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) radiation exposure and explosive decompression. 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. recruits new staff, roots out and dismisses corrupt officers and works to extend the Star Cops' reach first into the American space stations and then, at the end of the series, the far-flung reaches of the Mars colonies, 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 hoax discovery of an alien civilisation, His constant companion is Box, a prototype handheld computer (also voiced by Calder), bequeathed to him by his father. Overweight, sexist and bigoted, five times married Devis is the series' main comedy element and frequently gets the best lines. He was no stranger to television science fiction, having written three serials for Doctor Who and having acted as script editor on the entire four season run of Blake's 7 as well as writing nine episodes for it himself. He sent the draft script of the first Star Cops story to Jonathan Powell, the Head of Drama at BBC television. Powell responded asking Boucher to write a second script and on the strength of this the series was commissioned. Gridneff and Boucher clashed over their respective visions for the series from the outset when, on their first meeting, Gridneff told Boucher that all his scripts would have to be rewritten. Boucher later remarked that their "relationship started out at the bottom and worked its way down". Martin was an experienced scriptwriter, best known for the controversial BBC drama series Gangsters, with previous experience in television science fiction, having written for Doctor Who. Two directors were assigned to the show: Christopher Baker, who had worked with Gridneff before on Hold the Back Page as well as BBC veterinarian dramas All Creatures Great and Small and One by One, and Graeme Harper who had directed two Doctor Who stories.
At the time, most British television drama was shot on a combination of film and videotape. Usually location shooting would be on film and studio work would be recorded on video. The effect of the change in medium from film to video (or vice versa) during a scene change in a programme could be jarring for some viewers. Boucher structured his scripts carefully so that all the Earth-based scenes would be shot on film on location and all the space scenes would be recorded on video in the studio hoping that the effect would give the space scenes a unique look. He was disappointed, therefore, to discover that Gridneff had decided to record the entire series on videotape.
Cast as Nathan Spring was David Calder, an experienced character actor with a reputation for "tough-guy" roles and best known at the time for his role as Detective Inspector George Resnick in the Lynda La Plante television serial Widows. The rest of the cast, with the exception of Jonathan Adams (who had a semi-regular role on Bergerac), were relatively unknown.
Recording of the series began on 12 August 1986 with the first block of episodes—"An Instinct for Murder", "Conversations with the Dead" and "Intelligent Listening for Beginners"—directed by Christopher Baker. This was followed by a block directed by Graeme Harper comprising "Trivial Games and Paranoid Pursuits", "This Case to be Opened in a Million Years" and "In Warm Blood". Christopher Baker then returned to the director's chair for "A Double Life" and "Other People's Secrets". Both directors had differing visions for the overall look and feel of the series, with the initial block directed by Baker favouring a pristine, brightly lit approach. This contrasted with the look preferred by Graeme Harper who drastically reduced the light levels (leaving many scenes illuminated only by computer monitor screens) and whose designer, Malcolm Thornton, dressed the sets in a messier and dingier fashion. When Baker returned for his second block of episodes, he sought to return to the brighter, cleaner look which led to some continuity problems.
The theme song for the series, titled "It Won't be Easy", was written and performed by Justin Hayward, the lead vocalist with the Moody Blues. The theme was produced by record producer Tony Visconti who also composed, with Hayward, the incidental music for every episode. while in another it was placed sixth in a list article titled "The 10 Worst Things About UK Telefantasy". Writer and critic Kim Newman has described the theme as the "worst single theme tune of any TV show ever". Chris Boucher has blamed the poor ratings on the timeslot the show was given, stating: "There is nothing that has ever gone out on BBC 2 at half-past eight until twenty-past nine; it's a grotesque period. It doesn't synch with anything on BBC 1; it just doesn't work in relation to anything. You had to badly want to see Star Cops in order to watch it because you had to sacrifice at least two hours of viewing to see it. I can see why people didn't want to have that problem.". Also in The Times, reviewing "Intelligent Listening for Beginners", Martin Cropper found that "some of the individual plot-lines show invention of a sort, but the script is uniformly feeble". Meanwhile, in The Sunday Times, Patrick Stoddart was confused by the plot of "This Case to be Opened in a Million Years" asking readers "if you are following any of this, please write to me and explain". Letter writers to the Radio Times were split on the merits of the show: some such as P. Tricker of Alpheton, Suffolk praising it for having "brilliant special effects, well-written scripts and actors who were convincing" while others like Martin Bower of Allendale, Northumberland slated the "dated designs, poor music [and] cheap sets" and P. Curwen of Balloch, Dunbartonshire described it as "boring – too much talk and not enough action". Science fiction fandom at the time was more positive with Anthony McKay in Time Screen describing the series as "one of the most refreshing telefantasy series for years"
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction stated, "the low-key realism of the show was efficient enough" but argued, in
the end, that Star Cops "failed to imagine the future with any real vividness or depth".
The low ratings doomed the show to a single season and, although admired, it has never developed a significant following among science fiction aficionados. Boucher has stated that, in retrospect, he feels that the series was too outlandish for crime drama fans and not outlandish enough for science fiction fans and that ultimately it appealed to neither. Boucher felt that were the series to continue he would like to extend the setting further out into the Solar System, visiting the Mars colonies and the Big Ring space colonies under construction. He intended to achieve this either by transferring one of the existing regular characters to the Mars colony or by introducing a new regular who would be based there. However, Star Cops has undergone something of a reappraisal – in science fiction circles at least – since it went off the air in 1987. Reviewing the VHS releases for TV Zone in 1991, Gary Russell stated that "Star Cops represents excellent science fiction" and recanted his original impression of the series upon broadcast that it was "Bergerac in spacesuits, complete with rather cruddy visual effects and boring performances". A retrospective article written by Keith Topping for Dreamwatch to mark the series' 10th anniversary in 1997 described Star Cops as "a series that could (and should) have been one of the BBC's most popular, influential and entertaining products of the era. On at least one of these points the series failed miserably, but, certainly when it came to entertainment, it succeeded magnificently". The BBC themselves revisited Star Cops in a thirty-minute retrospective documentary about the show, recorded as part of a series titled The Cult of..., first broadcast on BBC Four on 28 November 2006 as part of that channel's Science Fiction Britannia season. Reflecting on the show in the programme, the author and critic Kim Newman said that "the strength of Star Cops is the writing. I don't think any of the episodes are realised as well on screen as they are on the page. [...] If it had come back for another couple of seasons it might well have been the BBC's best science fiction show". The documentary concluded that Star Cops was an "overlooked gem".
Guest Stars: Vikki Chambers (as Lina Margello), Andre Winterton (as Pordenne), Carl Forgione (as Tour Guide).
|-
| rowspan=2 style="text-align: center" |6
| "In Warm Blood"
| John Collee
| Graeme Harper
| style="text-align: center" |10 August 1987
| style="text-align: center" |8:35pm
| style="text-align: center" |51:46
| style="text-align: center" |2.2m
|-
| colspan=7 | Plot: The returning crew of the survey ship Pluto 5 are discovered dead, appearing almost freeze-dried. All with a connection to a large Japanese corporation and the suicide of a scientist close to the Moonbase commander.
Notes: This episode introduces Anna Shoun to the team. The working title for the story was "Trial by Murder".
Guest Stars: Dawn Keeler (as Christina Janssen), Richard Rees (as Richard Ho), Susan Tan (as Receptionist).
|-
| rowspan=2 style="text-align: center" |7
| "A Double Life"
| John Collee
| Christopher Baker
| style="text-align: center" |17 August 1987
| style="text-align: center" |8:35pm
| style="text-align: center" |51:41
| style="text-align: center" |2.1m
|-
| colspan=7 | Plot: Mystery surrounds a world-famous pianist accused of kidnapping and ransoming embryos from Moonbase. Anna Shoun and Colin Devis investigate and ultimately confront what turns out to be the clone of the accused pianist.
Guest Stars: Brian Gwaspari (as James Bannerman / Albi), Nitza Saul (as Chamsya Assadi).
|-
| rowspan=2 style="text-align: center" |8
| "Other People's Secrets"
| John Collee
| Christopher Baker
| style="text-align: center" |24 August 1987
| style="text-align: center" |8:35pm
| style="text-align: center" |51:43
| style="text-align: center" |1.8m
|-
| colspan=7 | Plot: Ever increasing glitches and equipment failures around the Moonbase coincide with a safety inspection and lead eventually to a decompression emergency for the base. During the emergency Nathan Spring and Pal Kenzy are forced to spend time together, as does Colin Devis with his psychologist ex-wife.
Guest Stars: Geoffrey Bayldon (as Ernest Wolfhartt), Leigh Funnell (as Beverley Anderson), Maggie Ollerenshaw (as Dr. Angela Parr), Barrie Rutter (as Hooper).
|-
| rowspan=2 style="text-align: center" |9
| "Little Green Men and Other Martians"
| Chris Boucher
| Graeme Harper
| style="text-align: center" |31 August 1987
| style="text-align: center" |8:35pm
| style="text-align: center" |51:11
| style="text-align: center" |1.2m
|-
| colspan=7 | Plot: Rumours swell of alien artefacts discovered on Mars. An attempt is made to kill Nathan Spring as he investigates drug smuggling and the deaths of two pilots. The episode and the series ends with the question "Anyone for Mars?".
Notes: The working title for this story was "Information Received". Due to illness, Erick Ray Evans was unable to appear as David Theroux. This episode would have been a country house murder mystery – of the sort popularised by the fiction of Agatha Christie and the board game Cluedo – set on the Moon. It would have centred around a plan by a Chinese corporation – Chinex – to launch raw materials from the Moon to the Lagrangian point between the Moon and the Earth where they would be used to construct a space city. The Star Cops are called in to investigate when one of the engineers is found dead during the opening of the project. Spring assigns one Star Cop to each of the five possible suspects. As each suspect is killed off, Spring realises that the project is a con and exposes the killer – a flamboyant Swiss industrialist – via a satellite link during a shareholder's meeting.
Notes: Cancelled due to industrial action at the BBC, this episode was intended as the penultimate Star Cops story set between "Other People's Secrets" and "Little Green Men and Other Martians". Although it had reached rehearsal stage by the time it was cancelled, the cast list for this episode remains unknown. Andy Secombe has said that he was to have reprised his character from the first episode "An Instinct for Murder" in this episode.
|}
Audio series
On 9 November 2017, Big Finish Productions announced they would be releasing a new series of Star Cops stories as audio plays, with surviving original cast members David Calder, Trevor Cooper and Linda Newton reprising their roles as Nathan Spring, Colin Devis and Pal Kenzy respectively. Joining them were Rakhee Thakrar as Priya Basu and Philip Olivier as Paul Bailey. Nimmy March also played Commander Shayla Moss, the new appointed co-ordinator of the Moonbase.
Two box sets of four adventures were announced, and released in May and December 2018 under the banner title of Mother Earth.
A further series, entitled Star Cops: Mars was announced on 1 November 2019, starring the core cast of Calder, Cooper and Newton. Two volumes, each containing three episodes were released in December 2019 and July 2020.
Additionally, an audiobook novel The Stuff of Life, written by Mike Tucker and narrated by Trevor Cooper, was released in December 2019. It was set between the events of Mother Earth and Mars. A second audiobook entitled Sins of the Father, also by Tucker and again narrated by Trevor Cooper was released in December 2021. This story is set directly after the events of the Mars series.
Further series announced were The High Frontier in 2022, Blood Moon in 2023 and Conflict in 2025.
Mother Earth
<section begin=series />