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An idiot space-captain fights the universe.

Vela: So he deleted his memories? When?
Ghostworth: A year ago.
Vela: Why?
Ghostworth: He doesn't know.
Vela: So that's why he's adventuring? To find his lost memories.
Ghostworth: Um, no. The captain's mission is simple self-destruction.
Vela: Well, if you lost your whole life, wouldn't you be afraid of getting a new one?

Starship Goldfish is a sci-fi comedy by Jason Weight. The show is about an amnesiac spaceship captain named Sam Sweetmilk (also voiced by Weight), his Robot Buddy Ghostworth and their lady friend Vela traveling through space, getting into wacky adventures like trying to stop the evil Avianaut from destroying all artificial life in the galaxy.

Can be viewed here.


Starship Goldfish provides examples of:

  • Amnesiac Dissonance: Sam is, presently, a Manchild idiot who would make Roger Wilco look competent. However, Ghostworth's flashback reveals that he was apparently crying his eyes out before he had his traumatic memories erased. Also note his unusual reaction at the war memorial. He also built Ghostworth and uploaded his dad's personality into him.
  • Archnemesis Dad: Unknowingly; see below.
  • Assassin Outclassin': The red-colored section of the war memorial are bounty hunters the Automatons sent after Avianaut — it has to be several hundred if not several thousand people.
  • BFG: Vela has one on her space station.
  • Binge Montage/Boredom Montage: When Ghostworth locks himself in Sam's room after the events of "Classic Ghostworth", Sam goes on one of these.
  • Bird People: Avianaut.
  • Big Bad: Avianaut is attempting to exterminate all artificial life in the galaxy.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: When Sam encounters the Automatons and Avianaut for the first time, he assumes that the Automatons are the bad guys, despite Ghostworth telling him that they sent the distress signal, because they have a huge, scary-looking ship much bigger than Avianaut's. He changes his tune when he actually sees Avianaut.
  • Death Seeker: A possible explanation for Sam's behaviour is that he subconsciously remembers his erased memories, which are apparently bad enough for him to want to kill himself.
    Ship AI: Chance of collision 34%.
    Sam: [calmly] I like those odds.
    Ship AI: Chance of collision 70%.
    Sam: [excitedly] I like those odds.
    Ship AI: Chance of collision 99%.
Sam: [even more excitedly] I like those odds!
  • Distress Call: One time when Vela calls Sam, he pretends they're being attacked as a joke.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: In "Classic Ghostworth", Ghostworth is killed and uploaded into a Body Backup Drive. The New Ghostworth briefly Takes a Level in Jerkass before getting better. Then it turns out that Classic Ghostworth survived and got even worse.
  • Failure Montage: In the pilot, when Ghostworth recaps to Vela how Sam got the Automaton Empire mad at them we see the incident from before like this. Cut to Vela's reaction.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: Vela has apparently been on a space station with a basic A.I. for a decade. As a result, she's only slightly less crazy than Sam is.
  • Irony: Ghostworth angsts about being uploaded into a new body. It turns out that he was originally Sam's dad.
  • It Makes Sense in Context: "Sam, don't touch the war crime."
  • Jaw Drop: Vela's reaction to Ghostworth's explanation to why the Automatons are angry at them.
  • Just a Machine: The Avianaut apparently believes this; Ghostworth seems pretty upset when he sees the message he sent to the automaton empire.
  • Lethal Joke Weapon: Sam's Luger-like spacegun is apparently powerful enough to reduce a giant space snake big enough to wrap around the ship into bloody chunks with one shot.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Sam, and how — Ghostworth actually notes his self-destructive tendencies when talking to Vela.
  • Luke, You Are My Father: In "New Ghostworth", it turns out that Ghostworth was built by Sam with Sam's father's personality as a template.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: The Automaton armada launches a huge rectangular wall of missiles at Vela's station. Fortunately, they weren't aiming at them.
  • Meaningful Name: Goldfish have short memories. Also, Ghostworth's personality is a result of Brain Uploading.
  • Oblivious to His Own Description: After Ghostworth finds out that Sam designed him, Sam says whoever designed Ghostworth is an idiot, to which Ghostworth agrees.
  • One-Man Army: It's implied that all those casualties on the war memorial were killed by Avianaut, all by himself.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Avianaut doesn't have a name for himself, but that's what others call him.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It could be a case of Amnesia Missed a Spot, but when the Automaton leader says that the red-colored section of the memorial is dedicated to bounty hunters who died hunting Avianaut, Sam gets a creepy Slasher Smile and asks if they would hire him to hunt Avianaut in a much smarter-than-usual-sounding tone.
  • Parental Substitute: In "New Ghostworth", Ghostworth finds out that Sam is not only his creator, but that he based Ghostworth's personality on his deceased father.
  • Real After All: Vela sends Sam on a fake mission as an excuse to talk to him. It turns out that the jewel she made up was real.
  • Refused by the Call: Sam does this to Vela constantly.
  • Secret Test of Character: Ghostworth undergoes this in "New Ghostworth" — when he fails and argues that the test was a Catch-22 Dilemma, the alien computer illustrates the point it was trying to make.
  • Sex for Services: When Sam visits Vela while on a drunken binge, she assumes that he's trying to get her to sleep with him in exchange for joining on his adventures. Then she realizes that Sam doesn't even remember what sex is.
  • Sinister Geometry: Automaton ships are rectangular bricks with a bridge that looks like the Irken Empire Logo. A bunch of them flying in formation make a rectangular patch of darkness in space.
  • Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Ghostworth and the Automatons are Average Joes. Vela's station A.I. talks like one but is fooled by Vela's obvious ploy to add the Goldfish to its IFF file.
  • Trauma Conga Line: A possible explanation for why Sam is an Idiot Hero now. The memory erasure device was set to erase 100% of his traumatic memories, which apparently meant nearly everything he experienced.
  • Underling with an F in PR: When the leader of the automatons shows Sam and co. the story of their war with Avianaut, one of his minions comes in and asks if he convinced Sam to help yet while the leader makes gestures for him to stop. Fortunately, Sam is an Idiot Hero.
  • Virginity Makes You Stupid: Apparently, one of the things that was erased from Sam's memory is what sex is.

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