Space Precinct

Space Precinct I thought looked promising, it was an interesting little yarn with some interesting concepts and I liked the characters very much.

There were episodes with some pretty engaging plotlines though there were a few low points but this doesn't overshadow my opinion of the series which is a police series in outer space. There was a fair amount of chemistry which is clear in the cast. It was a series that had potential I was annoyed at its cancellation.

This was one of Gerry Anderson's promising works and I liked his work particuarly Captain Scarlett.

Okay, so Gerry Anderson is a genius, let's get that out of the way first. Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, even Terrahawks were all in a league of their own. Anderson's patented "Supermarionation" technique was, for its time, highly advanced. The problem started when he branched out into the live action stuff, like Space 1999 and UFO. It just didn't work for me. Space Precinct came along when I was about 16, 17 years old and I loved it from the start. It didn't initially register that it was a Gerry Anderson product, I thought it was so great. It certainly passed forty-five minutes on a Wednesday evening (the slot previously belonging to Star Trek: The Next Generation) and I thought it worked well at the time. When the series was released on DVD I decided to buy it to remind myself of how good it was...oh dear, not quite what I remembered. The real snag with the series is that the ideas and the finished article don't seem to have gelled. There are some great ideas (the co-operation between the three different species represented by the heroes does not always extend to the lower levels of Demeter City, for example) in the series, but it's hampered by the fact that the producers didn't seem to know whether they were making something for pre-teens or young adults. For instance, in one episode the cops have to hunt for this centuries old creature with a penchant for killing nubile young dancing girls and which can "hide" in the bodies of living beings, while at the same time you have a sub-plot concerning two other officers discovering an alien orang-utan in a rubbish skip with predictably humorous and slapstick results. This completely destroys any serious credibility the main story had as these two buffoons lark about "Every Which Way But Loose"-style with this ET-monkey while their colleagues face death at the hands of an ethereal and downright scary adversary. A clearer mission statement would probably have made this show run for longer than two seasons, especially if it had been darker and grittier. That said, not a bad show in all. The execution of good ideas just wasn't up to scratch. Sorry, Gerry...not your best work.

I just cannot understand why there are people who say 'Space Precinct' isn't worth watching, as it is a very good SF-series!

Yes, of course the aliens look a bit ridiculous, but that's actually part of the series' charm. Along with good stories, very obvious chemistry between Rob Youngblood (Officer Jack Haldane) and Simone Bendix (Officer Jane Castle) ànd nice sfx, this is a SF-series worth watching.

It's a shame, though, that only one season was made.

Jeff Brunner, who ran multi million dollars of investment capital for Howard Gilman (Gilman Paper Company) was talked into producing this series. Jim Goldman, a Wall Street investment banker told Brunner that this was the next Teenage Ninja Deal. Brunner was to invest Gilman's money and Gilman was non too happy about any of this happening. Brunner funded this show with $27,000,000 He, Gilman was a lover of Ballet and funded much in that world. Grove TV ran by Richard Grove completed the deal buy getting the show cleared in 97% of the Country. Amazingly it was cleared at 1 thru 3AM when the target audience as fast asleep. Even better was a ploy that was sheer comedy. Brunner paid WPIX Channel 11 to play the show on Saturday night at 11:30PM. Need I remind anyone that this was up against Saturday Night Live and Brunner paid $50,000 for the time. Brunner had never watched anything other than PBS on TV and was completely clueless. Brunner was fired and all the people who worked for him were also. I have files of paperwork sitting 3 feet from me as a remembrance. The worst part of all was Gilman Paper of St. Mary GA is no longer as a direct result. Thousand of people lost their job.

Looking back at some old recorded episodes it is a really cheesy series but i wouldn't miss it for anything i used to rush to get my homework done to see this,i would put off going out with my friends to see this, i was and always will be hooked on space precinct it isnt that it has good fx or that it isnt predictable, its just that its just so addictive you just have to watch it, trust me WATCH THIS SERIES