Starhunter - Plot

Plot

Starhunter follows the exploits of the crew of a retired luxury-liner refitted to serve a late-23rd century bounty-hunting crew, led by Dante Montana (Paré). The owning company's name "Trans-Utopia Cruiseship HHS", was painted on her side but has faded, leaving some letters readable while obliterating others. The letters that remain have become her nickname, so she is casually known as "Trans Utopian" or "Tulip".

In the first season, Tulip is owned by Rudolpho deLuna, who has hired Dante Montana as a bounty hunter. Dante took the job to provide a means of traveling, while also financing the search for his son, Travis, who was abducted a decade prior by a group of brigands, called Raiders. Aiding him are the ship's engineer, Percy Montana (Dante's niece) and security officer Lucrecia Scott, a former marine, added to the crew by deLuna to keep Dante focused on the missions given him. However, Lucrecia also has a hidden agenda, and is actually an operative for a mysterious organization called "The Orchard", a group of scientists and researchers dedicated to unlocking, and later controlling, a group of alien genes called "The Divinity Cluster".

When broadcast in Canada, each episode began with a long message transmission from deLuna (usually to Dante), outlining Dante's current assignment and deLuna's (i.e. the episode author's) philosophical thoughts about it. In the United States, these monologues were removed.

In the second season, the show was restructured (and retconned). Percy Montana emerges from hyperspace, unaged — although fifteen years have passed in the outside universe. No other characters remain in the show from the first season except for DeLuna. He attempts to reassert his ownership of Tulip, but since he had collected the insurance on the ship, as the Tulip was presumed lost, the insurance company now legally owned her. However, the company was now out of business, so Percy claims ownership by salvage. Travis Montana, Dante's son and Percy's cousin, joins the crew together with his sidekick, Marcus Fagen. DeLuna also joined, bringing along Callista Larkadia, another bounty hunter. Percy describes the four as the "pretend cousin, big fat sleaze, little buddy mystery slut," though she eventually accepts the fact that Dante's son Travis Montana really is her cousin.

The show did not continue in production after season two despite pre-orders from US, European, Canadian and Pacific Rim broadcasters for a third season, leaving the story at a cliffhanger: In the season finale, Tulip is trapped in hyperspace. As the countdown to implement the crew's desperate measure to return to the normal universe reaches zero, the show cuts to black and the credits roll.

Creators and producers G. Philip Jackson and Daniel D'or left the series during the second season over business differences within the executive team of the parent company Greystone Studios International Inc., and went on to develop the science fiction television series and video game Ice Planet. Jackson was an uncredited writer on eight of Starhunter's second season episodes.