Written by: Stoo
Date posted: February 27, 2026

Back in this site’s earlier days Rik reviewed the first instalment in Sierra On-Line’s series of sci-fi parody adventures, Space Quest (or more accurately, he looked at the VGA remake). He wasn’t especially impressed and vowed never to return to the series. Many years later I thought to myself, maybe the later games improved on the original? So I decided to step in and thus began a journey through the adventures of Roger Wilco, Space Janitor.

I had intended to complete the series over the course of a year. Should be doable, right? Actually it was a terrible idea because at the time I was just a few months away from welcoming my new baby daughter to the world. Even before they arrive there’s plenty to do instead of gaming (memories of piles of flat-pack baby furniture). So anyway instead of a coherent, structured process, “project Space Quest” became a more typical FFG affair – slow, erratic and fitted in between other gaming, frequently abandoned and restarted.

Anyway that’s my lameass excuse for taking so long to reach game five, despite the fact I even skipped the second entry. I confess we’ve never looked at those really ancient AGI keyboard-driven instalments (yes yes, we will turn in our retro-gamer cards immediately). So I started with SQ3 which I got on ok with, partially because I had mentally steeled myself to have a dreadful time of it. That meant I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t ridiculously tough and unfair. Although I definitely looked at GameFAQs more than I admitted at the time.

SQ4 then was actually dreadful for multiple reasons. Such as a chaotic, frustrating action segment that brings no satisfaction when you finally beat it, just relief you’ll never in your life have to do it again. Or parts where I didn’t even understand what I was meant to be doing, and only blundered into triggering the next event by pure chance. Basically those stupid “time pods” confused me more than once.

Then I fell into a dreaded “unwinnable state”, where I realized that it was impossible to make further progress because of an earlier mistake. I have a particular hate for unwinnable states, one being that you may have to go replay a chunk of game. Ok so that’s my fault for not keeping a big stack of save games, right? But also you can waste so much time trapped in these situations, blundering around helplessly before you even realise they are unwinnable. It’s demoralising, and leads to paranoia when I get stuck on any puzzle: does a solution even exist at this point? Did I miss a timed event or some tiny item an hour ago. So for all we complain about death in Sierra games, it’s the dead ends that really grind my gears.

So I might have abandoned the series for good, but I’m an old-school DOS gamer who can never quite resist that Sierra intro with its stirring music. You know what I mean, right? The jangly adlib fanfare that promises to take you back to the 386 days and bring you heroics and adventures in detailed, colourful worlds (be they fantasy, sci-fi or small-town California). Rationally I know that give it a couple of hours I may just be sat there fuming in frustration, yet every time that tune calls to me. So I resolved to give the series one more shot which brings us to Space Quest V: The Next Mutation.

Up to this point the series had been designed by “Two Guys from Andromeda”, but this time only one of them returned, Mark Crowe. Also, interestingly enough, this time he wasn’t working directly for Sierra. Instead SQ5 was created by their subsidiary Dynamix, better known for simulations like Aces of The Pacific. That said, this is still entirely a Sierra game, made clear from the start with presence of that intro.

It also has the same interface as all their other VGA adventures of that era with the drop-down menu for look, use, inventory etc. Which, now I think about it, is something that I’ve not given Sierra enough credit for. In Lucasarts adventures of the time you still had a big list of verbs and items permanently occupying the lowermost 25% of the screen. We’d rather look at the game’s world and characters, yes? Sierra’s system was a lot less obtrusive, disappearing when not in use.

The series had in previous instalments based itself around general scifi parody, referencing popular films and TV from The Terminator to 2001. This one however is a little more focussed, leaning with enthusiasm into Star Trek Pastiche. It’s a creative decision that makes a lot of sense when you consider that, in 1994, Trek was pretty much at the height of its popularity. TNG was heading towards its finale, after seven successful years, and the next spin off Deep Space Nine was just starting. So gamers would have certainly been ready for something that had a little fun with the beloved franchise.

Anyway we begin with our intrepid hero having decided he can accomplish more in life than pushing a mop around. So he’s enrolled at Starcon (Starfleet) Academy, with dreams of commanding his own starship. That doesn’t seem a likely prospect at first, due to his lack of ability and generally hapless nature. Also he’s managed to annoy one of the fleet’s most dashing heroes, Captain Quirk (good grief). So then one of the first puzzles involves Roger being returned to Janitor duties and heroically… polishing the floor.

However his grand ambitions are achieved just a short way into the game, thanks to random luck and also cheating on a test. Newly promoted to Captain, Roger proudly takes command of the SCS Eureka, ready to launch into missions in deep space. Maybe ones on strange new worlds? Boldly going where no-one has gone before, you might even say.

I’m not actually sure if SQ5 does use such an obvious quote. Regardless, from here on there are plenty of recognisable elements taken from Trek. Starting with the ship’s bridge, where Roger (in a Red uniform to signify his command role, TNG-style) will be spending a lot of time in the Big Chair, looking at a viewscreen while his officers work at their stations in front of him. At times he’ll go below decks to where the Mr Scott or Commander Data equivalents to help with science and engineering tasks. Then when the Eureka arrives at various alien planets and colony worlds, Roger will beam down to the surface on an “Away mission” to face various problems and perils.

Of course, for comedic purposes SQ5 also has to mess with the Trek formula and warp it a bit. So your ship is not a cruiser, or a proud and bold vessel of noble exploration but rather… a garbage scow. The most important piece of equipment it carries is a giant hoover to suck up space rubbish. Also, the crew think that their square-jawed new captain is actually a monumental idiot. Which is not entirely unreasonable but they’re hardly the elite of Starcon themselves, which is why they are sharing this dead-end posting with him. Your sarcastic tactical officer is in disgrace after a major blunder in his last posting, and the communications officer is some sort of dreadful caricature of a multiply divorced middle aged woman.

That said, your relationship with them does improve over the course of the game. Which brings me, I think, to a welcome improvement in SQ5. There’s a lot more actual dialogue compared to earlier games where it felt like characters would just announce something, stop talking, possibly try to kill you, then probably disappear from the narrative. Here, several characters have a sustained presence and multiple opportunities for development through conversations (with little talking head images). After a while, they start to open up and talk about themselves. Eventually, after you lead them through several deadly situations, they even have some respect for Roger.

Also we get to know Roger himself a bit better. He’s essentially a well-meaning goof, a man with good intentions and lofty aspirations, but he’s also (at least initially) chronically unqualified to be a dashing space hero. All of these character traits we already knew about, they’re just more firmly established here, again thanks to a bit of proper dialogue.

SQ5 does also convey the idea of captaining a starship quite effectively, considering we’re in a game engine built for point-and-click adventures. You’re not directly flying it the Eureka, because Captain Picard didn’t pilot his ship either. Instead, this part of the game is all about you making command decisions. if you need to travel somewhere you give co-ordinates to the navigation officer then tell him to engage the warp drive, just like Picard would to Mr Data. If a problem arises you can give orders to activate shields or fire weapons, and if you’re not sure how to proceed you can ask the science officer for their input.

Once we’re out of Starcon HQ, the Eureka is sent on a routine garbage cleanup mission. However they soon stumble across a conspiracy to dump toxic waste, that has inadventantly created a force of lethal and deranged mutants. In true trek style the Eureka is the only ship in the quadrant, so it’s up to Roger and his “gallant” crew to stop these Pukoids. Along the way though Roger also meets a woman and love interest who played an important role in the time-travelling antics of the previous game – it turns out there’s more continuity between installments than I had originally realised.

The layout of the game, as you progress through the plot is based around missions to various worlds that you travel between on the Eureka. Each has its own threats and resolutions and is fairly self contained – in other words, a bit like an episode the show. However, they eventually build towards a confrontation with the Pukoids – like a more serialised show I guess: DS9 leaned that way. So then one mission involves figuring out what happened at a colony world that’s eerily deserted – SQ can be quite ominous and atmospheric when it’s not goofing around. Another mission has some R&R time at a space bar complete with your ornery engineer getting in a fight. Also there you have to play a somewhat annoying minigame (battleships) but you can at least save-scum you way through it.

Earlier on you’ll find yourself on a deserted world being chased by a killer ladyrobot, which is a follow-up to a similar sequence back in SQ3 (continuity again!) This is one of the most action heavy parts of SQ5 and you’ll probably see Game Over a bunch of times as you take the wrong path and get zapped. Still, it’s nothing so horrendous as the mall shootout in SQ4. You just have to be thorough in finding every path through the area, and eventually you will out-manoeuvre and disable the android.

Then in the endgame mission I was definitely thinking here we go, brace myself for immediate death every time I make the slightest mistake. Indeed, I was reloading a bunch of times until I realised what I was actually meant to do instead of blundering into baddies at every corner. At that point it just became a case of navigating a maze for a while.

So there was some frustration but nothing that tempted me to ragequit. On one or two occasions I realised I’d missed something from earlier in the game, but backtracking is manageable enough. You just go back to your ship, warp to the right planet, beam down and then walk across a few screens. Also, I didn’t find myself stuck in any Unwinnable Situations. I can see where some could have arisen, so maybe I just got lucky? In most cases though they look like they can be avoided as long as you don’t ignore anything obviously worth grabbing or investigating.

(So I will just say, kind of cryptically, if an enemy ship has a piece of tech that looks useful, and the away mission ends abruptly before you have a chance to take it, maaaaybe beam back down there and have another look.)

I realise that my tone so far is coming across as “well, this time I didn’t want to put my fist through the monitor” which doesn’t sound like the most unenthusiastic of commendations. So let me try and reframe my thoughts, because I did come away from this one with largely positive impressions. The level of challenge is about right, the story is amiably goofy Trek parody while still managing to give some sense of real jeopardy and personally important goals for our hero.

I understand that some folks see the fourth game as a high point of the series, all I can say is that they must have sharper minds than I do. Or at least, greater reserves of patience. For me SQ4 was a chore, something you finish just to say you’ve done it like some sort of endurance test. Which some might look for in gaming, but that’s not how I want to burn my limited free time. SQ5 however actually delivered the sort of experience I’d actually want from this series. It’s the first SQ that actually lives up to the potential I envisage every time I hear the Sierra jingle. It’s also the only one so far I’d consider replaying.

So then that’s quite a leap in our rating between the two instalments. SQ4 had me wishing I could delete games from my gog account, but this one comes with our solid recommendation. I’d even say if you’re a newcomer then, unless you really need to see the story in order, play this one first. You can always go back to the older ones if you feel up to the challenge – or just really like text parsers. As for me, well, with my enthusiasm renewed I will play the last in the series sometime soon. Probably. Maybe in 2027.