Produced by the infamous Roger Corman under his New World Pictures banner and directed by Jimmy Murakami with special effects work by James Cameron,
Battle Beyond the Stars was a slightly more cynical effort than
Starcrash, by explicitly copying
Star Wars‘ own trick of lifting from Kurosawa movies, but it does have a unique visual flare – after all, this was the most expensive movie Corman had ever produced (‘low-budget’ by Hollywood standards even then), and film of his did have a knack for turning out stylish despite the thrifty funding.
The protagonist, Shad (Richard Thomas) is clad in a simple beige outfit with his jacket has a charmingly waved pattern to its fabric, as well as the similarly-shaped pads on the knees.
Shad's people, the Akira, wear fairly simplistic gowns, vests and dresses; most notable among them is Lux (Marta Kristen), who wears a lilac dress with darker patches.
Some of the Akira wear gowns and tunics with popped collars, especially the elders, and some wear a vest with lighter panelling around the shoulders. Also of note are the weather satellite crew who wear vests of a similar design to Shad's, over their jumpsuits.
During the disrupted Akira wedding, two dresses are seen; the first is adorned with a floral braid, the second is pink in hue but barely seen.
When Shad journeys out to find mercenaries to help his planet, he ends up on the spacestation of their planet’s old ally Dr Hephaestus, whose daughter Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel) is the only real lifeform on the station, everyone else being androids who wear specially made jumpsuits fitted with zippers and buckles on the shoulders, topped off with a cap.
Nanelia wears a mauve jumpsuit with blue lining and white trim on the belt and cuffs.
The first 'warrior' enlisted to save the Akir is Cowboy (Goerge Peppard) who true to his name, is dressed like a stereotypical cowboy in the stetson and plaid shirt, though his jacket and trousers are made of a ridged 'futuristic' material, as well as the trousers being specially cut at the waist, revealing another pair of leggings underneath.
One of the first ‘alien’ crews to help Shad and his friends is the lizard-like Cayman of the Lazuli (Morgan Woodward), always clad in what looks very similar to a straitjacket, but olive-green.
Cayman travels with the brutish Quepeg (Steve Davis) clad in a similarly bondage-like outfit of straps all over him, as well as being a riff on the tribal warrior archetype.
Cayman also travels with two members of the diminutive 'Kelvin', dressed like in silver robes with large raised collars.
The other alien team is the hive-mind Nestor (Earl Boen, as the ‘main’ voice of it), five aliens clad identically in white gowns, that later on in the film show they have golden tubing round the shoulders and neck.
One of the more notable guest roles in the picture was Robert Vaughn as Gelt, who is first seen wearing a futuristic riff on a cavalry shirt, with shiny panelling on the front, later on wearing a dark blue jacket with ribbed panelling around the shoulders over it.
It just wouldn’t be a '
Star Wars wannabe' space opera film without a female lead in skimpy getup, and who else was fit for the job but Sybil Danning, this time playing Saint-Exmin of the Valkyrie warriors. When first introduced she sports a ludicrous outfit of foam headpiece, necklace and bra(!), in an outfit that describing as ‘risque’ would be an understatement.
Danning’s second outfit as Saint-Exmin is even more lurid, in a latex black and pink lined bodysuit thats been cut to be as revealing as possible, topped off with pink headscarf and black skullcap, long flowing hair, and jewellery all over her. Between this and similar roles in Luigi Cozzi's
Hercules and
Howling 2: Your Sister Is a Werewolf, it really did seem that Danning’s contract in the early 80s demanded her to be in as many lurid risque getups as much as possible.
John Saxon plays the villainous warlord Sador, leader of the Malmori mutants, who wears a futuristic uniform consisting of a silvery tunic with raised brown shoulders and collar, as well as a sash coated in various patches.
Sador’s deputies are clad in more drab woolen versions of his shouldered tunic, with his second in command having a double sash-like belt over his, and his chief torturer wearing a uniform with a visible button flap. These uniforms were also reused (and worn with hard hats) in the other Corman-produced
Star Wars ripoff
Space Raiders a few years later - Corman loved to reuse anything he had from previous films.
The soldiers of the Malmori force wear black versions of the tunic, with modified helmets (according to Wood herself, the helmets were originally Spanish military helmets from the WWII era) Almost all the soldiers are identical barring a few who seem to sport recoloured versions of the crewman helmets, and are joined in battle by Sardor’s lieutenant, dressed the same but with a mask covering his hair and top of his face, and his tunic having beige panelling.
