Fringe 2025 - Returning Favorites - Snikt!Bamf!Thwip! - Invasive Species, or: In Space No-One Can Hear Your Steam

This one comes with a Fringe pedigree from three or more different angles if you keep staring at it long enough.

Invasive Species, or: In Space No-One Can Hear Your Steam
Snikt!Bamf!Thwip!
Venue: Rarig Thrust
Show Description:
On a quiet night in the Harbor of London, the sailing vessel Nostromo crashes into the dock with only one surviving crew member. What happened? And why is everyone wearing tiny top hats?
Genre & Content: 
Comedy, Horror, Mystery, Puppetry, Sci-Fi
Warnings:
Blood, Gun/Weapon Usage, Loud Noises, Violence

First of all, this is the other Fringe show that I mentioned was using one of my favorite old horror movie tag lines, this time in the title.

Second, it’s the latest from Snikt!Bamf!Thwip! (aka Tim Wick) who has been lampooning iconic pop culture stories (from Star Trek to Bridgerton to Agatha Christie to John Wick from long before they landed on my pre-Fringe Top 20 list back in 2012, continuing on to this present incarnation, a steampunk satirical version of the Alien sci-fi/horror movie franchise (just as they’re gearing up for a TV series version where a bunch of greedy morons bring the titular alien invasive species to Earth, with predictably gory results - say goodbye to the human race, I guess.)

"Invasive Species: or In space No-One Can Hear your Steam" is an original comedy taking a look at "Alien" and "Aliens" through the lens of Steampunk. The sailing vessel Nostromo crashes into the London harbor with only one surviving crew member. What happened to the rest of the crew and why does it require so many gears and tiny top hats to figure it out?

Third, it’s being directed by Brian Watson-Jones, part of my pre-Fringe Top 10 list from way back in 2009 in his Tedious Brief Productions days, and who just had a truly great 5-star solo show in last year’s Fringe, "Close Call: A How-Not-To Guide to Being a POS"

Fourth, a key member of the cast is Kjer Whiting, who played an extra-sexy Van Helsing in the hilarious 2023 Fringe hit “4 Bisexuals and 2 Guys Named John Kill Dracula" (#1 on my pre-Fringe Top 10 list that year for a reason, and it more than delivered on the premise.)

So with all these folks working on it, chances are we’ve got another solid comedy on our hands.

Update 7/24/2025, their Fringe preview:

 

 

Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.