I recently watched 'Star Cops' on VHS. It was a short-lived UK TV series from 1987. It had cardboard sets and questionable acting but it also had a great setting.
2027 and there are so many people working in Earth Orbit and on the moon and at Mars that a small, International and impartial police force is required to keep tabs on the comings and goings of the working populace.
It proceeds from several conceits. Firstly that people can bus from Earth to Orbit or the Moon as if they were bussing down town to do their shopping. Certainly members of the Star Cops team quite frequently 'nip' to Earth just to question somebody - in fact in one episode, one of the characters is injured on Earth and is next seen being bandaged up at the Star Cops MoonBase HQ!!!
Anyway, where was I? Yes, Second that by 2027 there are a great number of Space Stations not unlike the International Space Station in orbit around Earth and also several Moonbases and there have been several Mars missions if not actually a Mars Base or Station.
With the construction of a 'Beanstalk' Space Elevator - not such a ludicrous idea itself these days - it would become relatively cheap to 'bus' people into orbit and back, and such an idea becomes a great setting, maybe not for 2027 but maybe 2127 or thereafter.
I'm intrigued by the idea and I'd love to read something like it in a near future setting but all the novels I saw in Ottakars's today seemed to deal with wars against alien empires in the far future. Can anyone recommend a novel or series of novels with a similar feel? Not unlike 2300 or 'TransHuman Space' really but without interstellar travel.
Cheers
Crow
2027 and there are so many people working in Earth Orbit and on the moon and at Mars that a small, International and impartial police force is required to keep tabs on the comings and goings of the working populace.
It proceeds from several conceits. Firstly that people can bus from Earth to Orbit or the Moon as if they were bussing down town to do their shopping. Certainly members of the Star Cops team quite frequently 'nip' to Earth just to question somebody - in fact in one episode, one of the characters is injured on Earth and is next seen being bandaged up at the Star Cops MoonBase HQ!!!
Anyway, where was I? Yes, Second that by 2027 there are a great number of Space Stations not unlike the International Space Station in orbit around Earth and also several Moonbases and there have been several Mars missions if not actually a Mars Base or Station.
With the construction of a 'Beanstalk' Space Elevator - not such a ludicrous idea itself these days - it would become relatively cheap to 'bus' people into orbit and back, and such an idea becomes a great setting, maybe not for 2027 but maybe 2127 or thereafter.
I'm intrigued by the idea and I'd love to read something like it in a near future setting but all the novels I saw in Ottakars's today seemed to deal with wars against alien empires in the far future. Can anyone recommend a novel or series of novels with a similar feel? Not unlike 2300 or 'TransHuman Space' really but without interstellar travel.
Cheers
Crow
