First Episode Of The Community-Inspired Not-Inspector-Spacetime Web Series Has Arrived

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

The next season of NBC’s brilliant, Hugo-nominated Community is in many ways a big question mark. While the primary cast will be returning for a fourth season, creator/showrunner Dan Harmon was unceremoniously booted from the job and replaced earlier this year, leaving the show in the hands of Moses Port and David Guarascio, a pair who have previously worked on shows such as Happy Endings and Just Shoot Me. So while it remains to be seen if nu-Community will have the same magic as the Harmon years, the fans’ passion for the show hasn’t dimmed. They’re still out there making crazy Community homages like this, the first episode of a web series that is in no way related to Community‘s “Inspector Spacetime.”

Inspector Spacetime was introduced as the Community universe’s equivalent of Doctor Who, a long-running British series that has starred multiple actors in the lead role and involves a time-traveling phone box. Fans latched onto the idea enthusiastically, creating an elaborate timeline of the show’s history and the various actors and actresses who had played the role over the decades. Several fans decided to take it a step further, planning an original Inspector Spacetime web series…at least until the party poopers in NBC and Sony’s legal departments decided to throw a damper on the whole thing. Thankfully the clever fans simply tweaked and renamed their project, settling on the giant-middle-finger title of Untitled Web Series About a Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time.

Now that the first episode has arrived, I’m kind of in love with UWSASTWCATTT. I love the “British Television” logo at the beginning. I love the Who-esque opening credits. I love the overly dramatic announcer. I pretty much love it all. And thankfully, the episode is genuinely funny and entertaining, which isn’t always a given when it comes to fan-made projects.

Community fans will have even more Inspector Spacetime to look forward to once the new season premieres. One episode will take the cast to an Inspector Spacetime convention, with Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer guest starring as a devoted fan of the show.