Why Didn't Space Precinct get a Second Series?

[ray gower]

Or perhaps the more telling question

Why didn't US television understand Space Precinct or Gerry Anderson?

Just spent a pleasant 30 minutes looking at the IMDB entry for Space Precinct and the reviews. Where I find that Space Precinct seems to have spent most of its show time trading blows with infomercials at some ungodly time of the early morning.

Most of the reviewers (American) seem to believe it to be an almost adult show because of its themes and mild violence. Which seems odd, here in Blighty it was an early evening show. Gerry Anderson has the knack of being able to present quite adult concepts in a way children can understand, their parents accept and to the enjoyment of both.

Or was it perhaps jealousy, because it was a cheap show, lacking the big effects of Star Trek or Stargate, but heaped full of character. The later being something the big US TV companies also seem to shy away from like the plague.

 

[sarah2040]

it was a cheap show

actually when it was being made Space Precinct was the most expensive show at that time surprisingly.

i think the reason why it didn't go to a second season (which it definately shouldn't) is that it's backers went bust which was a disappointment. a second series would have had a much greater impact and would have been great now that the characters have been established.

it's strange that it was thought of as an adult's show as i was only, well um......... 11ish when i first saw it (my Grandad told me that it was Star Trek to start with!)

Gerry Anderson has the knack of being able to present quite adult concepts in a way children can understand, their parents accept and to the enjoyment of both.

this is definitely true, you only have to look at Thunderbirds to see the impact that it has on people of all ages.

 

[ray gower]

At a budget of $1.5 million a show, I don't think it was that expensive, even in 1994!
Certainly DS9 was exceeding that and Star Trek Enterprise is said to be running at about $10 million now.

I do remember it was declared the most expensive Sci/Fi show the BBC ever had a hand in producing/buying?
But that would hardly be difficult, anything more than 10 Bob and a recycled yoghurt pot was expensive Sci/Fi to the Beeb, (yet they were happily pumping £2 million per show into El Dorrado, just a year or so later?)

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by ray gower
I do remember it was declared the most expensive Sci/Fi show the BBC ever had a hand in producing/buying?
But that would hardly be difficult, anything more than 10 Bob and a recycled yoghurt pot was expensive Sci/Fi to the Beeb, (yet they were happily pumping £2 million per show into El Dorrado, just a year or so later?)

Yet, the walls in El Dorado still wobbled!

I never understood why the BBC was so anti-scifi when it has produced some of the scifi shows with the biggest cult followings in the world -- Dr. Who, Blakes Seven, H2G2.

I think it is because it has higher aspirations -- costume drama is arty -- scifi is tacky -- but the cost of scifi is certainly prohibitive now.

It is also strange that in a country where we do not produce cgi progammes for TV, we have some of the best cgi artists in the world.

Then people have the nerve to complain that too much of our TV is imported!

 

[Status]

It has come to my attention that Space Precinct was televised in America without most of us even knowing about it. It’s sad that a few select people get to choose what the viewers get to see. I would have liked to make the choice whether I wanted to watch it or not.

I may not know much about the production costs and people, but I do know what I like and dislike. Maybe if they had given the public a chance to see it, it would have lasted longer in America.

From all the sites I checked, it looks like it was a good show. You are lucky if you got to view them. Maybe one day, someone will wise up and bring it back to us. Till then, we’ll have to just listen to how good it was and enjoy it through your kind eyes and minds.

 

[ray gower]

Welcome in Status! :wave:

To be honest Space Precinct suffered the same problems as Stargate, Andromeda and Enterprise are suffering where I live
They are all shown at lunchtime(ish) on Sunday in Wales and are bumped in favour of any sports event with a remotely Welsh connection (a cousin fifteen times removed is good!). Nor do they tell anybody that the show is on, off or simply moved

Does make one wonder if many shows are given a reasonable chance to suceed in the first place?

by dave
I think it is because it has higher aspirations -- costume drama is arty -- scifi is tacky

Was El Dorado supposed to be a costume drama?
I thought it was Crossroads with an accent?

I don't mind many of the costume drama's. The recent ones like Hornblower and the like have been done extremely well and were well worth the budgets, because they could not have been much better with a film size budget. But not for a fourth rate soap!

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by ray gower
Was El Dorado supposed to be a costume drama?
I thought it was Crossroads with an accent?

Does anyone know what it was meant to be? No, it wasn't a costume drama, but I meant that the BBC Had higher aspirations, before it sold out.

I think today it is just as interested in ratings as any other channel. That's why a typical nights viewing is -- holiday show - soap - DIY - Cooking - drama with ex-soap star -- and why I don't watch! It is also the reason that it will probably lose the license fee soon.

Originally posted by ray gower
I don't mind many of the costume drama's. The recent ones like Hornblower and the like have been done extremely well and were well worth the budgets, because they could not have been much better with a film size budget. But not for a fourth rate soap!

But these costume dramas do have budgets comparable to films of the 60's and 70's. TV today is expensive. The American sitcom 'Frasier' is reportably being cancelled because it costs $10 Million per episode to make (NOT including the actors wages!!) Kelsey Grammer (sp?) gets as much again.

What do they do with that kind of money? The BBC can never compete without advertising revenue. I think they have just given up trying now.

 

[deux_ex_machina]

ray gower hit it right on the nose.

As a fan of UFO (I never understood the idea of why women on Moonbase wore purple wigs, or why the Interceptors had only one missle--what happened if the first shot missed?), Space:1999, and Space Precinct I could barely restrain my anger at how shabbily Space Precinct was treated (in Connecticut, at any rate).

It was broadcast on WPIX, Channel 11, at 2 or 3 in the morning, and I actually would stay up to watch it, but it was difficult.

And to add insult to injury, it didn't air consistently at that time, so there were moments that I would stay up not to find it on at all.

This series had the potential to be, arguably, one of the best Sci-Fi series on television. It had some great special effects (for example, the episodes Two Against The Rock and Takeover had some cool Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects; not something you see often in these days of CGI) and cool use of models (I don't care what anyone says, an actual model of something, be it a ship, or whatever, brings something to a series that CGI cannot).

When a model is done well, such as the Eagles on Space 1999 as well as Moonbase Alpha itself, and the Space Cruisers on Space Precinct, they are a sight to behold.

My only problem with it was that, as some other posters have mentioned, is that it seemed not to be sure of what it wanted. Was it a 'hard-core' Sci-Fi series or was it a family series? The merger of the two sometimes seems forced.

I even sent Channel 11 a letter in complaint to the time slots Space Precinct was given (though why Gerry Anderson didn't stick with the title Star Laws I will never know), but not much came of it.

Though what made matters worse was that Hercules (Kevin Sorbo's series, the man who I think of as the destroyer of Andromeda) had a prime time slot.

 

[sarah2040]

Originally posted by deux_ex_machina


It was broadcast on WPIX, Channel 11, at 2 or 3 in the morning, and I actually would stay up to watch it, but it was difficult.

it was broadcast at some ridiculous time on the sci-fi channel here in the UK too. lucklily they showed it at tea-time on BBC2 but as far as i know it's only been shown once or twice whereas other Gerry Anderson shows are constantly being repeated eg thunderbirds, captain scarlet, i guess they're the ones that appeal to the younger viewers though so still get high viewing figures. i nkow my little cousin is mad over both of them.

 

[deux_ex_machina]

Sarah 2040, ray gower and myself are saying something that we, as well as numerous others have known all along, namely that Space Precinct was never given a chance to succeed.

I mean, who except a hard-core Sci-Fi fan is going to sit up till the wee hours of the morning (no matter what continent you're on) to catch Space Precinct, or any other show?consistently?for that matter?

It's a pity, because if Space Precinct had another season, I honestly believe that Gerry Anderson would have ironed out some of those rough edges (and besides, what show doesn't hit a few rough spots its first season?though in the case of Andromeda, those rough spots came later, when Robert Hewitt Wolfe left as executive producer, or should I say was driven out by Kevin Sorbo.).

I know I am probably shouting in the wind here, but does anyone thinks there any chance at all that the re-runs will be picked up by Public Broadcasting here in the States? (in the past they showed Space:1999 and UFO).

 

[Annette]

I enjoyed the first series of Space Precinct and would have loved to have seen a second series. I remember watching it of an evening about 6.45pm. It was a job sometimes trying to remember it was on but we(hubby and I) still watched it to the best of our ability. I think the sci-fi UK channel did show repeats but that was ages ago or so it seems.

annette

 

[Glad Moose]

coupla things for you:

1) SP was commissioned to go to a second season (scheduled to kick off in May 1995) but because of the lack of ratings and the fact that the American backers Grove TV went bust, the second season never happened. There was also some major questions about main members of the cast signing new contracts.

2) SP was shown in the States between the hours of 1am and 3am (Depending on the station and Time Zone). I'm trying to get a hold of the original schedule because I have a feeling it may have been shown earlier in some EST regions.

3) The budget for SP ran to $1.4m per episode which was at the time the highest production cost for what was classed as a European show. Although most of the money came from the US, Anderson managed to avoid the quotas and the show was advertised as British.

4) The BBC took what Gerry Anderson said about the show being a kid's show and put it on in an early evening slot on BBC2. One of the main crits about the show was the lack of real direction when it came to audience - the amount of voilence meant that the Beeb cut huge amounts and used long angle shots to fit the slot better. The most famous (or infamous) changes they made was when they argued that a certain scene in the episode 'Illegal' was irresponsible and insisted the whole scene was refilmed. All the DVDs that have been released are the full, uncut versions of the show and the Illegal DVD has both versions of the scene as well.

There, that was a nice long message... I'm a bit out of breath now

 

[deux_ex_machina]

Thanks for the reply, Jill. I was wondering if you had any news about Space Precinct being offered for sale on DVD in the US. I hate the idea that DVD and VCR's from Europe (I am unsure of the region) cannot play DVD's and videocassettes from the States.

That being said, the last time I was in Europe I picked up a copy of Crusade, which I haven't been able to watch.

Kinda cruel irony. Whenever I feel the need for some new Sci-Fi--I have never seen Crusade before or after it was cancelled by the Sci-Fi Channel-- I cannot watch the cassette that I have.

 

[Glad Moose]

I did get an answer to this one... there are currently no plans to release Space Precinct in any format in the US. All that can be done is for US fans to buy them from Europe and make sure they have either a multi-region DVD player (Walmart do a good one for around $90) or a VHS that plays back PAL (widely available from most eletronic equipment stores).