Space Island One

...if you're really, really dull. Seriously, children enjoy flashy lights and whiz-bang sounds in outer space and really don't care if the little toy rockets driven by their little toy spacemen don't carry reaction mass. Adults prefer something that could actually happen; where the plot is actually driven by the characters; where those characters can be interesting without being caricatures or clowns.

This is a show for adults. Thus far I've seen the first five episodes, and it's the ONLY genuinely hard sci-fi space-based television show I recall ever having seen. EVER. Here you will find NO magic gravity and NO sound in space. There are NO particles-of-the-week, NO omnipotent aliens. If you don't exercise you'll experience bone loss. This is a solid 5.5 on the Moh's Scale of Scientific Hardness.

It's a total breath of recycled, carbon-scrubbed, artificially oxygenated fresh air.

Great concept, engaging cast, excellent production (for its time)... It all added up to much less than it could have, but was still very watchable if you took it with a grain of salt.

I had the feeling that the original intent was to do a truly 'realistic' space show, and that someone chickened out. It seemed like as soon as the first ratings came in, undoubtedly low, increasingly fantastic elements started to creep in to the series. These were fun, but more of a nod to the Doctor Who crowd than at all consistent with the original premise of Space Island One: life on a space station.

Still, I found the series to be an important 'island' of innovation in a perpetually childish and overwrought TV SF landscape. If you want to see a better show built on similar lines, try to track down the 1980s series Star Cops. Or the 1970s series Moonbase 3. Clearly, these low-key SF tend to come out of the UK every decade or so... We're overdue for another!

This show did not have a big budget, or action packed stories, but it captured the feeling of the old British sci-fi shows of the 80's.

I liked the show for it's distinctive atmosphere, and the easily-likeable characters. It was a good break from Star Trek clone shows (although I generally do like those shows too :).

If you liked shows like Blake's 7, this show is for you, although the special effects are distinctly better than the effects in Blake.

I like this a lot. There's a TV movie called Trapped in space 1995 which this show I think heavily copied, even orienting themselveson the way the actors in the movie looked, which was great idea because I love that movie even more than this show. This show is awesome because the script is well written, the actors are great actors because in the 90s you actually still had to have talent to be allowed on the screen, love the 90s graphics and style of the space station and the way people look. The show is a bit very strong on promoting feminism in several episodes and strong on promoting artificial intelligence and making masculinity look bad at times, therefore for this sexist and pro robot stance I'll give it 8 stars, other than that it's very good, only unfortunate thing is they had a low budget because they're Europeans, that gets through to the viewer just a little bit. If guys know of any other hidden treasures like this let me know thanks.

Sky tv are running Space Island One at 1am, but to their credit this is the second time the series has had a run since the summer. A thoughtful, well-written and highly plausible view of the near future, with the desire for exploration and discovery forced into an uneasy alliance with the mega-bucks which fund it through big business. Mostly station based, thus eschewing none too spectacular space walks, etc, but allowing character driven plots to explore the individuals and their claustrophobic but scientifically driven lives. At its best, excellent tv science fiction. Its not ray guns and aliens on the starboard bow sf and thus is likely to be doomed to appeal to a small audience, which is a shame. Good scripts and indoor sets, rounded characters and well acted--Judy Loe is superb-- make this a most enjoyable and thought provoking suggestion of the future.