| Star Cops | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Chris Boucher |
| Starring | David Calder, Erick Ray Evans, Trevor Cooper, Linda Newton, Jonathan Adams, Sayo Inaba |
| Theme music composer | "It Won't be Easy" written and performed by Justin Hayward |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 9 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Evgeny Gridneff |
| Camera setup | Multicamera |
| Running time | c. 50 min. per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC 2 |
| Release | 6 July – 31 August 1987 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
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 where 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 of Star Cops were made. A tenth episode, titled "Death on the Moon", was planned but industrial relations difficulties during production led to it being abandoned shortly before recording was to commence. A combination of factors, including conflict between Boucher and producer Evgeny 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".[1]
Big Finish 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.[2]
- ^ Golder, Dave, ed. (April 1999). "The Top 50 SF TV Shows of All Time". SFX. No. supplement to issue 50. p. 17.
- ^ "Star Cops relaunches!". Bigfinish.com. Retrieved 10 November 2017.