Star Force: the surprise smash webseries is The Mighty Boosh for Trekkies

“I got bored of making banana bread,” laughs Kevin Mains, one of the creators of possibly the most bafflingly brilliant piece of work to grace 2020: Star Force: Sci-Fisolation. He, along with his brother – the director Ross Mains – and friend, writer and actor Brendan O’Rourke – are the reason that on any given day you might find multiple Emmy nominee Caitriona Balfe pretending to ride her cat around her living room, X-Men star James McAvoy brandishing a drill-like a gun against Outlander star Sam Heughan’s banana, or Jon Snow himself, Kit Harington, swishing around in a multi-coloured bathrobe like a malevolent Joseph. All in different houses, recorded on their phones. All on behalf of a 25-year-old director who has just finished his shift in a call centre. They might be my heroes.

Star Force is the creation of SpaceBrosComedy and is something like Star Trek meets The Mighty Boosh, with absolutely zero budget. I first spotted it on Balfe’s Instagram back in May, where it appeared with the caption: “Some people say this quarantine is making them a little crazy … I say I don’t know what they’re talking about.” I was hooked from the off. So far, I’ve watched Star Force and their dashing Captain (McAvoy) as they navigate the choppy waters of space travel, evil clones and evil scientists called Flurgzool, brandishing “space artefacts” (whisks), riding invisible space horses (“I am quite proud of that mimed canter”, jokes McAvoy), with nothing but stock footage and imagination to set the scene. A multi-verse created by A-list yet out-of-work actors in isolation and hitting themselves in the face for slap scenes.

“We’d just done stupid, funny little videos before, sending them just between ourselves,” says Kevin, an actor, writer – and now editor – recognisable for roles in Outlander and Outlaw King. “Then we started getting other friends involved, just to keep ourselves busy and to not go stir crazy, and it just kind of grew from there.” The first of those friends, the actor behind Star Force’s Blorg was Steven Cree (also Outlander, A Discovery of Witches), who was taken in by their short Ellie Noire and was soon begging to be involved in their next project, Robo-Knight.

“It’s a kind of spoof RoboCop thing but fantasy – Brendan played maybe the best dragon ever in that,” says Cree. “It’s true,” says O’Rourke, “I vaped so I had fumes coming from my nose and I had this weird setup, where I was lying on a piano stool with my phone filming from the floor, and a scarf draped across as my wings”. Cree nods: “Anyone who’s seen Robo-Knight, still talks about the dragon.”

He’s not joking; one of those soon offering to join in was McAvoy. “I loved the original Robo-Knight movie that the guys made, and Steven is a very good friend. Plus … what else was I doing?” With the film industry gone quiet, these people with no budget and only time and ideas suddenly had their pick of the bunch, the playing field finally levelled. Almost anyway. “I think there was one film in the world at the time still being made in New Zealand – with Benedict Cumberbatch. I remember a lot of actors were like, ‘Well at least we’re all in the same boat!’” says Cree. “Someone said to me: “For the first time, I’ve got the same career as Benedict Cumberbatch,” and I was like, ‘Well actually …’”

Happily for the Space Bros, Cumberbatch remained the only one employed (other than Ross, that is: “The call centre was fine! I mean we had a few less callers than usual but it picked back up.”) and so the cast grew and grew. First the strong female lead to McAvoy’s captain, played by Balfe. As Second In Command, Balfe is “hilarious,” says O’Rourke. “All of her stuff is just always absolute gold, she’s amazing.” The project came at just the right moment for her, too – “When boredom, madness and cabin fever were colliding, so this felt like a nice outlet!”

As word spread, the volunteers kept coming. By episode two Heughan was playing a cigar-chomping sheriff; by episode three, Game of Thrones’ King in the North, Harington, was scowling in a dressing gown and Midsommar star Florence Pugh was saving the day, and all with the kind of energy they would have on a film set.

“We wrote this ridiculous dialogue, but they’re delivering it so earnestly and they’re completely taking it seriously and it’s just hilarious. Watching James McAvoy make a little badge out of a Post-it, masking-taping it to his chest and very earnestly looking down the camera, saying ‘Initiate Star Force’ like it’s a thing; it’s just unbelievable,” laughs O’Rourke.

“The idea was always to lean into the limitations – if you try to make it too earnestly it’s just going to fall flat because you just don’t have the stuff,” explains O’Rourke. Just consider it; a show where each character’s parts are isolated in filming, but not in situ. Eyelines must match, slaps must be dished out (and received) at the right spot. For director Ross, who is known for work on BBC’s The Social, that meant filming himself in every role as a guide for the actors. “It’s so weird because you do [the videos] and you know that James McAvoy’s gonna watch this and it’s so silly … You have to put it out your mind that these stars are watching.” But, says Cree: “Ross is selling himself short there … we get full pages of instructions and a video instruction as well. The planning that goes into it is just incredible.” McAvoy agrees, calling him, “exceptionally clear … not a trait I’ve found in the majority of directors when looking to direct actors.”

In this past year, everyone, creatives included, has been forced to reconsider what is important, how their energy should be used. “Giving myself permission to be silly and play just for fun was such a boost, mentally,” says Balph. Cree agrees: “I think the beauty and the appeal of it isn’t just a lockdown thing, it’s become something else.”

And as for the future? Well Star Force 3: Part 2 is due out this month (will Pugh save Star Force from the terrifying bath-robed Harington? We’ll just have to wait and see), and while Kevin is considering joining Ross’s call centre – “I get up in the morning and he’s just sitting with his wee headset on, it looks alright” – Cree is focused: “Of course, more Star Force”.

They may have been out of work while Cumberbatch makes the big bucks in New Zealand, but, as Cree notes, “he hasn’t been in Star Force”. With peals of distorted Zoom laughter echoing around the room, it’s impossible to disagree.