No matter how many times I think about it, 'Star Cops' is still quite possibly the greatest science-fiction show ever on television.
The premise is simple--cops in space, something that sounds like a recipe for schmaltz, but it's the execution that makes it rise head and shoulders above the capsule description. The characters, through the space of nine episodes, show more depth and range than a decade of latter-day 'Star Treks'. They have moments of irritability, seething rage, intense fear, mild annoyance and sheer terror, played out over plots that challenge the viewer to keep up. This is a show that improves exponentially with repeated viewings, with complexities opening up and incidental moments gaining significance as you become able to correlate them. The characters are often unlikeable, quarrelsome, and rude--much like real people.
Dialogue is sometimes cryptic, requiring another viewing for you to understand the joke or the significance of the remark. Often, characters speak over each other's lines, much like real people.
The plots, while often standard mystery fare, offer spins new to the science-fiction format, requiring a little knowledge of human nature rather than of physics or chemistry. It's never the science, or a simple whodunit--it's always the motive. The human element is always what is at issue.
And NO SF SHOW has ever been so firmly within the possibilities of REAL SCIENCE, requiring no long explanations or technobabble justifications. It is, without a doubt, the most scientifically probable program that has ever been on the air.
There are only nine episodes, and that's a pity. Blame the BBC for their infinite lack of wisdom. But at least there are NINE, and that's wonderful.
