This is something I’ve been meaning to feature for a long time, and am finally getting to it. Emmanuelle In Space is one of the greatest softcore TV series ever produced (so good I felt that it deserves its own category). Lasting just one season back in 1994, airing on Cinemax, it featured the classic softcore character Emmanuelle, best known for being portrayed by the Late Sylvia Kristal (R.I.P.) in a series of films throughout the 70’s and 80’s. This version stars the drop-dead gorgeous Krista Allen in the title role. This was her first acting role (although it’s strangely omitted from the bio on her website, which lists Days of Our Lives as her start in Hollywood…) and oh my God did she do a fantastic job. She played the role to perfect as no one before (sorry Miss Kristal) or since ever has. And she was definitely not shy about showing off her body (all of it) when necessary, especially later in the series. I loved this show so much that it inspired the creation of my own EMANU L character.

Produced by Alain Siritzky and directed by L.L. Shapira (aka Lev L. Spiro), the series was eventually collected in a series of DVD’s, each containing 3 half-hour episodes, spliced together as one hour and a half film, and those were collected in one 7-disc box-set. So I’m going to review each disc one at a time, on the weekends, until I’m finished.

This disc opens with Emmanuelle in New Orleans, she’s having sex with Philip (Jack Lawson), whom she’s been dating for a couple of months. It’s just a very short scene, so we don’t see much. Afterward she’s getting ready to leave and Philip says he wants to get serious with Emmanuelle, and has planned a party to introduce her to all of his friends, but Emmanuelle thinks it’s too soon, and says that she doesn’t think Philip is really a one-woman man, anyway, although he insists that he hasn’t looked at another woman since he started dating Emmanuelle. Emmanuelle leaves and while driving she picks up a man whose car has broken down in the middle of the road. He says his name is Haffron (Paul Michael Robinson) and as they talk he seems very strange, and doesn’t know much about the world. He ends up teleporting himself and Emmanuelle up to his spaceship, and introduces her to his crew, a bunch of men and women. He reveals that they’re alien scientists from another world, sent to study Earthlings. On their world they don’t have corporeal forms like us, they’re not used to gender differences or physical pleasure, and they ask Emmanuelle to travel with them and be their guide. After briefly fainting, Emmanuelle is intrigued, and the first thing she does is seduce Haffron, and they have sex on a table in the spaceship.

This is the first full sex scene of the series, and it’s pretty hot. Allen and Robinson will go on to have many more scenes together as the series progresses, and their chemistry is scorching. The aliens have special headbands that they put on whenever one of them is having sex so that all of them can telepathically feel the pleasurable effects, and we see the other crew members do that while Emmanuelle and Haffron have sex. The sex scenes are usually shot with soft music playing and the camera tends to pan around the participants in a circle, which I’ve seen some reviewers complain about, but I find it erotic. Afterward, Haffron is eager to learn more. So Emmanuelle offers to take him back to Earth to Philip’s party. The aliens have a device which, in addition to letting them teleport, also allows them to transform into different bodies. Emmanuelle uses it to disguise herself, turning into another woman (played by Deena Casiano) and calling herself Lisa, because she doesn’t want Philip to recognize her. They go to the party, where Emmanuelle tries to encourage Haffron to flirt with women, but he’s very bad at it due to his inexperience. Philip approaches Lisa and hits on her, and when Haffron finally has luck with a woman at the party, the four of them go back to Philip’s place. There the woman (played by Melissa Mead), who turns out to be a prostitute, has sex with Haffron in a bed (while the crew up in the spaceship wear their headbands to experience it with him), while Philip and Lisa have sex in the other room, with Lisa standing up against a wall as Philip enters her from behind. The Haffron/prostitute scene is hot, while the Lisa/Philip scene is just okay. Afterward, Haffron enjoyed his experience, and he and Emmanuelle leave, with Emmanuelle pointing out that the reason she had sex with Philip as “Lisa” was to test if he was really ready to be faithful to her, which he clearly wasn’t. A good start to the series, although not as much Krista Allen sex scenes as we’ll get later in the series.

The next adventure has Emmanuelle taking Haffron with her to a cruise-ship that she had pre-booked before joining the aliens. She’s still not sure if she wants to travel with them as their guide to Earth, so she makes a bet with Haffron. She’s use the device to transform herself again, and then it’s up to Haffron to see if he can tell which woman she is. If he can, she’ll stay with them, and if not she’ll go back to her own life. Haffron takes the challenge, and first he approaches a woman named Ursula (Jennifer Behr) and after some small talk they go back to her cabin and have hot sex. But afterward she doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he calls her Emmanuelle. So he later approaches another woman named Gwen (Jane Stone) and they have several drinks together, with Haffron getting drunk for the first time ever, and they go back to her cabin and have wild sex which involves knocking over things and making a mess as they go at it. But she turns out not to be Emmanuelle either. So he tries again, picking up Louise (Pegg Landon aka Peg London), and they have soft sex back in her cabin. But, nope, she’s not Emmanuelle either. Eventually Haffron is confronted by all three women at once, who accuse him of taking advantage of all of them, and he gets slapped. The real Emmanuelle reveals herself (I guess I’ll save that spoiler) and says that even though Haffron has lost the bet she’s decided to stick around and guide his crew. Three great sex scenes between Robinson and the three women here.

Back on the ship we see Emmanuelle trying to teach the crew about music, and how it can add to erotic pleasure. One crew member, Raymond (Reginald Chevalier aka Oprah’s ex-boyfriend) is particularly interested in the music, so Emmanuelle takes him to paris, to meet a friend of hers named Marie (Kristen Knittle) who is a pianist. There’s an instant attraction between Raymond and Marie, who invites him and Emmanuelle to stay overnight. And that night Marie and Raymond have sex on her piano, in a hot scene. The next morning Emmanuelle agrees to leave Raymond there for a week, and we get another scene of he and Marie having sex. This is an interesting episode since you don’t see a lot of Black actors in softcore films, and especially not interracial scenes. But Chevalier and Knittle look good together here. When Emmanuelle comes back to pick Raymond up, he doesn’t want to leave, claiming that he’s in love with Marie. And Marie says that they’re engaged. Emmanuelle has to break this up, but can’t tell Marie that Raymond is really an alien. So she has Haffron come down to Earth with her and take the form of Marie’s ex-husband Richard (Robert Nassry), who Emmanuelle suspects Marie still has feelings for, and they go to Marie’s engagement party. Marie and “Richard” end up sneaking off into the bedroom and having sex while the party is going on, and Emmanuelle shows Raymond, who realizes that Marie isn’t really in love with him, and they all leave. But Marie gets a happy ending as the real Richard shows up later, after talking to Emmanuelle, asking for a second chance.

Several hot scenes on this disc, with beautiful women. Not my favorite of the collection (that will come later with the more Krista-centic episodes) but, believe me, I’m not complaining. Overall it’s a fantastic series, beautifully shot and well-written (IMDB lists Daryl Haney as screenwriting for this collection). This is most highly recommended. Chacebook rating: FIVE STARS

And check back tomorrow, there is more to come!

Emmanuelle in Space – The Complete Collection