Star Cops
Entry updated 19 November 2023. Tagged: TV.
UK tv series (1987). BBC TV. Devised by Chris Boucher, produced by Evgeny Gridneff, script edited by Joanna Willett. Directors Christopher Baker, Graeme Harper. Writers Boucher (5 episodes), Philip Martin and John Collee. Cast includes Jonathan Adams, David Calder, Trevor Cooper, Erick Ray Evans, Linda Newton and Anna Shoun. Nine 55-minute episodes. Colour.
It is 2027 CE. Nathan Spring (Calder) is the new head detective of the International Space Police Force, an undisciplined organization with poor morale whose headquarters are on Moonbase (see Moon); the team is pointedly multinational with American, Australian, British, Japanese and Russian members, respectively Erick Ray Evans (Theroux), Pal Kenzy (Newton), Colin Devis (Cooper), Sayo Inaba (Shoun) and Alexander Krivenko (Adams). Their policing area includes manned orbital Space Stations. Spring whips them into shape, and they solve crimes (see Crime and Punishment). The low-key realism of the series was efficient enough, but in the end it seemed little more than just another cop show, failing to imagine the future with any real vividness or depth.
A tenth episode had been scripted (by Philip Martin) but was never made owing to BBC industrial action. Star Cops won a 1988 BSFA Award as best media production. The belated novelization is Star Cops (2013) by Chris Boucher. [PN/DRL]
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