After digging up and watching the four episodes of this series that I have on VHS, I'm not sure I can bring myself to like it, but neither can I say that it's terrible: it's just, well, odd. This is nothing new in British animation and the eccentricities are a nice diversion from the standard American madness and slapstick: if only the writing was a little sharper.

The cast is fine, Richard E. Grant in particular does a fine job of voicing the arrogant Captain, although his deadpan commentary and general calm persona does grate a little. Adrian Edmondson as the amiable, but naïve Nine-headed Jones is a little weird after watching his more manic characters in the archaic Bottom and Young Ones TV series. Unfortunately the characters themselves (with the exception of Jones) aren't really very lovable, or indeed interesting.

The basis premise of the Captain and his crew waiting for orders that never turn up is fine and dandy, however, although the plots are nicely weird, many of them don't go anywhere exciting and the pace is fairly slow. I love many kinds of weirdness, but this space opera flows like thick gravy. Deprived of any kind of epic drama, the whole thing just feels a little flat.

The animation is okay, it doesn’t set the world alight, but it suits the rather simplistic art style of the series and its source material; but it doesn’t do much else. Some of the animation is a little on the cheap side, with vehicles (outside the rocket ship at times) in particular simply sliding across the screen, though some of this is a little forgivable. The characters are a strange bunch and, apart from Jones again, they all look like they’re forever squinting.

All in all, it’s an eccentric series that has few real problems in itself, it’s just that it also doesn’t have much in it that really excites or entertains me at any level.