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Star Cops #0
Star Cops
"...the strength of Star Cops is the writing. I don’t think any of the episodes are realised as well on screen as they are on the page...” - Kim NewmanChris Boucher broke into high-profile television writing with three sets of scripts for Doctor Who in the The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death and Image of the Fendahl, each of which featured the character of Leela, his own creation. He was recommended by Doctor Who script editor Robert Holmes for the vacant script editor’s position on the then-embryonic BBC science fiction series Blake’s 7, a role which Boucher occupied for the show’s duration of four series. Having moved on to work on more mainstream BBC drama such as Shoestring, Bergerac and Juliet Bravo, he returned to science fiction with the creation of Star Cops - a troubled production eventually broadcast on BBC2 in the summer of 1987, now widely recognised as one of the BBC’s most ambitious and well-written forays into science fiction. More recently he has returned to his roots, writing four Doctor Who novels - Last Man Running, Corpse Marker, Psi-ence Fiction and Match of the Day - for BBC Books.
416 pages, Paperback
First published March 14, 2013
7 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Chris Boucher
18 books13 followersChristopher Franklin Boucher was a British television writer, best known for his frequent contributions to two genres, science fiction and crime dramas. Prior to becoming a television writer, Boucher had worked at Calor Gas as a management trainee and he also gained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics at the University of Essex.
In science fiction, he wrote three Doctor Who serials in the late 1970s: The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death and Image of the Fendahl. Perhaps his most durable contribution to Doctor Who mythology was the creation of Leela, the savage companion played by Louise Jameson. Boucher was commissioned for the programme by Robert Holmes, who would suggest that Boucher be appointed as script editor of new science fiction series Blake's 7. He served in this role for the entirety of its four season run from 1978 to 1981, also writing several episodes himself, including the well-remembered final episode. In 1987 he created his own series Star Cops, which combined the science fiction and crime genres, and lasted only nine episodes.
In the genre of police dramas, between working on Doctor Who and Blake's 7, Boucher was the script editor on the second season of the drama Shoestring, which followed the investigations of private detective and radio show host Eddie Shoestring. In 1982, following the end of Blake's 7, Boucher script edited and wrote for the third season police drama Juliet Bravo. He later moved on to script edit the detective show Bergerac, working on the programme throughout the 1980s.
In science fiction, he wrote three Doctor Who serials in the late 1970s: The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death and Image of the Fendahl. Perhaps his most durable contribution to Doctor Who mythology was the creation of Leela, the savage companion played by Louise Jameson. Boucher was commissioned for the programme by Robert Holmes, who would suggest that Boucher be appointed as script editor of new science fiction series Blake's 7. He served in this role for the entirety of its four season run from 1978 to 1981, also writing several episodes himself, including the well-remembered final episode. In 1987 he created his own series Star Cops, which combined the science fiction and crime genres, and lasted only nine episodes.
In the genre of police dramas, between working on Doctor Who and Blake's 7, Boucher was the script editor on the second season of the drama Shoestring, which followed the investigations of private detective and radio show host Eddie Shoestring. In 1982, following the end of Blake's 7, Boucher script edited and wrote for the third season police drama Juliet Bravo. He later moved on to script edit the detective show Bergerac, working on the programme throughout the 1980s.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 30, 2020
A blanket title under which Boucher reworks his scripts from the ill-fated Star Cops TV programme. The resulting novella and four sequentially developing novelettes feature snappy dialogue and intelligent, environment-specific crime scenarios playing out against a backdrop of uncommonly realistic inner-solar-system SF.
January 8, 2019
I only know of Boucher from Blake's 7, so it was interesting to read this period work. The characters weren't overly likable, but they were cunning and clever, and hard sci-fi on TV at the time in the UK was a rare thing. So to get a little beyond the screen and actually read this stuff was a rare pleasure.
September 8, 2019
Enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the series when it was on telly and this book is basically the episodes of the series mashed together to form a book. Its been done well, the only issue I would have is that I would have liked some new stories as I still remember the series well and new what was coming.
November 15, 2018
The year is 2027. When a swimmer is found drowned in a London park, the police computer rules the death as accidental. Chief Superintendent Nathan Spring’s natural instincts lead him to suspect otherwise, and he begins an investigation – despite the objections of his colleagues and superiors. To deflect him from pursuing this, Spring is manipulated into accepting a job that he does not want – as commander of the International Space Police Force, an organisation set up to enforce law and order on various space stations orbiting the Earth. The ISPF, disparagingly nicknamed the ‘Star Cops’, is an undistinguished force populated by undisciplined officers, concerned mainly with their own welfare and making money on the side, rather than upholding the law.
Arriving at the European space station Charles de Gaulle, Spring struggles to adapt to conditions in low gravity while working to mould his team into an effective force for law enforcement. Before he’s even begun to adjust, he discovers that several crewmembers have recently died, following unforeseen spacesuit malfunction. Although these apparent accidents fall well within the limits of statistical acceptability, Spring’s instincts again lead to him to suspect the work of a saboteur. He decides to expose the culprit by taking a desperate course of action – gambling with his own life…
Elsewhere, Spring’s second-in-command David Theroux investigates an explosion on a distant space freighter that has knocked the craft off course and condemned its two pilots to death, the Star Cops are warned of terrorist attacks by a communications expert based on the Moon, a scientist disappears without trace from the American space station – with the crew denying his very existence – and rumours begin to grow of alien artefacts having been discovered on Mars…
This is such an odd book to review. It’s an extension/revision of a TV series that I absolutely adore, written by the man who created it and wrote the scripts for all of the episodes contained within this book. I suppose you could call it a novelisation, however Boucher has taken the opportunity to remove and replace characters he didn’t like from the screen version (Russian Moonbase Co-ordinator Dr Krivenko, replaced by Chinese Doctor Jiang-Lee Ho, for example), alter the endings of certain stories and alter the flow of the narrative so that it feels like one continuous story rather than episodes stitched together. For the most part, this works, although giving the books’ sections the names of the episodes from which they’re taken sort of defeats the object.
As you’d expect from Boucher, the dialogue is snappy, the descriptive passages excellent and the future-world building is fascinating. And yet somehow it all falls flat. These were first written in the late-90s and I get the feeling that the BBCs treatment of the show still rankled with him at the time, as the whole thing feels quite bitter and resentful. Pretty much all the characters are unlikeable, including Nathan Spring, and many of them bigoted and misogynistic to an alarming degree not seen on screen. There is a lot of swearing, which isn’t necessarily unbelievable but feels like the author is venting his own spleen. There is also sex (which didn’t get on the telly) and lots of sexual references (some of which did) but here it all feels slightly sordid and unpleasant. It’s interesting to note that so much of the warmth of the characters on screen comes from the performances of the actors. As written in the book I found myself not giving a damn about any of them.
The first story, An Instinct for Murder, is the largest part of the book and contains the most differences from the televised script. I’d also say these are the least effective changes too, all of which (for me) lessen the impact of the story. I don’t know whether this was intentional, perhaps to offer something different to the reader than they had seen on TV, but it all feels a bit… clumsy; certainly not as confident as on screen. The biggest tragedy is that the remaining four stories are crammed together into the second half of the book, Little Green Men and Other Martians – far and away the best story of the five – only getting 20 or so pages.
Perhaps if a few more years had gone by Boucher would have come to terms with some of his personal demons about Star Cops and provided something a little more balanced. As it is, this is the only literary fiction of Star Cops we've got, which is a shame as there is still a lot of potential in the format. Ultimately this isn’t a badly written book, it’s just a very disappointing one. I’m not sure which is worse, but I suspect I won’t go back to it for a long time, if ever. Boucher’s original scripts are far better than their literary counterpart, so I’ll stay content with the DVD release, which remains the best version of this short-lived, but brightly shining vision.
Arriving at the European space station Charles de Gaulle, Spring struggles to adapt to conditions in low gravity while working to mould his team into an effective force for law enforcement. Before he’s even begun to adjust, he discovers that several crewmembers have recently died, following unforeseen spacesuit malfunction. Although these apparent accidents fall well within the limits of statistical acceptability, Spring’s instincts again lead to him to suspect the work of a saboteur. He decides to expose the culprit by taking a desperate course of action – gambling with his own life…
Elsewhere, Spring’s second-in-command David Theroux investigates an explosion on a distant space freighter that has knocked the craft off course and condemned its two pilots to death, the Star Cops are warned of terrorist attacks by a communications expert based on the Moon, a scientist disappears without trace from the American space station – with the crew denying his very existence – and rumours begin to grow of alien artefacts having been discovered on Mars…
This is such an odd book to review. It’s an extension/revision of a TV series that I absolutely adore, written by the man who created it and wrote the scripts for all of the episodes contained within this book. I suppose you could call it a novelisation, however Boucher has taken the opportunity to remove and replace characters he didn’t like from the screen version (Russian Moonbase Co-ordinator Dr Krivenko, replaced by Chinese Doctor Jiang-Lee Ho, for example), alter the endings of certain stories and alter the flow of the narrative so that it feels like one continuous story rather than episodes stitched together. For the most part, this works, although giving the books’ sections the names of the episodes from which they’re taken sort of defeats the object.
As you’d expect from Boucher, the dialogue is snappy, the descriptive passages excellent and the future-world building is fascinating. And yet somehow it all falls flat. These were first written in the late-90s and I get the feeling that the BBCs treatment of the show still rankled with him at the time, as the whole thing feels quite bitter and resentful. Pretty much all the characters are unlikeable, including Nathan Spring, and many of them bigoted and misogynistic to an alarming degree not seen on screen. There is a lot of swearing, which isn’t necessarily unbelievable but feels like the author is venting his own spleen. There is also sex (which didn’t get on the telly) and lots of sexual references (some of which did) but here it all feels slightly sordid and unpleasant. It’s interesting to note that so much of the warmth of the characters on screen comes from the performances of the actors. As written in the book I found myself not giving a damn about any of them.
The first story, An Instinct for Murder, is the largest part of the book and contains the most differences from the televised script. I’d also say these are the least effective changes too, all of which (for me) lessen the impact of the story. I don’t know whether this was intentional, perhaps to offer something different to the reader than they had seen on TV, but it all feels a bit… clumsy; certainly not as confident as on screen. The biggest tragedy is that the remaining four stories are crammed together into the second half of the book, Little Green Men and Other Martians – far and away the best story of the five – only getting 20 or so pages.
Perhaps if a few more years had gone by Boucher would have come to terms with some of his personal demons about Star Cops and provided something a little more balanced. As it is, this is the only literary fiction of Star Cops we've got, which is a shame as there is still a lot of potential in the format. Ultimately this isn’t a badly written book, it’s just a very disappointing one. I’m not sure which is worse, but I suspect I won’t go back to it for a long time, if ever. Boucher’s original scripts are far better than their literary counterpart, so I’ll stay content with the DVD release, which remains the best version of this short-lived, but brightly shining vision.
May 27, 2021
I watched the original BBC TV series when it was first shown and have rewatched the episodes in 2020. The BBC dumped this show in the poorly watched summer season without any effort to prote it; it really should have been many more episodes than we got imo. It certainly could be remade by netflix etc today as be a well watched and regarded programme, although we know this isnt a primary requirement for streaming services right now.
The book resists the episodes in the TV series, although not in equal length or detail. It tires to tell the narrative as a single inter-woven story, so events which relate to later stories are woven into the earlier narrative. I only found one part confusing as two characters appeared to be in the wrong timeline.
The book is to its time and certainly parts of it would be written today. I think some parts are actually highly unlikely to have been spoken even back when the series aired as they were that anachronistic. The main characters are generally very well realised, although I'm not convinced their personalities are always as well rounded and filled in as I'd like. However, this by no means unusual or differed from many books where the primary stories aren't character studies.
The main think That I don't think is well explained is prior to Nathan's appointment the "Star Cops" are a small under funded joke, whereas after he is appointed the budget is increased massively leading to more appointments, more office space (on the moonbase) with the focus of the story shifting to the Moon rather than in orbit. Its clear to me that the head of the force should have significant administrative support that just isnt present.
Its a shame that Chris Boucher didn't write some additional stories rather than just focus on novelising his scripts from the TV show. Although its along time ago, I'm fairly sure that there was at least 1 or 2 other stories that aren't in the book, no doubt for copyright reasons.
4.5/5
The book resists the episodes in the TV series, although not in equal length or detail. It tires to tell the narrative as a single inter-woven story, so events which relate to later stories are woven into the earlier narrative. I only found one part confusing as two characters appeared to be in the wrong timeline.
The book is to its time and certainly parts of it would be written today. I think some parts are actually highly unlikely to have been spoken even back when the series aired as they were that anachronistic. The main characters are generally very well realised, although I'm not convinced their personalities are always as well rounded and filled in as I'd like. However, this by no means unusual or differed from many books where the primary stories aren't character studies.
The main think That I don't think is well explained is prior to Nathan's appointment the "Star Cops" are a small under funded joke, whereas after he is appointed the budget is increased massively leading to more appointments, more office space (on the moonbase) with the focus of the story shifting to the Moon rather than in orbit. Its clear to me that the head of the force should have significant administrative support that just isnt present.
Its a shame that Chris Boucher didn't write some additional stories rather than just focus on novelising his scripts from the TV show. Although its along time ago, I'm fairly sure that there was at least 1 or 2 other stories that aren't in the book, no doubt for copyright reasons.
4.5/5
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews