''Star Maidens'' is a British-German

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

television series, made by Portman Productions for the ITV network. Produced in 1975, and first broadcast in 1976, it was filmed at

Bray Studios Bray Productions was a pioneering American animation studio that produced several popular cartoons during the years of World War I and the early interwar era, becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the ...

and on location in

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

and Bracknell, Berkshire, and Black Park, Buckinghamshire. The series was partly financed by a German company, Werbung im Rundfunk (Advertising in Broadcasting), which dealt with distributing funding from the limited commercials shown on West German public TV. In this case, it was acting on behalf of the channel

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, which showed the series in West Germany.

Overview

The series presents a "battle of the sexes" and

role reversal Role reversal is a psychotherapeutic technique in psychodrama that demonstrates a protagonist's intrapersonal conflicts deeply and explicitly on the stage. This technique is perhaps the single most important and effective technique in psychodrama. ...

scenario in which male protagonists must escape servitude to women of an advanced civilization. The planet Medusa, home to a highly evolved and technologically advanced humanoid race, was already ruled by its women when a

rogue comet An interstellar object is an astronomical object (such as an asteroid, a comet, or a rogue planet, but not a star) in interstellar space that is not gravitationally bound to a star. This term can also be applied to an object that is on an inte ...

knocked it out of its orbit of Proxima Centauri. Drifting through space, the orphan planet's surface became uninhabitable, and the inhabitants survived by building underground cities. The series begins with Medusa's entry into Earth's solar system. At first heartened to discover Earth, the Medusans are disappointed to learn that the human men are dominant there. Two Medusan men escape by stealing a ship and flying to Earth. Despite a successful escape, the two are pursued by the Medusan security forces. When the Medusans fail to re-capture the two men, they bring two human hostages—a man and a woman—back with them to their home planet. The series' 13 episodes concern the two groups' attempts to adapt to life on the different planets while brokering an exchange for the hostages. In the series finale, the Medusans' ship is pursued by another spacecraft, this one belonging to an alien race that has hunted Medusans in the past. Despite their technology and the antagonism they displayed throughout the series, the Medusans prove incapable of actually fighting an enemy, and only the intervention of a Medusan ship flown by an Earth man defeats the enemy. The saved Medusans return home, likely with an altered opinion of men. Regarded as something of a

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novelty, it featured some

female dominance A dominatrix (; ) or femdom is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily limit the genders of her submissive partners. Dominatrices are known for inflic ...

elements. The series has some similarities with the British science-fiction series '' Space: 1999'', whose second season was in pre production at Pinewood around the same time. Although ''Star Maidens'' was shot at Bray Studios by a different production company and did not benefit from as large a budget, both series featured the work of production designer Keith Wilson, whose props and set designs from ''Space: 1999'' were adapted for ''Star Maidens'', leading to a very similar look and feel. Even many of the sound effects from ''Space: 1999'' were used. Lead actresses

Judy Geeson Judith Amanda Geeson (born 10 September 1948) is an English film, stage, and television actress. She began her career primarily working on British television series, with a leading role on '' The Newcomers'' from 1965 to 1967, before making he ...

and Lisa Harrow appeared in guest roles in the first season of ''Space: 1999'', Geeson in the episode " Another Time, Another Place" and Harrow in " The Testament of Arkadia". For the series' German dub, German natives

Christiane Krüger Christiane Krüger (born 8 September 1945 in Hamburg, Germany) is a German actress. She is the daughter of actor Hardy Krüger. Selected filmography Cinema * '' Forty Eight Hours to Acapulco'' (1967) * ''The Man with the Glass Eye'' (1969) *'' ...

and Christian Quadflieg provided their own voices, while the voices of the British cast were dubbed by other German actors.

Cast

as Supreme Councillor Fulvia * Lisa Harrow as Dr. Liz Becker * Pierre Brice as Adam * Gareth Thomas as Shem * Christian Quadflieg as Dr. Rudi Schmidt *

as Supreme Councillor Octavia *

Derek Farr Derrick Capel Farr (7 February 191221 March 1986) was an English actor who appeared regularly in British films and television from 1938 until his death in 1986. His more famous roles include Group Captain John Whitworth in '' The Dam Busters' ...

as Professor Evans * Dawn Addams as Clara

Episodes

# Escape to Paradise # Nemesis # The Nightmare Cannon # The Proton Storm # Kidnap # The Trial # Test for Love # The Perfect Couple # What Have They Done to the Rain? # The End of Time # Hideout # Creatures of the Mind # The Enemy

DVD release

The complete series of ''Star Maidens'' was released on Region 2 DVD from Delta Entertainment in 2005. The two-disc set includes an interview with actor Gareth Thomas as a special feature. In 2017, the series was re-released on DVD by Simply Media with new cover artwork.

Novelisation

A novelisation of the series, written by Ian Evans (a pseudonym of the sci-fi author Angus Wells), was published in the United Kingdom by

Corgi Books Transworld Publishers Ltd. is a British publishing house in Ealing, London that is a division of Penguin Random House, one of the world's largest mass media groups. It was established in 1950 as the British division of American company Banta ...

in 1977. A Large format tie-in hardback album with photos, stories, and comic strips was published by Stafford Pemberton in 1978.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0074061, Star Maidens
''Star Maidens''
at OldFutures 1970s British drama television series 1976 British television series debuts 1976 British television series endings Television episodes about alien abduction 1970s British science fiction television series English-language television shows Feminist science fiction German drama television series German science fiction television series ITV television dramas Serial drama television series Space adventure television series Television shows produced by Scottish Television Matriarchy Rogue planets in fiction Feminism and the arts