- [Narrator] Space Police entered production in 1986
and was the very first step on the road
that would eventually lead to Space Precinct.
- All right, settle down.
- [Narrator] This 55-minute pilot film took viewers
to planet Zar XL5
and the orbiting station house of Precinct 44 East,
where Lieutenant Chuck Brogan and his team
are working hard to bring down the criminal organisation
of the evil V. Lann.
- Shut up!
- [Narrator] After an attempt on the life of the president,
Brogan suggests he postpone his trip
to the city of Ultraville aboard his private monotrain,
but this request falls on deaf ears.
- Listen to me, Brogan.
I don't give way to threats of terrorism.
You do what you have to, I'm going to Ultraville.
- [Narrator] Little does the president realise, though,
that his personal aid Breon has been blackmailed
by V. Lann into turning over the train security codes.
- They've got my family.
I had no choice.
- [Narrator] And the train is soon hurtling out of control
towards a bridge that isn't there anymore.
With time running out,
Brogan's team must use all their otherworldly powers
to save the president's train
and thwart V. Lann's evil plot.
(V. Lann laughs evilly)
The idea for Space Police came to Anderson in 1983,
while on a flight back from New York.
He was trying to work out
why television executives in the States
weren't interested in his previous production, Terrahawks.
- I have a theory.
- [Narrator] They claimed it was because puppet shows
weren't popular with American audiences.
- The heck you say.
- [Narrator] Yet the massive success
of the Muppets on television and film,
plus various other big movies of the time,
suggested otherwise.
- Why do we watch it?
- Why do you watch it?
- [Narrator] Anderson and his business partner
Christopher Burr soon realised
that it was only puppet versions of human beings
that the executives were objecting to.
Puppets of bizarre alien creatures were absolutely fine.
- Dispatch, we have a nine-11. (siren wailing)
- [Narrator] Also noticing the popularity
of police television drama series,
they set to work devising a science-fiction concept
that would combine human actors with alien puppets.
And Anderson collaborated on a script
with writer Tony Barwick titled Star Laws.
- I'm Brogan, Lieutenant Brogan.
For 15 years I worked for the NYPD,
New York Police Department.
Now I'm with Space Police.
- [Narrator] Anderson only ever had one man in mind
to play the leader of his space police force,
long-time collaborator Shane Rimmer
as Lieutenant Chuck Brogan.
- You get a kick out of it, right?
- Well, it's all part of the game plan.
- [Narrator] Brogan's team would consist
of Catherine Chevalier as Officer Cathy Costello,
an alien officer from special division
with heightened senses named Bats,
a trio of felinoid officers named Tom, Dick, and Harry,
and the robotic secretarial assistant Slomo.
- I know: not right now, Slomo.
- [Narrator] All the other characters seen in the episode
would be brought to life
either by Terrahawk-style hand puppets
or stop-motion animation.
- Stupid mutt!
- [Narrator] With the new puppets being referred to
as galactronic puppets.
- Well, well.
- [Narrator] Anderson's former Supermarionation
puppet supervisor Christine Glanville
served the same function for these new puppets,
and actually found herself
inside the costume of Officer Tom.
- Let's hear it for the fat man.
(all cheering and clapping)
- All right, knock it off.
- [Narrator] The human actors in Space Police
are rarely seen directly interacting with the puppets,
although in some scenes you might not even realise it.
- I am sure he would like to see the both of us dead,
me for asking you to police this planet--
- And me for accepting, sir.
- [Narrator] However, Tom, Dick, Harry, and Bats
have a cunning way around this problem.
They, too, can become puppets that look very similar
to their full-body counterparts.
- Right.
- [Narrator] The switch is made skillfully enough
that your brain might not even register
the exact moment that it happens.
- Luckily I landed right on my brains, Mr. President.
- [Narrator] And attention is only really drawn to it
in the second half of the episode,
when Costello is suddenly revealed
to be a shape-shifting robot.
- Every time she does that,
I don't believe it.
- [Narrator] Although the episode refuses to tell us
exactly what she is,
the reason for this ability becomes clear
by the story's finale.
It's so that Cathy can also become a puppet
and join her puppet colleagues saving the puppet president.
- Excuse me, Mr. President.
- [Narrator] This unfortunately
has the unintended side effect
of making Shane Rimmer's Lieutenant Brogan
mostly unnecessary to the final act of the story,
since, ironically for the voice of Scott Tracy,
he's the only one who can't turn into a puppet
and join in the rescue.
Over the next few years,
Anderson would be busy showing off Space Police
to various networks and potential backers,
although the episode's settings and characters
would gradually begin to fall away
as the concept was refined.
- Aw, shoot.
- [Narrator] The pilot was soon recut
into a two-minute trailer.
- [Announcer] The best in live-action performances,
breathtaking model work, and spectacular special effects
will make this the TV space series of the decade.
- [Narrator] And then followed up
by a new five-minute presentation: Space Police Reloaded.
- [Narrator] After 15 years
with the New York Police Department,
Lieutenant Chuck Brogan needs a change, and he gets one.
- [Narrator] Which took some of Space Police's
more interesting visual elements
and intercut them with newly shot live-action scenes.
- This is Brogan.
- [Narrator] These new scenes served two purposes:
to show off the even more sophisticated animatronics
that would bring the show's aliens to life,
and to add the characters of Officers Haldane and Castle,
plus early versions of Beezle and Fredo.
While this Beezle looks very similar to the Creons
we'd come to know in Space Precinct,
and not too unlike V. Lann's henchmen E. Vile,
Fredo looks almost nothing
like the Tarns from Space Precinct,
although he does have their ability of telekinesis,
originally Officer Tom's ability in Space Police.
- Eat your heart out, Isaac Newton.
- [Narrator] The only alien to make it to Space Precinct
almost unchanged was Reloaded's bank robber,
known on the set as Cyril,
who appears in the opening titles
of the first three episodes before being repainted
to play Commissioner Tev in the episode Takeover.
- Are you free tonight?
- Yes, I am, but unfortunatel,y you're not.
- [Narrator] Although none of the human actors
seen in Space Police or Space Police Reloaded
would make it into Space Precinct,
several unseen performers did.
Space Police voice artists David Healy and Gary Martin
can both be heard in the Reloaded trailer,
and would continue to provide voices in Space Precinct.
Their Space Police colleagues Jeff Harding and Kate Harper
would both also appear in the episode Hate Street.
- Of all the ravines in all the world.
- You're a worm.
- Yeah, but a really nice worm.
Come on, just one drink.
- [Narrator] With Harper also being seen and heard
in many other episodes of the show.
- I'll take that as a compliment.
- [Narrator] From the Reloaded cast,
alien actors Rob Thirtle and Andy Dawson
would continue to play aliens throughout Space Precinct.
Reloaded also featured two other noteworthy actors.
- Who are these men, sir?
- You two!
- [Narrator] Bruce Boa, clearly still very angry
about that whole Waldorf salad business,
plays Brogan and Haldane's superior back on Earth,
while Jane Castle was played by Chloe Annett.
Daughter of Space Police Reloaded's director Paul Annett,
she appears to be the only one of the human characters
who's entirely comfortable
with what she's being asked to do,
and so it's rather a shame that we didn't get to see her
in Space Precinct itself.
- You are pushy, arrogant, conceited,
self-obsessed, and utterly insensitive.
- She likes me.
- [Narrator] However, Chloe Annett would find herself
back in the world of science-fiction in 1997,
when she joined the cast
of the hit BBC series Crime Traveller.
- Show-off.
- [Narrator] Space Police and Space Police Reloaded
are now available on The Lost Worlds Of Gerry Anderson DVD,
which also includes surviving Space Police film elements
and over two hours of rushes from Space Police Reloaded,
which are well worth a look if you're in the mood
to have all your illusions about the glamour
of television production permanently crushed.
- Let's go.
- [Narrator] If you've ever wondered what a cross
between Terrahawks and Space Precinct might look like,
then Space Police is certainly worth watching,
if only to marvel at what might have been.
- How was it?
- [Narrator] Steve Begg's model effect sequences
are as impressive as ever,
the alien characters are well-realized,
and it's nice to see Shane Rimmer get a starring role
in a live-action Anderson production.
- Hey, sometimes us old-timers can be a bit handy, huh?
- [Narrator] However, most likely due to the budget,
the episode feels very small-scale,
as Zar XL5 appears to consist only of a nightclub,
a warehouse, and a thousand miles of desert monorail track.
- Spectacular, isn't it?
- Hmm?
Oh, yes sir.
- [Narrator] As for Reloaded,
although its content and tone
are much closer to Space Precinct,
it also includes one of Precinct's more infamous problems.
- How much they paying you, punk?
- I wanna see a lawyer!
- You wanna see a plastic surgeon?
- [Narrator] The actor playing Brogan is so heavily
and noticeably overdubbed that the entire production
feels very cheesy as a result,
almost like something Garth Marenghi
might cobble together in an afternoon.
Since it was never intended for broadcast, though,
its flaws can be more easily forgiven,
and Space Police Reloaded
would help secure the financing for
and future of Anderson's Hill Street Blues in space idea.
- Let's intellectualise, let's keep one step ahead, and hey!
Let's be careful out there.
- [Narrator] After two attempts at the concept,
the third time would be the charm,
as Space Precinct finally entered production in 1994.
But that's another story.
- Watch this space.
(cheerful music)