Starship Operators (Vol. 1)
The broadcast seriesStarship Operators(2005) gives new meaning to the concept of the reality show. As the cadets of the Naval University Space Battle Corps complete their training, their home world of Kibi is seized by the enemy Henrietta Alliance, a.k.a. The Kingdom. The senior officers abandon the state-of-the-art battle shipAmaterasu, leaving the cadets, who decide to take the ship and become freedom fighters. To pay for their campaign, they strike a deal with Galaxy Network News who will underwrite their activities in return for exclusive broadcast rights. Once the deal is signed, the producer begins dictating strategy and even romantic declarations.Starship Operatorssuffers from a plethora of characters, none of them terribly interesting or original. The premise of a network underwriting a war to boost its ratings may seem horribly cynical, but it's also believable in a media-driven society. (Rated 13 and older: tobacco use, brief nudity)--Charles Solomon