On the video box, Tim Curry, guest star of Tales From A Parallel Universe, looks disturbingly like a thinner version of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Jonathan Frakes. Like Frakes, Curry will apparently do anything for a buck. Tales begins by providing a lot of confusing background information from previous installments of the Showtime series: Curry plays the evil hologram Poet Man (oooh!), who is attempting to thwart the goals of a loser space captain, a surgically created sex slave, a walking-dead warrior, and a wise-cracking robotic head. Plus, a feral woman is trying to hunt them down and eat them. What specific goals is Poet Man (oooh!) trying to keep this rag-tag bunch of misfits from achieving? Who the hell knows? If there were any saving grace to Tales From A Parallel Universe, it would be that the special effects are passable for their budget. But it isn't a saving grace: It was the bad effects of Dr. Who that made that series' implausible plots and lurching stories all the more charming and enjoyable. Tales From A Parallel Universe lacks charm, substance, or any other redeeming quality.