Starz Spoofs ‘Power Rangers’ With ‘Space Riders’ Web Series

Starz Digital Media has added a new offering to its Union Pool YouTube channel. As first reported by StreamDaily, the digital division of the premium cable company has partnered with Canadian production company iThentic for Space Riders: Division Earth, a parody of Power Rangers.

Space Riders begins with supervillainess Orson Ooze escaping from her interstellar prison. In true Rita Repulsa fashion, she then decides it’s time to conquer Earth. In response, the Galactic Ministry searches for fighters who can defend the planet, but instead of recruiting a team of teenagers with attitude, it accidentally chooses a pair of pasty nerds, portrayed by series creators Mark Little and Dan Beirne. Little and Beirne spend the rest of the series fending off Ooze’s collection of monsters.

The first three episodes of the series debuted on September 30th:

Space Riders is the latest original program to come to Union Pool, which launched last September. Among its other series, Starz’s digital outlet is also home to Popcorn Junkies, a broad pop-culture spoof created by the team at Reckless Tortuga.

The deal to bring Space Riders to Union Pool was forged in June. “iThentic has been in discussion with Starz digital for some time and when we presented Space Riders, they loved it,” said Catherine Tait, the show’s executive producer. “It’s the perfect fit for their YouTube channel which focuses entirely on spoofing loved, cultural icons like Harry Potter, Star Wars, and in our case, Power Rangers.”

The first season of Space Riders contains 13 episodes. New episodes will arrive each week on Union Pool.