Category Archives: Space Precinct Reviews

It’s a genuine pleasure for me to see Space Precinct end on such a high with Deathwatch Conclusion. Of course it’s not perfect – that’s the nature of Space Precinct. I think we’ve all come to accept that the show is fundamentally flawed for all the reasons I’ve banged on about for the past 24 weeks. But after a year in production on the stages at Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, it’s clear from this episode that the production team weren’t giving up without a fight. With the series achieving respectable viewing figures on Sky One and later BBC2, why would they throw in the towel now? In April 1995, renewing the show for a second series was a real possibility, although most agree that such a renewal would have come with heavy strings attached. Of course, we all know that no such renewal came, and Deathwatch Conclusion was therefore the end of the line – and that’s going to be our focus for today.

The production of The Forever Beetle was curiously nestled in the middle of Space Precinct’s grandest epics – Deathwatch and The Fire Within. While those two-part spectaculars do what they can to push the Space Precinct envelope, The Forever Beetle is more standard fare with just a few hidden gems tucked into the episode for us to uncover. As we’ve come to expect, there’s Brogan family drama aplenty, a tepid romantic subplot, and the occasional bit of actual police work too. It feels appropriate that this penultimate adventure should have so many of the flawed Space Precinct staples we’ve come to love and hate. The Forever Beetle represents the true core of what it means to be nearing the end of a year-long television assembly line. It’s serviceable. It checks all the boxes. And there are only a few bugs in the system…

I left Part One of The Fire Within feeling like there probably wasn’t another 45-minutes-worth of story to get out of it. Sure, the mystery of Jack Haldane appearing to change sides was engaging, but I didn’t feel like that alone was enough to sustain my interest in the crooked cult of Pyrism. I needed Part Two to come along and bring something bold to the table. I’m pleased to say that it does do something pretty spectacular… but not until the final act. So there’s about a half hour or so of beige corridors and padding to wade through first. If you liked Part One and want more of the same then you’ll be very happy with Part Two. If, like me, you expected something bigger and bolder from a two-part, feature-length Space Precinct adventure, then you’ll have to be patient. So, let’s pick up from where we left off and see if Part Two of The Fire Within has that special spark.

Two-part television serials are usually a win-win situation for both the audience and the producers. In theory, the viewers at home get an extra-long adventure with lots of juicy twists and turns that add up to a richer story, higher stakes, and deeper character development. Meanwhile, the production team can focus their efforts and spend the budget normally set aside for two episodes on creating impressive sets, costumes, and effects that normally wouldn’t be economical for a single installment. And if there was any show where the audience were craving richer stories, and the producers needed to spend the budget more efficiently, it was Space Precinct. Now, of course, last week’s adventure, Deathwatch, was retroactively turned into the first installment of a two-part story, but it was originally shot as a standalone episode that was extended later. The Fire Within is Space Precinct’s first bona fide two-part story, with production on both episodes running back-to-back and the story deliberately paced to span two 45-minute episodes. Today, I’ll be reviewing Part One of The Fire Within in isolation, before I watch Part Two. Let’s see how effective that shocking cliffhanger is when, like the original viewers in 1995/96, I have to wait a whole week to find out what happens next!

It’s the episode so good nobody wanted it to end. I went into Deathwatch well aware of its reputation as one of the strongest episodes of Space Precinct, but I was also wary of the novel way in which this story accidentally became a two-part adventure. If you’re not familiar, Deathwatch was written and filmed as a single installment that just so happened to have a very ambiguous ending. Only when filming was finished was the decision taken to tie up the loose ends by writing an extra episode – Deathwatch Conclusion. This is why Deathwatch is episode 20 in the series’ production order, while Deathwatch Conclusion doesn’t come until number 24. Conclusion was filmed over a month later with a script penned by a different writer. In the Security Hazard tradition, I will be strictly following the production order so that I can chart the development of the series as it went before the cameras. So, at the time of writing this, I haven’t actually seen Deathwatch Conclusion, and have a few other episodes to review before I return to it. But you’ll be pleased to know that I came out of Deathwatch positively excited to see what Deathwatch Conclusion adds. While Deathwatch is certainly a triumph in isolation, my gut reaction is that there’s too much good material in there to leave unexplored. It’s always a good sign when I finish an episode wanting more.

As soon as I learned that Smelter Skelter’s original director, Silvio Narizzano, left the production halfway through shooting the episode, I could think about little else in preparation for writing this review. Juicy behind the scenes drama is an absolute gift when you’re into your nineteenth consecutive week of studying something as formulaic as a television series. Smelter Skelter is a fairly average episode of Space Precinct with nobody trying all that hard to push the envelope in any department. The result is an entertaining but inconsequential bit of television. So, it’s all the more remarkable to learn that this is the one that drove Ted Shackelford to breaking point, left another member of the repertory cast in tears, and saw the end of a prolific director’s career.

This episode of Space Precinct aired on BBC2 on Christmas Eve 1995, just before the worldwide premiere of Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave. What a double bill. That screening of A Close Shave gained BBC2 its highest ever audience figure up to that point of 10.62 million viewers. I wonder how many of those viewers caught the end of Friends and therefore received their first exposure to Space Precinct. Would those last few minutes of lukewarm Haldane and Castle romance hook you for the rest of the series? Somehow, I feel like Wallace and Wendolene charmed more hearts that Christmas.

Hate Street is another episode that took me by surprise! It’s a good one! Maybe not perfect, but definitely up towards the top of my list so far. I’m learning that Space Precinct is an absolute roller coaster of quality with spectacular summits and stomach-churning drops from week to week. I had anticipated more of a steady climb in quality, thinking that with each episode the production team would learn from their mistakes and make adjustments by the time the following installment went before the cameras. But the Space Precinct production line was forced to move at such a pace, and swap out directors and writers so haphazardly, that those course corrections seem to come through luck rather than judgement.

Call me a sensitive soul, but I’m just not sure what the appeal is of a television programme depicting a police officer forcing his hand over the mouth of an alien child in readiness to stab her while she sleeps. Now, you’ve heard me complain about Space Precinct’s chaotic approach to tone and audience suitability in the past, but at the very least I’ve understood roughly the reasoning behind that approach. It came out of a desire to make a show that appealed to children and to adults in the same breath. However misguided and whiplash-inducing the results, I always understood why the producers wanted moments where Tarn hookers were propositioning police officers before launching into a cool laser gun battle against a creepy alien vampire guy (see Predator and Prey). In theory, the adults watched for the sleazy drama and the kids liked the action. It’s a clumsy approach, but I understood it. With today’s episode, The Witness, I watched with my head in my hands, totally bewildered by just how dark the show chooses to go in places – so grim that even well-adjusted grown-ups like myself would wince. The question in my mind changed from the usual “Who is Space Precinct made for?” and became “Is Space Precinct made for anyone?”