Beyond the Beyond

As in his riotous novel My Gun Has Bullets, TV writer/producer Goldberg (SeaQuest, etc.) once again bites the hand that feeds him, laughing all the while. Beyond the Beyond, a failed TV series that stopped filming a generation ago, has been kept alive by syndication and has taken root as a cult favorite through Star Trek-like fan conventions. When Milo Kinoy, billionaire British porno magnate, buys Pinnacle Pictures to launch his new TV network, he revives Beyond with a younger cast. Incensed that Chad Shaw will replace beloved Guy Goddard, who originally played starship commander Capt. Pierce, the old series' fanatic fans connect with a venomous talent agency and begin killing off anyone connected with the show's new incarnation. Under siege, the studio calls in security trouble-shooter and ex-cop Charlie Willis to battle with the flesh-eating (literally) superagent Clive Odett and the rabid fans, and to protect other players-avaricious producers, grotesque executives and pathetic, ego-driven actors. Everyone betrays everyone, and most are mowed down like crabgrass in this lunatic send-up, which reads like a Marvel comic masquerading as long-form print. Goldberg knows the biz and has slapped his large, exotic cast of characters into scenes that read like transcripts of network development meetings. They're a wild and crazy bunch, but not so crazy that they wouldn't give this book what it, by dint of spunk and inspired silliness deserves: a green light. (Mar.)