Author Archives: Jack Knoll

The first two episodes of Space Precinct are something of a trial that you just have to get through. They present a directionless series still very much finding its feet. My reviews of Double Duty and Protect and Survive both called out the dramatic shifts in tone that occur from scene to scene, and the wild swings throughout each story from one subplot to the other. It was a shotgun approach to trying lots of different stuff to see what worked and what didn’t work. Ordinarily, that’s what a pilot would be for, but seeing as Space Precinct had already gone through 8 years of development (including two vastly different pilots), I can understand why they got straight on with it and just let the first two episodes explode into the chaotic messes they turned out to be. But now we’re at episode 3, Enforcer, and the writing team has realised that trying to cram as much stuff into each episode as possible probably isn’t the best way to craft compelling stories. Enforcer is a tighter, much more focused story which happily confines some main cast members to supporting roles for a week, creates some juicy guest characters full of potential, and probably gave the production a chance to breathe and build upon the aspects of the show that were beginning to work.

You’ll recall from last week’s lengthy essay on the matter that Space Precinct never had an actual, proper, bonafide first episode. The script that was written to serve this function, Demeter City, was never filmed. This ill-fated introductory story was written by Paul Mayhew-Archer, who also penned the episode we’re reviewing today, Protect and Survive. So, this isn’t even the first Space Precinct script written by this particular writer, and therefore it makes no effort to introduce the characters and settings. Nevertheless, Protect and Survive was the first episode of the series to be broadcast in the US and the UK. Weird, huh?