There are some people who can’t get enough of Star Trek in all its many incarnations. I am not one of those people. Sure, I am madly obsessed with Battlestar Galactica (which, BTW, returns to Sci Fi with brand new episodes on Sunday), but the notion of the space opera leaves a lot to be desired for me.

Which means that I came to the BBC comedy Hyperdrive with no preconceived notions, other than having watched far too many episodes of Red Dwarf in my day. Before going any further, I must say that despite the deep-space setting of Hyperdrive (which begins tonight on BBC America), you must put the setting out of your mind completely. Because Hyperdrive is as much like Star Trek or even Red Dwarf as it is The Office.

What’s that, you say? How could a space-set comedy series possibly be like The Office? I’m glad you asked.

Hyperdrive is at its heart a hilarious workplace comedy that just so happens to be set in the wildly bureaucratic future of 2151 aboard the HMS Camden Lock, part of a British fleet of spacefaring vehicles, all with the express mission of exporting all elements of British society to the far reaches of the galaxy.

But ultimately this set-up is just a contrivance for one of the most astute and painfully funny explorations of corporate life … if your office happened to be a space ship and your job consisted of trying to negotiate office space with alien beings while your crew fended off a sadistic killer that grew exponentially in size.

Leading this (not-so) able-bodied crew is none other than Commander Henderson (Nick Frost of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Spaced), who leads his crew into drudgery and occasional battle with indigenous alien populations. But usually he’s just cleaning up the messes created by his crew, which includes diplomatic officer Chloe Teal (Nighty Night‘s Miranda Hart), draconian and sociopathic first officer York (Nighty Night‘s Kevin Eldon), moronic technical officer Jeffers (Dan Antopolski), surly navigator Vine (Stephen Evans), and enhanced human Sandstrom (Petra Massey), who pilots the ship with a series of blips, beeps, and unintelligible murmurings, rather like a Cylon base ship hybrid.

BBC America kindly supplied me with the first two episodes, which I raced home to watch the other day (I’m a huge Nick Frost fan), and I was instantly captivated. In the first installment (“A Gift from the Glish”), Henderson and Co. attempt to sell business space in Peterborough to an alien race, who not surprisingly aren’t all that thrilled with the “buzzing cafe culture and farmers market” and would rather instead humiliate Henderson and Teal by licking their faces and attempting to put their genitals on the crew’s heads. In the second episode (“Hello, Queppu”), the HMS Camden Lock makes contact with an isolationist alien race, but Teal destroys the flirtation brewing between Henderson and the alien princess when she imbibes too much of the local drink and lands them all in the clink.

It might sound a little too OTT, but it’s not. Frost is outstanding as Commander Henderson, and he has an able sidekick in Teal; the two might just be the best TV buddy pairing since David Brent first met Gareth Keenan. She manages to both sneer and cheer at the same time and (quelle surprise) I simply cannot get enough of her.

Ultimately, Hyperdrive proves that British comedy continues to mine fresh takes from familiar genres. It might not be as socially relevant as, say The Office manages to be, but it’s a hilarious respite from the mindlessness and tedium of the workday. Even if your day didn’t involve flesh-eating aliens.

Hyperdrive airs Friday evenings at 9 pm ET and 10 pm PT on BBC America.

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Jace is an LA-based television development and acquisitions junior exec who watches way too much television for his own good and would love a TiVo for every room in the house. (He’s halfway there.) His blog, Televisionary, can be found at televisionary.blogspot.com.