junior:...Lucky for me, God is dead.
Bug/Joey: Oh Crap.

Junior: We have a saying where I come from too... God save the Queen.
Bug: Oh, great.
Junior: Lucky for me, God Is Dead.

Up: Damn that G.L.E.E.! They're always making twisted abominations of everything!

    • To clarify, this quite clearly refers to Darren Criss, who had to cut back on his involvement in Starkid productions after being cast on the aforementioned show.
  • Taking the Bullet: Bugette when Junior attempts to zap Bug.
  • Tear Jerker: In-universe example: Up can't listen to "Christmas Shoes" anymore.
  • Thinking Out Loud: Junior does this A LOT.
  • Too Dumb to Live: A lot of the Humans seem to come across as not working with a full deck of cards.
  • Translation Convention: While on the BugWorld, the bugs speak a bug language to each other, though it's translated (for the audience's convenience) to English. Only Bug himself is fluent in both. There are times when it's pointed out that Bug is switching between Bug and English and that the characters of the opposite race can't understand him while he's speaking the other language. The only times the Bug language is spoken untranslated is when Bug first meets February and eloquently says "Wagaglolgalogal!" and at the end when Bug teaches February how to say "I love you."
  • Triang Relations: Type 4 with Bugette as Alice, Bug as Bob, and February as Claire
  • Triumphant Reprise: of "I Wanna Be", after Bug becomes human.
  • Villain Song: "Kick It Up A Notch" and its reprise.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Junior wants Daddy to say he did a good job... at first.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Junior smoking pot.
  • Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him: Played with.

Junior: Yeah, he's about to have an accident with his head and my zapper. Heheheheheh....AND THEN I'LL SHOOT HIM!!

  • World of Ham: Well, it is a Starkid production and it does have Joe Moses, Joey Richter, Joe Walker, and Lauren Lopez in it in prominent roles.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: Possibly; It's been two years since Up's famous injury which happened in the final battle of the robot war. The robots who had ruled earth with a fist of iron for 100 years. You wouldn't have thought then, that 18 years ago anyone would have been able to go on space exploration jaunts to uncharted planets. Especially not with Up's description later that gives the impression it was more a rebellion than a war.
  • X Meets Y: According to Darren Criss, the original idea for the story was quite literally "The Little Mermaid meets Aliens". With a bit of Avatar thrown in.
  • Year X: According to the Starship Captain's log, the first starship crashed on "Stardate 30XX".
  1. ↑ As a Southern Belle!
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