Space Precinct #5

16 Jan 1996. Cover price £1.25.
36 pages. Full colour.
Manga Publishing Ltd.

Edited by Cefn Ridout.

Cover by Tony Luke.

Contents:

 2 Fanderson - the Official Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society (half page) advertisement. / Telephone Collector Phonecards (half page) advertisement for P & J Promotions.

 3 Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct 2040 introduction by Cefn Ridout. / Contents / Indicia

 4 Double the Pages! Double the Action! in-house advertisement for Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition.

 5 True Believers, part one, w: Simon Jowett; a: Graham Manley, lettering by Annie Parkhouse.

17 Roll Call Officer Aurelia Took fact file by Lee Brimmicombe Wood; photographs (uncredited).

18 Space Hopper [Specifications for a VW118-GB] cutaway by Graham Bleathman.

20 Mind Over Matter Mary Woodvine interview by Jim Swallow; photographs (uncredited)

22 Soundbite Simone Bendix interview by Ralph Titterton; photographs (uncredited).

r: FAB Magazine (Official Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society) #19 ().

23 In the Next Issue of Space Precinct

24 Crimewatch readers mail.

25 Limited Edition Space Precinct Phone Cards to be Won! competition; photographs (uncredited).

26 Timebomb w: Cory MacRae; p: Andrew Currie, i: Graham Higgins, lettering by Peter Nichols, colouring by Nigel Parkinson.

32 Blast from the Past, part one, Twizzle to Supercar text feature by Chris Bentley; photographs (uncredited).

34 Episode Guide The Snake recap by Peter J. Evans; photographs (uncredited).

35 It Found it's Voice... Now it Needs a Body - Ghost in the Shell in-house advertisement for cinematic release.

36 From the Hidden Files of the FBI in-house advertisement for The X-Files: Firebird and The X-Files Special Edition.

The penultimate issue, featuring a somewhat Tarantino-esque cover courtesy of Tony Luke, has a breath of life injected into the issue which makes it stand out, even among the stellar work published so far. True Believers, the first strip of the issue, opens with a dramatic image of a derelict spaceship , and opens out the world of the characters with an idea which would later form a central part of Babylon 5's spin-off series, Crusade.

Deep space archaeology.

Long range scanners and space suits have replaced ancient maps and shovels, but the same questions occupy the minds of every member of the team:

What is it? Where does it come from? When was it built?...

Writing found aboard the ship contains vague similarities to ancient Tarn and Classical Creon scripts, but remain untranslated.

Brogan and Haldane stop a hooded figure assaulting a Creon, and discover that it is Professor Sondra Conway, head anthropologist from the expedition. Taken to talk to Captain Podly, she informs the officers that the explosion which destroyed the vessel, and which killed all but one of her friends and colleagues, was no accident. Her actions that night were in order to receive information about a sole shipment of artifacts from the vessel, stolen before it reached Pan-Simter Museum. The young Creon claimed he could lead Sondra to stolen relics, for a price, but had been frightened into reneging on their deal.

There are a lot of elements in play in the first installment which hint at the scope of worlds away from that seen in the series, and it is a shame we don't get to spend more time on the archaeological site. A peace rally is a little too mundane following the initial pages, though gives a good indication of variety within Demeter city, allowing tension to be ratcheted up a few notches.

Bleathman's Space Hopper cutaway calls to mind Red Dwarf's Bug shuttle, a pleasingly aware colour scheme (Thunderbird 2 not far from thought), though is slightly too clean and showroom-fresh to convince as a day-to-day vehicle. It is a problem with much of televisual SF, and attendant spin-offs, so it isn't a critical problem.

Mary Woodvine comes across as someone thrown into the deep end, and left to sink or swim, in Mind Over Matter. Despite the extensive make-up and appliances constraining her ability to perform with nuances, she seems remarkably chilled out about her experiences. Simone Bendix's interview, pulled from FAB, doesn't reveal nearly as much of her personality. It would have been nice for someone to quiz the cast on how they saw their characters progressing, especially as a darker second season had (to whatever degree) been considered.

Timebomb is a quick little story which contains a solidly alien threat, allows Romek and Took to shine in the limelight, and has a twist ending which feels satisfying. It isn't, unfortunately, a startlingly original tale, but it is fun - for a series which veers inconsistently from dark and tormented to light and breezy it makes a nice pause between more dramatic material. Introducing temporal mechanics to the equipment already seen is, perhaps, not the most original notion, but raises plenty of time-travel options for writers to play with.

Delightfully, and bizarrely, The Adventures of Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy are featured in Blast from the Past, which looks at the early days of Anderson's career. Unfortunately, due to space limitations, the piece moves on quickly to Four Feather Falls, then Supercar, without spending enough time to really delve deeper into the series than the most basic overview. While these series have had retrospectives elsewhere, it would have been greatly appreciated to receive more than "this thing exists, so... yeah," which is pretty much the approach taken.

#4

Space Precinct

#6

Space Precinct #4

19 Dec 1995. Cover price £1.25.
36 pages. Full colour.
Manga Publishing Ltd.

Edited by Cefn Ridout.

Cover by Mick Austin.

Contents:

 2 Fanderson - the Official Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society (half page) advertisement. / Telephone Collector Phonecards (half page) advertisement for P & J Promotions.

 3 Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct 2040 introduction by Cefn Ridout. / Contents / Indicia

 4 Case Review The Last Warrior recap.

 5 The Last Warrior, part four, w: Ian Carney; a: John Erasmus, art assist by Ronit Bergman, Jon Davis, Madeleine Wurzburger & Isabelle Vialle, lettering by Annie Parkhouse.

17 Space Precinct Videos to be Won! competition; photographs (uncredited).

18 Slomo cutaway by Graham Bleathman.

20 The Illusionists, part one, Cities, Worlds and Starships text feature by Jim Swallow, contributions from Steve Begg, Bill Pearson & Alan Marques (of The Magic Camera Company); photographs (uncredited)

23 Double the Pages! Double the Action! in-house advertisement for Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition.

24 Star Laws text feature by Ralph Titterton; photographs (uncredited).

26 Christmas Spirit w: Stephen Jewell; a: Gary Chaloner, lettering by Gary Chaloner.

32 Roll Call Captain Rexton Podly fact file by Lee Brimmicombe Wood; photographs (uncredited).

33 In the Next Issue of Space Precinct

34 Episode Guide Flash recap by Peter J. Evans; photographs (uncredited).

35 It Found it's Voice... Now it Needs a Body - Ghost in the Shell in-house advertisement for cinematic release.

36 From the Hidden Files of the FBI in-house advertisement for The X-Files: Firebird and The X-Files Special Edition.

Mick Austin is a very talented artist, able to inject a great deal of life - realistic details, and a sense of humanity - into a single image. A (surely unintended) side-effect of maintaining such fidelity to the cast's appearance highlights a critical problem with the source material, and it is something which, once considered, can never be scrubbed completely from the mind:

Slomo is a less advanced version of Metal Mickey. In space.

He even looks like he's made of plastic in Austin's image. It is, as I've said, a wonderful painting of the officers in a moment of relaxation, away from the usual drama, allowing them to be seen as more than their duties, but by hewing so close to reality it negatively affects my perception of the character. There's even a detectable hint of Omnibot 2000 and Nintendo' R.O.B. in his genetic (or rather programming) code, which makes him even less credible as an assistant to police operations. Whenever such a robot is central to a television series, credibility issues inevitably arise.

After an emergency briefing, all available officers head out from the 88th Precinct.

Brogan and Haldane accompany Officers Castle and Took to search Lower Downtown for the living weapon.

The Last Warrior, rattling along with as much style as anything else from Gerry Anderson's prodigious creative mind, hits a minor, though surmountable, problem in the latest installment. The five-armed bio-weapon, glowing with power, appears to have been dropped into the Space Precinct universe from an episode of Power Rangers, though it is so stylishly rendered that the incongruity of its appearance is largely mitigated. Largely. There's a lingering sense that this is out of place in a universe where attempts have largely been made to stick close to believable drama.

The last warrior's song now reaches a crescendo.

"O dark lord above, accept this offering," the lyrics implore.

"The blood sacrifice of a billion sould to restore the honour of the Ka-Llan people after their dishonourable defeat at the hands of the Creons!"

What he doesn't realise is that the Ka-Llan-Creon War was a damp squib that ended over twenty years ago!

There's significant problems in dealing with the living weapon - immense, and psychically-resistant, there appears no means by which to take it down without unacceptable collateral damage accruing around the officers. Brogan has an idea which might just work, but time is running out...

Let down by the final page, in which that old television standard of everyone chortling at an unfunny joke, as the scene fades to black before the closing credits, creeps into the story. I dislike the original Star Trek series because of those moments of forced levity, and the formula is no better here. Artificially ending every story with a moment of jocularity is an ill-advised move, and the story's theme of inter-species war does not immediately suggest humour as a means with which to round out the strip.

If Schindler's List ended with someone cracking a joke, the remaining characters laughing and smiling as the credits roll, there would have been outrage and protests. World War II was fought on a single planet, with (even by today's standards) primitive weapons. Space Precinct is set in a universe filled with alien species, and the subject of the plot is a relic of an inter-planetary war with advanced bio-mechanical weapons capable of devastating damage. A modicum of respect in-universe would have been appropriate - closing the plot with a memorial for the dead, a quote from the Creon leader during the conflict in a text box, seemingly more appropriate.

Graham Bleathman's cutaway makes clear further issues with the design of Slomo. In a busy scene (in the show), or in a crowded panel full of happenings (in comic strips), the robot isn't so noticeably awful, but in isolation, and in such scope, deficiencies are painfully apparent. Even Bleep would be embarrassed hanging around with this tin can.

Covering the series' special effects work, The Illusionists uses Bugs as one of Bill Pearson's credits, as if we are meant to nod in agreement with his being part of crafting such a stellar piece of quality television. I'm sure he's proud of the work featured in that series, but - as both drama, and SF - the series was abysmal, and it is worrying that a more discerning tone isn't taken when discussing his involvement in Space Precinct. If you refer to earlier works, then the overwhelming urge should be to point out that the current project is better than everything which has gone before.

The original pilot, Space Police, is (finally) covered, with photographs from the production. Had there been more consideration, the preliminary footwork - sketches, character notes, and rough plotlines - would have appeared first, then the pilot, and finally leading in to an extensive look at the show from which the title is based, grounding readers in the long history which brought the series to screen.

Tom, Dick, and Harry, the alien police officers who appear to be based on humanoid cats, are conspicuously absent from Space Precinct, and one can only wonder at the possibilities had they been included. It was, in retrospect, a wise move, distancing the production from accusations of pilfering from Larry Niven, though the unfortunate appearance of the make-up might also have required their reconsideration. There are a few ideas which are mentioned as having been part of the original story that don't sound particularly well-considered, and their exclusion must be seen as a good thing.

Officer Cathy Costello, whose ability to generate an impenetrable black shell around her, should have been included in the show, as it is something which sounds like it might provided opportunity for great action scenes. Guyver-esque transformations are too few and far between to constitute anything resembling a consistent character type - the only other example of a similarly-attributed character which comes to mind is DC Comics' Blue Beetle, in a series with numerous subtle allusions to his bio-boosted inspiration.

Calling Space Police's villain V. Lann, and his sidekick E. Vile, smacks of desperation.

The seasonal story, Christmas Spirit, tying in with the cover illustration, opens with the precinct in turmoil - overworked and understaffed, the officers attempt to cope with the deluge of cases. Slomo reports an incident at Bracy's department store uptown, and, sensing an opportunity to escape from the madness surrounding him, Podly decides to personally investigate, taking Slomo along with him. Well... he might come in handy if criminals start shooting - not that I'm suggesting Podly would throw Slomo into the line of fire as a distraction.

It turns out that the robot Santa has gone crazy, and has taken Mr. Bracy and several children hostage in the toy department. Well, now we know where Futurama got the idea. Having been told that Santa doesn't really exist, the robot began giving away everything in the department for free, and when staff attempted to shut it down, it raided the toy department's armoury and gatecrashed Mr. Bracy's children's te party.

Wait. THE TOY DEPARTMENT HAS AN ARMOURY?

Slomo rushes in to talk robot-to-robot with the rogue Santa, and narrowly avoids a being shot. So close... Maybe next time, huh, Podly?

The level of artwork is superb throughout, and the storytelling better than anticipated (with a few minor concerns) - this really did feel, for about fifteen minutes, as if it was going to challenge other notable SF series' of the nineties for longevity, and this title would have been perfectly positioned to exploit the demand been present.

As the series draws to an untimely close, I can't help but feel disappointment in the lack of foresight shown by network executives in cancelling it.

#3

Space Precinct

#5