Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

mark_townsend This Made-For-Tv film is a mish-mash of pulpy cliches, solid military sci-fi and 90210-esque Beautiful American Teens.I think it would be too easy and grossly unfair to write this film off as 'Bad' which, in fairness, it does approach... But it has that certain something. A lot of the story is pure fluff, feel-good TV with formulaic text, but the actors and actresses who are playing the roles manage to bring a degree of feeling to the proceedings that you don't expect. If you look beyond the shake-and-bake storyline, the tennis-skirted female officers and the slightly poor effects you find a selection of highly emotional scenes that convey their meaning without needing extra... Padding.My personal favourite is the conclusion of the court-martial hearing. As those five marbles roll out onto the table... The sheer power of that scene still moves me. Of course, that might just be me.Of the actors, Jay Underwood, Ivan Sergei and Chad Everett provide enjoyable and believeable performances. I don't believe it's fair to judge the actors based on this particular outing. A lot of their talent may have been submerged under the poor writing, but there are times when quality shines through.This TV-Movie is mostly a cheap, feel-good, sci-fi romp only worth watching if you're feeling low and want pure sacharine. Beautiful Heroines, Square-jawed Heroes, predictable action and a happy ending with all the horrible baddies meeting their maker. But it's also worth watching this if you're willing to look for the hardcore Military Sci-Fi centre. It is there and it's worth watching if you can find it.But don't take my word for it...

Kieran McCabe Most of the reviews are pretty negative, but I have to admit that I rather enjoyed this piece of hokum. Someone compared the film to the Hornblower stories and I have to agree, but I'll go one step further and suggest that the Hornblower influence comes via David Feintuch's Nicholas Seafort books, the first of which, Midshipman's Hope, must have appeared a year or so before this film.The parallels are almost too striking. Junior Officers on first cruise in space, Senior officers killed in sneak attack, one hero becomes captain, sense of honour forces him to execute traitor, overcomes incredible odds, defeats enemy, etc, etc, etc. Leaving aside the hokey teen telemovie elements, this film contains a lot of the classic story elements that you often find the best space operas but rarely find in effects-driven, high-concept, Trek inspired Sci-fi films we are forced to contend with. Go on, give it chance -- A guilty pleasure.

TVholic This was intended as a pilot for a series. Thankfully, it was never picked up. One expects better from executive producer and writer Melinda Snodgrass, who wrote several episodes for Star Trek - The Next Generation. There's not a single original idea here. Worse yet, none of the ideas copied were good to begin with.The single worst shortcoming of Star Command is its cookie cutter cast of characters. Each of them has a single distinguishing characteristic and nothing else. The Admiral's son who can't live up to the family reputation but ends up saving the day. The tough girl from the slums of LA. The rich-boy slacker. The traitorous coward. The smart Japanese female engineer. And a female African-American pilot to round out the ethnic mix who has no backstory whatsoever. Essentially, the Power Rangers without their giant robot. To add "star power," Chad Everett and Morgan Fairchild appear as "old hands" in the corps.If the heroes are from a familiar mold, the villains are plucked straight from a World War II movie. In contrast with the United Colors of Benetton kids, they're unabashedly older, Aryan types who would look completely natural saluting Hitler, which I suppose is the point since the writer beats us over the head with the parallels to old Germany, what with the blatant bigotry and the "we need elbow room" justification. Their commander even has an indistinct accent vaguely reminiscent of German. Their uniforms seem derived from the SS. Just when you think it can't get more black and white, the space cadets from the other side sit next to the good kids. Black uniforms and white uniforms.The other aspects of the production are not much better. The music is completely forgettable. Costume design is only average for a TV sci-fi movie. And the effects and production design are the usual fare for 1996, less impressive than "Space: Above and Beyond." The virtual reality is another of the most pathetic and unimaginative parts of the movie. They would add glitches in the picture every few seconds, as if we would otherwise forget that it's not part of the "real world." And somehow, I can't imagine slacker guy watching these dull, slow-moving costume pieces straight out of a romance novel. He'd want to just cut to the chase and rip the clothes off the gorgeous woman in the VR. Those VR sequences are a woman's fantasy, not a man's.It all goes on far too long. This could have been done in an hour. Still, despite all its flaws, it was somewhat watchable. Every once in awhile, we do seem to need some simplistic escapism. But we just can't shake the feeling that this would have been right at home in the pages of a comic book.

Torski I worked on this project and watched it over the course of more than a year, roughly from the end of principal photography until the final sound mix. It started out being pretty good, but over time was reconcepted into what we started referring to as "Babes in Space" or "Melrose Space." Even my dad, who watched it for the sole purpose of seeing my credit at the end, said that it "really isn't a very good movie." Thanks, dad.