Starstruck

Starstruck originated as an early 1980s stage production and spawned Comic Books and later audio dramas. It pastiches Space Opera with a healthy admixture of Soap Opera set in "Anachera", a time period where no particular power bloc holds sway. At no point does the narrative spoonfeed its audience, expecting it to keep track of the various allusions, plot twists and multiple layers of meaning. Apart from that, it has a dense visual style, as well. It rivals (if not exceeds) Watchmen in terms of complexity and intricate World Building.

For the Disney Channel Original Movie, see Starstruck.

---

Tropes used in Starstruck include:

• Action Girl: Brucilla the Muscle, Galatia-9.
• Alternative Calendar: The series takes place in (or shortly after) the first hundred years of "Anachera", so-named because of the lack of any one authority.
• After the End: By the time Starstruck takes place, a Nuclear War literally blew up half the planet. (Remember, the original comics came out in the '80s.)
• Anachronism Stew: The "production design" of the comic's clothes, technology and seetings mixes the present day, a Raygun Gothic Retro Universe look and high tech and futuristic, with a dash of Art Nouveau, giving it a unique look.
• The Chessmaster: Frankly, a big hunk of the cast, including (but not limited to) Glorianna of Phoebus, Ronnie Lee Ellis, Verloona...
• Complete Monster: Verloona Ti, the Baron of Bajar.
• Eagle Land: From what little we see of it, the surviving half of Earth resembles the stereotypical "Eagleland".
• Earth All Along: A particular planet gets mentioned a number of times without any reference to its former name of Earth. (But then, half of its landmass went ka-boom long ago.)
• Future Slang: "Boot" for fuck. (Incidentally, "art" has turned into a literal dirty word.)
• Holographic Terminal: Pretty much ubiquitous to The Verse. Quite prescient, too, seeing as the first comics came out in the early '80s. (But Blakes Seven had them, too.)
• Ridiculously-Human Robots: Averted in the case of the Erotica Anne dolls (they look human, but don't have independent thought).
• Robot Girl: The Erotica Anne series.
• Scenery Porn: Present on pretty much every page.
• Souvenir Land: The Anarchera era has its own cross between Dale Carnegie and Walt Disney, with his own theme park.
• Eager Young Space Cadet: The young Brucilla in the Americadian Space Brigade. (Actually played straight for once, or at least as straight as Starstruck plays anything.)
• Stylistic Suck: The Purple Prose (and title) of Ronnie Lee Ellis' Hugo Award-winning Mind Spiders from the Planet Xenon.
• Too Good to Last: The Marvel Comics continuation of the original comic and the Dark Horse reprint/expansion did not last long.
• Used Future: Even in the distant future, a bohemian writer's living room looks pretty much like a bohemian writer's living room.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous??: The young Galatia-9 gets given a hefty prison sentence for her graffiti poetry. However, her half-sister sets her up to get an even longer sentence.
• The Woobie: Kalif, the young Galatia-9, Dwanyunn.