The characters of “Star Trek” were out to explore new worlds and new civilisations whereas the fellas in “Dark Star” just want to bomb unstable planets. This is an early film by director John Carpenter (“Halloween”, “They Live”) and a very interesting addition to his filmography.

In “Dark Star”, four astronauts are aboard a ship and all they have to do is drop bombs on unstable planets. These guys are seriously bored and don’t care when things start to malfunction and a strange creature that they have on the ship is loose. At times the film seems to drag a little and become somewhat self-defeating but the majority of it works and I think the ending is great.

I like ‘Computer’ (voiced by Cookie Knapp). The guys on the ship aren’t exciting but that’s the whole point of “Dark Star”, these guys are meant to be the dullest people around. My favourite thing about “Dark Star” is definitely the creature, which is basically a beach ball with some monster gloves attached and will make you recall virtually every 1950s monster movie. There’s also a computerised bomb, which needs negotiating with when he refuses to stop his detonation countdown, now that’s creative.

“Dark Star” has very cheap effects but they work to the film’s advantage; had we been looking at high-tech stuff the joke would’ve not worked. The movie operates on a level that may go over some viewers’ heads and others may just find its overall dull and bargain-basement feel too high of price to pay for the joke but to me it just about worked. Carpenter is an intriguing director that seems to work best when his budget is low; maybe the guy gets a little too carried away with his fancy toys when he gets a big pile of money thrown at his picture.