Author Archives: Jack Knoll

I was optimistic going into Body & Soul. Last week’s episode, The Snake, was an absolute triumph in pretty much every department, gaining Space Precinct a jewel in its crown. Marc Scott Zicree and Sidney Hayers are back to write and direct this week, and I very much enjoyed their last offering, Enforcer. The majority of my praise for Enforcer lay in the story’s smaller scale and focus on a select few integral character arcs. Body & Soul certainly follows that pattern, featuring the smallest number of speaking roles out of any episode in the entire series.

Sometimes, it really doesn’t have to be that complicated. One tried and tested story formula. One memorable villain. One surprise twist. A core group of main characters that we have a reason to root for. High stakes that translate easily for the audience. Television viewers like what they like, and today’s episode of Space Precinct, The Snake, sets itself the simple task of delivering exactly that.

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?