Star Cops is a British science fiction television drama series first broadcast on BBC2 in 1987. It was devised by Chris Boucher, a writer who had previously worked on the science fiction television series Doctor Who and Blake's 7, as well as crime dramas such as Juliet Bravo and Bergerac.
Set in the year 2027, a time when Interplanetary travel has become commonplace, it starred David Calder as Nathan Spring, commander of the International Space Police Force—nicknamed the "Star Cops"—who provide law enforcement for the newly developing colonies of the Solar System. The series follows Nathan Spring and the rest of his multinational team as they work to establish the Star Cops and solve whatever crimes come their way. Operating in a relatively accurately realised hard SF, near-future, space environment, many of the cases that the Star Cops investigate arise from opportunities for new crimes presented by the technologically advanced future society the series depicts and from the hostile frontier nature of the environment that the Star Cops live in.
In total nine episodes were made. A tenth, "Death on the Moon", was planned but industrial relations difficulties during production led to abandonment shortly before recording was to commence. A combination of factors, including conflict between Boucher and producer Gridneff, and poor scheduling, meant that the series never found a satisfactory audience and the series was cancelled after one season. In recent years, Star Cops has undergone something of a critical re-appraisal and is generally hailed for being "a pretty good attempt at a moderately realistic "High Frontier" SF series".
Big Finish Productions announced in November 2017 that they would be releasing new Star Cops audio plays starring some of the surviving original cast members, beginning in 2018.
Concept and setting
Star Cops is set in the year 2027—some 40 years into the future at time of broadcast—a time in which space travel has become common and mankind is in the process of exploiting and colonising the Solar System. There are five permanently occupied space stations orbiting the Earth and there are bases on the Moon and Mars. Approximately 3,000 people are living and working in space. This near future setting was influenced by the potential for greater access to space promised by the burgeoning Space Shuttle programme and by the militarisation of space through the US Government's Strategic Defense Initiative programme (also known as "Star Wars") both of which were underway in the early 1980s. Accordingly, space travel and life in space is portrayed in a realistic manner with depictions of weightlessness and low gravity environments and lengthy space journeys (months or years in cases of interplanetary travel) as well as hazards such as spacesuit failures,Boucher, Chris (Writer) & Baker, Christopher (Director). (1987). "An Instinct for Murder" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer), Star Cops. London: BBC2 6 July 1987, 20:30. radiation exposureMartin, Philip (Writer) & Harper, Graeme (Director). (1987). "This Case to be Opened in a Million Years" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer), Star Cops. London: BBC2 3 August 1987, 21:55. and explosive decompression.Collee, John (Writer) & Baker, Christopher (Director). (1987). "Other People's Secrets" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer), Star Cops. London BBC2 24 August 1987, 20:30. This air of realism has led to Star Cops being frequently compared with the 1973 BBC drama series Moonbase 3. Similarly, the pioneering spirit evoked by the process of colonising the Solar System seen in the series has led to comparisons with the Western genre among many commentators. The 'cops in space' genre had its origins six years earlier in the darker, R-rated 1981 film Outland.
Law and order is provided by the International Space Police Force (ISPF), twenty part-time volunteers disparagingly nicknamed the "Star Cops". The decision has been made to put the ISPF on a permanent full-time footing and a new commander, Nathan Spring, has been appointed to accomplish this. Many of the series episodes deal with Spring's efforts to establish the Star Cops—he sets up a base of operations on the Moonbase,Boucher, Chris (Writer) & Baker, Christopher, (1987). "Conversations with the Dead" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer), Star Cops. London: BBC2 13 July 1987, 20:35. recruits new staff,Collee, John (Writer) & Harper, Graeme (Director), (1987). "In Warm Blood" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer), Star Cops. London: BBC2 10 August 1987, 20:35. roots out and dismisses corrupt officersBoucher, Chris (Writer) & Baker, Christopher (Director), (1987). "Intelligent Listening for Beginners" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer) Star Cops. London: BBC2 20 July 1987, 20:30. and works to extend the Star Cops' reach first into the American space stationsBoucher, Chris (Writer) & Baker, Christopher (Director), (1987). "Trivial Games and Paranoid Pursuits" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer), Star Cops. London: BBC2 27 July 1987, 20:30. and then, at the end of the series, the far-flung reaches of the Mars colonies,Boucher, Chris (Writer) & Harper, Graeme (Director), (1987). "Little Green Men and Other Martians" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer) Star Cops. London: BBC2 31 August 1987, 20:35. all the while investigating whatever crimes occur along the way.
Many of the crimes that the Star Cops investigate have a science fiction "twist" to them arising from the unconventional (for a police show) environment the series is set e.g. a murder in which the two victims are not yet dead, a ransom demand for kidnapped embryos,Collee, John (Writer) & Baker, Christopher (Director), (1987). "A Double Life" (Television series episode). In Evgeny Gridneff (Producer) Star Cops. 17 August 1987, 20:35. a hoax discovery of an alien civilisation, etc. It is out of these scenarios that one of the major themes of the series emerges: the conflict between human emotion and morality on the one hand and machine logic and rogue science on the other.
Another major theme of the series is the "sins of the father": Spring's first assignment as a detective was to arrest his father for industrial espionage, the villain in "Intelligent Listening for Beginners" is motivated by his inability to match his father's reputation, Spring's deputy, David Theroux, watched his father die of radiation poisoning, the kidnapper in "A Double Life" is seeking revenge for his father's murder and Star Cop Anna Shoun betrays the multinational company which employs her (and with whom she has a paternal relationship) when she discovers their unethical behaviour.
Principal characters
Nathan Spring (David Calder) Nathan Spring is a 41-year-old Chief Superintendent in the British police force who reluctantly accepts promotion to Commander of the International Space Police Force with the brief of turning them into a full-time professional police force. Spring is a career policeman who has become disenchanted with the prevailing methods of policing which, he feels, are too dependent on computer logic and not on human instinct. His first job as a young detective was to arrest his own father, a computer salesman, for industrial espionage. Spring is a man who is driven but lonely, a man who doesn't make friends easily and whose ability to do so is not easy on account of his choice of career and work environment.Commentary by Chris Boucher on "Little Green Men and Other Martians", in Star Cops. The Complete Series (DVD), Disc 3, Network. His constant companion is Box, a prototype handheld computer (also voiced by Calder), bequeathed to him by his father. The conversations between Box and Spring provide insight into Spring's emotional state and thought processes as Spring engages in "almost Jacobean-style soliloquies" with the device.
David Theroux (Erick Ray Evans) Spring's second in command is Chief Superintendent David Theroux, an African-American. Theroux, an engineer, started out in the US space program but quit and joined the European space effort instead. When he is introduced in the opening episode, "An Instinct for Murder", he is working as a traffic controller and part-time Star Cop on the European space station Charles de Gaulle. Movie buff Theroux generally tries to maintain an air of wise-cracking, cool detachment which breaks down only when he is forced in "This Case to be Opened in a Million Years" to face his morbid fear of radioactivity.
Colin Devis (Trevor Cooper) When Spring's girlfriend, Lee Jones, is killed in "Conversations with the Dead", the task of investigating the murder is handed to Chief Inspector Colin Devis of the London Metropolitan Police, "one of the Department's all-time cretins". Devis' pursuit of the killer, an agent of the British Secret Service, costs him his job but Spring compensates him by hiring him, at the rank of Inspector, for the ISPF. Although Devis is not the sharpest investigator, his heart is in the right place and he is fiercely loyal to Spring.Commentary by Philip Martin on This Case to be Opened in a Million Years, in "Star Cops. The Complete Series" (DVD), Disc 2, Network. Overweight, sexist and bigoted, five times married Devis is the series' main comedy element and frequently gets the best lines.
Pal Kenzy (Linda Newton) Australian Pal Kenzy is briefly glimpsed in "An Instinct for Murder" and then introduced properly in "Intelligent Listening for Beginners" where she is fired by Spring for corruption. Determined not to go quietly, Spring is forced to reinstate her when she foils an attempted hijacking on the Earth-Moon shuttle. She has a stormy relationship with Spring who mistrusts her but over the course of the series they develop a close bond. By the end of the series it is apparent that Spring has saved her from falling into a pit of corruption whereas she has restored his faith in humanity.
Anna Shoun (Sayo Inaba) Rounding off the team is Dr Anna Shoun, a 29-year-old general physician from Japan. Spring takes her on when she is fired for betraying her employers, the multinational Hanimed corporation, to the Star Cops in the episode "In Warm Blood". The Shoun character has been criticised as a racial stereotype, a charge that has also been levelled at other aspects of the series such as depicting Italians as members of the Mafia, Arabs as Islamists and Americans as jingoistic warmongers.
Alexander Krivenko (Jonathan Adams) Finally, introduced in "Trivial Games and Paranoid Pursuits", is Russian Alexander Krivenko, the commander of the Moonbase where the ISPF have their headquarters. A winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, it is Krivenko's research into bone damage that has contributed to enabling humanity to access space easily. Although the Star Cops are independent, Spring's relationship with Krivenko is often deferential and he frequently seems to capitulate to Krivenko's wishes.
Production history
Origins