Tripping the Rift
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| Tripping the Rift | |
|---|---|
 The Cast on the Season 1 DVD box set |
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| Genre | Animated, sci-fi, sitcom |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Creator(s) | Chris Moeller, Chuck Austen |
| Starring | Stephen Root Carmen Electra Maurice LaMarche |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original channel | Sci Fi Channel Space: The Imagination Station |
| Original run | March 4, 2004–October 19, 2005 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
Tripping the Rift was a Canadian CGI science fiction comedy television show that aired on Sci Fi Channel in the United States and Space: The Imagination Station in Canada in March 2004, with roughly concurrent scheduling. It is based on two popular short animations published on the Internet by Chris Moeller and Chuck Austen. Sky One began airing the show in the United Kingdom in early 2005. The Sci Fi Channel and Space aired the second season in the fall of 2005. Both seasons are now available on DVD in North America.
In November of 2006 it was announced that a third season was under production. [1] Additionally, in an interview with Pan and Scan.com published on April 6, 2006, voice actor Stephen Root indicated that plans are under way for a feature film version of the series. [2]
Reruns of the show now air in Canada on Teletoon.
Contents |
[edit] Setting
Space, the future. The universe is modelled mostly after the Star Trek universe, including things such as warp drive, beaming up, occasional time travel, the Confederation and the Vulcans, but with plenty of elements borrowed from other sources.
[edit] Characters
- Chode McBlob — (Stephen Root) Chode is a three-eyed, purple alien with green spots, who serves as captain of the smuggling spaceship Jupiter 42. His race believes that one's job should be determined by society and not by the individual. Since he strongly disagrees with this philosophy, he left his home planet as soon as he could. He is fairly stupid and is constantly sexually aroused. Chode was raised by a promiscuous single mother. He has a twin brother, Regis Filbrick, who was adopted at birth and is king of the planet Moldania. His grandfather, Benito, has also appeared.
- Six of One (or just Six) — (Gina Gershon season 1, Carmen Electra season 2) Six is a sexy cyborg that was designed as a sex slave. She acts as the ship's science officer, thanks to a programming upgrade by Chode; much to his chagrin, this upgrade has also given her a conscience and sense of decency (in spite of her sexual nature). She often gets the crew out of trouble by using her erotic attributes. Six's name is a parody of Star Trek: Voyager's Seven of Nine, and the common phrase "Six of One, Half a Dozen of the other" (although coincidentally there is another sexually charged robotic female character named Number Six in the current revival of Battlestar Galactica). The final episode of the second season revealed that she was modelled after a stripper (who was named "Half a Dozen").
- T'nuk — (Gayle Garfinkle) T'nuk is the ill-tempered, trimmaried, quadrupedal pilot of the ship. She has a rather grotesque appearance and a great libido. She was chosen as the pilot because she is particularly good at keeping Spaceship Bob in check. She also acts as cook, and is apparently half owner of the ship.
- Whip — (Rick Jones) Whip is a bipedal alien reptile, and Chode's nephew. He serves as the ship's foreman, though he is rarely seen working. As a chameleon, he is able to conceal his appearance.
- Gus — (Maurice LaMarche) Gus is Chode's robot-slave. He is the ship's engineer and is implied to be homosexual. Though smarter than those around him, he is forced to serve them, as silicon organisms don't have the same rights as carbon-based ones. He has a cynical attitude due to the many failures he has experienced due to his less intelligent carbon-based bosses' actions. His appearance and voice is a parody of C-3PO.
- Spaceship Bob — (John Melendez) Spaceship Bob is the A.I. that controls the ship. He suffers from agoraphobia, and often has panic attacks at inconvenient times. Only T'nuk's insults can snap him out of his panic attacks. He also desires Six.
- Darph Bobo — (Chris Moeller) Darph Bobo is the supreme Dark Clown. He wants to take over the universe because he was teased as a child. Attended high school with Chode, and the two also spent time in prison together. He has a wife, Bernice, and a daughter, Babette. Bobo is often seen with his "clown troopers" who are his guards and are a direct parody of Storm Troopers. Both his name and outfit are a parody on the Darths of the Star Wars movies.
- Captain Adam — Captain Adam is the captain of a Confederation ship. He resembles Al Gore, has a wife named Nancy and a son named Adam 12. Adam's speech pattern is a parody of James T. Kirk. Adam 12 is a reference to Adam-12, the police-themed television show.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Pilot
- Love and Darph
- Oh Brother (Teaser)
[edit] Season 1
- God is Our Pilot
- Mutilation Ball
- Miss Galaxy 5000
- Sidewalk Soiler
- The Devil and a Guy Named Webster
- Totally Recalled
- 2001 Space Idiocies
- Power to the Peephole
- Nature vs. Nurture
- Aliens, Guns & A Monkey
- Emasculating Chode
- Love Conquers All...Almost
- Android Love
[edit] Season 2
- Cool Whip
- You Wanna Put That Where?
- Honey, I Shrunk the Crew
- Ghost Ship
- Benito's Revenge
- All for None
- Extreme Chode
- Roswell
- Santa Clownza
- Chode and Bobo's High School Reunion
- Creaturepalooza
- Chode's Near-Death Experience
- Six, Lies and Videotape
[edit] Trivia
- In one of the original short films made for the Internet, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine alumnus Terry Farrell provided the voice of Six. Originally, this film short featured Patricia Beckmann as the voice of Six and was subsequently replaced by Farrell's voice for an episode of the Sci-Fi Channel's short film series Exposure in which Farrell was guest host. Farrell's version of Six was heard only once on television.
- In the opening sequence, Gus is seen using a vacuum cleaner that looks and sounds like R2-D2, Whip flies a remote-controlled model of the Enterprise, and there is a view of the back of T'Nuk's chair that resembles the black monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bob the computer utters a different phrase in each opening sequence (as Darph Bobo threatens the ship), including on one occasion referencing voice actor John Melendez's recent appointment as announcer for The Tonight Show.
- Terry Sweeney (Saturday Night Live's first [and so far only] openly homosexual writer and castmember) and his partner, Lanier Laney, are credited as story editors and creative consultants.
- Several runs of the D.V.D. box set include stickers stating that the material is uncensored, however, much of the show is the same as the censored, syndicated run.
