Space Precinct on DVD next week

[23skidoo]

A few months back there were rumblings that Gerry Anderson's outer space cop show Space Precinct might be headed for DVD (not counting a few minor kids shows and the updated Captain Scarlet it was the last major Anderson series yet to be released to DVD in North America). TV Shows on DVD has reported that Image Entertainment just put out a press release announcing the shows release - next week, Nov. 23.

Talk about short notice, but there you go.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Space-Precinct-The-Complete-Series/14714

It remember rather liking the show. It was ahead of the game in some ways, in how it combined prosthetics and puppets with "regular" actors in much the same way Farscape did a few years later. It also ran into the same problems UFO (and to a degree Farscape) did: it was seen as a kids show at first until programmers actually watched the thing, realized it was actually a very adult show at times (some of the plotlines wouldn't be out of place on CSI Miami) and had no idea how to handle it. Sadly, rather than get over this problem the way Farscape did, it went the UFO direction and ended up being canned after a single season because it didn't get enough American support.

I always had a soft spot for Simone Bendix in this show too.

Alex

 

[DWF]

Cool, I've been waiting for it come out officially on DVD, but I though it was coming out later this month.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'm curious about this one as I don't really know much about it at all. I plan on catching the Syfy marathon at the end of the month. If you catch Syfy playing a marathon of something unusual you can usually bet that there's a DVD release happening nearby.

 

[I am not Spock]

I remember this show! I loved it back in the mid 90s. Wonder what I would think now? I was about 13 or 14 at the time. I was disappointed there was only one season, too. I wanted more!

 

[Sindatur]

Bump

Currently watching Blake's 7 and 3-4 current Prime shows.

This will be next. I watched the Pilot and I'm excited to see the Series. I saw only a couple episodes back in the day when it was on (I was Running loose, I guess), but, the Pilot was far more promising than I expected when I watched it recently.

It might take me 3 weeks to 6 months to get through Blake's 7 depending upon circumstances, but, anyone wanna watch this with me when I'm done? The audience would probably be better served if someone else ran the thread, but, I'd like to be there, at the very least

This is 1 of 3 Series I have left from Christmas presents to watch (Blake's 7 being one, Space Precinct being 2, and the as yet unmentioned Space: Above and Beyond)

Oh Temis The Vorta, if you're interested in a Cop Show with SciFi Back Drop worth watching, try this one.

 

[cylkoth]

Syfy ran a marathon back in December when the dvds were released, and caught a few episodes. When one thinks of a Gerry Anderson series, you imagine slickly designed sets and tech, with moderately interesting plots...unfortunately, this show was a major disappointment in those departments. I don't wanna spoil it for you, you may find rediscovering the show a hoot. But my biggest problem was that the aliens-at least the regulars, weren't alien enough. Along with their design, not aesthetically pleasing. May as well have them all human...it was too jarring having the stereotypical Irish police captain, thick accent et al, only he's an alien.

At least say he grew up on Earth in Ireland...

Now, there was a BBC show called Star Cops that was quite good. But I don't see it out on dvd for Region 1.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Now, there was a BBC show called Star Cops that was quite good. But I don't see it out on dvd for Region 1.

Like Blakes 7, Star Cops will probably never be released in Region 1. That the BBC has no clue about how to exploit its back catalogue worldwide bemuses me, but it's not completely surprising given that it is set up as a publicly-funded broadcaster. At least, license a release of these series on DVD-R through Amazon as was done for season 2 of Jeremiah, or make them available on iTunes. Voila, a revenue stream for very little effort.

 

[DWF]

Syfy ran a marathon back in December when the dvds were released, and caught a few episodes. When one thinks of a Gerry Anderson series, you imagine slickly designed sets and tech, with moderately interesting plots...unfortunately, this show was a major disappointment in those departments. I don't wanna spoil it for you, you may find rediscovering the show a hoot. But my biggest problem was that the aliens-at least the regulars, weren't alien enough. Along with their design, not aesthetically pleasing. May as well have them all human...it was too jarring having the stereotypical Irish police captain, thick accent et al, only he's an alien.

At least say he grew up on Earth in Ireland...

Now, there was a BBC show called Star Cops that was quite good. But I don't see it out on dvd for Region 1.

At the time Gerry Anderson didn't like CGI all that much but Space Precinct was a pretty expensive show none the less. And Podley's Irsh accent is just as understandable as Baltar's English accent on Battlestar Galactica.

 

[Salvage1]

There is an old behind the scenes and a recent documentary on YouTube if anyone is curious about Space Precinct.

After viewing the documentary, I started to slowly compile a list of people that might have been able to help Gerry Anderson/Mentorn avoid the show's troubles. A name or credit below might be of use to someone here:

TV Movie
Executive Producer Brian Clemens (The Avengers/The Professionals) or Gary Kurtz (Star Wars/Slipstream), Producer Burton Armus (Kojak/Star Trek: The Next Generation), Screenwriter George R. R. Martin (Nightflyers/Starport - unproduced - pilot), Director Anthony Hickox (Sundown/Full Eclipse), Action Director Corey Yuen (Yes, Madam/No Retreat, No Surrender 2), Director of Photography John Fenner (The Storyteller/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Production Designer Roger Hall (The Storyteller/Highlander II), Art Director Simon Murton (Fortress/The Crow), Costume/Set Consultant John Napier (Captain EO/Time) and Concept Artist Brendan McCarthy (Highlander II/Coneheads)

Cast - Main Human Police (This could have been endless, so I kept it short.)
Richard Chaves (Predator/War of the Worlds), Martin Kove (Cagney & Lacey/Hard Time on Planet Earth), Al Matthews (Superman III/Aliens), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Rising Sun/Space Rangers), Marshall R. Teague (former deputy sheriff; Road House/Walker, Texas Ranger) or Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice/Extralarge)

Tia Carrere (Wayne's World/Rising Sun), Marjean Holden (Renegade/Philadelphia Experiment II), Famke Janssen (Star Trek: The Next Generation/Model by Day), Michelle Johnson (Far and Away/Death Becomes Her), Michael Michele (New Jack City/Dangerous Curves) or Talisa Soto (Licence to Kill/Harts of the West)

Marcus Chong (Flight of Black Angel/Street Justice), Mark Dacascos (American Samurai/Only The Strong), Michael DeLorenzo (Head of the Class/A Few Good Men), Sean Kanan (Karate Kid III/The Outsiders), Kurt McKinney (No Retreat, No Surrender/Sworn to Vengeance) or Taimak (The Last Dragon/A Different World)

TV Show
U.K. Story Editor - Chris Boucher (Blake's 7/Star Cops)

U.S. Comic Book/Live Action Writers (since George R.R. Martin is a comic book fan and might have suggested something like this if he had worked on the show to maintain the proper tone)

Steven Barnes (Fusion/The Wizard), Cary Bates (Superman/Superboy), Danny Bilson & Paul De Meo (The Rocketeer/The Flash), Alan Brennert (Batman/L.A. Law), Howard Chaykin (American Flagg/The Flash), Flint Dille (Agent 13/Dragonstrike), Gerry Conway (Spider-Man/Father Dowling Mysteries), Peter David (The Incredible Hulk/Trancers 4), J.M. DeMatteis (Spider-Man/Superboy), Paul Dini (The Batman Adventures/Monsters), Diane Duane (Star Trek/Star Trek:The Next Generation), Steve Englehart (Batman/Batman treatment), Mark Evanier (The DNAgents/Superboy), Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck/Star Trek: The Next Generation), Don Glut (Doctor Spektor/Land of the Lost), Larry Hama (G.I. Joe/Project X was a never made pre-Armageddon mini-series treatment for David Wolper), Sam Hamm (Batman/M.A.N.T.I.S.), Jeph Loeb (Challengers Of The Unknown/Commando), Eric Luke (Dark Horse Presents/Explorers), Christy Marx (The Sisterhood of Steel/Captain Power), Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns/Robocop 2), Doug Moench (Batman/Red Sonja uncredited), John Francis Moore (Superboy/The Flash), Larry Niven (Ultraverse/Land of the Lost), Dan O'Bannon (Heavy Metal/Alien), Denny O'Neil (Batman/Superboy), Martin Pasko (Superman/Max Headroom), Chuck Pfarrer (Virus/Darkman), Michael Reaves (Fusion/Full Eclipse), Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (Open Space/Beyond Reality), James Dale Robinson (The Terminator/Firearm), John Shirley (Heavy Metal/The Crow), Melinda Snodgrass (Wild Cards/Star Trek: The Next Generation), William Stout (Dark Horse Presents/Galaxy of Terror), Roy Thomas (Conan/Conan the Destroyer), Mark Verheiden (Aliens/Time Cop), F. Paul Wilson (Open Space/Monsters) or Marv Wolfman (Crisis on Infinite Earths/Captain Power)
​

U.K. Directors (with effects or action experience)
Michael Anderson (Logan's Run/Millennium), Vic Armstrong (Young Indiana Jones Chronicles/Army of One), Ray Austin (Space: 1999/Highlander: The Series), Graham Baker (The Sweeney/Alien Nation), Bob Blagden (The Tripods/Die Wache), Clive Barker (Hellraiser/Nightbreed), Colin Chilvers (War of the Worlds/Superboy), Roger Christian (The Sender/Spaceship), Tom Clegg (Space: 1999/Sweeney 2), Harley Cokeliss (Battletruck/Black Moon Rising), Kevin Connor (Space: 1999/Wizards and Warriors), Pen Densham (The Kiss/Space Rangers creator), James Devis (Second Unit Director/Press Gang), John Eyres (Project Shadowchaser/Monolith), Ferdinand Fairfax (Nate and Hayes/The Rescue), Brian Grant (She-Wolf of London/Mann & Machine), Ken Hannam (Moonbase 3/The Day of the Triffids), Graeme Harper (Doctor Who/Star Cops), Sarah Hellings (Doctor Who/The Zero Option), Peter Hewitt (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey/Wild Palms), John Hough (The Avengers/Biggles: Adventures in Time), Michael Kerrigan (Knights of God/Doctor Who), Bruce Logan (Director of Photography/Vendetta), Peter MacDonald (Rambo III/Young Indiana Jones Chronicles), Terry Marcel (Hawk the Slayer/The Bill), Tony Maylam (Across the Lake/Split Second), Francis Megahy (Taffin/Red Sun Rising), Andrew Morgan (Blake's 7/Knights of God), Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel (Max Headroom/Super Mario Bros), Jimmy T. Murakami (Battle Beyond the Stars/When The Wind Blows), Maurice Phillips (Riders of the Storm/Max Headroom), Stewart Raffill (Ice Pirates/The Philadelphia Experiment), Norman Reynolds (Production Designer/Amazing Stories), Ian Sharp (Who Dare Wins/Codename: Kyril), Peter Smith (The Sweeney/The Storyteller), Richard Stanley (Hardware/Dust Devil), David Tomblin (The Prisoner/Space: 1999), Brian Trenchard-Smith (The Man from Hong Kong/Official Denial), David Wickes (Sweeney!/Silver Dream Racer) or Robert Young (Robin of Sherwood/Young Indiana Jones Chronicles)