Star Cops – Why I like it, in 5 minutes or less
Podcast: Download (1.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Welcome to the resurrected Staggering Stories Audio Musings. I’m Adam Purcell, and I’ll be your host for this musing.
This doesn’t replace the proper Staggering Stories Podcast feed but is instead a VERY irregular (in more ones than one!) outlet for individual members of the Staggering Stories team to vent and generally spew forth…
This is the first of a group of three musings (actually recycled MP3 comments…) about Herd Nurdles. Herd Nurdles, do I hear you ask? Probably not. It’s a term introduced by the fabulous people over at the Box Room podcast, used to represent Science Fiction that one person really likes but few others do. It’s the opposite of Nerd Hurdles… seek out Box Room Podcast 29 and onwards if you want to know more.
Without further ado, here’s my justification for liking the 1987 BBC 2 Sci-Fi/detective series Star Cops – my first Herd Nurdle.
You don’t know Star Cops? Where were you in the late 80s?! BBC 2, 1987. A science fiction crime drama, devised and mainly written by none other than Chris Boucher, of Doctor Who and Blake’s 7.
Okay, the production values… leave a little to be desired. Let’s not even talk about the zero-G acting… There’s some great model work, though… By I’m drifting.
It’s basically Hard SF – It’s set in 2027 and there’s no magic tech, it’s all plausible. There’s no anti-gravity, no faster than light travel, no transporters and NO aliens. It’s real people policing a realistic Earth orbital stations and lunar colony universe.
There’s some really great writing, some fantastic dialogue, clever ideas about the sort of crime that near future environment might encourage. Some great performances too, especially, for my money, by David Calder and Trevor Cooper.
It’s not for everybody – a lot of people probably won’t even get past the awful theme tune.
Star Cops is something people seem to either love or hate. It’s in my top 4 favourite TV series, along with Doctor Who, Babylon 5 and Firefly. Give it a go – you might just love it! You probably won’t, most people hate it but you never know… Sadly the DVDs are long since deleted but no doubt it is available via alternative means..!
I can’t defend that cast photo on Wikipedia, though. I think they must have just eaten from the BBC canteen or, perhaps, just been fired…
I am one of the people that loved Star Cops. Hell I even loved the theme song.
There are more of us out there than many people know! The others might point and laugh at us but we can appreciate a good story, good characters even if the budget wasn’t all it could have been!