Why You Should Be Watching Other Space - Exclusive

Yahoo! Screen sealed the fate of Paul Feig's sci-fi comedy Other Space when the now-defunct streaming service pulled the marketing campaign shortly before the show's 2015 release, as Feig recently revealed during a DUST and Den of Geek live Q&A. After the show's stunted debut, Feig's personal attempts to gain viewership included Tumblr posts and hyping up Other Space within the industry. Despite his valiant efforts, nothing seemed to get the UMP Cruiser and its rag-tag crew (led by Karan Soni's Captain Lipinski) some well-deserved notoriety.

However, while the series never quite amassed a large enough audience to clinch new episodes, the cast, crew, and Feig himself never let their passion for the project dwindle. It may have taken five years, but now, Other Space has found another space on the sci-fi streaming service DUST — and Feig couldn't be happier.

During an exclusive interview with Looper, Feig gushed about Other Space — and what he wants new, fresh-eyed fans to know before they dive into the titillating space comedy.

For starters, Feig isn't here to laugh at science fiction. He's here to laugh with science fiction. Every sci-fi fan knows the genre has an unlimited supply of sometimes cringe-worthy tropes, but instead of denying the genre's goofiness, Feig embraced it head-on. 

"[Other Space] was made by people who love science fiction and who didn't want to make fun of science fiction," he said. "We wanted to have fun in the setting of [a] sci-fi environment and [play] with some of the tropes of sci-fi, but never [make] fun of sci-fi because we all love it too much."

Feig continued, "Everything I do, I purposely try to make sure it doesn't have a lot of cultural references in it because those are the things that really age a show or a movie." The running Matthew McConaughey joke from the second episode of Other Space is the only dated pop culture reference within the project. Instead of letting the present time inform the show, Feig was more interested in the future. "We had much more fun inventing new references for the future," he admitted. "That was fun to me [because] of the fact that [when] you're in the future, you get to fill in all the time that has happened between when the show takes place and [the present]."

With a laugh, Feig also announced that Other Space is the perfect quarantine show to binge during these uncertain times: "I think we all feel like the crew of the Cruiser right now, stuck in our pods." (As long as we don't have to sleep in a pool of goo.)

Speaking of the future and uncertainty, Other Space is at a turning point in its own history. The series hit DUST this week, and fans have a chance to give Feig the season 2 he always wanted by streaming Other Space and discussing the show on on social media.

"I really just think it's the perfect time for this to come back out," Feig told Looper. "I mean, I've been working tirelessly for the last five years, driving my agents crazy, just saying, 'This has to come back, we have to get it out somewhere, get somebody to stream it again.'"

With a flourish of passionate sincerity, he added, "I want to make more. I want people to see the original originals. I've been pushing this show forever. [...] I could not be more grateful to DUST for making this happen."

It's time to fire up the UMP Cruiser and get Paul Feig a season 2. The entire first season of Other Space is available to stream on DUST right now.