Star Maidens

Star Maidens
Christiane Kruger (centre) and Lisa Harrow (right) in Star Maidens
Genre	Sci-Fi
Created by	Eric Paice (based on an idea by Jost Graf von Hardenberg)
Written by	Eric Paice John Lucarotti Ian Stuart Black Otto Strang
Directed by	James Gatward Freddie Francis Wolfgang Storch Hans Heinrich
Starring	Judy Geeson (Fulvia) Lisa Harrow (Liz Becker) Christiane Krüger (Octavia) Pierre Brice (Adam) Christian Quadflieg (Rudi Schmidt) Gareth Thomas (Shem) Dawn Addams (Clara)
Composer(s)	Berry Lipman
Country of origin	United Kingdom  Germany
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer(s)	Portman Productions Ltd. London (James Gatward) Jost Graf Hardenberg & Co. Hamburg
Editor(s)	Alan Killick (supervising) Bob Dearberg
Location(s)	Bray Studios. On location in Windsor, Bracknell and Black Park
Cinematography	Ken Hodges B.S.C.
Running time	30 min.
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Picture format	4x3 (16mm film)
Audio format	mono
Original run	1 September 1976 – 1 December 1976

Star Maidens is a British science-fiction television series made by Portman Productions for the ITV Network. Produced in 1975, and first screened in 1976, it was filmed at Bray Studios and on location in Windsor, Bracknell and Black Park. The series was part financed by a German company, Werbung im Rundfunk.

The series offered a battle of the sexes/role reversal scenario in which two male domestics escape from the female-ruled planet Medusa, land on Earth and are pursued by the Medusan security forces. When the Medusans fail to recapture the two men, they take two Earth hostages - a man and a woman - back with them to their home planet. The thirteen episodes of the series deal with the two groups trying to adapt to life on the different planets whilst brokering an exchange for the hostages.

Regarded as something of a camp novelty, Star Maidens tuned in to the sexual equality revolution of the time, and features some Femdom elements. The series shares some similarities with the British sci-fi series Space: 1999, which was in production at the same time. Although Star Maidens did not benefit from as large a budget, both series had the same production designer (Keith Wilson), and various props, sets, and even sound effects from Space: 1999 were re-used for Star Maidens. Lead stars Judy Geeson and Lisa Harrow also had guest roles in the first series of Space: 1999.

DVD release

The complete series of Star Maidens is available on DVD (Region 2, UK) from Delta Entertainment. The two-disc set also includes an interview with actor Gareth Thomas as an extra feature.

External links

• Star Maidens at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Maidens at TV.com
• Star Maidens on SORELLARIUM: 13
• Unofficial Star Maidens fansite
• Star Maidens at OldFutures