Star Cops

No matter how many times I think about it, 'Star Cops' is still quite possibly the greatest science-fiction show ever on television.

The premise is simple--cops in space, something that sounds like a recipe for schmaltz, but it's the execution that makes it rise head and shoulders above the capsule description. The characters, through the space of nine episodes, show more depth and range than a decade of latter-day 'Star Treks'. They have moments of irritability, seething rage, intense fear, mild annoyance and sheer terror, played out over plots that challenge the viewer to keep up. This is a show that improves exponentially with repeated viewings, with complexities opening up and incidental moments gaining significance as you become able to correlate them. The characters are often unlikeable, quarrelsome, and rude--much like real people.

Dialogue is sometimes cryptic, requiring another viewing for you to understand the joke or the significance of the remark. Often, characters speak over each other's lines, much like real people.

The plots, while often standard mystery fare, offer spins new to the science-fiction format, requiring a little knowledge of human nature rather than of physics or chemistry. It's never the science, or a simple whodunit--it's always the motive. The human element is always what is at issue.

And NO SF SHOW has ever been so firmly within the possibilities of REAL SCIENCE, requiring no long explanations or technobabble justifications. It is, without a doubt, the most scientifically probable program that has ever been on the air.

There are only nine episodes, and that's a pity. Blame the BBC for their infinite lack of wisdom. But at least there are NINE, and that's wonderful.

A neglected classic. Wonderful low-key SF tales - the titular police department has only a moonbase and a couple of space stations to deal with, but the stories are thought-provoking and frighteningly believable. Best of all, the good guys don't always win. Top-notch acting all round makes this well worth tracking down. Happy hunting...

This came on New York television via a local public television station. Not the main one but a smaller station on the UHF band. It was in the early nineties.

If my memory is correct the only sci-fi television at the time was Star Trek: The Next Generation. This was not a watchable show for me and I avoided it. By chance I saw a TV listing and there was this mystery show, "Star Cops". No description given. In fact I don't know if the station ever publicized the program. I tuned in and was very happily surprised. Here was a sci-fi show with a brain although with a slant towards hard-boiled 40's noir. Nine weeks, a few more of repeat enjoyment then it was gone.

Three elements hold the show together:

The unique art direction and design that is probably the only time anyone picked up on the "2001" style and elaborated. The way space is portrayed and the design of the hardware is unlike anything out of the U.S. entertainment machine. Believable and beautiful at once. The special effects, while clumsy at times, are bolstered by the art direction. Who cares if the space station and the background move out of sync for a second or so. The overall intent overwhelms the defects.

The smooth music by Moody Blues member Justin Heyward and David Bowie producer Tony Visconti gives the show a unique feel. A good comparison would how the country music instrumentals worked on "Firefly". It shows that Kubrick had figured something out.

The dense and complex story lines lift the program out of the pedestrian and grade school level space opera typified by "Star Trek:TNG" or the boring "Stargate" franchise. The writers really tried to imagine what the real world politics would be when private business and different countries move into space.

The drawbacks to the show mainly are due to the below average acting from some of the regular cast and the low budget. There are too many screwy American accents coming out of British actors' mouths then I like to hear. A number of the bad guys are just awful. Bad acting is unusual to see in a serious British drama but compared to the amatuerville from many of the Star Trek spinoffs, I shouldn't complain. David Calder is an exception on this show, he was always on. The regular cast seemed to be falling comfortably into their roles by the last episode. The exception was Erick Ray Evans who comes across more as a very likable tennis coach than a hard-boiled cop. He never seemed to be able to expand his range. But he's seems to be a nice guy.

It's too bad that fate cut this show off after nine episode, I really think that a second set of episodes would have solidified the program.

A very interesting experiment that should be repeated.

OK, it is a bit dated (the USSR still around). And the effects are not terrific - but for what I am sure was a minimal budget, not bad, in fact if what I've seen was basically the pilot, pretty decent. Especially for 1986-7 TV. Come to that, the movie *Outland* with Sean Connery in 1981 is the only one I've seen to outdo *2001*, made in 1968 (they at least knew that you cannot see into a shadow without a light - that is still being done wrong in 2005)! And it is a cop show, not a science fiction show.

So if you're expecting a space opera, forget it.

But if you like cop shows, this is pretty darn good - at least episode one, which is all I've seen so far. And as a computer programmer since 1965, I know whence the lead character's skepticism comes - Hello son!

Star Cops rose above the average in a way that rarely happens: by being more average. How was this? Well, from the start, it's so average, it's. different! It had average theme music - well average for something other than SF. Kind of laid back. Style wise, in the SF arena, it has only recently been matched by the rather less pleasantly warbling intro for the appalling 'Enterprise'. Very laid back.

Acting wise, everyone does a competent job. David Calder is a high point but none of the rest are Patrick Stewart. But they don't need to be. They seem to be either actors playing hard at being `regular Joe's' or - failing that - they're just fairly average actors. Either way, it doesn't seem to matter. The actors play 'space' like it's no big deal. Like they don't want to be there but do want to do their jobs. Even when they are only just on the ball, it's still terribly convincing because it all looks so 'run of the mill'.

The plots aren't overly clever or dramatic. They don't involve saving the earth every week. No vast alien flotillas hove into view to crush all resistance before them. No labyrinthine plots of shape shifters or invisible aliens. Just regular greedy, lazy people and average nut cases doing what they do in the real world: being avaricious, slack and mad - just, it's in orbit! (well, or on the moon as well).

The effects show nice attention to detail but are pretty run of the mill BBC fare. So they're 'effects' but not 'special effects', if you see what I mean, but it's enough. The modelling's quite nice and pretty believable. The script never gets caught up in easy to film stuff like artificial gravity (except the spin on the space station Ronald Regan!), or plot accelerators like faster than light drives.

I know this may sound stupid but, the mix of accents, the run of the mill mundanity. I love it! Why doesn't someone bring it out on DVD or - at least - show the thing on the TV again!