Space Channel 5 vs Star Factor 9 is a complete Space Channel 5 story featuring in the Space Channel 5 Special.
Staff[]
- Script and letters: Chris G
- Art and colours: Leeann Hamilton
- Additional colours: Claire Ryan
Story[]
Live on Space Channel 5, Ulala is about to get started on her report show when the signal suddenly conks out. Ulala's boss, Fuse, quickly tells her that the viewers are seeing a different broadcast, but it is the same on every channel: Pudding of Channel 42, who have replaced all programmes with their live broadcast of talent show Star Factor 9. Ulala decides to do some undercover work, sneaking onto the show disguised as a musician, but Pudding immediately recognises her. She just about regains her composure though and Ulala receives (mostly) positive feedback for her performance from the judges - Space Cowell, Diva D, Boss Hoorg of the Morolians and Nas T. Beats - before confronting them, demanding to know why they've hijacked the airwaves. The other judges make themselves scarce, leaving only Nas T. Beats, the brains of the operation. Beats reveals that he's built a syncopated sonic beam into the satellite, or as he calls it, the wub machine, which broadcasts loud dubstep across the universe on the back of Channel 42's transmission. He intends to rule the universe somehow in the wake of the resulting chaos, but Fuse cancels the sound on Ulala's headphones. She fires on Beats, but he escapes on his hover chair through the windows, endangering all aboard the station. Ulala fires on the joints near the bass cannon, sending Beats spiralling away, straight into the path of the Eastern Venus Space Police ship. Ulala is later surrounded by adoring fans, but not everyone is happy. Namely Fuse, annoyed at how much it will cost to fix the ship, and Pudding who won't be getting paid in a hurry...
Trivia[]
- One of the contestants of Star Factor 9 is Alex Kidd, trying to win with his trademark jan-ken-po.
- One of the judges is Space Cowell, a parody of real-world music mogul Simon Cowell, his name changed in the same way Michael Jackson's was in the original Space Channel 5 game.
- Among Ulala's fans is a Martian depicted as the invaders were in 1953's War of the Worlds, howling Ulala's name in the style of the Martians in the 1978 musical adaptation by Jeff Wayne.