Audio Review: Star Cops – The High Frontier 2

Review by Ian McArdell


Star Cops is now, unbelievably, three series into its audio revival – not too shabby for a show which only managed one television run during the summer of 1987. 

Winning a small but devoted fanbase, the show sprang from the mind of the late Doctor Who scribe and Blake’s 7 script editor Chris Boucher. He transplanted a police procedural to space, some thirty years in the future, providing clever detective stories with a sci-fi twist. No aliens, just humanity with all its foibles and failings. As the show’s lead Commander Nathan Spring is told in the series’ opener “Spacemen are ten-a-penny. What they need out there is a good copper.”full (3)

The High Frontier storyline comes to its conclusion in this box set with a trio from the show’s original television cast, David Calder (Nathan Spring), Trevor Cooper (Colin Devis) and Linda Newton (Pal Kenzy), alongside Phillip Olivier’s Paul Bailey who was created for audio. Together, the team are on the trail of an insidious organised crime gang known as The Collective, but they soon learn that their enemies are prepared to strike very close to home to thwart the investigation.
Continue reading

Audio Review: Star Cops – Mars (Part 2)

Review by Ian McArdell


Mars 2, the latest Star Cops audio release, concludes the current storyline for the International Space Police Force. Based on Chris Boucher’s short-lived 1987 television series, this audio drama stars David Calder as Commander Nathan Spring, a canny copper determined to build a presence for law and order in orbit.

Continue reading

Audio Review: Star Cops – Mars (Part 1)

Review by Ian McArdell


The television series of Star Cops ended with Commander Nathan Spring posing a question: “Anyone for Mars?”. Now firmly established from a base on the Moon, the ISPF’s remit was set to encompass Mars in a second series. While the show on television never quite made it, fresh from their investigation into the terrorist organisation Mother Earth’, Big Finish’s superb audio continuation of the show has finally made good on that offer. Continue reading

Audio Review: Star Cops – The Stuff of Life

Review by Ian McArdell


Bridging the gap between Mother Earth and the latest series, Mars, Big Finish has released a Star Cops audiobook. A thriller which trades on a most precious commodity in space exploration, ‘The Stuff of Life’ looks at some of the implications of colonising the red planet and the infrastructure needed to do so.

Continue reading