Star Cops Blood Moon 2 concludes the current storyline across three monthly episodes.
Star Cops, the police procedural set a couple of steps into the future, is now enjoying its fourth series on audio.
The show has gone from strength to strength with Big Finish Productions, mixing legacy and new characters, all dealing with the challenges of policing the “high frontier”.
The latest run, Star Cops: Blood Moon, has switched from box sets to a monthly release format. In the first three episodes, Inspector Colin Devis discovered he was a father – before promptly losing track of his newfound daughter.
Resigning his commission, he’s gone on the hunt for what happened to her. However, thanks to an ominous framing device which fronts each episode, we know that something tragic has occurred…
A Cage of Sky
After his resignation, we follow Devis and is personal quest to locate Sophie. This leads him to an infamous hacker, and in turn back to the Moon. However, Juno Berg (Caroline Loncq) doesn’t want money for her information, but she does have a use for a former Star Cop.
Meanwhile, on the Moon, inconsistences with a corpse lead Paul and Kenzy to investigate recent fatalities at a private lunar penal colony. While it doesn’t trouble the police computer, Nathan approves of Paul’s instincts, mirroring his own first case in orbit.
Investigations into the Lethe Centre turn up a corporate prison which raises all the hackles. Eschewing terms like inmate and convict, it’s a facility which purports to help residents on their journey to social integration. More like than a health spa, Lethe boasts a meditation area, a vegetable garden and a locked-down medical bay. With staff and residents all in matching green jumpsuits, control is maintained by drones using facial recognition technology. The boss is the nauseatingly slick Emmerson Fleet (Alan McKenna) who oozes lines chatter about remoteness and serenity.
With clever misdirects, James Swallow’s script brings matters to a head as Nathan launches an investigation into the Lethe Centre, while Devis is also there on his own mission too, complete with a hilariously atrocious Russian accent. Swallow enthuses about writing for the legacy characters in the Extras and he gets the best out of them, from Kenzy’s droll quips to Spring’s one-to-ones with the prison’s operator. He also manages a pleasing name check for former Star Cop David Theroux, as Kenzy reflects on past team members.
London Zone & Devis
The final two parts of Blood Moon form one tension-filled story, bisected by an almighty cliff-hanger. Written by Andrew Smith and Roland Moore, it is difficult to say too much about it without revealing the plot!
However, events begin again using that ominous framing device, this time with Kenzy saying she’s not a parent, but if she was, she’d have gone further than Colin Devis did. Then we move to the former Star Cop who is groundside, using his fists to extract information in his old stomping ground. He’s also relying on some Moonbase support, as Kenzy assists while Nathan maintains some distance and plausible deniability.
Meanwhile Alice Okoro, who’s also in London, visits a data processing centre to follow up on fake IDs. This follows on from Sophie’s fake credentials which allowed her to work on the Moon. Here, Alice encounters the remarkably obsequious Roy Chubb, who can’t believe their system has been cracked.
Across the two episodes, there are touching scenes between Trevor Cooper’s Devis and Rosa Coduri as his errant daughter Sophie. That’s about all it’s safe to say, other than to note that some revelatory flashback sequences in the second episode fill in Sophie’s backstory and motivations. They run counterpoint to a race against time which draws in the whole team.
In summary
Star Cops continues to deliver on audio and Blood Moon spins a compelling series-long tale. While it remains full of heart and humour, there’s no shying away from the fact that this is a tougher, more emotional storyline. In this case, we’ve loved hearing a more vulnerable side to the lovable rogue Colin Devis, who is played perfectly throughout by the terrific Trevor Cooper.
In the wider cast, it’s great to hear Pal Kenzy (Linda Newton) taking on her new responsibilities and Alice Okoro (Lynsey Murrell) finding her place in the team. With fingers crossed for more adventures, we’d love to hear something centring on Kenzy, or perhaps Nathan Spring (David Calder) himself.
Blood Moon, although designed as two 3-part boxsets, has landed as six monthly instalments. Interestingly, while this didn’t necessarily benefit the recent Doctor Who set, the altered release pattern served to increase tensions here – especially given that shocking cliffhanger between episodes 5 and 6!
This has been another absorbing series for the Star Cops and is well worth diving into.
Star Cops: Blood Moon landed monthly, between January and June 2024, at Big Finish. All episodes are available on CD or download, individually or in a series bundle.