Webseries Review: Pink Five

By Melissa Voelker

Popular movies and TV shows have seen their fair share of amateur made spoofs, prequels, sequels, episodes, and alternate reality storylines. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, and some just leave you wondering why anyone would put time and effort into making them. “Pink Five,” the story of a female fighter pilot who cares more about her hair and her CD player in her X-wing then she does about killing Imperials, happily falls into the Awesome category.

Many of us have wondered what the whole rebellion in the “Star Wars” films was like for people other than just the main characters. That is why Wedge Antilles got his own series of books in the Extended Universe. But even Wedge was someone we already knew about from the films. What about people we had never heard of before, the other fighter pilots and rebel soldiers and the people hanging out on the fringes of the action? What was the fight for the New Republic like for them?

“Pink Five” gives us a glimpse at one of those people, fighter pilot Stacey – the titular ‘Pink Five.’ She isn’t exactly anyone’s idea of a great warrior when we first meet her as she joins the attack on the original Death Star. In fact she even admits that she isn’t normally called on to fly her X-Wing. But luckily her perky Valley-girl attitude and good looks attract the attention of everyone’s favorite smuggler, and he helps blow up the Death Star just to get a date with her. After that Stacey manages to Forrest Gump her way through a lot of the major plot points of the “Star Wars” trilogy.

There are four current films in the “Pink Five” series, which follow the basic storylines of the original “Star Wars” movies. Stacey finds herself in the battle against the first Death Star, then follows the ‘new kid’ after Hoth is attacked because she doesn’t know where everyone is supposed to be going (she was texting during the briefing) and winds up on Dagobah with Master Yoda. After doing some Jedi training with him and the ghost of Obi Wan, she heads off to save her frozen-in-carbonite smuggler boyfriend (yah, they hooked up) only to witness him being reunited with the Princess (that Stacey isn’t fond of). This sends her into a girl-scorned type of tizzy and off she goes to join the Empire. Of course even once she is a bad girl she is willing to try and help her cheating ex-boyfriend one more time when she hears he is on the Endor Moon battling it out with Stormtroopers.

Unlike many fan films that change the original material or take accepted characters off in new directions, the “Pink Five” films follow the “Star Wars” stories pretty closely. With clever writing and editing they have just inserted their new character Stacey into the existing storyline. She pops up in places such as battles and training sessions on Dagobah, and even in the Ewok battle against the Stormtroopers, all without messing up what we already know. It’s an impressive trick. It would be nice if more fan films could pull off their work this well.

The “Pink Five” films are directed by Trey Stokes and star Amy Earhart as Stacey, aka Pink Five. They have a long list of other cast and crew, as a lot of work obviously went into this series. The special effects are at least as good as anything you have seen on TV, and in some cases better. They have even gone so far as to create puppets of Yoda, Salacious Crumb, Ewoks, and several navigational robots in the vein of R2-D2. In 2003 the first “Pink Five” was the recipient of the Star Wars Fan Film George Lucas Selects Award, and in 2004 the second film won as well. In 2006 and 2007 the volumes of the third film were both finalists. When an amateur web film is recognized on that level, you know it is probably worth checking out. And if that doesn’t get you interested, maybe Stacey’s pink lightsaber will.

“Pink Five,” “Pink Five Strikes Back,” “Return of Pink Five: Volume 1,” and “Return of Pink Five: Volume 2” can all be seen at: www.pinkfive.com.

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About Melissa: By day a mild-mannered tv station receptionist, by night a fighter of crime and corruption in the dirty streets of Spokane, WA . . . or maybe not so much. More like a hyperactive, anal-retentive daytime receptionist and a melodramatic, hyperactive nighttime fangirl who only wishes she could be a fighter of crime and champion of justice (except that would lead to getting my super costume all dirty and I hate doing laundry.) Though my intent has always been to write bestselling novels and live a life of wealth and luxury, putting my talents for snarkiness and word doodling together while letting my geek flag fly suits me just fine – for now.