Звёздные копы: Британский научно-фантастический сериал 1987 года

British science fiction television series 1987

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". 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.

On 9 November 2017, Big Finish Productions announced they would be releasing a new series of Star Cops stories as audio plays, with surviving original cast members David Calder, Trevor Cooper and Linda Newton reprising their roles as Nathan Spring, Colin Devis and Pal Kenzy respectively. Joining them were Rakhee Thakrar as Priya Basu and Philip Olivier as Paul Bailey. Nimmy March also played Commander Shayla Moss, the new appointed co ordinator of the Moonbase. Two box sets of four adventures were announced, and released in May and December 2018 under the banner title of Mother Earth. A further series, entitled Star Cops: Mars was announced on 1 November 2019, starring the core cast of Calder, Cooper and Newton. Two volumes, each containing three episodes were released in December 2019 and July 2020. Additionally, an audiobook novel The Stuff of Life, written by Mike Tucker and narrated by Trevor Cooper, was released in December 2019. It was set between the events of Mother Earth and Mars. A second audiobook entitled Sins of the Father, also by Tucker and again narrated by Trevor Cooper was released in December 2021. This story is set directly after the events of the Mars series. Further series announced were The High Frontier in 2022 and Blood Moon in 2023.