It’s a trippy show based on the comics by Magdalene Visaggio, and all of its adventures might possibly happen entirely inside one character’s head.

Twenty-five-year-old dethroned Queen Eldaya of Arriopa (Adriyan Rae) is an itenerant scavenger, a finder of hard-to-get things, mostly bits of used technology. The first thing we see her do is fend off an attack by two less scrupulous scavs, Nigel (Johann Vermaak) and Carl (Anthony C Hyde), who have her at gunpoint but decide to gloat over her apparent helplessness instead of simply shooting her and taking what they want. Elida (that is her nom de guerre) seems to derive great satisfaction from killing them.

The series has a strong but lighthearted horror element. Danishka Esterhazy, who directs the third and fourth episodes, also directed “The Banana Splits Movie“, which has a similar approach to horror. All ten episodes of the series were written and directed by women.

Elida/Eldaya doesn’t want to be Queen, and enjoys doing what she does. In her travels she has acquired two accomplices. Isaac (Tim Rozon) is from Oak Bluff, just outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba. His wife Hannah (Mishqah Parthiephal) was about to give birth, and Isaac was on Runabout 33 near a storage facility orbiting Jupiter. It is unclear exactly what happened but something emanating from the storage facility killed the runabout’s pilot and sent the craft into a wormhole that terminated some three million light years away in another galaxy. Isaaac is marooned because people there could no longer travel between galaxies. That knowledge was lost in something called the Narrows War.

Isaac uses humour to disguise his sadness, and brings to mind Continuum‘s Kiera Cameron, who left a family in the future when she traveled in time, making it nearly impossible for her to become romantically involved.

Amae (Alex McGregor) is a spaceship mechanic whose home planet was destroyed by the same people who deposed Queen Eldaya. Her favourite expletive is “Oh, my crackers.” Amae has a brother who tends bar on Xija Station. She is in love with Elida, something which is obvious to everyone except Elida.

As the show begins it has a Star Wars vibe, but cinephiles will notice references other films, not all of them science fiction. The second episode is titled “Yippie Ki Yay” (from Die Hard). Episode Five is called “Temple of Doom” (from the first Indiana Jones film) and includes some unmistakably Dune-like creatures. “No Clue” (Episode 8) is one long homage to Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 film “Clue“, and there is a scene in the seventh episode that strongly brings to mind Tim Burton’s “Big Fish“. The combined efforts of Amae and Isaac to flee the rat people by crossing between buildings on a board might remind some people of 10 year-old Sara Crewe’s escape from boarding school in “A Little Princess“.

In episode two, Isaac and Elida’s ship The Winnipeg needs refueling and the its crew must survive the perils of Planet Griebos (Dutch for “flu forest”). The Winnipeg is a Troezan model 5900 and runs on gasoline. Amae meets an underemployed S82K robot which she describes as “a highly advanced AI pairing system” and calls Griebos “a rainforest turned dumping ground after the Narrows War.” Elida brings the S82K, a cube on wheels, onboard as a gift for Amae, who names it Winnibot. The bot is voiced by Robyn Scott, who also plays Admiral Rykal in seven episodes, and Agent Leslie of the Intergalactic Parking Authority in episode 8.

The principal villain is Lazaro (Paul du Toit), the guilt-plagued former aristocrat who engineered the revolution that deposed the Queen. One is never given cause to doubt his insanity, but his backstory makes him an understandable villain, and one gets the impression that he manages to accidentally do some good, even while pursuing his evil ends.

Tim Rozon told Overstreet Access: “…my favorite scene would have to be when we’re on a train and we kind of get lost together and its Amae and Isaac together. The ‘not heroes’ together – because you know Elida’s going to get things done on her end. But whenever Amae and Isaac got together, I was always like ‘How are they going to get out of this?’ You know? We got off the train and we’re in the woods and we have this beautiful scene where Amae tells Isaac how she feels about Elida…Just how accepting and happy Isaac is in that moment for her. I just remember, as soon as we said cut, I looked at Alex McGregor and said, ‘You killed that scene, that was awesome, you were really good. You had me, I was dead, as Isaac. Even me in the scene, that was really awesome.’”

Intergalactic travel is rediscovered offering Isaac hope of a return to Earth, but the show was not renewed for a second season.

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Miscellaneous Info

Bleeding Cool reports that Magdalene Visaggio, author of the Vagrant Queen comics, will write a Rocky Horror Show comic book for Dark Horse Comics.

Gem Garrard also directed R L STINE’S PUMPKINHEAD, which was inspired by Stine’s “The Haunting Hour” and is the story of Sam, whose family relocates to a town called Redhaven. Shortly after that, his brother Finn disappears, and no one but Sam remembers that Finn ever existed. R L STINE’S PUMPKINHEAD can be streamed on TUBI.

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All episodes of VAGRANT QUEEN can be streamed on TUBI. The show is also available on DVD. The Vagrant Queen comics are collected in two volumes (paperback or e-book). A dramatized adaptation, “Vagrant Queen and the Bezoar of Kings”, is on audio CD.