Meet the original Brogan
Our introduction covers the 1986 pilot, distinct from the later Space Precinct series.
Watch the pilot introduction →Television pilot
Space Police
A veteran New York officer takes command of an alien-world precinct. Meet the original Lieutenant Brogan and explore the 1986 pilot that began the long journey towards Space Precinct.
- Anderson Burr pilot · 1986
- Lieutenant Brogan
- A precursor to Space Precinct
Space Police
Where to begin
A few rewarding routes into this world. Choose the one that catches your imagination.
Eight years of reinvention
Follow the changing characters, alien effects and production plans on the road to Space Precinct.
Read the development story →Meet Precinct 44 East
Discover Chuck Brogan, Cathy Costello and the pilot’s alien officers.
Meet the pilot’s cast of characters →Space Police
Characters
Meet the people at the heart of this world. Open a card and follow their story.
Lieutenant Chuck Brogan
Shane Rimmer plays the human officer leading the original Space Police team. This veteran of the New York police works with alien and robotic colleagues at Precinct 44 East. He is an earlier version of the concept, distinct from Patrick Brogan in Space Precinct.
- Played by Shane Rimmer
- Version: Original 1986 pilot
Cathy Costello
Catherine Chevalier appears as Brogan’s apparently human colleague in the original pilot. Cathy is part of a station where appearances do not always reveal the nature of its personnel, and where human actors share scenes with elaborate alien performances.
- Played by Catherine Chevalier
- Version: Original pilot
Tom, Dick and Harry
The three catlike alien officers belong to Brogan’s original Space Police crew. Their performances combined actors in animatronic masks with matching puppets for scenes that called for a different scale or approach.
- Version: Original pilot, before Space Precinct’s Creons and Tarns
Slomo
The robotic colleague serves the team in the original Space Police pilot. The name and idea would later be developed differently in Space Precinct; this record concerns the earlier version within Chuck Brogan’s crew.
- Version: Original pilot
Bats
A specialist operative with unusual sensory abilities, Bats is one of the original pilot’s alien personnel. Kate Harper provides the voice, adding to a cast that combines live performers with puppetry and animatronic character work.
- Voice: Kate Harper
- Version: Original pilot
Space Police
Places
Explore the headquarters and locations that make this world possible.
Precinct 44 East
The orbiting station house is the headquarters of Chuck Brogan’s original interplanetary police team. Its position above Zar XL5 gives the pilot a different setting from the Demeter City precinct of the eventual television series.
- Version: Original Space Police pilot
Zar XL5
The planet beneath Precinct 44 East belongs to the original Space Police concept. During later development, the action moved to Demeter City on Altor for Space Precinct, so the two settings represent different versions of the project.
- Version: Original pilot
Watch, listen and discover
A quick introduction
Discover the story, production and distinctive world of Space Police in this official Gerry Anderson introduction.
Watch the introduction →Find services by country, with free and paid options.
Where to watch full episodes →Stories
Go deeper into this world
Fresh perspectives, familiar heroes and adventures beyond the screen.
Shop
Bring the adventure home
Explore the available editions and stories connected with this world.
From the archive
The story of Space Police
Explore the production, the people and the original archive material behind this world.
The pilot before Space Precinct
Lieutenant Chuck Brogan, a veteran of the New York police, commands an interplanetary police team in Space Police. Shane Rimmer plays the human officer in a world shared with unusual alien colleagues, including the catlike Tom, Dick and Harry, the robot Slomo and specialist operative Bats.
This is the original pilot filmed in 1986, not an extra episode of Space Precinct. Its characters and setting belong to an earlier version of the concept that eventually reached television in 1994.
Human actors, alien performers
Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr developed the project as a police drama in space. Their approach allowed human actors to work alongside alien characters realised through masks, animatronics and puppetry. Catherine Chevalier appears as Cathy Costello, alongside Rimmer and an extensive voice cast.
Tony Bell directed the pilot, with Steven Begg leading the effects and Mark Harris providing the art direction. The mixture reflects the team’s search for another way to combine character performance with the physical invention of earlier productions.
A changing route to a series
The pilot was completed in early 1987 and shown to potential backers. A shorter edit followed, but neither version secured the intended series at that stage. Later discussions revived the concept, leading to a separate promotional film, Space Police Reloaded.
Reloaded introduced further prototypes of the characters and world, with a different cast. The eventual Space Precinct series changed the planet, precinct and Brogan himself, as well as developing the alien officers into the Creons and Tarns.
Read the full development history to follow those stages without confusing their different versions.
Where the surviving pilot fits
The original film and Reloaded have been included in The Lost Worlds of Gerry Anderson archive release. They offer a chance to see a concept evolve through actual filmed material, rather than only drawings and proposals.
Begin with the introduction below, then move to the Space Precinct hub for the completed 24-episode television production. If you recognise Rimmer’s voice before his face, the Thunderbirds and Dick Spanner hubs explore two of his other major Anderson roles.
Production record
Anderson Burr. Pilot filmed in 1986 and completed in 1987. The archive lists an original version of approximately 52 minutes and a later 25-minute edit. The pilot did not become a series in this form.
Producer: Gerry Anderson & Christopher Burr
Associate Producer: Bob Bell
Director: Tony Bell
Lighting Cameramen: Alan Hume BSC, Harry Oakes BSC & Paddy Seale
Art Director: Mark Harris
Visual Effects Director: Steven Begg
Music: Christopher Burr & Gerry Anderson
Cast:
Shane Rimmer, Catherine Chevalier
Voice Cast:
Desiree Erasmus, David Healy, Tony Sibbald, Jeff Harding, Gary Martin, Ian Tyler, Kate Harper, Kerry Shale, Peter Whitman
Watch the introduction
Follow the creative thread
Your next world awaits
Shared makers, familiar ideas and unexpected connections. Choose your next world.
Space Precinct
The idea reaches television
See how the premise, characters and alien police force evolved into Precinct 88.
Explore the world →
Terrahawks
The Anderson Burr workshop
Explore the creatures and practical-effects imagination of the same production partnership.
Explore the world →
The Investigator
A different uncommissioned pilot
Compare another attempt to blend extraordinary characters with live-action filming.
Explore the world →